Making your soup smooth is a pretty basic thing.  And usually, to do so, we use a hand blender. Although, if you don’t have one,  there’s another way to get that creamy texture using simple kitchen gadgets. 

So, if you find yourself without a hand blender, or you just don’t wanna buy one yet then here are some tips on how you can prepare soup without a hand blender.

Using a regular blender. 

If you just have a regular countertop blender, you can still get your soup  smooth.  Here’s what you need to do.  

• Let it cool: After cooking your soup, give it a little time to cool down before you start blending.  This helps prevent  steam buildup or splashes.  
• Blend in batches:  Don’t ladle all your soup into the blender all at once. Put it little by little to avoid it from overflowing, and make sure your lid is tightly closed.  
• Start slow:  Begin at a low speed so that your blender can crush the bigger chunks smoothly. You can increase the speed slowly to get that perfect creamy texture.  
• Blend until smooth:  Keep on blending for about one or two minutes until the soup looks the way you want it to be.
• Repeat: If you have a big family and you need to prepare a large quantity of soup, then you might need to use the blender several times to get it all done.  
• Reheat if necessary:  Since you cooled down your soup first in the beginning,  the soup might be too cold. So you can put it back in the pot, warm it up a bit, and then serve.

Using a Potato Masher or Fork

If  You just want a simpler method or you just like a rustic soup, you can try a potato masher or just a fork to mash it all up.

Here’s what you do,  

• Let it cool a bit:  Allow the soup’s temperature to lower a bit just to make sure you don’t get burned while mashing.  
• Mash right in the pot:  While your soup is still in the pot, take your potato masher or fork and start mashing right away in the pot only.  Push down hard and stir around to mash those bigger chunks. 
• Adjust texture:  Keep on mashing until you get your soup as smooth as you like it. It’s also okay to leave a few chunks if that’s what you like. Warm it up again. At this point, your soup might probably be cold. So just pop it back on the stove and reheat it. 

Using a Food Processor

You can also use a food processor to blend your soup. However, it won’t be as smooth as you get using a blender. Here’s what to do.  

• Cool it down:  Just like when you’re using a blender, allow your soup to cool off before you start.  
• Do it in batches:  Add your soup in small chunks into the blender or just fill it halfway to avoid it from spilling out.  
• Pulse it : Use the pulse function which turns off and on on regular intervals to chop up the ingredients slowly.  This avoids everything from getting mashed  unevenly or  having big and small lumps together. It avoids such situations. 
• Scrape the edges:  Every now and then, stop the blender and scrap off the sides of the bowl to remove those things that might have stuck on the sides and make sure everything gets blended. 
• Continue processing:  Keep pulsing and scraping until the soup is as smooth as you want it to be. Mix it all up.  When you have finally processed the whole soup,  pour it back into the pot,  stir it, and mix everything together. Warm it up a bit as it has cooled down during the process. Then, it’s ready to be served. 

Conclusion

In the end,  while a hand blender is a very useful tool for soup,  you have other options, too, like a blender, food processor, or even just manually using a potato masher or fork.  Give them all a try and see what works best for you.  Then, dig into your homemade soup just the way you like it.