Tuesday 5 August 2014

Souper Review and Giveaway

If you have been following on Instagram you will have noticed I've been having a great time playing with my Kambrook Soup Simple Soup Maker. I've been making all sorts of soups, but you know me and repurposing - I've had a go at baby food, smoothies, mousse, cake batter, pancake batter and even jam! Today being my 'blogiversary' (two years, really?) the lovely folks at Kambrook decided to send a gift to you! Details for this Soup Simple giveaway at the end of this review.


You may be thinking, but soup's not that difficult to make. Do you really need a machine to do it for you? Well, when you are easily sidetracked (was that a squirrel . . . ) or if you get called away from the kitchen (cue crying baby) this little invention can be a lifesaver. Yes I have popped my ingredients in, hit the button and come back not 20 minutes later as planned, but almost a full hour, and still had a nice hot soup to enjoy - not a burnt thick charred mass of goo. In fact, the only time I've had issues with burning was the second time I used the unit thinking 'it's really only heating & blending - surely custard would work'.

Well, custard powder, sugar and milk produce . . .

this result. . . 

Which does get better after soaking.

And better again after scrubbing with a scourer and dishwashing liquid. But, like the instruction book says, Gumption is the go! It worked a treat :-) I also learned that the unit will switch off if it gets too hot, making you think that perhaps you forgot to press the start button. This is why I should read instructions.

I won't overwhelm you with all the recipes I've been posting using this one pot wonder. Instead you can see them all here. One recipe I haven't posted yet (because I haven't refined it enough) is Strawberry Jam. And being that each year I've started taking a strawberry photo with my girls (see last year's edition here), I thought this a great one to share.

Failures are good to share, right?

My first attempt I used 3 punnets of strawberries (hulled), a good squeeze of lemon juice, and 1 cup of water.

All tossed in the soup maker & set to 'Smooth'. Worried I might end up with sticky jam burnt to the bottom of my Soup Simple I stuck around. I also disregarded advice about fruit to sugar to water ratios when making jam and added zero sugar and extra water. About 2 minutes away from finishing the 21 minute 'Smooth' cycle, the unit beeped - my heart dropped. . .

But it wasn't a burning 'beep'. Instead it was a 'contents too low' beep. *Phew* No burnt residue, but also no jam. Instead I got some lovely Strawberry Sauce. Upon tasting I decided to stir in about half a cup of castor sugar which quickly dissolved into the still hot syrup.

My next attempt I used 4 punnets of strawberries, 1/4 cup sugar dissolved into 1/2 cup water. But I forgot the lemon juice. I'm not sure if that is why my second batch also need up as soup rather than jam and I had run out of enough strawberries to find out.

Right about now is where I would love to share the many things I've been making with my strawberry sauce, only my computer has had a hissy fit and it would seem I've lost quite a bit of data :-( So instead I will have to refer you to my Instagram feed. At least I have some accessible record of these delicious creations!


Loving a repurpose… @kambrookau #soupsimple strawberry sauce in our yoghurt park lunches today. In our @easylunchboxes Spoons from @little_bentoLoving my failed @kambrookau #soupsimple strawberry jam as a topping tonight… what is your Saturday night shaping up like?

Loving an experiment… strawberry sauce from our @kambrookau #soupsimpleLoving semi success… @kambrookau #soupsimple strawberry sauce roll ups. A little under done, but still nice




So. . . what do I think of the Kambrook Soup Simple?

Loving:
  • Set and forget cooking
  • Multi-function (smooth soup, chunky soup, blend, and pulse)
  • Concealed element for a smooth internal wall and base
  • Pour your soup straight from the Soup Simple
  • Who doesn't love soup? 

Loving a little less, but liveable:

  • It's not the easiest unit to clean. You can't pop it in the dishwasher (not that I have one). The main unit can't be submerged in water, which is what I naturally felt like doing. The top piece with the blades can also be tricky to get in around, although the provided brush does help.
  • If you only want to make a single serve smoothie, this unit is not for you. The unit needs a minimum of 1300mL to operate, and even with Miss M, Honey and myself tackling a batch of smoothies, sometimes we struggle to finish. Mind you, there's nothing saying you couldn't save some for later or even freeze some of your leftovers.
  • I would love a cover for the unit and a 'reheat' function so you could pop the whole lot in the fridge in-between servings, but then again there's never that much room in my fridge :-)
  • I would also like a window or clear canister to see how the cooking/blending is coming along, but I'm just a sticky beak
Overall:
I am very happy to have this little helper in my kitchen, and as Honey grows and I start to think about shedding those 'bonus-baby-bulges' this will certainly come in handy. I tend to use it more for making grown up lunches (Mr Loving & I) and the size is good for us there. Three adult serves generally speaking. One lunch for the pair of us and one work 'lunch' for me. Occasionally I will stretch it out to four serves, it just depends on how hungry we are at the time :-) Honey will have some chunky soup but isn't terribly fond of the smooth unless it is served to her in a Sinchies food pouch. Miss M won't have a bar of it - even with crouton sticks. All the more for me!

So are you sold yet? Would you like a Kambrook Soup Simple for yourself? Simply follow the instructions on the Rafflecopter form below - Good Luck!
  • As per Terms & Conditions you must complete all three mandatory entries to be eligible to win. It is highly recommended that you enter the giveaway with the same email address/ID you follow with, otherwise your entry can be difficult to verify.
  • Open to Australian residents aged 18 & over, excluding NSW
  • Full Terms & Conditions can be found here

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post and no monetary compensation was provided nor offered. This post was written for Loving Lunches and Kambrook Australia who generously provided me with a sample for review and the prize/s for this competition. All opinions expressed are my own, based on my personal experience with the product.

24 comments:

  1. I love that you can make so many different kinds of food with the Kambrook Soup Simple.

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  2. Love soup in the colder months, and this looks fantastic, thank you :D

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  3. This would be such a time saver and give the perfect soup for my family

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  4. So love soup, made a fantastic Pea and Ham soup just a couple of days ago :)

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  5. I love how you demonstrated an alternative use of soup maker by making jam. That's very clever!

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  6. I love making soup so this would be so handy.

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  7. Love fresh and hearty soups through winter!

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  8. Homemade soup is the only way my kids eat vegetables, so we always have a pot on the boil. This would be much easier.

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  9. Love to make my own soups and Kambrook soup maker will be ideal for the whole family to use.

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  10. I loved to read about the "not-so-likeable" factors as we all know how good the appliances can be until we take them home to use it. ;) Thanks for the sharing.

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  11. Fantastic giveaway! I hate making soup from scratch but I love the taste of home made soup. Anything that is going to make the process so much easier is a blessing

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  12. Being a very distractable person, this would be perfect for me! ;)

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  13. Thanks for offering this great prize. Soups are my favourite during winter. They can be packed full of vegetables and are therefore nutritious, they are warming, they freeze well, and make a great lunch at work too.

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  14. Quickly thrown together at breakfast, beautifully devoured at dinner!

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  15. I love my soups, especially if it's easily made in a soup maker!

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  16. Wow this device is surprisingly very versatile, never would I have thought it is useful for so many things other than soup

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  17. Such a great time saving device that can be used to make many wonderful, healthy soups for the whole family.

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  18. I just adore soup, and I just made a beautiful pumpkin soup

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  19. Thank you so much for sharing this with us. I love soups and I love that this machine can make more than just soup!

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  20. This soup maker would be very handy for me. Love simply but delicious soup!

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  21. This would be perfect for teenagers to cook healthy soups for themselves!

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  22. The perfect gadget to enhance the delights of my home grown veggies; to satisfy the fussy taste buds of 2 sons and a moody vegetarian daughter.

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  23. I love soup. Set and forget sounds ideal. I've heard great things about this product and loved your review :)

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Loving your comments, Thank you <3

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