The Short Answer

Cookware

The soup step almost everyone skips.

Nearly every creamy soup recipe ends the same way: ladle the hot soup into a blender in batches, blend, pour it back. It is the slowest part of the recipe, it dirties the most equipment, and it is the only genuinely dangerous thing in the whole process. It is also entirely optional.

Why that step is worse than it looks

Hot liquid in a sealed blender jar is a pressure vessel. The steam has nowhere to go, and the moment the blades start moving it expands hard enough to lift the lid off and throw boiling soup out of the top. This is a well-known kitchen burn, and it is why careful recipes tell you to fill the jar no more than half full, vent the lid, and cover it with a towel.

An immersion blender removes the transfer entirely. The blade goes into the pot the soup is already in, and sixty seconds later it is smooth. No batches, no second pot, no pouring something scalding from one container into another, and one thing to wash instead of four.

What to look for

• A detachable blending arm The arm should come off the motor body so it can go in the dishwasher. Single-piece units have to be washed by holding the business end under a tap while keeping the motor dry, which is exactly as awkward as it sounds.
• Variable speed, not one button Starting slow is what stops the first second from spraying soup up the wall. It also gives you control over texture — a little chunky, or completely smooth.
• A bell-shaped blade guard The guard should fully surround the blades and sit flat. It keeps the blade off the bottom of the pot, which matters a great deal if that pot is enamelled.
• Corded, unless you have a specific reason not to be Cordless is convenient right up to the point where it runs down mid-pot. For something used in short bursts beside an outlet, the cord is not the compromise it looks like.