Category Archives: Food

Food

Eat Mexican Chicken Tortilla soup review – Big Bold @eat_news

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Description: Chunky chicken and tomato soup with Mexican-style seasoning topped with tortillas and cheddar cheese.

Health: OK, ish – at 408 calories for the big bold it’s a modest lunchtime portion and has a good amount of fibre. However, it is a tad high on the fat front, ditto sodium.

Taste: A little taste of Mexico. It’s OK, tomato is the dominating flavour and texture and so its not massively exciting, but there is a good amount of chunky chicken in there and a tasty tortilla topping (which would be better when crisp – they sog up fast). Fundamentally under-spiced though…

Full-o-meter: Not bad. Fibre and protein/fat content should keep me going.

Verdict: 3.5/5. A good soup, I’d have again, but there’s room to refine this one, Eat.

Food

Waitrose pea and ham soup review

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Description: “A thick and comforting soup made with British peas, smoked ham, celery and a squeeze of lemon juice.” Yep, exactly what it says, although the microwave had this baby so hot the viscosity was probably a little off.

Health: Low cal – 222 calories for a 600g pot. Reasonable on all other scores, good on fibre, could have more protein…

Taste: Pretty good pea & ham soup. Standard. I must admit that I decided to spice it up with my new favourite condiment (Nando’s hot Peri-Peri sauce), not because it needed it – perfectly tasty as pea and ham soup – just that after the initial tasting I decided I wanted a little more kick to my lunch.

Full-o-meter: Not bad. Thanks to hot sauce have drunk two pints of water with lunch so feeling quite full right now. Eaten with two slices of medium sliced wholemeal toast.

Verdict: 4/5. Would have done better if it was a bit more interesting (it’s perfectly tasty, just standard) – but it is nonetheless a solid soup offering from those lovely Waitrose people.

Food

Pret Sag Aloo soup review

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Description: From Pret website: “Potato, onion, spinach, yoghurt, tomato, celery, ginger, organic vegetable bouillion, curry powder, nutmeg and red chilli.” A thick, warming soup of mildly curried potato and spinach.

Health: 248 calories for the pack, low on protein, surprisingly high on fat (was clarified butter an undeclared ingredient?), pretty low on fibre. So good on calorie count, basically, and mediocre on actual nutritional value.

Taste: Nice. A low-level of spice (high street food can be *so* conservative with chilli) could have used some pepping up but there was a smooth, nicely textured consistency to the mild curried soup, the spinach was tasty and substantial… but I’m still opposed to potato as the sole substance in a soup. Lentils would have made this a lot more substantial…

Full-o-meter: Rubbish. Even with the artisan bread (175 cals extra) I was wanting more.

Verdict: 3.5/5. It’s not bad, but more fibre and more spice would have earned it a higher score.

Food

Pret Italian meatballs soup review

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Sorry for the long silence, it has been a) busy as all heck and b) I’ve been short of new soups to review. Where should I shop? Tell me and I’ll see what I can find…

Description: Ingredients from Pret: “Pork & beef meatballs, celery, tomato, onion, garlic, organic vegetable bouillon, parsley, basil, oregano and thyme.” My description – watery ragu with a few self-pitying soggy meatballs.

Health: 261 calories and relatively low fibre and protein – consumed with the 175 calorie artisan soup bread this isn’t the lowest call soup lunch on offer…

Taste: My standard for this is the delicious Eat Italian Ragu and Pasta, and this just doesn’t compare; the soup needs garnish (Parmesan for a salty kick?) and the texture is just weird – although that could be a side-effect of the soup being kept ludicrously hot – it was scalding, and the meatballs had largely dissolved into a soggy mess.

Full-o-meter: Suspect it will have my willpower tested against the office biscuit jar this afternoon.

Verdict: 2/5. I might give this one another chance because there was some potential there, but it is not high on my list. Disappointed.

Food

Eat Hoisin duck gyoza dumpling soup pot review – @eat_news

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Description: Plummy duck gyoza in a savoury broth with egg noodles and crisp cabbage, carrots, bean sprouts and greens.

Health: OK. 420 calories for the pot, reasonable fibre, low on fat, but v. high on carbs, sugars and salt.

Taste: OK. Not brilliant – tasty as the gyoza are, they kind of dissolve in the broth so the texture is a bit odd. had chilli in (Eat’s ‘extra spicy’ option), which gave it a pleasant kick but might have been overkill, and some of the vegetables were a bit odd – the edamame-esque beans were crunchy in a weird way. Not bad on the whole, but… lacked a certain ‘oomph’.

Full-o-meter: OK; not too shabby at all but I was slightly short-brothed today, and the ‘hot hot’ broth was either tepid or the freezing wind chilled it over the 3 minute walk back to the office. Still, better than Eat’s Tom Yum’s…

Verdict: 3.5/5.

Food

Marks and Spencer tomato and meatball soup review

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Description: “A chunky blend of tender pork and beef meatballs, tomatoes, kidney beans and rice.” Yep, except the tomato soup base was deliciously passata-esque in texture.

Health: Heavy on the carbs, but OK protein and good fibre, and a mangeable amount of fat and not too bad on the sodium front. 420 calories in all, for the pot, which is OK.

Taste: Wow. The best of M&S’s soups by a long way, so far. Deliciously thick and tasty, well-seasoned with a good amount of spice, you can feel the cayenne and the cumin giving it a little edge whilst the creamy tomatoes and burger-licious meatballs square off on your taste budes.

Full-o-meter: Not too bad at all. Good amount of fibre in there, and the thickness of the soup will keep you going for a while.

Verdict: 4.5/5. With this soup, M&S, you redeem yourself for some of your previous efforts…

Food

Pret lentil and bacon soup review

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Description: “Smoked bacon, green lentils, tomato, celery, onion, garlic, organic vegetable bouillon, parsley, basil, oregano and thyme.” Yep – essentially salty chunky tomato and lentil soup with a good amount of bacon in there for additional umami.

Health: 272 cals for the pot, but decent protein, low sat fat, OK fibre. Bad on salt, as you’d expect…

Taste: Moreish; good level of gentle spices, tasty bacon… maybe a little too salty. Pretty well headache inducing, actually.

Full-o-meter: Good. Good lentil/protein kick. Eaten with artisan roll, taking overall calorie count to about 440.

Verdict: 4/5. Oversaltiness lets it down, but would have it again nonetheless.

Food

Waitrose green Thai chicken soup review

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Description: “A warmly spiced soup of choi sum, British chicken and coconut with ginger, lemon grass and chilli.” Hells yeah, that’s what I’m talking about.

Health: Erm, not great. 460 calories for the pot, loads of fat and sat fat, quite a bit of sodium. On the plus side, reasonable amount of fibre and protein.

Taste: Awesome! You can smell the lemongrass from across the room even as it microwaves, and whilst the texture seems a little weak on initial pouring it thickens as the soup cools from boiling (the all important “let stand” period). This soup is tasty, well textured, spicy, meaty and full of useful chunks of veg – deliciously soft and tasty choi sum and still-crunchy water chestnut that actually serves a purpose in this context!

Full-o-meter: Good, as you’d expect from a more substantial soup.

Verdict: 4/5. It loses a point for health. Otherwise this soup is outstanding.

Food

The Yorkshire Provender – ham, savoy cabbage and lentil soup review

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Description: Ham, savoy cabbage and lentils in a crushed tomato soup base with plenty of other root vegetables in there – carrot, swede, celeriac etc. Full tasting notes from the manufacturers are here :-).

Health: 245 calories for the pot, with a pretty good amount of protein, relatively low on the carbs and fat, and a decent score on fibre. A fair amount of salt but not bad by Eat standards! In essence: pretty good! It’s also gluten, wheat and dairy free for people who care about those things, and organic too!

Taste: Impressive meatiness from the ham, great texture from the lentils and cabbage, satisfyingly fresh and crunchy. A really good flavour combination for savoury lovers. Only criticism, and its minor, is that the soup is a little brothy… could use a bit more thickening… but a very minor complaint!

Full-o-meter: Not bad. Whilst a relatively low calorie count and a slightly smaller pot than your typical supermarket soup pot (500 vs 600g) the decent amount of fibre and protein should keep you going.

Verdict: 4.5/5. Will look out for other tasty soups from the YP folk, although they do seem to be focussed on organic veg-only options which I’m not a huge fan of…

Food

Waitrouse beef goulash soup review

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Description: “A creany soup of tomatoes, minced beef, potatoes & rice.” Hrm, ‘cream’ is slightly misleading as cream isn’t in evidence from a flavour perspective, but the single cream does give a smooth texture to the soup as a whole… I didn’t notice the rice, either, but that’s not a complaint.

Health: 398 calories for the pot, which is OK, but reasonably carb heavy – relatively low protein and fibre – and a decent score for sodium.

Taste: Wow. I wasn’t expecting to enjoy this that much, having only barely liked Eat’s Goulash… but this is really nice, bolognaise esque (well, the way I make it – which is tomato intensive), with tasty morsels of beef and good quality tomatoes making up the majority of the flavour with the occasional lump of potato for the occasional dose of bland (not a massive fan of the potato when it hasn’t been fried or roasted).

Full-o-meter: OK. Not great. The texture and consistency fills you up on eating, but I have a feeling the nutritional content will mean it doesn’t last the afternoon.

Verdict: 4/5. It’d get a 4.5 if they had a way to get more fibre and protein in there without substantially upping the calorie score. Good on you, Waitrose.