Hay came home with a Daewoo soup jug some 6 months ago. Ten quid, second-hand, hardly the sort of purchase that promises a culinary revolution. But this one did. It looks like a cross between a kettle and a traffic cone, yet it produces soup in under half an hour. Leftover carrots, limp celery, half an onion and a potato that had started sprouting in the cupboard – in they go, along with a ladle of Hay’s homemade chicken stock (she freezes it down from the carcasses), lid on, press a button. The thing boils, whirrs, zuzzes, and out comes dinner.
The real genius is the choice – smooth or chunky. That’s not a setting, that’s a personality test. Smooth soup is urbane, cravat and waistcoat, served in a white bowl with a drizzle of something green on top. Chunky soup, on the other hand, is work boots and flannel, eaten with hunks of bread while standing at the kitchen counter. For ten pounds you get both.
And unlike so many gadgets, this one actually earns its keep. Breadmakers were going to transform our lives until everyone realised they made odd-shaped loaves and took up half the kitchen. Juicers promised glowing health until you noticed they required two hours of scrubbing for thirty seconds of juice. Yoghurt makers, pasta rollers, electric woks – all eventually migrate to the back of the cupboard, the elephant’s graveyard of unused kitchenware.
Not the ice-cream maker, mind you. That’s still churning away once a week, an honourable exception. But most of the others are long gone.
The Daewoo is different. It’s honest kit. No shiny chrome trim, no pointless Bluetooth app, just a jug and a blade that turn scraps into something hot and comforting. The stainless body looks sturdy, the orange top looks like it belongs on a building site, and together they get on with the job. You don’t fuss over it, you don’t babysit it. It burbles away and makes soup while you set the table.
The real joy is thrift. Vegetables that once would have been eyed with suspicion now get a second chance. The bottom of the fridge becomes a treasure chest, not a guilt trip. And the result tastes better than anything in a tin, probably because it comes with the satisfaction of knowing you rescued it from the compost bin.
It’s also my secret weapon on 2:7 days. Mondays and Thursdays I keep under 600 calories, and a bowl of Hay’s Daewoo soup is the cornerstone – filling, warming, and virtuous without feeling like punishment. A gadget that’s cheap, second-hand, and makes both waistlines and wallets happy? That’s rare.
So yes, Hay’s ten-pound Daewoo is the best kitchen gadget we’ve owned. Not glamorous, not new, but practical magic all the same. It may never make it into a lifestyle magazine spread, but when the weather turns and the rain sets in, it’ll be the Daewoo on the draining board that keeps us fed, smug, and just a little bit slimmer.
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