It's finally that time of year again, when it may drop below 80 degrees in Baton Rouge. So it's soup time! I'm just going to start off by putting new reviews here; maybe I'll categorize them eventually and join them with the others to aid soup investigators.
I started the season with an autumn-y Lentil Vegetable from one of our top performers so far: Amy's.
Amy's Lentil Vegetable
It's very sweet, kind of cinammon-y. It has potatoes, carrots, lentils, spinach, and maybe 3 pieces of green bean per can. It was good, but not my favorite Amy's soup so far, I think because of the sweetness and because it's not very many vegetables to be called Lentil
Vegetable. The lentils are very good, but not amazing, and no other vegetable really stands out here, except the potatoes, which were authentically potatoes enough to have a little skin on some of them, and not overly mushy. I had an inspiration for adding to the soup-- plain yogurt on top. Very good this way; it combats the sweetness and makes the soup taste richer. I had some leftover the next day--it was good cold. Overall, this one gets a
B+. Kind of like having a "sensible" meal with your fifth grade teacher, but I liked my fifth grade teacher, so.
Dr. Macdougal’s Country Vegetable Low Sodium
While this broth was tasty, it was not memorable, and neither were the vegetables. All very standard-soup smushy. The type of soup that is not really supposed to be a meal but given to you because there's no time and your family has to get to the airport in an hour. Potatoes, carrots, spinach, tomatoes, onions, green beans, peas. There are both better and worse vegetable soups.
B-
Amy's French Country Vegetable
Pinto beans, barley (wonderful barley), zucchini, tomatoes,
onions, mushrooms, red pepper. The broth tastes buttery (in a good way) and
there’s a hint of tomato, just a hint. A- —the only reason it doesn’t get an A+
is because I might have preferred fewer beans, but maybe this is what
distinguishes it from other vegetable soups and makes it “French Country Vegetable.” Like strolling through the town square searching for a good Bourdeaux or a nice scarf for Maman.
Go here to see a review of another, very good vegetable soup.
Muir Glen Homestyle Split Pea
The only split pea soup I’ve ever seen with piece of celery
in it. They were mushy, but it was interesting that they were even there and
made me feel like the soup was “real” “food.”
(“”). Pleasant
and mild flavor, a little sweet—less chunky/fatty tasting than the split pea soups I grew up
with, which is good if you’re wanting to feel healthy, and bad if you really
just want that ole lumpy greasy split pea. (This one is vegan so of course
there was no bacon.) I remembered that
some of those old styles actually had whole peas in them though, which I liked.
The fact that this was all pretty pureed wasn’t offensive, I think I just like
to bite into things when I eat soup. But if someone was really sick in an
I-just-need-soup way, having the whole thing be smooth might be nice. Kinda watery, I suppose, but pretty good. Like someone has put you in bed and told you sternly, "Now eat your soup!" and you say, "Yes ma'am. I do like it okay." B
Health Valley Organic Minestrone, No Salt Added
Well. It needed salt; we'll just say that. The tomatoes were impressively tomatoes. I mean, I think I even saw a seed, and they had the consistency of tomatoes. But there were only 2-3 there. Two different types of beans-- red and pinto. The red ones had great consistency. Pasta shells, celery, carrots, green beans. None of the vegetables except the red beans, if those count, had any discernible texture-- all mush. The broth was okay, faintly tomato but nothing to write home about except to suggest that the people at home not buy another can of this soup. There's much better broth out there and better vegetables.
B-
Go here to read about some better minestrone.
Pacific Chicken Spinach Penne
Nicely flavored, spicy broth, sort of tomato-y with some hint of cinnamon or cloves. The chicken was good. The carrots and penne were mushy but the broth but it all came together anyway and I was okay with it. It was tasty. I would get it again as an alternative to regular chicken noodle. A soup that is served because mom is trying to be "interesting" but also efficient on this evening because you have to get to your sister's performance at the Little Theater. B+
Amy's Rustic Italian Vegetable
The only soup I’ve ever seen with kale—and I could actually tell it was kale, saw the ruffles in the
leaves. Amazing! Broth has a buttery,
tomato-y flavor. It had chick peas which were good but a little undercooked
perhaps, a bit tough or chalky, but not completely offensive; chick peas are
sometimes just like that. The tomatoes are good and there’s small pieces of
zucchini, onions, mushrooms. It’s all held together by some awesome barley. Overall,
this is a very good soup. A- (I only give it a minus because of the chick peas, which were, like I said, still ok.) Like lunch in a little trattoria in the middle of your fresco painting workshop.
