The Go-To Appliance For Squash Soup As Smooth As Ina Garten's

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Luckily for her fans, cooking goddess Ina Garten isn't interested in keeping her secrets to success to herself. She's happy to share her favorite kitchen tools so that you can perfectly recreate her recipes at home. With fall soup season about to be in full swing, one of the brands Ina Garten loves is a must-have for making a smooth roasted butternut squash soup recipe. Garten likes to use a blender; more specifically, the Waring Pro blender. She says this tool is the secret to her daiquiris and butternut squash soup. The two-speed commercial-grade machine is simple but strong, with reviewers espousing how powerful it is.

There's a right time to use a food processor versus a blender, and a high-speed blender can take butternut squash soup to a whole other level by giving it a smooth, pureed texture. This makes it preferable over using a food processor, which will tend to give the soup more of a chunky texture. Additionally, a food processor isn't the best choice for making this type of soup because it's generally not great for anything that is too loose or watery. The food processor bowl can't be filled too high, or you risk liquids seeping out over the sides or through the lid. You'll likely have to make multiple batches of soup to avoid this problem, which takes up more of your time in the kitchen. That makes a blender your best option for making soup.

Ina Garten's blender choice might seem old school since it doesn't have a ton of settings and extra, but the surprisingly simple features of the Waring Commercial Bar Blender show that you don't need a lot of bells and whistles to get the job done. The 40-ounce glass pitcher can hold a substantial amount, and it has a ½ horsepower motor and two speeds. At $295 for this model, a Waring blender isn't cheap. But some Redditors who have Garten's model say that their machine has been going strong for over 20 years, which when you consider the cost per use, may make the blender a worthy investment.

Luckily, there are budget-friendly options that share some of the same features. The Winco 44 Ounce Commercial Blender is less than a third of the price at $99.69, and also features a ½ horsepower motor, stainless steel blades, and two speeds — high and low — just like Ina's favorite blender. Generally, a blender needs a minimum of 500 watts to make creamy concoctions, and the even more affordable Black+Decker PowerCrush Countertop Blender, another simply styled blender, has a 700-watt motor. Despite being only $44.99, it has four speeds, with reviewers saying it's a great basic blender at a budget price.