Still Making Soup On The Stovetop? We Know An Even Better Way

Far be it from us to disparage the stovetop, our trusty appliance that has been blessing households since the 1930s. But in the modern pace of life, standing next to the stove and minding the boiling soup can take up more time than we're willing to sacrifice, which usually means skipping cooking altogether and ordering takeout instead. There is a middle ground, though. One of the absolute best uses for your rice cooker is to use it as a soup pot — the process is largely hands-free, buying you some extra time to attend to other things.

There are two main types of rice cookers on the market, each defining the range of soups you'll be able to make in it. First is the simple rice cooker that only has an "on" button, without any additional settings. The cooking process is timed automatically and usually doesn't exceed 20 minutes. This type of rice cooker is best suited for quick soup recipes, calling for ingredients that don't need a long cooking time or come pre-cooked. Our 15-minute homemade egg drop soup and easy chicken noodle soup are both good examples of that. You simply toss the ingredients into the rice cooker, add broth, and turn it on. Some recipes will ask for a finishing touch at the end (like adding cream or blending), but either way you'll have a hot soup ready in mere minutes.

The second type of rice cooker is one that comes with multiple settings, in addition to the quick rice setting, giving you a bit more control over the cooking process. It will have the option to manually set the cooking time, which is especially convenient for soups that need longer to finish. For example, our 3-ingredient potato and sausage soup calls for you to brown the sausage first, then cook the potatoes for 20 minutes, so you'll need around half an hour for the whole soup to come together. Another example is the easy chicken carcass soup, which needs to simmer for two hours, something you can't really replicate in a rice cooker without slow-cooking settings.

Another benefit of making soup in the rice cooker is that the appliance (even the simplest one) comes with the warming setting, which can keep your soup warm long after it's cooked without overdoing any of the ingredients. The only downside is that rice cookers are generally fairly small, so while they may be a good choice for single-serve or two-portion soups, they won't really work for bigger families.