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Imagine Creamy Vegetable Soups

By elf
Published February, 2 2006 3:13 pm
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Hot soup can make a great lunch in the winter, but I often find that I don’t get it together to make myself soup when I want it. This year, I decided to try some of the prepackaged creamy vegetable soups from Imagine (all OU parve).

First, I tried the Organic Creamy Broccoli Soup and Creamy Portobello Mushroom Soup. These are among the lowest in calories, but both were disappointing. I found them lacking in flavor, with an unpleasant soy aftertaste.

This did not deter me from trying the others, however. The Organic Creamy Butternut Squash Soup was quite a bit better, although if you’ve ever had soup made from fresh roasted butternut squash, there’s no comparison. The Organic Creamy Sweet Corn Soup was also tasty, with mellow notes of leek in the background, but I found it a bit too sweet and reminiscent of canned creamed corn. Also, it lacks texture, which I would have liked in a corn soup.

My favorite varieties were (surprisingly) Organic Creamy Tomato Soup and Organic Creamy Potato Leek Soup. It’s possible that I enjoyed the tomato soup as much as I did because the only other tomato soups I’ve tasted came from cans. Imagine’s version has the same creamy texture as canned tomato soup, but it is slightly less sweet and has a much more complex, “natural” flavor. The Creamy Potato Leek Soup is also very nice. Its silky texture comes from the potatoes themselves, not added soy milk, and the leeks add a wonderful flavor.

I haven’t had a chance to try the Organic Sweet Potato Soup or Organic Creamy Tomato Basil Soup, since they aren’t (yet?) carried by any conveniently located stores.

All in all, these soups are just what you might expect: not as good as homemade, but infinitely better than canned. They are also considerably more expensive than either. For the convenience they offer, I’d say that the better varieties are worth the occasional splurge. But, it’s up to you.

11 comments so far (Post your own)
1.At 1:53 pm on February 3rd, 2006, jabbett wrote:

We generally enjoy these soups unadulterated, save a dash of cinnamon in the squash soup or a squirt of Chipotle Tabasco in the corn soup. I also like to use these soups as a base for more interesting creations.

I keep my pantry stocked with their “No-Chicken Broth” for predominantly dairy (but treyf) recipes that call for chicken broth, e.g. risotto. (I usually dilute it by half with either water or white wine, because it’s pretty thick.)

2.At 9:20 pm on February 4th, 2006, TAM wrote:

You may also enjoy Trader Joe’s brands of boxed soups, some of which are dairy. The creamy tomato is a hit, especially with some cheese grated on top. They also carry a parve vegetable broth, handy in recipes which call for chicken broth. FYI: Whole Foods discounts case purchases by 5%.

3.At 1:29 am on February 5th, 2006, elf wrote:

Jabbett: That’s a nice looking corn chowder recipe. I think I’d enjoy the creamy corn soup much better than way.

I recently learned that one of my vegetarian friends is sensitive to MSG, so I am planning to phase out the powdered mixes that I usually use and replace them with “No Chicken Broth.” It’s good to know that the broth can be diluted for cooking.

I have tried Imagine’s regular vegetable broth. It’s not bad, but a bit too tomatoey to be used in a wide range of recipes.

TAM: Thanks for the tips. I would like to try the Trader Joe’s soups, if I manage to schlep myself to Trader Joe’s any time in the next decade. I’m sure they’re more cost effective than Imagine’s.

4.At 10:58 am on February 6th, 2006, rachel b. wrote:

that trader joe’s creamy tomato soup is really good, i’ll second that. dairy, but really, really delicious.
i like these product taste-test features on your blog.

5.At 9:37 am on February 7th, 2006, David wrote:

We always add a bit of frozen corn to the corn soup to add texture. Grate some cheddar cheese on top, and it’s perfect.

6.At 12:34 pm on February 7th, 2006, Marsha wrote:

I use the No-Chicken Broth for pareve soup all the time. Very useful. There is a brand of parevevegetable broth that comes in individual one-cup boxes that I like a lot, but can’t remember the brand now.

7.At 10:30 pm on February 16th, 2006, jabbett wrote:

Stopped by Trader Joe’s this evening, and noticed they carry a few other OU-certified soup flavors: corn with roasted pepper (weird greenish color, but good tasting), carrot ginger, and sweet potato bisque.

Oh, and I sent Imagine an e-mail today urging them to make their meat varieties kosher. Who knows?

8.At 9:13 am on February 17th, 2006, DebraG wrote:

At your recommendations, we tried the Trader Joe’s creamy tomato soup last night. The consistency was lovely, nice, creamy. But, very little tomato taste and way too sweet. You’d be better off mixing crushed tomatoes with some oregano, cooking a little, straining and adding some butter and cream!

Though having that box on the shelf is certainly more convenient!

9.At 11:44 am on February 17th, 2006, HB wrote:

We really like the TJs sweet potato bisque.

10.At 9:49 pm on March 2nd, 2006, Naomi Chana wrote:

I use TJ’s vegetable broth — and once in awhile a boxed mushroom broth the brand of which I forget — to simulate chicken and beef broths, respectively, in situations where I don’t want to use bouillon cubes.

As for the Imagine mushroom soup, if you cook down a generous quantity of sliced or chunked mushrooms (just plain ol’ crimini works great) with maybe a splash of sherry, then add the soup, heat through, and grind on lots of pepper, it’s very tasty. The soy taste is masked, and the mushroominess really comes through.

11.At 7:07 pm on March 7th, 2006, elf wrote:

I happened to be at TJ’s recently (not a common occurrence), so I picked up some boxed soups and broth. The soups I tried were Carrot-Ginger and Organic Creamy Tomato. Both were sweeter than the Imagine soups, which (I realized after reading the ingredients) was due to the addition of rice syrup and, in the case of the carrot soup, honey. Like DebraG, I thought the sweetness was excessive, but, being a bit of a dairy fiend, I loved the tomato soup anyway. The carrot-ginger soup wasn’t bad, either.

As for the broth, it seemed to me to be a bit more diluted than the Imagine broths. It’s also less chicken-like than Imagine’s “No-Chicken” broth and less tomato-ey than Imagine’s regular vegetable broth, which makes it more versitile than the latter. I used it in a bean soup that I usually make with plain water and was pleased with the results.

Naomi Chana: Thanks for another interesting “semi-homemade” idea. I’ll try it some time.

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