Wegmans has recently introduced a new line of all natural soups. Normally store bought canned and boxed soups are the reason people don’t like soup. They’re too salty or sweet. The fresh taste of a homemade soup is naturally lost in the industrial mass production of the product. But on a recent shopping trip Wegmans was handing out small cups of hot Cream of Mushroom that I tried and thought wasn’t too horrific. So I bought the butternut squash soup to try.
The package says that the butternut squash soup is “bisque style.” There are also no corn based sweeteners in the soup. Water, butternut squash puree, carrot stock, garlic puree, rice starch, are the types of ingredients included. One glaring addition is evaporated cane juice. If you’re going to make butternut squash soup, why in the world would you include such an overtly sweet item that lends no complementary flavoring? At least molasses would have been a welcome addition to the flavor profile.
Directions state clearly to not add water and it’s immediately apparent why not. The butternut squash soup is not at all viscous in the way you expect bisque to be. You want this type of soup to have some texture, but instead it’s a watery mess that is unpleasant in the mouth. The flavor is only two notes: a vague squash quality married to an overtly sweet taste. The Wegmans All Natural Butternut Squash Soup is more like a hot and sweet butternut squash juice than it is a soup.
It may not work well as a soup, but I have a feeling I’ll be able to use up the rest of the box I purchased as a sauce base for something. Aside from the cane juice making it too sweet I have no qualms about eating what’s included.
