Vegetable Soup – Tried and Tasted

If you’re looking for a healthy winter warmer then you can’t go wrong with a hearty vegetable soup, but how do low-calorie versions compare?

We’ve taken six veg soup options, all under 180 calories per can and put them to the test. Take a look to see which one came out on top.

Our tasters rated all the soups out of 5 and they have been ranked in order according to their average score.

Table 1: Low Calorie Vegetable Soups Compared

Product	Weight Watchers from Heinz Hearty Vegetable Broth	Asda Smart Price Vegetable Soup	Sainsbury’s Spring Vegetable Soup
Ranking	1	2	3
Appearance	The tasters thought this veg soup looked chunky and rustic, a good choice to warm you up in the winter.	Although placed second, the orange colour of this soup left some tasters feeling a bit queasy. One taster was unhappy with the buoyancy of the veg stating that the soup was ‘mysterious with everything lurking just below the surface.’ However if you can cope with foraging for your veg and the colour doesn’t put you off, then Asda’s soup is a fairly safe choice.	Sainsbury’s came up trumps with the appearance of their soup. The tasters noted that it contained plenty of veg.
Smell	This was the best smelling soup of the bunch, although it still wasn’t rated very highly by even the most generous of tasters!	Asda reached middle ground in the smell test. Not offensive but you won’t find us following our noses to the kitchen for a taste of this!	A fairly average smell to go with its average ranking.
Taste	In the taste test this soup came out top, however there were still a few complaints from our discerning tasters who spotted powdery veg.	Asda delivered fairly well on taste, our team were satisfied.	Consistently middling, even the tasters couldn’t come up with interesting words for Sainsbury’s veg soup, so had to settle with ‘nice’ and ‘okay!’
Filling / Satisfying?	A filling and hearty vegetable soup (as it says on the tin), Weight Watchers gets it almost right. And at only 126 calories per tin your scales will like it too!	A greedy taster suggested you would need three tins to be filled up; the other more modest eaters suggested it would at least need some bread to make a hearty winter meal of soup.	Sainsbury’s has packed this tin with plenty of veg which the tasters thought might fill you up.
Texture / Consistency	Thick and Chunky	Thin and Watery	A good veg content giving it a chunky texture.
Our Conclusion	The winner of the vegetable round by a fraction, Weight Watchers is our recommended soup.	Asda surprised us all with a second place SmartPrice product and at only 17p it’s a bargain!	A reasonable third place from Sainsbury’s although this vegetable soup does have the highest calorie content.
Price	£0.66	£0.17	£0.52
Calorie Content per can	126*	134	146

Table 2: More Low Calorie Vegetable Soups Compared

Product	Baxters Vegetarian Country Garden Soup	Heinz Classic Spring Vegetable Soup	Weight Watchers from Heinz Country Vegetable Soup
Ranking	4	5	6
Appearance	Although the soup had plenty of veg, the tasters thought that the water it was floating in looked unappetising.	Most tasters used the word ‘dishwater’ in their description which doesn’t bode well.	The main problem for the tasters was that the soup was yellow and thin; not a tasty looking meal.
Smell	Baxters couldn’t deliver any smell to excite our noses!	The majority verdict was that this soup didn’t have a smell!	As you might expect, the lowest ranking had the worst smell, ranging from none at all to processed.
Taste	Some tasters enjoyed this veg soup which is why it ranked in fourth, however don’t expect too much flavour as you’ll be disappointed.	Disgusting and bland, the tasters were not impressed.	The tasters did not enjoy this soup at all! It had no flavour and left them feeling very unhappy!
Filling / Satisfying?	A tin wouldn’t fill you up and you would probably need some bread to go with it.	Most of the tasters didn’t think they could stomach a whole tin, but if they did keep it down they still wouldn’t be full.	Too watery to fill you up, this soup is best avoided.
Texture / Consistency	The veg thickened it, but the water made for an off-putting consistency.	Thin and Watery	Very watery and very thin!
Our Conclusion	A top brand disappoints with Baxters coming in fourth. Although a couple of tasters enjoyed it, the majority were disappointed.	Heinz did not impress this time coming fifth (although one cheeky taster seemed to love it and went back for seconds!)	Coming out best and worst, Weight Watchers proved they can make a good soup, but not this time! The lowest ranking veg soup of the day.
Price	£0.87	£0.82	£0.66
Calorie Content per can	134	126	92*

Our Vegetable ‘Soup of the Day’ is Weight Watchers from Heinz Hearty Vegetable Broth: the clear winner and mid-range when it comes to calories and price. However none of the vegetable soups scored full marks, and if you are looking for a delicious soup packed full of taste but without the calories, the Tried and Tasted Team recommend having a go yourself! Take a look at our recipe database for inspiration.

The Tried and Tasted Team have also sampled some other soups you might like:

• Tomato Soup
• Minestrone Soup
• Chicken Soup
• Carrot Soup

*Weight Watchers cans of soup are 295g compared to all other brands which are 400g or 415g.