A blender works very well for blending soups because the spiral motion creates a powerful vortex which pulls the ingredients down towards the blades where they are evenly and finely chopped.
A word about safely blending hot ingredients. It is important not to fill the blender more than half full so the ingredients have enough room to blend easily together. It is also very important that any built up steam is allowed to escape; so, if the center cap of the lid does not have holes such as this one, it is important to remove the cap to prevent the contents from exploding. Place a thick cloth over top prior to blending to protect yourself from the hot contents. DO NOT walk away with the machine running.
It is important to start on the lowest setting and gradually increase the speed. To achieve a silky-smooth texture, keep the blender running for at least 1 to 2 minutes in order to fully break down the solids. A common mistake is to not run the blender long enough. This results in a grainy-textured soup. The soup should be blended long enough to create a silky-smooth texture. Once the soup has been fully blended, it can also be strained through a fine mesh strainer to ensure any skins or tough fibers are removed. Blenders tend to incorporate air into the soup, which will make it quite frothy. As the soup sits, it will settle.
