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Who Is the Cuisinart SSB3U For?
The Cuisinart SSB3U Soup Maker Plus is the most versatile machine in this review. Where the Morphy Richards 48822 does two things brilliantly and the Morphy Richards 501014 adds a sauté function as its key upgrade, the Cuisinart soup maker SSB3U starts from a different design philosophy entirely: a full-function cooking appliance housed in a thermal glass jar, with four blender speeds, a pulse function, a slow stir mode, three cooking temperatures, and a sauté plate — capable of making soup, risotto, curry, sauce, hot chocolate, crushed ice, and smoothies.
If you want a machine that replaces more than one appliance and gives you genuine control over texture and cooking method, the SSB3U is the premium option in this category. Its 4.5-star average from 461 reviews is the highest rating in this lineup.
Design and Build Quality
The SSB3U is finished in silver with a distinctive upright profile — at 20cm deep, 23cm wide and 46cm tall, it is taller than most soup makers and has the silhouette of a premium blender rather than a soup kettle. The thermal glass jar is the centrepiece: heatproof, transparent, and double-walled to retain heat after cooking. The 1.4-litre hot capacity (1.75 litres cold) is slightly smaller than the 1.6-litre stainless steel machines in this category — a trade-off against the premium glass construction and the ability to see the contents throughout the cycle.
The advanced non-stick cooking plate sits at the base of the jar and makes direct cleanup straightforward. The overall build quality reflects Cuisinart’s premium positioning and comes with a three-year guarantee.
Performance
The headline figure is speed: Cuisinart claims soup in as little as 10 minutes. In practice this applies to recipes that require less cook time — a cream-based or pre-cooked vegetable soup, for example — while denser root vegetable soups will take longer. The three heating temperatures (sauté, simmer, boil) give real control over the cooking process rather than a single cycle with fixed parameters.
The four blender speeds plus pulse and slow stir are the SSB3U’s most distinctive feature as a Cuisinart soup maker. Most soup makers in this category offer a binary choice: smooth or chunky. The SSB3U lets you move between speeds to land exactly where you want on the texture spectrum — from barely-touched chunky broth to an ultra-fine restaurant-quality puree. The slow stir mode is specifically designed for fragile ingredients that need circulation without full blending, and for finishing dishes — adding cream or a butter emulsion to a hot soup without breaking it.
The sauté function uses the non-stick cooking plate at high temperature to brown aromatics before the liquid goes in. This is the same function that separates the Morphy Richards 501014 from the 48822 — the SSB3U carries it further with full temperature control throughout the cook. The thermal glass jar retains heat after the cycle completes and the simmer function allows gentle reheating of leftovers without transferring to a separate pan.
Beyond soup, the SSB3U handles risotto (using the stir function to replicate manual stirring), sauces, curries, hot chocolate, smoothies, and crushed ice — a genuine multi-function cooking tool rather than a dedicated soup kettle.
Capacity Note
The 1.4-litre hot capacity is smaller than the 1.6-litre machines from Morphy Richards and Tower. For three to four people this is sufficient; for larger households cooking full batches, the standard 1.6L machines have the edge on volume. The 1.75-litre cold capacity means smoothies and cold drinks can be made in larger quantities.
Verdict
The Cuisinart SSB3U is the premium Cuisinart soup maker in this category and earns that position. The thermal glass jar, four speeds plus pulse and slow stir, three temperatures, sauté function, and multi-use versatility make it genuinely the most capable machine reviewed here. At 4.5 stars from 461 reviews it is also the highest-rated. If you are cooking for three to four people, want full control over texture and cooking method, and value the ability to replace several appliances with one, the SSB3U is the standout choice. For pure soup-making simplicity at a lower price, the Morphy Richards 48822 remains the volume recommendation — but the Cuisinart is the machine for serious home cooks.
