Soup Girl Soups Just Like Homemade

We are experiencing a true polar vortex in Toronto this weekend and there’s no better way to deal with the frigid temperatures than by enjoying a bowl of homemade soup. Sometimes, however, cooking soup from scratch can be a chore, but soup from a can doesn’t provide you with the same health benefits. Here’s where Soup Girl Soups come in. These soups contain all the dry ingredients required for delicious soup including ingredients such as green lentils, red lentils, green split peas, unsweetened coconut, brown rice, organic black rice, garlic and spices. All you have to do is add eight cups of water to each soup, which come in lovely Mason jars, bring to a boil and let simmer for an hour.

I was provided with all seven types of Soup Girl Soups to sample:

• Curried Cashew Soup
• Caribbean Rice n’ Peas
• Moroccan Lentil Soup
• Italian Rice & Lentil Soup
• Smoky Split Pea Soup
• The Detox Soup
• Spicy Coconut Lentil Soup

Ironically, the first flavour I tried, Curried Cashew Soup, was my favourite. The Curried Cashew Soup is made with green split peas, cashews, pearl barley, onion, garlic and spices. After simmering for an hour, the cashews soften nicely and blend well with the split peas and pearl barley, making this a comforting soup on a cold day. I added a dollop of plain yogourt upon serving to give the soup a creamy texture.

My second favourite soup was the Moroccan Lentil Soup. If you are a fan of lentil soup, you’ll probably love this version. Soup Girl’s Moroccan Lentil Soup is made with red lentils, onion, garlic, cinnamon, coriander and mint. Since there is no rice added, the soup takes only 30-40 minutes to simmer on the stove. The fragrant spices in this soup perfectly complemented the red lentils and I liked that it was a pure bean soup with no added rice or barley.

The Smoky Split Pea Soup was also good. I enjoyed the smoky taste of the spices added to the split pea base. The Caribbean Rice n’ Peas soup was also tasty, although it is quite spicy and leaves a fairly hot aftertaste. The Detox Soup was enjoyable with a balanced blend of split peas, green lentils, brown rice and spices. Although the Detox Soup also contains cayenne pepper and turmeric, it was not too hot at all and the added fennel provides a lovely aroma in your kitchen.

Soup Girl Soups are $8 each and available at Toronto food shops including The Detox Market, Evergreen Garden Market, Fresh & Wild Food Markets, Live Express Market, The Mercantile, The Pantry, Sandy Aleksander Specialty Foods and Bloor Meat Market. Soup Girl is also available at Evergreen Brickworks Market on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.