With the leaves turning orange and a definite chill in the air, this weekend marked the start of soup season for us. So on went the cosy socks and out came the stick blender as we pitted our homemade soup against new Heinz Soup of the Day. There are six flavours available in the range but we liked the sound of the Fragrant Thai Carrot & Coconut.
Now we do love taking a packed lunch to work but if we’re in the mood for soup, the Heinz Soup of the Day is going to beat a homemade version any day. It’s obviously a lot easier to transport, doesn’t even need refrigerating and requires zero prep – so no Sunday night stress fest.
In fact one of the main reason’s we’d choose to make our own soup rather than buy a shop bought one is to ensure it’s made with healthy fresh ingredients. So it was reassuring to find that Heinz Soup of the Day doesn’t contain any artificial colourings, preservatives or flavours AND there’s no added sugar – that’s a massive bonus. In fact half a carton contains 1 of your 5 a day – this was starting to sound good.
So we used the exact same natural ingredients you’d find in the Heinz version to create our own. This is how we got on…
Homemade
Time: If you don’t include the time it took to find the ingredients, about 35 mins from start to finish.
Faff: Pfffft, well firstly we had to go to the shops and pin down all the ingredients. It doesn’t use a hell of a lot but if you live in London like us and rely on corner shops, you’ll know it’s not always easy to get everything you need. We couldn’t find any coconut cream OR corn flower in the first two shops we tried and ended up having to give up on the cornflower altogether in the end. Also everything always comes in multi packs so we ended up with lots of waste. Annoying. Once home we had to chop chop chop, get a couple of pots and pans on the go for frying up veg and then leave everything to simmer in veg stock for 20 mins, before blending with the stick. The result – a ton of mess to clean up – thank god for dishwashers, aye. Oh and we managed to stain our favourite sweatshirt with the curry paste. Fail.
Taste: We liked the addition of the Thai Yellow Curry paste but found the celery a bit overpowering for us. It also took a lot of blending to reach the same smooth consistency – maybe we need to upgrade our kitchen equipment.
Cost: We ended up spending £7.91 (not including some coconut cream I found in the cupboard, and the cornflower I couldn’t get hold off!) but was left with waste and will spend the rest of the week trying to use everything up before it goes off.
Heinz Soup of the Day Fragrant Thai Carrot & Coconut
Time: It literally took about 5 seconds to open, we poured it into a bowl and popped it in the microwave for 2 mins, gave it another stir, popped it back in for another minute and ta daaaa – it was ready to eat! (Total time: 3 mins)
Faff: 3 MINUTES PEOPLE, 3 MINUTES.
Taste: Pretty similar to the homemade version but everything tasted a bit more balanced in this one. It tasted fresh and we just added a bit of salt and pepper to finish it off.
Cost: A carton costs £1.39
So as you can see, there’s certainly a time and a place for making your own soup, but it does require a bit more time and patience. Two things we are in serious short supply off. Until then, we’ll stick with Heinz Soup of the Day.
