7 Essential Tools You Need to Make Soup

Do you love soup in the fall and winter? If you do, I thought it might be helpful to show you the 7 essential tools you need to make soup.

Soup is so comforting. So easy to make.  It helps if you know the 7 essential tools you need to make soup.

Soup is wonderful to serve either at lunch or dinner. You can double or triple a recipe for lots of leftovers. Serve a small portion as a first course or a big bowl as an entree.

Like any task, it helps if you have the right tools on hand. Fortunately, making soup requires only a few. I’m giving you the 7 essential tools you need to make soup.

Now, I should say that you may not need all of these 7 essential tools to make soup, but it sure helps when you have the right equipment in the kitchen.

I know a few husbands who would insist on the right tools in the garage or on the golf course. For your favorite cook, any of these essential tools you need to make soup would make a great gift.

7 Essential Tools You Need for Making Soup

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A BIG POT

If you are going to make soup, you might as well make a big batch. And you don’t want to scrimp on the size of the pot.

My usual go~to soup pot is one of my Le Creuset Dutch Ovens. They are heavy~duty, clean~up is a snap and cook evenly at low temperatures for long periods. This color is one of the original ~ Red. Most of my pieces are in this classic color, but I’ve also added Caribbean Blue and Fennel.

red Dutch oven for making soup

A large stock pot works well, too, although I like a wider pot rather than a tall pot. Stirring is easier, I think. This is a light~weight Le Creuset. The color is Fennel, but it has been discontinued.  Like all Le Creuset, it comes in a variety of colors.

green Dutch oven for making soup

AN IMMERSION BLENDER

Many vegetable~based soups, such as butternut squash and potato, as well as cream soups (cream of broccoli, cream of mushroom, cream of cauliflower), benefit from puréeing. It’s very hard to get the silky smooth texture that makes these types of soups so appealing without a blender or immersion blender.

Many soups, such as vegetable, minestrone, or chicken noodle do not require puréeing.

An immersion blender allows puréeing directly in the soup pot. There are several brands on the market and they all come with different attachments, like one for puréeing and one for whisking ~ which is great for making whipped cream.

A BLENDER

A blender will give you a smoother result than an immersion blender, but you do have one more appliance to clean. My blender is a Waring and I love its high~low~off switch and big jar.

blender to make soup

FINE MESH SIEVE

If you don’t have a blender or an immersion blender, a fine mesh sieve allows you to also get a smooth texture so sought after in a cream or puréed soup. It will take more elbow grease on your part and take longer, but it can work.

Fine mesh sieves come in several sizes and can also be used for sifting flour or staining solid ingredients from liquid ones.

fine mesh sieve for making soup

LADLES

One of the essential ingredients in most soups is stock and one of the easiest ways to measure your stock into the pot is with a ladle.

Ladles come in standard sizes (1/8, 1/4, 1/2, and 1~cup) so you know exactly how much you are adding to the soup. It’s one of the easiest ways to add more liquid to the soup when it needs to be thinned down to the right consistency.

For adding soup to a serving bowl, a ladle is the best way to avoid spills and to know exactly how much soup you are serving ~ especially helpful if you are keeping track of serving amounts and calories.

For example, let’s say that a recipe tells you it yields 2 quarts of soup; that’s 64 ounces. That will give you 8 8~ounce (1~cup) servings or 16 4~ounce (1/2 cup) servings. Using a ladle is the easiest way to give you the amounts you need.

ladles for making soup

A BIG WOODEN SOUP

Soups have to be stirred during all steps of preparation. I don’t think anything works as well as a good old~fashioned wooden spoon. It’s easy to hold and easy to clean ~ just don’t put them in the dishwasher. This one belonged to my mother; it must be 50~years~old. It may be discolored, but it still works and has more memories than you can shake a stick at.

wood soup spoon

SHOP THE TOOLS YOU NEED TO MAKE SOUP

I bet you already have some of these tools in your kitchen. When I gather all my ingredients for my soup (mise en place), I also gather all the tools I need at the same time, which makes preparation easier and more efficient.

Now that you know the essential tools you need to make soup, how about some awesome soup recipes?

That’s my list of essential tools for making soup. What’s yours? Do you have any other tools for making soup that you use? If you do, please PIN IT.

Let the soup~making begin.

pin for later graphic in blue

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9 Comments

  1. I love soup and you shared a couple of items I need to get for the next time we have soup night. Thanks for sharing the list. #HomeMattersParty

  2. Soup is a great fall and winter comfort food for sure. My favorite is French onion, but I prefer to go out for it! lol Your list, I’m sure, will come in very handy for your readers:) Thanks for sharing at Vintage Charm — hope to see you there at tomorrow’s party as well:) xo Kathleen |Our Hopeful Home

  3. Mary Colson says:

    Carol, thank you so much for all the soup recipes and soup chart! Still making only soup for Wild Bill with a broken jaw!

    1. Mary, still suffering from the broken jaw! Oh my, that seems like a long time. Hope he can eat turkey by Thanksgiving.

  4. I don’t have an immersion blender and I regularly find recipes that call for one. Might put that on my Christmas list.

    1. Stacey, if you have a blender, you are good to go for pureeing a soup, but the immersion blenders are really convenient. And they are relatively inexpensive.

  5. I did Julia’s French Onion again last night and pleased to say I have all those tools — and used all but the blender and sieve!

    1. Jeanie, since French Onion isn’t a pureed soup you wouldn’t need the blender, but it sure is nice to have around for all sorts of things. Frozen margaritas and pina coladas!

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