I have two new reasons you should own an immersion blender, and both are delicious.

As I often mention, Mike and I live in an average sized apartment with (what feels like) an incredibly small kitchen. We do not have a lot of space for appliances, so the ones we do have must do double or triple duty. Except for the tea machine, that is. We’re even contemplating getting rid of the toaster and microwave to get a toaster-oven.

While I long for a KitchenAid stand mixer (I use my mom and dad’s instead), standalone food processor and blender, I often just use the immersion blender in the place of all three of these. Shockingly, you can do a lot with this single, slim tool and its various attachments.

I got mine for about $80 at Costco a few years ago. It’s the Cuisinart Smart Stick and it came with a few attachments. It only has one speed, so it’s not as awesome as it could be, but it is used to make everything from hummus and baba ganoush to whipped cream and mayonnaise.

As the weather turns cooler, I often find the blender very useful for making soups, especially these two:

Raw Tomato “Soup” with shaved fennel and jalapeno

Good tomatoes obviously make the difference here. I was skeptical about this recipe as it sounded overly snooty (it is a Charlie Trotter recipe, afterall) and cold soups are obviously more of a summer deal, but this was incredibly smooth, rich and flavourful with a bit of crunch from the fennel. The immersion blender and a sieve played a role.

Soup

• 2 large, red heirloom tomatoes, peeled and seeded
• 1/2 jalapeño chile, seeded and chopped
• 1/2 cup chopped, peeled, seeded cucumber
• 2 teaspoons sherry wine vinegar
• Sea salt and freshly ground pepper

Garnish

• fennel, thinly shaved
• 1/4 cup peeled, seeded, and diced red tomato
• 2 teaspoons brine from olives
• 2 teaspoons sherry wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 12 micro fennel sprouts or fennel fronds

Using the immersion blender, I combined the tomatoes, chile, cucumber, and sherry. This purée is pushed through a fine-mesh sieve and seasoned. The real magic is in the garnish: spoon the soup into bowls. Top with shaved fennel, fronds, tomato and jalapeno. Drizzle olive brine, vinegar and olive oil on top.

Raw tomato soup with poached eggs over mushrooms two ways and toast points. This sounds like a complex meal, but it took less than 30 minutes to make.

Curried Butternut Squash Soup

This has to be my single favourite recipe this month. What do you need? A bag of precut squash from Costco, four cups of stock, an onion and spices. Plus the immersion stick!

• 2 lbs of diced squash of your liking. I buy the precut bags because I am very poor at cutting squash down and getting the maximum flesh out.
• 1 onion, diced
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 4 cups of stock, vegetable or chicken
• If you like, you can add carrots, celery or apple
• Spices to your liking: I use garam masala (1 tsp), cayenne pepper (1/4 tsp), cinnamon (1/2 tsp) and nutmeg (1/4 tsp).

I roast the squash in the oven for 10-15 minutes at 450 degree Fahrenheit until it begins to brown. This step is completely optional; I just prefer the way it adds depth and flavour to the soup.

In a pot, I heat up some olive oil and sautee and brown the onion. When soft and caramel colour, I toss in garlic and any additional add ins, like carrot or apple. (If you skipped the roasting step, add the squash now, and sautee a bit longer, until the squash is soft.) In goes the roasted squash, with a liberal dusting of spices. I’ve included measurements, but I never use them. It’s my failure as a cook.

Sautee a few more minutes, add the stock and bring to a simmer. Allow to simmer for atleast five minutes, but for as long as 20. Immerse blender, blend until smooth. Finish with a splash of cream, croutons or a grilled cheese sandwich.

Curried butternut squash soup with grilled cheese. This soup can take as little as 15 minutes to make, but the version I prefer runs about 25 minutes. It depends on your taste buds and patience/hunger level.

I should note much of the pottery in these photos was made by Mike, including the bowls and a vase.

My favourite way to eat the soup is with a veggie sandwich on fresh Cobs bread.

Dill Pickle Soup

(recipe will serve two)

4 cups of vegetable stock (one Tetra-pack carton, use one low in sodium)
1 medium potato, diced (or shredded)
2 carrots, shredded
half an onion, diced
2 sticks of celery, sliced
3 medium pickles, shredded (just jar pickles are good. Vlasic kosher dills are crunchy and good)
half cup of whipping cream
1 tbsp flour
dillweed (I used the freezedried kind, but fresh is better)

Simmer the vegetable stock with the potatoes, carrots, onion and celery for 15-20 minutes, until potatoes are tender. Add the shredded pickles and the flour. Bring back to a simmer, and add the whipping cream and dillweed, seasoning with pepper (I find between the stock and pickles you need little salt added).

I decided to make my own noodle soup at home, just visiting Safeway and Save On Foods, which are pretty run of the mill food stores, but I know I saw fresh noodles at both, so I was probably okay.

I got a recipe off of Epicurious [Soba with shiitake, pea shoots and leek dipping sauce], but edited it heavily. I had to pick up a good soy sauce and rice wine vinegar, and was worried…however Save On had a great selection and I ended up getting a good organic naturally fermented, low sodium, high flavour tamari soy. I’d recommend it, but will probably try other brands as well. Tamari is not a brand by the way, it’s a variety of soy. It’s a bit richer than shiro or other soys like the ‘basic’ koikuchi, and is even gluten free, for those of you on restricted diets. Both bottles were about $4 each, which was far less than I was prepared to pay, I have to say.

We had sesame oil. I think my favorite was the back that declared it THE KING OF ALL VEGETABLE OILS. Last I checked sesame wasn’t a veggie, but whatever. It did a great job adding flavour to my sauce and sauteed vegetables.

Anyhow, my recipe ended up being something like this:

Udon Noodles with dipping sauce

• 1/3 cup soy sauce
• 1/3 cup rice wine vinegar (I would probably add less next time)
• 1/3 cup water
• splash of sesame seed oil
• sliced garlic and ginger (to taste)
• sliced leeks, mushrooms (I used oyster, but shiitakes would be great), julienned carrots. These are for sauteeing with sesame oil
• sliced garlic, ginger, green onions, radish (or daikon), watercress (substitution for pea shoots) all for adding uncooked to the broth
• packs of fresh noodles, udon preferred

I brought the soy and rice vinegar to a boil, then simmered it with the garlic, ginger, sesame oil and water for no particular length of time. I kept it hot until serving, but in the summer months it’s perfectly acceptable to eat the broth cold. Soba are served with cold broth in the summer and hot in the winter in Japan.

Meanwhile, I sauteed and softened the vegetables, seasoning well. A large pot of water was boiling for the noodles, which cook for about three minutes, or according to the package.

When everything is ready, put some vegetables in a bowl, add some broth, then add your fresh ingredients to top it off with. Serve the noodles on the side and dip into the sauce/broth; this is a very easy and inexpensive meal!

My ‘hot’ vegetables. LOTS of leek for flavour.

Some of the fresh ingredients. I sauteed some carrots but also served some raw. The uncooked vegetables and condiments add some crunch to the broth.

Oh god, the noodles! I ended up buying three different kinds, mostly because of the lack of selection. There were some fresh Shanghai noodles in the produce section and in the Asian foods, two packs of these brainy looking udon noodles. One pack was $0.88 and the other $1.20, because it came with curry sauce which I did not use.

I decided to cook the noodles separately so Mike and I could see which ones we liked best, so it turned out well, but it was kind of of a harried run around the store looking for noodles, which I assumed would be in stock and easy to find. I can’t wait to visit a store where they will actually sell other kinds including actual soba.

They came out of the pack like a solid brick and kind of creeped me out. Just put them in the boiling water without breaking them up, they will be easier to eat.

This was the last pack of plain udons at the store. I couldn’t help but think about how bad prepacked ramen noodles are here from grocery stores, but these were pretty good. Unless I’m just in denial.

I love that in French they appear to be “U-Dong” noodles.

Here is the finished set up (minus a bowl of noodles which were not ready yet). Dip the noodles into the broth and slurp them up, as is expected at Japanese restaurants. The chopsticks were actually a wedding favour for my friend Dan and Roz’s wedding and Mike was super excited to use them, he’d been waiting a while for the right moment.

Although I’ve thought about making sushi at home for a while, I’m not sure I’m ready. These udon noodles though…they’ll be added to my “oh god, what am I going to eat tonight” roster. So easy, and highly variable depending on what is fresh at the store or market!