At first glance, a blender, food processor and immersion blender seem pretty similar. But while they all have fast-spinning blades, design differences make each appliance better suited for some tasks than others.

Sure, you can use a food processor to make a smoothie, but the final result might not be as smooth as you want it to be, for several reasons. We chatted with some experts to get a full breakdown on each appliance’s strengths and weaknesses, and asked them which one they’d choose if they could only have one in their kitchen — the answer might surprise you.

When it comes to making morning smoothies or weekend piña coladas, a blender really shines.

Roger Sitrin, lead recreational chef instructor at the Institute of Culinary Education, explained that a blender’s pitcher-shaped container and blades at the bottom are designed to create a vortex. “In a blender, the contents get combined and liquefied quite well,” he said.

Lisa McManus, executive editor of America’s Test Kitchen Reviews, likens this vortex created by well-designed blenders to a mini tornado. “The vortex pulls food down to the blades at the bottom, chops it and sends it back up the sides in a continuous cycle.”

In addition to making “amazingly smooth” and creamy smoothies, McManus notes that high-quality blenders can also be used to make nut butters and mayonnaise. “For nut butters, the bad ones get stuck and can’t fully process the nuts into a creamy texture, and with mayonnaise they need a very low speed,” she said. “Really good blenders can even grind flour. The trick is finding a good one. We have tested blenders at every price level and have seen a tremendous amount of difference depending on design and what you are willing to spend.”

Sitrin uses his high-end Vitamix blender to make pureed soups, sauces and smoothies. “Whenever I need to break something solid and wet into a puree, I use the Vitamix blender,” he said. “Its high-powered engine combined with the propeller-like blades and carefully designed container are very effective at getting all of the contents pureed.”

A food processor’s blades are like fast-spinning knives that can chop food as coarse or fine as you want it.

“You can watch the texture through the work bowl, and, using the pulse button, literally chop to your desired texture, down to a paste or puree,” McManus said.

It’s a versatile appliance that, with its many attachments, can also be used to shred cheese and potatoes (for latkes!), and make pie crust, pizza dough and bread dough.

“You can make pestos and nut butters and emulsify mayonnaise, drizzling in the oil through the food processor feed tube,” she said. Some food processors also come with flat disks specifically designed for shredding, slicing and dicing. They sit on top of the bowl and you put food through the feed tube.

In general, food processors are best for big-batch cooking as they can be used to chop up a bunch of ingredients quickly, but they’re also useful for smaller projects. What they aren’t as great at are smoothies. McManus notes that with a food processor, it’s hard to get a smooth texture on ingredients like raw kale. Soups are another weakness. “You can puree soups, but you have to ladle in the soup in batches because most food processors can only take a certain limited amount of liquid before they’ll overflow,” she said.

Sitrin added that the pureed soups, sauces and smoothies he makes in his Vitamix blender can be made in a food processor, but it isn’t as convenient. “To do the same thing in my food processor, I need to start and stop it multiple times, scraping down the bowl so that all of the ingredients get combined and pureed,” he said.

If you’re making a big pot of soup that needs to be pureed, an immersion blender is the most convenient option since you can stick one right into the pot and puree away. Sitrin describes it as a portable blender that’s essentially a stick with a motor at the top and blade at the bottom. “It doesn’t have its own container so you use it in a bowl, pot or some other container like a quart container,” he said.

Sitrin uses a Braun immersion blender whenever he’s making pureed soups, since it’s fast and easy, and means there are no additional dishes to wash. “I can plug it in and use it right in the same pot that I am cooking the soup in,” he said. “No need to transfer anything to alternate containers.” This particular immersion blender also comes with a whisk attachment, which he uses to make whipped cream without having to set up and clean a KitchenAid stand mixer.

Another benefit of an immersion blender is that it can blend smaller amounts of liquid since it can be placed in a quart container or the narrow plastic beaker that often comes with it. McManus notes that they’re good for mixing up salad dressings or mayonnaise in smaller batches. “Immersion blenders can be used to make a smoothie, but they’re not the best choice for that,” she said.

In an ideal world, there would be unlimited kitchen space and budget to buy all the fancy kitchen equipment your heart desires, but if you can have only one of these, the top consideration is what you will be using it for. If you know you’ll be drinking smoothies every day, investing in a high-quality blender is a great idea. If you don’t make homemade soups, you probably don’t need an immersion blender. There are overlaps between what these three appliances can do, but each is better suited for some purposes than others.

For McManus, a food processor is the obvious choice because of its versatility. “It does many more things than the other two,” she said. “Of course, you need a very good food processor. I’ve tested them extensively and they’re not all great. Our favorite is a solid choice, and performs beautifully across the board.”

Making soup from scratch seems relatively simple — you throw ingredients into a pot and let it simmer away. But small mistakes, like adding too much salt or putting all of your ingredients into the pot at once, can ruin the taste and texture. And, since soups take so long to make, it can be frustrating when the final result is a salt bomb or super bland.

To help us make stellar soups this fall and winter, we’ve turned to professional chefs, who have graciously shared some of their cooking wisdom with us.

If a recipe tells you to use one teaspoon of salt, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’ll come out tasting perfectly seasoned. The most important thing is tasting and seasoning as you go, and freeing yourself from the notion that you have to follow the recipe exactly.

Getting the salt level just right can be tricky when making homemade soup, because as it simmers the liquid evaporates (if you have the lid off) and the saltiness of the soup increases. For best results, our chef experts recommend gradually adding salt throughout the cooking process.

“Salt should be added a little in the beginning, some along the way and again at the end when the soup is almost done,” said Einav Gefen, a chef at the hospitality company Restaurant Associates.

If you’ve accidentally added too much salt, there are a few ways to fix it. Lisa Brooks, executive chef of Heart and Soul Personal Chef Services, recommends adding potato chunks to the soup and letting them absorb the salt.

“This should work in most broth-based soups,” Brooks said. Gefen recommends adding more liquid (like broth), or fat (like cream) if the soup already has some in there. As a last resort, you can add in a little bit of everything that’s already in the soup to help change the salt ratio.

At its core, soup is simmering a bunch of ingredients in broth. But that doesn’t mean you should just throw meat and vegetables into some boiling liquid and call it a day. If you’re using onions, for example, don’t just boil them in a pot.

“Onions need to be sautéed at least somewhat before adding liquid,” said Ben Goodnick, executive chef of Coastal Soups (a seasonal soup concept run by Summer House in Chicago). He recommends sautéing onions until translucent for a brothy soup, or browned for more hearty soups. “This makes the flavor sweeter and more mellow and complex,” he said.

It’s all about building flavor. “Sauté your aromatic base (onion, garlic, carrots, celery, ginger) and sear the protein (sausage, chicken, beef, pancetta, bacon),” Gefen said.

She recommends adding hearty herbs like thyme, rosemary and bay leaf early in the cooking process for maximum flavor extraction, then fine herbs like parsley, basil and cilantro toward the end. “Sometimes I use the stems of the parsley as a flavor booster early on and the parsley leaves towards the end,” she said.

Good soup takes time, and when making it, “low and slow” is the way to go.

“A gentle simmer is best, giving all ingredients time to infuse flavors and create a balanced, delicious soup,” Gefen said. There’s no hard and fast rule about exactly how long you should let a soup simmer, because that will depend on the ingredients you’re using.

Gefen notes that vegetable soups can come together in as little as 45 minutes, while soups with beans and legumes will need about an hour to an hour and a half. Beef-based soups made with tougher cuts typically need one to two hours for the meat to become tender.

“‘Low and slow’ is not only for the key ingredients to fully cook, but also for the flavors of all components to release into the liquids and create a delicious concoction,” Gefen said.

To cover, or not to cover: That depends on the soup. In general, Gefen covers legume-based soups to minimize evaporation and avoid getting a soup that is too thick. She leaves most brothy soups uncovered and controls how much liquid evaporates by cooking over low heat.

Goodnick does this as well, noting that leaving the lid off so water can evaporate intensifies and concentrates the flavor.

To ensure everything in your soup is cooked to an ideal consistency (aka no crunchy potatoes or mushy carrots), add ingredients into your soup according to their cooking time.

“If I am making a seafood chowder, I start stewing the harder vegetables like potatoes first,” Brooks said. “Any softer or frozen vegetables can be added later, and the last thing that should go in is the fresh seafood, since it takes mere seconds to cook through.”

Gefen said legumes and pulses take longer to cook than pasta, so they should be added first.