Progresso Pea Soups

I enjoy pea soup. Nothing is quite like my mother’s, but I’m willing to eat the canned stuff when I’ve got a hankering for it. When I go searching for it, I find it made a few different ways; sometimes a company will make multiple recipes, and I’m not sure which one to get, so I get both and decide to figure it out later. Well, I don’t buy soup that often, so by the next time I go to pick some up, the same thing happens: I can’t remember the qualities of each, so I pick up both with the intent of figuring it out later.

Today, this cycle ends: I’m taste tasting Progresso’s two pea soup recipes and leaving a review of each in this post.

How I prefer my pea soup: with a thickness of burbled, broken, and smashed peas soaking delicious spices and a ham bone with chunks still on it, maybe even some ham carved and set aside specifically to be added into the soup.

Aside: neither of these soups are vegetarian. I didn’t see any vegetarian pea soups while I was in the store, so if you’re a vegetarian, be wary of pea soup generally.

Green Split Pea – a Vegetable Classic Flavored with Bacon

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

The bacon-flavored soup has the consistency I think of when I think of pea soup. The focus is clearly on the peas: there are no additional vegetables and only small pieces of bacon for flavoring.

It’s a little smoky, and it has a subtle but distinct pepper flavor. The mashed-up peas are all nice and smooth, giving the soup a nice creamy texture. I’m not so wild about the peas that are in tact in the soup; despite soaking in this concoction for at least weeks (if not months), they’re sturdy, even dry when you bite into them.

Yeah, the peas feel hard against the roof of the mouth, as though no moisture made it through the surface of the pea into its core. It’s weird; I’m not a fan.

I toasted a roll for dipping. Meh; this soup is not the bread-dipping kind. (This is a good thing in my book; pea soup should be too thick to properly soak toast with a dip.) I can actually make small peaks in the soup because of its consistency: spot-on!

What I do like about this soup is the concentration on the peas. I don’t like peas, but pea soup is the exception, and I want the focus to be on the peas. They make an excellent vegetable cream base, if you will, and a few added spices can turn this paste into a real treat. Excellent work focusing on the backdrop; however, the hard peas suspended in the soup make this a pass for me.

Split Pea – Traditional Soup with Ham

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Unlike the other soup, this one has potato and carrot chunks suspended in it, and the ham isn’t just tiny pieces. (I think there’s also celery, but it isn’t as prominent as any other ingredient.) The mashed peas are essentially a canvas for the painting of chunks of other stuff. This doesn’t have the smokiness of the other, rather carrying an almost sweet flavor. The whole peas in this one are soft – the way vegetables in soup should generally be.

I prefer not having chunks of other vegetables in my pea soup. In particular, I’m not a fan of potato chunks. The carrots and celery are actually so tender that they melt in the mouth without effort, and they don’t overpower the focus of the dish, so they make a good addition to the soup. Whereas I can easily squish the carrots against the roof of my mouth with my tongue, the potato chunks require dedicated chewing. Also, they feel a little plastic-y, and some of them make me furrow my brow because they have brown spots. These are clearly not the highest quality potatoes.

As for the toast test, this soup was better absorbed by the toast, but not much better.

Winner?

Neither is exactly how I like my pea soup, but nothing will be perfect straight from a can. I’ll keep my eyes open for other options. After this exercise, I think I’ll be investing the research time into making my own and hope it freezes well.

Due to the crunchiness of the peas in the first instance, I favor the traditional soup – the one with the ham chunks. Also – it’s been several hours since I finished the soups, and the smell of the bacon/vegetable classic is pervasive; I went outside twice to see if someone was smoking under my window before realizing it’s the soup. Thankfully, my air purifier is hard at work!

What do you think? Do you prefer a smooth or a chunky texture for your pea soup? What’s your thought on flavor – should it be smoky or taste like vegetables? Let me know in the comments!