We found five Gardein soups for this Gardein Vegan Soup Review. Watch us taste test each one and see our reaction to know if you should buy or not!
We love to do taste tests and truthful reactions to vegan products. Vegan products tend to be more expensive so we know that seeing reactions are helpful. We realized that we had never done a vegan soup taste test so today we are doing a Gardein vegan soup review.
Gardein is an always vegan company, so it’s an easy brand to pick up and know that you don’t have to worry about their products being vegan or not.
Last year, in 2020, Gardein launched it’s line of vegan soups for the first time. It now contains 6 vegan soups and 2 vegan chili options.
We were able to find 5 of the soups and today we are trying them side by side to see which is our favorite or not.
To be honest, we were nervous going into this taste test. One, Andrew doesn’t even like soup that much, but also we have heard very mixed reactions to that soup. Ranging from they taste amazing to they taste like straight up dog food. Whenever you hear mixed reactions like that, you never know what the experience is going to be like for you.
Do you have a favorite soup brand that we should try in another video? Let us know!
If you love taste tests, make sure to check our our other ideas!
Make sure that you leave a comment below letting us know what other types of taste tests we should do!
Never miss another post! Sign up for our weekly newsletter and get them all delivered easily! Plus, 15 easy recipes delivered immediately!
Sign Up For My Newsletter Today!
Watch our Gardein vegan soup test:
PSA:
We know that everyone has different taste buds. What we may think is the best, may completely vary from what you actually like.
You may ultimately think our best is the worst and that’s okay. We created this video as hopefully a starting point for people and we can only go off our opinion.
What vegan Gardein soups did we try?
We were able to find 5 of the 6 soups. The ones that we found are:
- be’f and vegetable (beef and vegetable)
- saus’ge gumbo (sausage gumbo)
- chick’n noodl (chicken noodle)
- minestrone and saus’ge (minestrone and sausage)
- chick’n and rice (chicken and rice)
We had never tried any of the Gardein vegan soups before.
How did we do the vegan soup taste test?
This one is pretty simple and straight forward. We just opened the can, heated them up on the stove, and tasted them warm.
Gardein Vegan Soups:
Gardein Plant-Based Be’f & Vegetable Review
Thoughts: This was similar to a beef stew, but there was a lot more liquid than a stew normally has. So more soupy. There were approximately 5 pieces of the vegan beef inside the can. We overall both liked the taste. This one was Andrew’s favorite.
Allergens: Soy, Wheat.
Ingredients: Water, Carrots, Potatoes (Potatoes, Calcium Chloride), Tomato Paste, Onions, Green Beans, Peas, Contains Less Than 2% of: Vital Wheat Gluten, Corn Starch, Soy Protein Isolate, Canola Oil, Salt, Natural Flavors, Sugar, Safflower Oil, Yeast, Yeast Extract, Methylcellulose, Caramel Color, Garlic Powder, Dried Onion, Barley Malt Extract, Onion Powder, Rub (Dried Vegetables (Red Bell Peppers, Garlic, Onion), Spices, Organic Cane Sugar, Salt), Potato Starch, Spices, Citric Acid, Xanthan Gum.
Gardein Plant-Based Minestrone & Saus’ge Review
Thoughts: This one was closest in flavor and texture to what the traditional soup was supposed to be to us. Again there was about 5 pieces of meat in the can. This one was Larisha’s favorite.
Allergens: Soy, Wheat.
Ingredients: Water, Tomato Paste, Red Kidney Beans (red Kidney Beans, Water), Tomatoes, Green Beans, Carrots, Pasta (durum Wheat Semolina, Niacin, Iron [ferrous Sulfate], Thiamin Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid), Cooked Chickpeas (water, Chickpeas), Less Than 2% Of: Textured Soy Protein Concentrate, Celery, Red Bell Peppers, Salt, Olive Oil, Canola Oil, Celery Puree, Onion Puree, Palm Oil, Fire-roasted Tomatoes, Vital Wheat Gluten, Garlic Powder, Spices, Soy Protein Isolate, Sugar, Corn Starch, Methylcellulose, Onion Powder, Potato Starch, Yeast Extract, Carrot Juice Concentrate (color), Paprika (color), Tomato Powder, Citric Acid, Smoke Flavor, Barley Malt Extract, Onion Juice Concentrate, Vinegar, Lactic Acid, Natural Flavors.
Gardein Plant-Based Saus’ge Gumbo Review
Thoughts: Andrew didn’t remember ever having gumbo before but Larisha said that she didn’t think it was as spicy as she remembers gumbo being. There was a little heat in there, but even people that don’t like spicy food would enjoy this. The flavors overall were still nice.
Allergens: Soy, Wheat.
Ingredients: Water, Parboiled Long Grain Rice, Celery, Okra, Red Bell Peppers, Less Than 2% of: Tomato Paste, Tomatoes, Textured Soy Protein Concentrate, Corn Starch, Salt, Canola Oil, Natural Flavors, Fire-roasted Tomatoes, Palm Oil, Vital Wheat Gluten, Dried Onion, Yeast Extract, Soy Protein Isolate, Sugar, Spices, Methylcellulose, Garlic Powder, Paprika (Color), Potato Starch, Yeast, Tomato Powder, Crushed Red Pepper, Smoke Flavor, Olive Oil, Barley Malt Extract, Lactic Acid.
Gardein Plant-Based Chick’n & Rice Review
Thoughts: Larisha was most looking forward to this one because she loved it as a kid. Overall, it’s a good soup but didn’t hit those nostalgic tastes for her personally. Again with the vegan chicken soups, there were many pieces in the soup. Larisha commented that maybe they could be cut smaller to feel like it was more than just a few very large pieces. While Andrew said he didn’t mind it, Larisha did say that the canned chicken was the least favorite of the three types of meat that Gardein had.
Allergens: Soy, Wheat.
Ingredients: Water, Carrots, Celery, Parboiled Long Grain Rice, Less Than 2% of: Cooked Wild Rice (Wild Rice, Water), Soy Protein Isolate, Corn Starch, Natural Flavors, Vital Wheat Gluten, Salt, Canola Oil, Sunflower Oil, Yeast Extract, Methylcellulose, Spices, Garlic Powder, Ancient Grain Flour (Khorasan Wheat), Yeast, Dried Onion, Potato Starch, Sugar, Titanium Dioxide (Color), Citric Acid, Gum Arabic, Lactic Acid, Beta Carotene (Color).
Gardein Plant-Based Chick’n Noodl’
Thoughts: This was the least favorite out of the 5. The broth was thick and creamier than any of the other broths and the flavors just weren’t there for us. It wasn’t horrible, but it’s the least one that we’d buy in the future. We did like the noodle choice they made for the soup.
Allergens: Soy, Wheat.
Ingredients: Water, Carrots, Celery, Pasta (durum Wheat Semolina, Niacin, Iron [ferrous Sulfate], Thiamin Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid), Contains Less Than 2% Of: Corn Starch, Natural Flavors, Soy Protein Isolate, Vital Wheat Gluten, Salt, Yeast Extract, Canola Oil, Sunflower Oil, Methylcellulose, Organic Ancient Grain Flour (khorasan Wheat, Amaranth, Millet, Quinoa), Spices, Garlic Powder, Yeast, Dried Onion, Potato Starch, Organic Distilled Vinegar, Organic Yeast Extract, Sugar, Color Added, Organic Corn Maltodextrin, Onion Powder, Citric Acid, Organic Soy Sauce Powder, Pea Protein, Gum Arabic, Turmeric Extractives, Beta Carotene (color).
Never miss another post! Sign up for our weekly newsletter and get them all delivered easily! Plus, 15 easy recipes delivered immediately!
Sign Up For My Newsletter Today!
Overall Thoughts for Gardein Soup Review
Overall with taste, we were surprised. We didn’t get the bad tastes that we’ve seen others describe. We were generally pleasantly surprised.
For Larisha, the minestrone was her favorite and for Andrew, he most enjoyed the beef and vegetable. These are the two that we would consume again.
There was a lot more broth than ingredients in most, with the chicken varieties seeming to have a better liquid to solid ratio. All of the cans, regardless of the vegan meat option, only had about 5 pieces of “meat” inside. We would personally like to see them halved or quartered so you felt like you were getting some in eat bite rather than trying to cut them in the soup or only have a few bites of “meat”.
The chicken was the least favorite “meat” selection for Larisha, but Andrew said overall he didn’t mind any of them.
Many people have talked about the smell of these. The chick’n noodl and be’f and vegetable when you first open the can definitely smell off, especially then noodle one – like dog food smell. The be’f one looses that smell when cooked, but the smell of then chicken one even after cooking, was still off. Not in a this isn’t edible way though. Hopefully that makes sense.
Allergens: They all contained soy and wheat.
Nutrition: They were also high in sodium, with an average of almost 50% of the daily sodium limit. This is common in not only processed foods, but especially canned foods, so this was not something that was surprising to us, but something that we wanted to point out. The minestrone was the lowest in sodium with 1030mg per can and the highest was the beef and vegetable with 1130mg per can.
All of them contained at least 10g of protein per can, with the highest being the 15g in the beef and vegetable.
Where to Buy: Gardein Soup Store Locator
Price: All of these were $3.49 each for us.
Howard D
I’ve tried all the soups. I agree with the comments about quantity of pieces of “meat”. The Chick’N Noodle is my least favorite. Something is just off about the thickness and taste. The Minestrone is my favorite. I do like the Chick’N & Rice, but I have to add seasoning. I’m on the fence with the Gumbo and Be’f.
Larisha Bernard
Thanks for sharing
Aaron
So I have had all the soups. I found the chicken noodle and chicken and rice to be almost inedible. There is a spice combination which shows up in a lot of canned vegan food. I wish I knew what it was. Do you guys know? I can’t describe how much I dislike this particular taste and I don’t know why companies don’t get rid of it.
LarishaBernard
Not entirely sure, sorry