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!

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.