I make soup every day - and this quiet, quick blender is my secret saviour

It’s cosy season, so let’s talk soup. Fancy a quick, healthy, hearty homemade meal? Silly question. Want to whip up a soup in under 20 minutes? Even sillier question. Let me introduce you to the Panasonic Soup Blender.

You’ll find plenty of the best blenders that claim to make soup from scratch. However, some of these come with caveats, such as not being submerged in water, 40 minute timeframes, or less precise blending, not the Panasonic Soup Blender.

This is easily one of my favourite soup makers of all time. In fact, it’s made me love soup even more than before (if that’s possible). And if you want to know why, you’re about to find out. There’s a plot twist too.

Panasonic Blender and Soup Maker review

Who would the Panasonic Blender and Soup Maker suit?

Aside from stylish rose gold rims and a smooth silhouette, one of the first things you'll notice about the Pansonic Blender and Soup Maker is a big dome that sits on top of it. This is designed to make the Panasonic quieter than any other blender on the market. And, I have to say, it does a fantastic job. Even when it was heating, and blending butternut squash for my soup, I could comfortably hold a conversation. One of our testers didn't even think it was running.

The base of the Panasonic is large, which suits the powerful design and capacious 1.2L jug, but it does mean that this is more of a family blender than it is a single-person or small space blender. It's perfect for making big batches of soups, smoothies, dips, and sauces.

On the note of functions, this is a great blender if you want simplicity. The menu sorts all the pre-sets (which span from plant based milks through to baby food), so it's perfect if you're busy or not fully confident on your different settings. If you like to have manual controls, they are there, but this isn't designed with the control freaks in mind.

Unboxing Panasonic Blender and Soup Maker

The Panasonic Blender and Soup Maker comes in a large, heavy box, which is exactly what you should expect from a blender that doubles up as a soup maker. Getting it out of the box and set-up is, thankfully, very easy. The base comes assembled, the glass jug sits on top of that and the lid parts slot easily together. You might wonder what that top dome thing is (me too), but it explains itself immediately: it's a noise shield. The blender is already very quiet, but the noise shield makes it even quieter and it neatly sits on top of the blender, so it's not a faff to store either.

Whilst the main box is recyclable and easy to flatten, there are some non-recyclable soft plastics that need to be dealt with. If you live near a large supermarket, these can be recycled there. If not, it's a job for landfill, I'm afraid.

All in all, setting this up and getting the Panasonic Blender ready for testing is really easy. It stands well on the counter. Consider me smitten.

What is the Panasonic Blender and Soup Maker like to use?

When you plug in the Panasonic, you get a screen, lighting up with an array of options. There’s plenty for the soup lovers: smooth soup, and chunky soup, but also the opportunity to make fruit puree, nut milks, frozen drinks, and classic smoothies. Both the icons and names are clearly displayed and easy to select, so I could get cooking almost instantly.

My one note is that the screen looks like it should be touch sensitive, but it's actually not. You need to use the middle dial to toggle to your setting, press it, and then in some instances (for the soup, for example), press it again.

Test 1: soup

Naturally, my first few tasks for the Panasonic were soup focussed. To me, the perfect smooth soup is spicy butternut squash, which can be tricky with tough solid coconut cream, fibrous ginger, solid butternut squash, and spicy chilli.

It sounds like a tricky task, but for the Panasonic Blender and Soup Maker, it isn't. After roughly chopping my onion, garlic, ginger, and butternut squash, all I needed to add was some vegetable stock and coconut cream and I could seal the Panasonic and set it running.

I have to admit, I was a little apprehensive about whether the butternut squash would be cooked enough to blend into a soup that’s as smooth as one you’d pour out a carton, but the proof was in the pouring: and this was flawless. I couldn’t detect a fibre or chunk at all and the flavours tasted beautiful: they weren’t overcooked or bland in the slightest.

My chunky soups certainly posed more of a challenge for the Panasonic. I made lots of these, but my best success was leek and potato, but vegan. There’s a lot of fibre, solidity, and different textures going on with this one, but that didn’t seem to phase the Panasonic Blender and Soup Maker. Again, I could whack my leeks, garlic, potato, onion, thyme, and cashew nuts in, leave it cooking and watch on as the Panasonic pulsed its way through the various vegetables I had thrown in.

The result was seriously impressive. If I had a stick blender, I may have been tempted to leave this a little chunkier, but for the average, cottage soup or chunky vegetable soups this is perfect.

I could go on about the different soups that I made in here, but I don’t want to make you hungry. Just rest assured: they were all as flawless as each other. The next most important assessment that I wanted to make was, is the Panasonic good enough to make me ditch my normal blender in favour of a larger, chunkier model. This meant testing smoothies, dips, and all the cooler tasks that I use my normal blender for.

Test 2: smoothie

The smoothie test is deceptively tricky, because I use spinach (fibrous), frozen blueberries (like little bullets), raspberries (very seedy), and oats (woody) as well as peanut butter and almond milk. There’s a lot to slice through, but in 2 minutes, the Panasonic Blender and Soup Maker had perfected a smooth, delicious drink. There wasn’t a skin or seed in sight.

What's more impressive is just how quietly this worked. The same applied for when this was making soups. The noise is very low and muffled: we didn't need to raise our voices to talk and one of the testers didn't even realise it had finished (or indeed started) blending. With the lid on, we compared it to the sound of an electric toothbrush.

Test 3: dips and sauces

Purées and dips can prove harder to blend, because the liquid content is a lot lower, making life a lot harder for the blades. However, the Panasonic didn’t really falter at all here. Faced with a can of chickpeas, a scoop of tahini, a squeeze of lemon, olive oil, cumin, and salt, it effortlessly whizzed up a silky hummus. I don't have any more notes: this really is the gold standard for dips.

Test 4: crushing ice

The last key test that I give my standard blenders is crushing ice, which feels like a mean test, because it’s really hard to achieve a perfect, light powder. However, it’s a great way to check the limits of what your machine can do. Pretty unsurprisingly, the Panasonic blitzed my ice into complete snow in seconds. It’s an all-round hero.

Cleaning the Panasonic Blender and Soup Maker

There is a clean setting on the Panasonic, so all you have to do is pour in water and add a squeeze of washing up liquid if you want to get all around the blades really thoroughly cleaned. You will still have some residue left around the lip of the Panasonic which needs a soft sponge, but beyond that, you’re covered.

The one thing to remember is that this cannot go in the dishwasher, nor can it be submerged in water. This is pretty standard for soup making blenders and all it takes is a little extra caution, but it’s worth noting nonetheless.

How does the Panasonic Blender and Soup Maker compare?

Before the Panasonic launched, I wrote a piece on the best soup makers and with this performance, the Panasonic has blitzed its way into the buying guide. The reasonable price point, impressive capacity, non-toxic glass jug, and overall feel scores close to top marks in my cook books.

The main rivals to this are the Tefal Perfectmix and the Ninja Foodi Hot + Cold. The Tefal Perfectmix is around £50 cheaper and it boasts a 1.75L capacity (which is nearly another 500ml in comparison to the Panasonic). That makes a pretty compelling case for the Tefal, which is actually the one I have at home, especially as it has all the same pre-sets. In fairness to the Tefal, it delivers similar results to the Panasonic, but the Panasonic does feel like an upgrade. It looks sleeker. I would be much happier leaving the Panasonic on show, for example, whereas my Tefal gets packed away as soon as I can. The Panasonic is also significantly quieter than the Tefal when running. We can't watch the TV when the Tefal is whirring away at 80 dB, whereas I could hold a conversation while the Panasonic was maximising at 67 dB on my counter.

The other model in the running is the Ninja Foodi. This is about the same price as the Panasonic, but with an extra 500ml again. I'd say that the Ninja Foodi does a better job of cold blends, such as smoothie bowls and ice creams and it's also a little quicker at making soup (almost 10 minutes quicker). I do really love the Ninja blender, but the Panasonic again has the edge for elegance and noise levels. I also found that it made my soups a touch smoother than the Ninja and really cooked the vegetables to a much softer consistency, so the extra time certainly pays off. It depends on what you think you'll use yours the most for as to whether this is the one for you.

Should you buy the Panasonic Blender and Soup Maker?

Right now, I’m debating whether to replace my Tefal blender with the Panasonic Blender and Soup Maker, even though I have sworn by my Tefal for years (and actually taken it on train trips with me - it’s that good). The Panasonic has the brains, the beauty and the power though. Good luck making your decision too.

How we test

At woman&home, we have a standardised series of tests that we put all of our blenders through. I like to explain why at each stage, so you know that there’s spinach in my smoothie for a tough fibre challenge and hummus is there because lower liquid contents often trip up blenders. However, soup blenders get a little extra test. In this case, it got a big extra test. I try to make smooth and chunky soups with a range of different vegetable types, which test the cooking power as well as blending power of each model. I’ll also do a time and temperature check, with some extra emphasis on the cleaning because lots of soup making blenders can’t be submerged in water - a pain for busy chefs and distracted cooks.

I like to compare each blender to its competitors, so you get a good sense of value for money, whilst also accounting for any other factors that you might be curious about. If you still have questions after the review, you can ask me in my emails. Or, you can take a look at our page for how we test blenders at woman&home.