Review

Now, I’ve seen a lot of things in my days of being a gluten-free foodie. But, frozen soup, who knew? I saw Kettle Cuisine before when cruising through the Whole Foods aisles, but really only “saw” them when I went to the gluten-free expo in Chicago. The employees were so nice and my non-gluten-free entourage really liked the soups. I thought these were such a unique item to feature here on the blog. I also feel like I can’t get soup as awesome as this in a can. Overall I was very impressed.

Disclosure! Kettle Cuisine was great and sent me a handful of coupons to try their product. So, here’s my review of the product!

On the Kettle Cuisine website it states, “We only use the best, real food ingredients. Twenty five years of cooking soup has taught us that the quality of what comes out of a soup kettle is highly dependent upon the integrity of the ingredients that go into the kettle. Virtually all of our ingredients are raw and unprocessed; we only buy all natural meat and poultry, we only buy top quality produce and we buy from local suppliers whenever we can.” It tastes like they really put care into these soups – like your mom made soup, and froze it for you to have later.

All of the soups that they currently offer are gluten-free, although only some are dairy-free or vegetarian. Most of these soups are very rich and very tasty – but watch out for the calorie counts on some of them (aka the ones I liked could sometimes pack 300 calories!).

A PS from my accident-prone self: BE CAREFUL about taking the soup out of the microwave! I totally burned my finger on the steam because I took it out right away without pot holders!I read that you’re supposed to wait 1 minute before taking it out of the microwave – whoops! Please do this to avoid very hot soup!

In order to find out where Kettle Cuisine is sold in the US, visit their Where To Buy part of their website. I got mine at Whole Foods, and I’ve seen them run specials on them before.

Be still my heart, this soup is damn good. It’s got a kick to it (similar to the next soup I’m reviewing – Chicken Chili), and it’s so tasty. I would definitely buy this flavor again. it’s got good chunks of grilled chicken, and enough veggies to make me feel like it’s got something good going on. I didn’t know that it had bacon in it until I read the ingredients, but it tasted great. It tasted like a spicy chicken corn chowder. It’s a little heavy, though, with 230 calories, but super tasty.

Ingredients: Chicken Stock, Corn (corn, water, sugar, salt), Grilled Chicken (chicken, water, seasoning [salt, dehydrated garlic, spices, paprika], corn oil, rice starch), Green Peppers, Red Peppers, Light Cream (milk, cream), Onions, Potatoes, Water, Rice Flour, Soybean Oil, Chicken Fat, Celery, Uncured Bacon (pork prepared with water, salt, turbinado sugar, celery powder, lactic acid starter culture), Sea Salt, Garlic Chili Pepper Sauce (red chili, water, sugar, garlic, distilled vinegar, salt), Sugar, Spices, Paprika. Contains Milk Ingredients.

Flavor: Chicken Chili and White Beans

It’s got the perfect amount of spices with the green peppers, onions, garlic, and chili pepper sauces, and big chunks of chicken. It’s got a little bit of a kick to it, but not overly spicy. It’s very creamy, you can tell that it’s a more caloric soup than the others. This to me is what a soup is all about – hearty and creamy. I love this soup. Non-GFBF agreed that it was very yummy. Could we make this chili ourselves? Maybe. Would it taste this good? I’m going to say no. Like, a big no.

Ingredients: Chicken Meat, Chicken Stock, White Beans, Onions, Sour Cream (cultured light cream, nonfat milk, enzymes), Green Peppers, Celery, Chicken Fat, Rice Flour, Garlic, Spices, Sea Salt, Garlic Chili Pepper Sauce (red chili, water, sugar, garlic, distilled vinegar, salt), Cilantro, Cocoa Powder. Contains Milk Ingredients.

It’s says online that it’s 320 calories for 10 oz. with 15 grams total fat, 23 grams total carbohydrates, and 24% of your DV of sodium, but it’s also got 25 grams of protein. That’s a lot of calories for me on soup, but it’s really good.

Flavor: Chicken Soup with Rice Noodles

This was so good! The rice noodles weren’t soggy, and there was plenty of chicken and carrots to keep it hearty. I’ve had several cans of chicken noodle soup that are gluten-free, and this certainly tops those. It tastes just like how mom made it (if she made it GF). Non-GFBF said that it didn’t taste like GF noodles, which is huge. It’s really great. Again, when I make chicken noodle soup, it’s not that good.

Ingredients: Chicken Stock, Chicken Meat, Rice Noodles (brown rice, rice bran, water), Carrots, Celery, Onions, Chicken Fat, Sea Salt, Spices.

Flavor: Tomato Soup with Garden Vegetables 

I didn’t really care for this one, only because it tasted like a really natural, organic, happy and fresh spaghetti sauce. The only tomato soup that I really like is the super creamy kind, instead of the thinner, more low-fat version. Not to say that this isn’t a quality soup – it is. Everything tasted so fresh – and it was full of vegetables. It was really nice to see a variety of veggies – I had never thought of putting yellow wax beans and green beans in a tomato soup!

I dipped gluten-free bread in it, and the juices were very tasty. Again, I prefer a creamier (and probably way more fattening soup), but for those of you that like a lighter soup, this is perfect. Non-GFBF ate some leftovers of this cold and really enjoyed it. It tastes so good for you with all of the veggies out in the open in this soup. He said it was almost like a gaspacho, could be better served cold. It’s high in fiber and vitamin A, and a full serving of veggies.

Ingredients: Diced Tomatoes in Juice (tomatoes, salt, calcium chloride, naturally derived citric acid), Water, Zucchini, Summer Squash, Onions, Carrots, Yellow Wax Beans, Green Beans, Celery, Olive Oil, Rice Flour, Scallions, Corn Oil, Spices, Sea Salt, Garlic.

Flavor: Organic Mushroom and Potato Soup

There’s something about this flavor that I can’t really get behind. Maybe it’s just because I’m not sure I’m a fan of a mushroom soup just by itself. I use GF cream of mushroom to marinate and bake chicken, but I’m not sure I’ve had it outside of that use. Or maybe it’s because I think this is a little grainy? Like, instead of chunks of potato like what I’m used to in soup, it just tastes like ground-up and gritty potato. Non-GFBF didn’t really care for it either. He was mostly turned off by the consisteny – he said it was like watered-down instant mashed potatoes. He wanted it to be creamier.

I’m just not sure. Is it edible? Yes. Would I purchase this flavor again? No. This one pales in comparison to the first two soups I tried.

Ingredients: Water, Organic Potatoes, Organic Onions, Organic Mushrooms, Organic Light Cream (pasteurized and homogenized organic heavy cream and organic whole milk), Organic Safflower Oil/Organic Sunflower Oil, Organic Butter (pasteurized organic sweet cream, salt), Sea Salt, Organic Parsley, Organic Garlic, Organic Spices, Organic Champignon Powder (organic champignon mushrooms). Contains Milk Ingredients.

Giveaway

Now for the details of the giveaway! Win a Kettle Cuisine cooler lunch bag with a few free soup coupons (I would recommend the winner gets the Southwestern Chicken, Chicken Chili, and Chicken Noodle),  a Kettle Cuisine notepad, and a few coupons for you to give to your soup-loving friends and family!

PRIZE:

1 Kettle Cuisine giveaway bag (and coupons inside)

WINNER:

1 winner, picked randomly (via Random.org) based on valid entries. 

HOW IT WORKS:

Each person can be entered into our contest only two times – once through the website and once through Facebook. 

• WEBSITE LOVERS: 1 entry (Limit 1 per person) on Celiacandthebeast.com. Comment on this post and tell us what soup flavor you’d like to try. Make sure that you input your email address in the form so we can contact you if you’re the winner!

• FACEBOOK FRIENDS: 1 additional entry (limit 1 additional entry per person) by liking Facebook.com/celiacandthebeast. NOT A FAN ALREADY? Become a fan of Celiac and the Beast on Facebook, then come back here and comment on this post that you became our friend. YOU LIKE US ALREADY? If you’ve already “liked” us on Facebook prior to this contest, post a comment here that you are already a fan, then tell me what flavor you’d like to try from Kettle Cuisine!

CONTEST ENDS:

Sunday 5/20/2012 at 5pm PST. Winners will be announced by Monday 5/21/2012.