I had a chance to sample a few tasty soups from New England Country Soup,
and I have a new go-to for convenience food. While I’m always trying to
just make my own soups to cut down on processed foods, this brand is a
good fall-back for all natural, ready-to-serve soups. They make eight
soups made with REAL ingredients, and are low sodium and
preservative-free.
A real bonus: they come in BPA-free packaging. I stashed a few in my work drawer, since they don’t need refrigeration. No can openers, no scissors needed. They can be microwaved in the pouch, too, since they stand up. Each 15oz. pouch supposedly contains two servings.
Based in Cambridge, New England Country Soupprovides an Ingredient TrackerTMon its website to see the farm, field or ocean from which each ingredient in each is sourced. They are also partnering with American forests to plant more trees. For those with severe allergies, the soups don’t claim to be made in wheat-free, nut-free facilities yet, but otherwise most of them are gluten-free, nut free and a few are dairy-free.
Chicken corn chowder — the description on the package includes the history of this soup, called “pottage., with origins in Plymouth colony when the Pilgrims revived Massasoit in 1623 with this, and he lived another 34 years.
It definitely revived me at lunch. But no way this is two servings; I downed it all, meaning the total calories are 580, sodium 480, fiber 4 g, and total fat a whopping 36g. But so delicious.
Water and corn are the first ingredients, and then potatoes, chicken, cream, butter, celery, rice starch, sunflower oil, onions, roasted red peppers, lower sodium sea salt, sugar, coriander, soy lecithin, black pepper and cayenne pepper.
Clam chowder — This yummy soup is not very fishy-tasting; its savory flavor reminded me of mushroom soup. I only had half the bag, or else that would have been 660 calories, 370 sodium and 44 g of fat! It’s filling, but the consistency is soupy rather than thick.
Compare this to Progresso, my other go-to GF clam chowder that I can keep in my desk drawer at work: Progresso is half the calories and a third of the fat, but it’s 370mg sodium for the pouch vs. a whopping 890mg sodium for the Progresso. Plus, Progresso has all those mystery ingredients, and tastes canned.
The ingredients, in order: potatoes, chopped clam meat, cream, butter, celery, sunflower oil, rice starch, onions, clam broth (dehydrated), clam extract, lower sodium sea salt, sugar, soy lecithin, maltodextrin, modified corn starch, black pepper, dill, nutmeg.
Sweet chicken curry: This GF blend is not my cup of soup, so to speak: too sweet with raisins and apples. But it has “natural” chicken, a nice, subtle spice blend and it didn’t taste too salty. I ended up Sriracha’ing the soup to tone down the sweetness. The carrots were supposed to add the perfect blend of soft and crunchy: these weren’t crunchy, nor did I expect them to be. I ate the whole package, for a total of 320 calories, 150 mg sodium, 7.g fat, 6 g fiber.
Ingredients: Water, tomatoes, cooked white chicken meat, apples, carrots, raisins, basmati rice, celery, onions, rice starch, chicken stock, olive oil, lemon juice concentrate, curry powder, turmeric, cumin, black pepper, nutmeg.
Caribbean black bean: This vegan and GF soup has a nice kick to it, with the allspice and nutmeg (do they put nutmeg in all their soups?) adding an extra flavor dimension. I thought it could have used a little more salt, which I fixed by crumbling tortilla chips into it.
For half the packet: 210 calories, 230mg sodium, 2.5 fat, 8 grams of fiber, 4 grams of sugar, 10 grams of protein. Ingredients: black beans, green and red peppers, onions, rice starch, chili and jalapeno peppers, olive oil, sea salt, sugar, cumin, allspice and nutmeg.
Lentil:My kid loves lentil soup, and slurped all of their lentil soup, made from Pardina lentils with loads of spinach and tomatoes. Other ingredients: Celery, Rice Starch, Onions, Red Peppers, Olive Oil, Lower Sodium Sea Salt, Lentil Flour, Garlic.
Chicken pomodoro — I found this tomato-based soup a little bland, so I added some sea salt to perk it up. Again, it tasted fresh. This one has wheat and egg whites.
For those interested in the soup’s eco footprint, the company pointed out that its light-weight microwavable pouch empty weighs 0.3 ounces versus plastic microwaveable bowls, which weigh 1.65 ounces and up to 8 times lighter than a can. “For every 10 truckloads of product shipped in pouches, other soup companies are sending 11 truckloads full of bowls,” said company materials.. “Less packaging means less energy is used to make the package and less energy consumed in transporting the package from our manufacturing facility to your store.”
Other soup flavors include:
· Yankee White Bean - a spicy blend of three beans (Yankee, great northern and cannellini), chicken and jalapeno peppers.
· Nana's Chicken Soup: a blend of chicken, Arborio rice, spinach, cannellini beans and a hint of garlic.
The breakdown for allergies:
A real bonus: they come in BPA-free packaging. I stashed a few in my work drawer, since they don’t need refrigeration. No can openers, no scissors needed. They can be microwaved in the pouch, too, since they stand up. Each 15oz. pouch supposedly contains two servings.
Based in Cambridge, New England Country Soupprovides an Ingredient TrackerTMon its website to see the farm, field or ocean from which each ingredient in each is sourced. They are also partnering with American forests to plant more trees. For those with severe allergies, the soups don’t claim to be made in wheat-free, nut-free facilities yet, but otherwise most of them are gluten-free, nut free and a few are dairy-free.
Advertisement
What I love about these soups are that they taste homemade and fresh. A few that I have tried:Chicken corn chowder — the description on the package includes the history of this soup, called “pottage., with origins in Plymouth colony when the Pilgrims revived Massasoit in 1623 with this, and he lived another 34 years.
It definitely revived me at lunch. But no way this is two servings; I downed it all, meaning the total calories are 580, sodium 480, fiber 4 g, and total fat a whopping 36g. But so delicious.
Water and corn are the first ingredients, and then potatoes, chicken, cream, butter, celery, rice starch, sunflower oil, onions, roasted red peppers, lower sodium sea salt, sugar, coriander, soy lecithin, black pepper and cayenne pepper.
Clam chowder — This yummy soup is not very fishy-tasting; its savory flavor reminded me of mushroom soup. I only had half the bag, or else that would have been 660 calories, 370 sodium and 44 g of fat! It’s filling, but the consistency is soupy rather than thick.
Compare this to Progresso, my other go-to GF clam chowder that I can keep in my desk drawer at work: Progresso is half the calories and a third of the fat, but it’s 370mg sodium for the pouch vs. a whopping 890mg sodium for the Progresso. Plus, Progresso has all those mystery ingredients, and tastes canned.
The ingredients, in order: potatoes, chopped clam meat, cream, butter, celery, sunflower oil, rice starch, onions, clam broth (dehydrated), clam extract, lower sodium sea salt, sugar, soy lecithin, maltodextrin, modified corn starch, black pepper, dill, nutmeg.
Sweet chicken curry: This GF blend is not my cup of soup, so to speak: too sweet with raisins and apples. But it has “natural” chicken, a nice, subtle spice blend and it didn’t taste too salty. I ended up Sriracha’ing the soup to tone down the sweetness. The carrots were supposed to add the perfect blend of soft and crunchy: these weren’t crunchy, nor did I expect them to be. I ate the whole package, for a total of 320 calories, 150 mg sodium, 7.g fat, 6 g fiber.
Ingredients: Water, tomatoes, cooked white chicken meat, apples, carrots, raisins, basmati rice, celery, onions, rice starch, chicken stock, olive oil, lemon juice concentrate, curry powder, turmeric, cumin, black pepper, nutmeg.
Caribbean black bean: This vegan and GF soup has a nice kick to it, with the allspice and nutmeg (do they put nutmeg in all their soups?) adding an extra flavor dimension. I thought it could have used a little more salt, which I fixed by crumbling tortilla chips into it.
For half the packet: 210 calories, 230mg sodium, 2.5 fat, 8 grams of fiber, 4 grams of sugar, 10 grams of protein. Ingredients: black beans, green and red peppers, onions, rice starch, chili and jalapeno peppers, olive oil, sea salt, sugar, cumin, allspice and nutmeg.
Lentil:My kid loves lentil soup, and slurped all of their lentil soup, made from Pardina lentils with loads of spinach and tomatoes. Other ingredients: Celery, Rice Starch, Onions, Red Peppers, Olive Oil, Lower Sodium Sea Salt, Lentil Flour, Garlic.
Chicken pomodoro — I found this tomato-based soup a little bland, so I added some sea salt to perk it up. Again, it tasted fresh. This one has wheat and egg whites.
For those interested in the soup’s eco footprint, the company pointed out that its light-weight microwavable pouch empty weighs 0.3 ounces versus plastic microwaveable bowls, which weigh 1.65 ounces and up to 8 times lighter than a can. “For every 10 truckloads of product shipped in pouches, other soup companies are sending 11 truckloads full of bowls,” said company materials.. “Less packaging means less energy is used to make the package and less energy consumed in transporting the package from our manufacturing facility to your store.”
Other soup flavors include:
· Yankee White Bean - a spicy blend of three beans (Yankee, great northern and cannellini), chicken and jalapeno peppers.
· Nana's Chicken Soup: a blend of chicken, Arborio rice, spinach, cannellini beans and a hint of garlic.
The breakdown for allergies:
- Gluten Free: Chicken Corn Chowder, Nana’s Chicken Soup, Yankee White Bean, New England Clam Chowder, Caribbean Black Bean, Lentil, and Sweet Chicken Curry.
- Dairy Free: Nana’s Chicken Soup, Caribbean Black Bean, Chicken Pomodoro, Lentil and Sweet Chicken Curry, and
- Vegan: Lentil and Caribbean Black Bean
