Cold weather calls for soup – and on evenings when I have no inclination to make my own, I always make sure I have a pot or two of soup from the chilled aisle of the supermarket in the fridge. This week, it was the turn of the new Texan Four Bean Chilli Soup, part of the Skinnylicious range from GLORIOUS! and launched in January 2016.
Reading the back of the tub, you’d be forgiven for thinking the worst: how can a soup that has fewer than 100 calories per half pot, with 0.6g of fat and counting as one of your five a day, actually be filling and tasty enough for an evening meal? Well, it’s time to put preconceptions aside and head to Asda – it retails there at £1.98 per 600g tub.
Vegetarian, dairy-free and gluten-free, the GLORIOUS! Texan Four Bean Chilli soup combines haricot, red kidney, black eye and black turtle beans, along with ancho chilli for heat. Described on the front of the pot as both “Skinnylicious” and “hearty”, we were dubious…
On opening the pot you get an instant waft of smoky chilli – it’s a soup that certainly smells as rich and hearty as it describes. Pour it into a saucepan, and you’ll see that it has a lovely thickness, and is packed full of beans, basmati rice and chunks of onion – before even eating, it certainly looks filling.
The verdict? A definite thumbs up and an 8.5 out of 10 from the boyfriend. The kick of chilli and paprika was impressive (a good soup for those with winter colds…?), and the soup was rich, thick and filling – especially with the rice and beans to bulk it up. Texturally, it was fantastic too – neither the rice nor the beans were mushy, and the slivers of onion (of which there were plenty) provided a good contrast.
Naturally, under 100 calories would have been far too few for dinner, so we bulked up the meal with part-baked wholemeal baguettes, hot out of the oven…
This is just one of the GLORIOUS! globally-inspired Skinnylicious range – we’re keen to try more. We’ve already sampled the Fragrant Thai Carrot (which I enjoyed more than the boyfriend did), and will definitely be working our way through the rest of the seven soups currently in the range. Definitely recommended.
Please note: this post was commissioned by GLORIOUS!, but this in no way impacted on our opinion. We were not obliged to write a positive review, and the company did not see this review before it was put up on the site.