This is my favourite new time-saving kitchen gadget

Anything that saves me time cooking in the kitchen is worth the money in my book. With cold weather and constant rain, this is the season for soups but I’ve never been patient enough or that skilled to make a good, hearty broth.

I tried once doing a chicken soup and boiled it down for hours with the bones, following a top chef’s recipe to the latter, but the watery end result was so disgusting, I had to throw it away. So when I tested out the Tefal Easy Soup and Smoothie Maker, it was a dream to have a gadget that did it all for me.

It quickly became my new favourite kitchen tool. The Tefal Easy Soup and Smoothie Maker is normally £129.99 but Tefal is offering it for £110 here when you sign up to its website. You can also find it on Amazon for £79.99 in a current deal.

Although this cooking machine can also make smoothies, compotes and even mix up everything needed for a chocolate fondant or clafoutis before they go in the oven, I was most interested in how it would help me combat my disasters at making soup.

I liked the way it came with a recipe book of ideas, in various European languages, and the minimum time to whip up a soup is just 23 minutes cooking time for a creamed one or 25 minutes for a soup with pieces. That’s on top of the 10 minutes it takes to chop up some vegetables and other ingredients. into small cubes

There are various automatic cooking modes that mean you can leave it to do its magic while you get on with work, some tidying up or watching telly. It can get a bit noisy towards the end part of the cycle and although it is in a sealed machine, you do get the faint aroma of soup cooking, which I didn’t mind.

You don’t need to cook any of the ingredients beforehand either, so no extra mess on the hob, which is always a bonus.

While I followed the recipes to start with - a simple carrot one as an opener - I’ve grown more confident in experimenting with other flavours since and it is very easy to use.

The Tefal Easy Soup and Smoothie Maker has a handy option that can keep the soup warm for 40 minutes that you can press when the making process is finished, so it can fit around your life too.

While there is an easy cleaning button and you only need to fill it with water before pressing it. The cleaning process is pretty noisy and make sure you don’t fill it too much with water like I did. Also, you still need to wipe it down afterwards as it doesn’t clean it completely so there is still debris. It can’t go in the dishwasher or be submerged under water, but the easy cleaning button does get rid of a lot of the mess first.

It’s a favourite with me because I can whip up a healthy, warm soup in cold weather from scratch within half an hour. The Tefal soup maker makes what I once considered a hard near-impossible task quick and easy.

This article was updated on October 14 to reflect new pricing and product availability.