Roasted Fennel & Apple Soup and Blendtec Review

I ♥ gifts. Small gifts, large gifts, just-because gifts. I was thrilled when the lovely people from Blendtec decided to send me one of their machines so that I can play with it in my kitchen. The only two things I asked for were these: 1) it must fit in between my kitchen counter and upper cabinet 2) I love kitchen appliances in red.

My wishes were granted!

I flew back home from visiting my family in Seattle and there was a big red box waiting for me.

How pretty is this machine? The base is shiny red and I LOVE the touch display. The model I received is Designer 625 Blender and "features everything you need to create healthy smoothies, snacks, and meals in a matter of seconds—and it looks great doing it. With a next generation illuminated touch interface, preprogrammed cycles of our most popular blends, this is one blender you won’t want to hide in the cabinets."

At first I was surprised that the blades weren't sharp at all. I wasn't sure how these blunt blades would be able to do the job, but turns out the blades are made these way on purpose! They are supposed to be blunt for safety, yet they are incredibly efficient because of their thickness and strength. Plus, if you happen to accidently touch them with your finger, no blood. {DON'T stick your hands into the blender!}

So far I've only used my new toy once, but I was happy with how powerful it was. It's easy to use, clean, and it really does look gorgeous in the kitchen. I can't wait to experiment more, but for now I'll share with you a recipe I created for Roasted Fennel & Apple Soup.

 

 

Roasted Fennel & Apple Soup

Ingredients

1 fennel bulb, core removed, cut into wedges

1 onion, peeled, cut into wedges

1 apple, cored, cut into wedges

olive oil

salt & pepper

1 cup vegetable broth

 

toppings

fennel throngs

apple, diced

 

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees,

2. Coat fennel, onion and apple wedges with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast these wedges on a cookie sheet in a single layer for about 35 minutes, or until tender.

3. Transfer the roasted wedges to the Blendtec, add vegetable broth and puree until smooth.

4. Adjust the seasoning and serve in soup bowls drizzled with olive oil and topped with fennel throngs and diced apple.

 

The soup is incredibly rich despite having very little fat. And it's vegan!!! What's not to like? At first the flavor was very peppery, but as the soup sat in my refrigerator, the flavors became milder. In fact, I had a bowl of this soup COLD today for breakfast. It'd be a fun appetizer or first course for a party: you can even serve it in shot glasses.

I look forward to trying out other functionality of Blendtec such as chopping, making smoothies, kneading dough, juicing and dry grinding (making flour!!!).

Thank you so much Blendtec!!!

Disclosure: I received this blender from as a gift from Blendtec. All opinions are my own. I was not paid for this recipe or a review.