Tried and Tasted Minestrone Soup
A delicious bowl of minestrone soup will fill you up on a winter’s night, but is it the same without the calories? Our Tried and Tasted team have put low calorie Minestrone soup to the test – have a look and see what they discovered.
Minestrone Soup - Tried and Tasted
Packed full of veg and noodles, Minestrone Soup should be the perfect meal for a cold winter’s day – but can it still deliver when it’s low calorie?
Our fearless tasters embarked on a journey of discovery through six Minestrone Soups, all under 180 calories, to find the best one just for you. Have a look and see which soup came in first.
Our tasters rated all the soups out of 5 and they have been ranked in order according to their average score.
| Product | Baxters Healthy Minestrone Soup with Wholemeal Pasta | Heinz Classic Minestrone Soup | Sainsbury’s Minestrone Soup |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
 |
 |
|
| Ranking | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Appearance | Full of veg and pasta, this soup looked tempting. | It was decided that this was the best in terms of appearance – a tempting beginning. | A bit oily-looking but plenty of noodles. |
| Smell | The tasters were happy to smell this minestrone soup – lovely vegetable aromas. | The tasters thought this soup smelled delicious and beefy. | Another test for the tasters’ noses – they managed to come up with the words ‘musty,’ ‘earthy’ and ‘herby.’ We weren’t entirely sure whether this was a good thing or a bad thing! |
| Taste | The Taste Team thought this soup was delicious with a bit of added spice. Our favourite to eat and our recommendation! | Heinz slightly let down on the taste, hence it was pipped to the post. The tasters thought it was a bit acidic. | ‘Plastic, but pleasantly peaish’ said one alliterative taster! The other more sensible members of the team suggested it was a fairly average flavour only marked out by a slight hint of onion. |
| Filling/Satisfying? | The veg and wholemeal pasta filled us up nicely. | No one thought this soup would be filling – either the tasters are getting greedy or Heinz needs to make something a bit more substantial! | This soup would fill you up if eaten with some bread. |
| Texture/Consistency | Chunky and thick | The thinnest of the lot, Heinz’s Minestrone Soup could do with something extra to keep us full. | Thin, but the added volume of the pasta seemed to improve it. |
| Our Conclusion | The winner was Baxters who impressed with their hearty minestrone soup. Although near the top of the field in terms of calories and price, our Taste Team still think it’s a good buy. | Heinz managed a very close second just behind Baxters. Whilst the soup got off to a strong start, the taste let it down and let’s face it, that’s the most important part! | Our third place minestrone soup was Sainsbury’s. The tasters didn’t hate it, but they certainly didn’t love it. They suggest you look elsewhere. |
| Price | £0.88 | £0.82 | £0.52 |
| Calorie Content per can | 142 | 128 | 132 |
| Product | Tesco Minestrone Soup | Weight Watchers from Heinz Tuscan Minestrone Soup | Asda Minestrone Soup |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
 |
 |
|
| Ranking | 4 | 5 | 6 |
| Appearance | The worst in terms of appearance, Tesco’s minestrone soup was described as ‘greasy’ and ‘chemically.’ Not a good start! | The team were not impressed by the lack of pasta in this soup leading them to comment that it was ‘shiny but empty.’ | Thick and congealed with an unappetising skin on top – keep away! |
| Smell | Smell-wise our tasters thought the soup was ‘okay’ – not anything to get excited about but not repulsive either! | None of the tasters were put off by the smell but none loved it. | The tasters decided that it was safe to get near enough to sniff the soup but soon realised they’d made a mistake! One of our Taste Team described it as ‘paint stripper’ and we all decided this was accurate! |
| Taste | The Taste Team couldn’t find the words to describe the taste of this soup because there was no taste to speak of! | The least impressed taster said that this soup was almost enough to make him never eat soup again! But others were slightly more generous suggesting it tasted a bit cheap and too spicy. | After the tasters had taken time to recover from the smell, they thought it time to brave a taste (so you don’t have to!) It was described as ‘vinegar soup’ and ‘stodgy, spicy water’ – not a pleasant experience! |
| Filling/Satisfying? | The tasters weren’t keen to go back for another spoonful, but after some persuasion they did and decided that if you could finish a whole tin then you would be full. | Still fathomed by the lack of pasta, the tasters could only tell us that this would compromise its capacity for filling you up. | Our Taste Team would recommend that you didn’t finish a whole tin – if you did you would probably be full but you wouldn’t repeat the same mistake again! |
| Texture/Consistency | One taster described it as ‘claggy and tongue coating’ – need we say more? | The tasters were very surprised when, after a spoonful, the vegetables simply disintegrated in their mouths! Excellent if you haven’t got time to chew but otherwise very unpleasant. | ‘Sloppy and mushy’ said one taster. Another still couldn’t talk as his throat stung from the vinegar flavour – we assume he would have been fairly negative!’ |
| Our Conclusion | Despite the poor review, Tesco still managed fourth place in what was a fairly weak round. No special mentions for low calories or bargain prices – an all round average effort. | Weight Watchers got it all wrong with their Minestrone, and only managed a fifth place. The soup contained the fewest calories, but with a poor flavour and consistency it left our Taste Team putting their spoons down and swiftly leaving! | Asda really disappointed the tasters. It wasn’t just that the minestrone soup was unpleasant but it left the team feeling decidedly ill! We wouldn’t wish it on you! |
| Price | £0.52 | £0.66 | £0.52 |
| Calorie Content per can | 150 | 122* | 126 |
Our minestrone ‘Soup of the Day’ was Baxters Healthy Minestrone Soup with Wholemeal Pasta – it shone out in a field where the other competitors left a lot to be desired! If you fancy trying a minestrone soup, this is the one to go for. Or if you’re feeling adventurous why not check out our recipe database and have a go yourself!
The Tried and Tasted Team have also sampled some other soups you might like:
*Weight Watchers cans of soup are 295g compared to all other brands which are 400g or 415g.
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Get some inspiration to make your own minestrone soup with the WLR Recipe Database, packed full of delicious ideas. Try it free for 24 hours.
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