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Food

Pret chilli beef soup review

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I’ve been ill over the weekend so I indulged with a soup bread roll from Pret today as well as the soup. Greedy, eh?

Description: In a word, this is a Chilli. Slightly on the mild side, but unmistakably chilli. Pret’s website lists ingredients: beef, rice, kidney beans, tomato, onion, celery, red chilli, garlic, organic vegetable bouillon, cumin, paptika and cayenne pepper.

Health: 270 calories for a 14 oz portion… high fibre, protein, low on most other fronts… although a bit high on the salt for by Pret’s standards. The Artisan roll clocked up another 200 or so calories with butter, so that nailed my sub-400 calorie lunch target…

Taste: Amazing. Even better than Eat’s version, which is one of my favourite Eat soups!

Full-o-meter: Hard to tell, having had the bread as well. Feeling stuffed after the soup and the bread portion…

Verdict: 5/5. For me, this is a perfect lunchtime soup. Absolutely delicious, good health balance… Well done Nick Sandler!

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Pret sausage hot pot soup review

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My massive wedding blog post is still in production (will try to finish it off this weekend) but I’m back and eating soup for lunch again!

Another Pret day today (Eat’s soup was French Onion, not a fan) and Nick Sandler’s soup again. Hi Nick!

Description: A chunky, tomato based soup with good amounts of sausage and beans. Pret’s website lists ingredients: sausage, cannelini beans, tomato, red wine, onion, garlic, leek, worcester sauce, celery, organic vegetable boilloun, butter, parsley, rusk, thyme, bay leaf & sage.

Health: 278 calories for a 14 oz portion, so not bad. A bit high on the salt for the portion size, but not terrible. Sat fat not great, but really not bad at all.

Taste: Nice. Tomato-y, sausagey, beany. A bit sweet for my liking; could probably double up as a pasta sauce.

Full-o-meter: Pret’s soups are still too small!

Verdict: 3.5/5. Solidly good, but not as interesting/inspired as their Moroccan chicken.

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Eat chicken and garden vegetable broth review – Very Big Bold @eat_news

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Description: From Eat – “A hearty broth packed with loads of chunky vegetables, shredded chicken breast and fresh herbs. Garnished with freshly chopped flat leaf parsley and chives.” Hmm, ‘hearty’ and ‘broth’ I think are contradictictory in this case, but otherwise, yep, about right.

Health: Pretty good – only 404 calories for the Very Big size… and good amounts of protein and fibre. But as with all Eat soup, salty in the extreme – 2101mg of sodium!

Taste: Meh. Like chicken stock with meat and veg in it. Salt makes it moreish but the watery broth is not something I’m keen to return to without some kind of spicy kick to make it interesting (like the Pho soups have).

Full-o-meter: Decent at Very Big Bold size. At only 202 calories for the Bold you’d need bread to keep you going.

Verdict: 2.5/5. There’s nothing wrong with this soup, really, I just don’t like boring old chicken and vegetable broth. Should have risked the Sweet potato and chilli that @ahadfromcheam went for…

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Crussh chicken chilli stew review – medium

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On @LicenceToGil’s recommendation I discovered that Crussh had a shop near me so I called them up to establish the soup offerings were worthwhile and popped on over. Frustratingly, they didn’t warn me they were running out so only got a ‘medium’ – not enough for a normal sized man, but OK when supplemented with some sushi, it turns out.

Description: From Crussh: “This is a Crussh Original, Our chicken chili stew started out as a seasonal soup. But you missed it so much we had to bring it back, according to you it’s a soup for all seasons.” Popular it seems. Yes, it’s a chilli (in the Mexican sense of the word), but with chicken instead of beef.

Health: Pretty good on all counts – the medium is only loaded with 155 calories – low on sat fats, etc. But quite heavy on the salt – 1200mg or so!

Taste: Really very good. It tastes exactly like it sounds – a chicken chilli. As ever, I’d be happier with more spice, but good amount of meat, and nicely textured and spiced otherwise.

Full-o-meter: Meh. Only 12 oz portion to go on so hard to tell.

Verdict: 4/5 – tasty, but small portion, large amount of salt, a longer walk from work, and costing significantly more than Eat (£3.15 for 16 oz) and Pret (2.99 for 14 oz) at £3.60 for a 12 oz portion, I’m not sure I’m going back anytime soon.

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Eat chicken laksa soup review – Big Bold @eat_news

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Description: From Eat – “A Malaysian classic…lots of noodles and chicken in a spicy coconut creamy soup. Garnished with spring onion, spinach and freshly chopped coriander.” Hrm, as a Malaysian I have to point out that this only bears a slight resemblance to a proper laksa. But that’s not necessarilly a bad thing.

Health: Just bad. For soup, I mean, which is still better than most sandwiches, but whilst the 367 calories is low for a lunchtime meal, the 1000+mg of sodium, the 11g of saturated fat, and the low fibre content loses this points.

Taste: Salty, chickeny, creamy, coconutty tastiness. Nothing bad about ths smooth noodle texture and the rich tasting chicken. Could do with a bit more spice to bring it to Malaysian Laksa standards, but imagine it has been toned down for the general population.

Full-o-meter: Ok ish, but I suspect I’m going to be hungry in an hour. The coconut in the soup stock makes it quite heavy for a small pot of soup.

Verdict: 3.5/5. Would get a 4 if it was healthier, as tasty, and will have it again in spite of myself.

Will try to compare this with the Pret variant, but with the wedding coming up next Saturday it may have to wait until my return from the Far East…

Food

Steak off

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Have had a few fantastic steaks in the last 7 days.

300g of prime Argentian rib-eye from Gaucho, 10 oz of a similar cut from a lovely pub in Old Basing, and a 10 oz cut from Roast in Borough Market.

And the winner is…

Gaucho. That meat is just amazing – no sauce required, the bloodiness of the beef when had medium rare (possibly rare, it was a near-run thing) was a cut above (sorry…). Barton’s Mill’s steak was tasty, but lacking the well-seasonedness and the quality of the meat, and whilst Roast had a very, very good piece of beef it wasn’t quite as thick and juicy – so the (very tasty) sauce was needed. Gaucho isn’t that expensive if you’re not drinking (we went there pre-poker night) and don’t linger for coffee or desserts…

For those wondering how these are consistent with my diet – well, steak is good. Lean steak, high in protein, low in fat, etc., is also pretty low in calories. Just trying to avoid going bananas on desserts and chips, and I should be ok…

Food

Pret Moroccan chicken soup review

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Today being Hungarian goulash day at Eat, I had a look over at Pret‘s menu and decided I’d give it a try, despite some concerns over the size and flavoursomeness/health of the soups from friends on Twitter.

Description: A thick, tomato based soup dominated by Moroccan spices (cumin, chilli, paprika) and onion, with the odd lump of chicken and floating chickpea. Pret’s website lists ingredients: chicken, chick peas, onion, tomato, apricots, garlic, organic vegetable bouillon, jalapeno chilli, paprika, cumin, mint, coriander & cinnamon.

Health: At 306 calories for a 14 oz portion, this weighs in heavier on the calories but lighter on the portion than many Eat soups. But not terrible – it is pretty high in fibre and low on saturated fat and salt, which is good stuff.

Taste: Actually pretty good. Despite having spoiled my taste buds with the salty moreishness of Eat soups, this Pret offering manages to be tasty without needing to slap you in the face with sodium chloride. The soup is well spiced, the texture of the tomato and onion is just right and its a good eat the whole way through. That said, it is not as chunky as it should have been – more meat, more chickpeas, definitely needed.

Full-o-meter: Seems pretty good for a small portion – maybe the fibre content/chickpeas help.

Verdict: 4/5. A good first experience of Pret soups. I’ll probably go back there. However, the marketing hype is overplayed… on the cup is a message from someone (their founder?) talking about a customer complaining about their soup not being tasty enough, big enough, etc…. and how they’ve hired a big time soup chef, Nick Sandler, to sort them out. Well, Pret, good as your soup was today I think Eat still has you beat. So let’s see a bit more effort and yes – even bigger soup cups!

Food

Foodie blogs

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I’ve mentioned before that I’m reading quite a few food blogs to deal with the perpetual hunger that comes with being on a long running diet. Here are a few recommendations for you…

Downright greasy
This is why you’re fat – does what it says on the tin. Pictures of really horrifying examples of lardiness.
Meat in a roll – a catalogue of ridiculously named (mostly UK-based) takeaways and kebab shops
Insanewiches – again, what it sounds like. And more! Crazy, inspired combinations of bread, meat & cheese. It’s insane in the grain!
Fancy Fast Food – repurposed value meals from the likes of McDonalds reincarnated as haute cuisine
Epic portions – lots of big food here, in – you guessed it – epic portions. Although the blogger is currently going through something of a diet…
Food in real life – I love this concept. Comparing the pictures with the reality – microwave meals on the box vs. the actual product, with reviews. A bit American for me, but still good to know.
Phoood – reviews of junk food.

Healthier choices
Serious eats
Cooking with Amy
How to cook like your grandmother
MyDish
TheKitchn
No recipes
Om Nom London
So Good Blog
Reactive cooking
The Food in my Beard
All things Dolce

Needless to say, I recommend all of these. Any other food blogs I should be reading? Particularly interested in UK ones, greasy ones, ones devoted to soup, and anything particularly interesting or quirky. Given the diet I’ve been on, interesting takes on calorie-counting involved ones might be good to read too. And obviously any blogs dedicated to bacon will be added to my RSS catalogue without pause for thought.

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Eat beef, chilli & ginger pho soup review – @eat_news

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Description: Lightly spiced beef, ginger, chilli, egg noodles & fresh vegetables in a hot, salty broth, this is one of Eat’s staples – its available daily as all it takes to make it ‘fresh’ is pouring the hot broth onto the soup mix.

Health: Good on calories (307), bad on salt (1800mg of sodium, nearly a day’s recommended dosage).

Taste: Pretty good. I mean, the salt in the broth gives a pretty good umph factor (or umami, or whatever foodies call it), and the beef and crisp bean sprouts give a good contrast of flavours and textures. But for me, the ‘chilli’ is more or less absent and it feels a bit like cheating to make a dish taste mostly of salt.

Full-o-meter: Not brilliant. The use of broth, in my view, negates the value of this as a ‘soup’ as I suspect (by the theory that food suspended in water keeps you full longer, and water by itself is processed quicker by your body) that it just isn’t as substantial. That said, it is 32 oz of substance, so that should keep you going for a bit.

Verdict: 3.5/5. Pretty good – enjoyable enough to have on a semi-regular basis, but its not as tasty as its Tom Yum counterpart (although a bit more substantial), or as satisfying as the regular ‘bold’ soups. Just beware of the salt…

Food

Eat Texan chilli con carne soup review – Big Bold

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Description: From Eat: “A rich, meaty chilli with minced beef, kidney beans and peppers, spiced with chipotle (smoked jalapeno) – it’s the only authentic way to make it! Garnished with sour cream.”

Health: Quite substantial – 377 calories for the big bold – and reasonably high on sodium and fat. Still better than your average sandwich, though…

Taste: Luscious. A thin chilli, you might think would be a bad thing but it works so well as soup. The level of spice is low for someone who loves chilli as much as I do, but that means it won’t offend the broader public.

Full-o-meter: The presence of kidney beans ups the fibre content of this soup and I find it keeps me full for a fair while. Lactose intolerance means I skip on the sour cream garnish, which might add to the lasting power of this little beauty.

Verdict: 4.5/5. Very little to find fault with here. One of my top Eat Soups.