This Tool Is Your Secret Weapon For Upgrading Boring Canned Soup

There's no two ways around it — canned soup is fairly unglamorous as convenience meals go. Even though some store-bought soups are better than others, it's easy to see how most palates might quickly tire of the tinny, overly salty flavors inside most cans. However, there's a fairly simple way to upgrade these meals that takes just seconds and requires just one simple tool — the immersion blender. 

Though you can also use a countertop blender to turn your soup into a velvety dream, the immersion blender is the best tool to level up your soup game. Instead of ladling soup back and forth, you can just stick the head of the immersion blender into your soup pot and hold down the power button to pulverize the ingredients to your desired smoothness. You can either blend your dish completely to create a creamy and rich bisque or just smooth things out a little to thicken up the broth and give your soup a more luxuriant backdrop. 

Of course, this hack won't produce the best results with every type of soup. Chicken noodle, for instance, would likely just turn into a starchy mess, as would something like beef and barley. However, any soup that's mostly beans, veggies, or a mix of both is fair game. Think silky smooth cream of mushroom, thick and tasty split pea with ham, or beautifully blended cheddar and broccoli. Blending these soups not only improves texture, it marries all the flavors for a tastier experience, as well.

If you're already using an immersion blender for your soup, you might as well take the opportunity to brighten up the flavor. Things like miso paste, bullion concentrate, and even a dollop of peanut butter or olive oil not only make blended soups even richer but also bring the flavor in a very big way. Think of how delicious an upgraded potato soup would be when blended with umami flavor like miso paste, chives, or nut butter. The starches in things like potatoes and beans also meld with the lusciousness of bacon fat or a knob of butter. 

Additionally, blending your soup offers a chance to sneak in some extra veggies for fresh flavor and nutrition. Even if the blend you're enhancing already contains vegetables, they've likely taken on the flavors of the broth and other ingredients in the canned mixture. Sautéing some fresh broccoli, onions, or mushrooms and blending them in can make a big difference when it comes to flavor. 

Plus, if you're feeding little ones, this is a good way to up their favorite soup's vitamin content without them even realizing it — not to mention, that a partially or fully blended soup is literally easier to swallow. Blended canned soups can also make a flavorful base for an entirely different dish. A veggie and bean blend pulsed to creamy richness could become a completely new soup with a scoop of rice and a few condiments or mini tortellini added.