Potato & Leek (Sainsbury’s)

Texture

This soup is a little bit slimy which is a disappointment, as you may imagine. It is also punctuated by strangely hard potatoes which does give a strange effect. This makes for a disconcerting experience as you whiplash back and forth between hard potato and slimy leek for the duration of lunchtime. At least this soup keeps you on your toes.

Flavour

The flavour is acceptable and the leeks aren’t super sweet, but instead lack punchiness. These leeks wouldn’t last half a round against Christopher Biggins, let alone Mike Tyson.

Creaminess

Instead of potato and leek propping things up, we sadly have a milky, creamy base that some may like, but I find is detrimental in a ‘chunky’ soup like this. This is especially true when that cream lacks flavour. Cream of mushroom soup is imbued throughout with mushroom flavour, this just tastes of cream with stringy leek in it.

Tolerability

To wax philosophical for a moment – ultimately, our team at Tinned Soup Review are reviewing soups that are probably not going to be served in Michelin star restaurants. We are under no illusion that these soups regularly outclass homemade or even shop bought fresh soups. Therefore, in some cases we will simply cut some soups a little slack. Yes, we aim for hard-hitting, thoughtful food criticism here, but sometimes when you step back and think about it, a soup is simply ‘fine’.

Conclusion

Would I strongly recommend this soup? No. Is it probably ‘fine’? I guess so.