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When you need a tasty but lighter meal in a hurry, a bowl of soup is just the thing. And while we’re big fans of making our own, there are a huge variety of innovative and interesting flavour combos out there.
From a new twist on an old favourite like Heinz Cream of Tomato with a Kick of Chilli to combinations we didn’t realise were missing from our lives, like Glorious! West African Chicken and Peanut, we’ve scoured the shelves for the tastiest.
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10 best soups Tideford Smoked Haddock Chowder with Organic Leeks & Peas Smoky and creamy, this comforting soup uses haddock caught off the Devon and Cornwall coast and is the perfect way to warm up after a bracing walk.
£3.49, ocado.com
10 best soups New Covent Garden Soup Skinny Goan Chicken and Lentils Part of the new “Skinny” range from the New Covent Garden Soup Company, this soup is full of flavour, which, combined with the rice and lentils and the kick from the lime and coriander, tricks you into thinking you’ve not opted for the skinny version at all.
£2.35, tesco.com
10 best soups Patchwork Pate Cawl Nain Soup More like a stew than a soup, traditionally cawl nain soup has no recipe as such, but is made differently by every nain (or Welsh grandma). This hearty version is made with lamb and ham hock and is as meaty as it is possible for a soup to be.
£2.25, patchwork-pate.co.uk
10 best soups Baxters Favourites Scotch Broth Just reading the list of ingredients in this soup makes me feel warm and homely: beef, mutton, potatoes and barley. This is the kind of comfort food that will take you right back to your childhood.
£1.04, sainsburys.co.uk
10 best soups Yorkshire Provender Chicken and Butternut Soup with Lentil and Cumin This is the perfect mix of sweet and spice, best enjoyed in front of a roaring fire with crusty bread to dip into it. Yorkshire Provender suggests grating fresh cucumber and chopped mint into Greek yoghurt on top, which takes it to another level.
£2.49, waitrose.com
10 best soups Crosse & Blackwell Best of British Winter Vegetable Soup This chunky tinned soup, made from all-British produce, is filling and comforting and the kind of soup you’d want to drink from a mug during a break from the gardening.
£1.29, morrisons.com
10 best soups Glorious! West African Chicken and Peanut It’s unusual to get an African-inspired ready-made soup, which is a shame because this chicken and peanut recipe is delicious: it combines spices from the East with nuts and pulses from the West. This isn’t the kind of soup you have because there’s nothing else to eat in the house, but the kind you’d buy because you’ve been looking forward to it all day.
£2.20, ocado.com
10 best soups Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference Chantenay Carrot & Honey Roast Parsnip Soup There are vegetable soups that make you feel like you are being good, and vegetable soups that make you feel like you are being naughty. This is the latter – it’s smooth, tasty and filling. Eat it? I’d happily bathe in it.
£1.50, sainsburys.co.uk
10 best soups Heinz Cream of Tomato with a Kick of Chilli Last year, Heinz introduced its Black Label Soup range, which takes classic soup recipes and adds a twist. So the cream-of-chicken soup has added Thai spice and cream-of-mushroom has extra wild porcini, but best of all is the cream-of-tomato soup with a kick of chilli. What took Heinz so long?
£1.19, Morrisons.com
10 best soups Tesco Finest Chestnut Mushroom & Madeira Soup Mushroom soup has a bit of a bad rep, but this offering is a few cuts above others on the shelves: nutty mushroom offset by the Madeira, this creamy soup makes a nice midweek treat.
£2.40, tesco.com
Verdict: The Pate Cawl Nain Soup from Patchwork is filling and very tasty but for decadence, go for Tideford’s Smoked Haddock Chowder with Organic Leeks & Peas. For a light lunch this spring, New Covent Garden’s Skinny Goan Chicken and Lentils makes a delicious, guilt-free bowl.
Buy now
1. Tideford Smoked Haddock Chowder with Organic Leeks & Peas, £3.49
2. New Covent Garden Soup Skinny Goan Chicken and Lentils, £2.20
3. Patchwork Pate Cawl Nain Soup, £2.25
4. Baxters Favourites Scotch Broth, £1.04
5. Yorkshire Provender Chicken and Butternut Soup with Lentil and Cumin, £2.49
6. Crosse & Blackwell Best of British Winter Vegetable Soup, £1.29
7. Glorious! West African Chicken and Peanut, £2.20
8. Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference Chantenay Carrot & Honey Roast Parsnip Soup, £1.50
9. Heinz Cream of Tomato with a Kick of Chilli, £1.19
10. Tesco Finest Chestnut Mushroom & Madeira Soup, £2.35
