We don’t need to run through all the reasons you may need a hug right now. Of course, soup can’t fix your problems, but consuming a steamy bowl of the homemade stuff is the culinary equivalent of a warm embrace.
“Cooking a pot of soup for someone is the ultimate gesture of love,” says Jenn Louis, chef and author of “The Chicken Soup Manifesto” (Hardie Grant, 2020). Entertaining indoors is still risky due to COVID-19, but you can do a soup swap with friends and neighbors. “It’s not exactly ideal, but it's what we’ve got right now,” she says.
More on Cookware and Countertop Appliances
Blenders for $100 or Less
Best Dutch Ovens
Best Multi-Cookers
Best Slow Cookers
Best Cookware Sets
You could also try new soup or stew recipes from faraway places: “We can’t travel right now, but we can experience other cultures by eating their food,” says Louis. That’s the great thing about these dishes—every culture has its own favorites.
You may not think it matters much what you cook your soup in, but in fact, the type of cookware and appliance you use can make a real difference in how your soup turns out. Here, we pair up various types of soup with the ideal ways to make them, including a blender, Dutch oven, multi-cooker, slow cooker, and stockpot, and offer cooking tips on how to get great results.
Blender
Best for: Puréed soups
If it’s silky smooth soup you’re after, break out the blender. They’re made to liquify solids, and high-speed models, like those from Vitamix, rank at the top of our ratings for their ability to purée. “They’re so powerful that you will get the smoothest, most velvety soup,” Louis says. They’re pricey, though, costing $300 to $550.
A much more affordable alternative is an immersion blender. And based on our tests, a handheld stick blender actually does a much better job of making puréed soups than a mediocre countertop blender, which can leave chunks. All but one of the stick blenders we test score either an Excellent or Very Good rating in our soup puréeing test. The one below from Cuisinart is the most affordable.
“Immersion blenders are also safer to use when handling scalding hot soup,” says Louis. “You stick the blade right into the pot and blend. There’s no need to transfer soup to another vessel and no chance that the blender will blow its top and burn you.” Some blenders can’t handle hot ingredients, and the pressure buildup can cause an accident.
That said, some newer stand blenders, like the GoWise below, let you cut out the step of transferring hot soup from stovetop to blender by puréeing and heating up soup ingredients at the same time. They have a heating element built into the base. (Vitamix blenders can do this, too, using different technology.)
Dutch Oven
Best for: Stews and vegetable soups
Anytime you cook something thick (think beef stew or chowder), or need to brown soup ingredients before adding liquid (like with potato-leek soup, butternut squash soup, or kimchi stew), reach for a heavy-bottomed pot, such as a cast-iron Dutch oven. “Cast iron can be preheated to high temperatures that will brown meat without burning it,” says Tara Casaregola, a product testing leader at Consumer Reports. “Dutch ovens also retain heat well, which makes them perfect for stews or anything that requires low-and-slow cooking.”
The heavy lid works to prevent excessive evaporation, which could make an already thick soup too thick. Some lids even have spikes or ridges on the underside to help condense moisture and rain it back into the pot. The only downside to cast-iron Dutch ovens is that they’re heavy, so they generally don’t come much bigger than 6 quarts, which can weigh up to 15 pounds.
Here’s a great Dutch oven that performs well, according to our tests.
Multi-Cooker
Best for: Speedy stocks/broths, meat stews, and bean-based soups
A multi-cooker might not get you the same results as a stovetop pot, but you can make pretty darn good soups and stews when you’re short on time. For instance, the traditional Vietnamese noodle soup called pho requires 4 or more hours on the stove to cook. But you can make it in a pressure cooker in a quarter of the time.
The multi-cooker’s pressure-cook mode—a function that all models we test do well in—tenderizes tough cuts of stew meat fast and cooks beans and pulses without the need to soak. Your favorite Cuban black bean soup or Indian dal recipe may need a little tweaking to get the timing and ratios just right, but once you perfect it to your liking, it’ll save you hours.
Most of the models we test also have a delayed start function so that you can plan your meal hours ahead of time.
This large multi-cooker performs well and is also priced much lower than others in our ratings.
Slow Cooker
Best for: Stocks, brothy soups, and stews
If the thought of leaving a pot of stock or stew simmering on your stove all day makes you nervous that you could accidentally burn down your place, use a slow cooker and go on with your life. You can safely leave it unattended for the entire day (some models stay on for up to 24 hours). Cooking stock and soups in a slow cooker is truly a hands-off experience, but keep in mind that because little evaporation occurs in slow cookers, your broth’s flavors might be more muted and watered down than if you cooked it in a pot on the stove, which helps concentrate flavors in the broth through evaporation (see “Stockpot,” below).
When it comes to tenderizing stew meat and raw root vegetables, our tests show that results can vary a lot depending on the model you use. The ones that top our ratings turn out thick and tender beef and vegetable stew on both high and low heat settings, but many models work well only on one setting or the other.
This model cooks well on all settings and is extra large to accommodate stocks.
Stockpot
Best for: Stocks and brothy soups (like chicken noodle and matzo ball)
For broth, a stockpot is the best option. "Just make sure it’s a large one that’s at least 8 quarts,” says Marco Canora, owner and chef of Hearth and Brodo in New York City, who's also known as the King of Broth. The end product will be about half of what you put into the pot (the rest is bones and vegetables that you’ll discard).
Canora also recommends keeping the lid off while the broth is cooking. He says the secret to the broths at Brodo is the “angels’ share,” a distillery term that refers to a portion of spirits lost to evaporation. “By gently simmering broths uncovered for a long period of time, more impurities are released and the evaporation results in a deeper concentration of flavors.” You’ll just need to skim off those impurities as the broth cooks.
And remember: Simmer, never boil. “Boiling will make you lose too much liquid,” says Louis. “Plus, it emulsifies fat into the broth, giving it a greasy mouthfeel.”
We test stockpots that come only in sets, but this stockpot we tested is also sold individually.
Perry Santanachote
As a multimedia content creator at Consumer Reports, Perry Santanachote covered a range of trends—from parasite cleanses to pickleball paddles. Perry was also a main producer of our Outside the Labs content, evaluating products in her tiny Manhattan apartment.
