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I used to pour boiling butternut squash soup into a countertop blender and pray the lid held. One explosion on the ceiling later, I switched to stick blenders and never looked back.






















Blending in a flimsy thin pot is a recipe for scratches and wobbling. I ruined one nonstick pot before I figured out which ones can handle a spinning blade inside them.




















Even with the right blender, you can still end up with beet soup on your ceiling if you're not careful. These are the things that finally stopped me from repainting my kitchen walls.






















Some ingredients fight the blender no matter what you do. Stringy celery, fibrous sweet potatoes. These are the ones I reach for when I want silky soup without straining anything.





















Making a big batch of soup only pays off if you can actually store it without freezer burn or leaky lids. I lost an entire batch of lobster bisque to a bad container seal before I figured this out.




















