Thai Chicken and Lemongrass Cup a Soup
Cup a Soup Chronicles IV (17.03.21)
Ainsley Harriott Thai Chicken and Lemongrass Cup a Soup – TESCO £1 for three sachets
I went for something a little more upmarket today – Ainsley Harriott’s Thai Chicken and Lemongrass. It’s a little more expensive, at £1 for 3 sachets, but is it worth it? Often when you read reviews you find that the extra money isn’t worthwhile. With Batchelors at 20p a sachet and Ainsley’s at 33p, will the more expensive soup win the day? It’s hard to imagine that anyone is actually interested, but yes, it does.
It’s full of flavour, it tastes good and it has a good bright colour. This is a far better experience than Batchelors’ Oxtail, but to be honest, I’d struggle if I had to decide between Batchelors’ Oxtail and a colonoscopy. I’d probably select the soup, simply because I get to keep my trousers on, but it would take some thinking about. This looks like it’s soup, rather than an industrial adhesive. It even produces it’s own soft focus by steaming up the camera lens. No steam actually seems to escape from the other soups I have tested. I must check this in future.
Chicken & Lemongrass Soup
This is actually a soup that I wouldn’t object to eating by the bowlful, though now that I know how much salt these things contain I am less keen on eating soup that is bought in. I’m not sure how much salt there is in home made soup, but I’m sure it’s a lot less than the amount in bought soup. I will have to have a look at the ingredients labels on some cans.
Still too much salt!
Uplifting messages on soup packets.
There was a third message but I tore it open and used it before I realised they were all different. It’s nice to see the manufacturers trying, even if the slogans are excruciating.
Extra water was probably a wise precaution after your last experience with it. Work your way in gradually! 🙂
Frankly the “new and improved” recipe is absolutely foul and has a peculiar chemical taste; I shall not be buying again
That’s a shame. It’s amazing how often “new and improved” turns out only to be “new”.
Update: I noticed in Asda today that Ainsley Harriott’s Thai Chicken and Lemongrass has a new recipe. I did buy some and it is certainly better than the “new and improved” one of last year but not sure whether it is as good as the original as I put too much water in the cup.
I don’t often have soup and I don’t think I’ve ever had a Cup-a-Soup but Richard has. The Ainsley Harriott one looks like proper soup. Richard has been trying the Heinz Cup Soups recently which he thinks are not too bad. He likes the hard plastic cups they come in which he re-uses for his homemade soup.
Yes, I like soup containers too. The Ainsley Harriott ones (I’ve tested another since this test) are quite good.
🙂
Maybe I could be persuaded
It was good, and a handy stand by for a cold day.
It does sound like a good one. Congratulations! 🙂
I think this makes the average 2 good out of four. 🙁
Sounds like a win!
This one is. 🙂 The last one wasn’t.
So, is this like bullion, where it’s a powder and you add water? If so, it looks very good.
Yes, it’s a powder and you add water. I think bouillon translates to stock cube in the UK – we don’t have powdered form as far as I know. Strangely I was wondering about using Cup a Soup as stock earlier this afternoon – anticipating your question. This one is excellent.
You can get bouillon powder in supermarkets here. I use it quite a bit when you don’t need to put in a whole stock cube. Then you don’t end up with chopped up half cubes littering your shelves waiting for the next time you need one.
I will have to look for it.
Yes, bouillon is available in ‘selected outlets’, I guess marketing would say. I have some from a health food shop, made by Suma.
I will look for it. It’s a gap in my culinary education.
Good luck 😊
🙂