Fragrant Thai carrot and coconut soup

Name: Fragrant Thai carrot and coconut soup
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 25 min
Total time: 30 min
Yield: 2 bowls
Ingredients: 1 tbsp of olive oil; 1 small brown onion (peeled and diced); 1 clove of garlic (peeled and finely chopped); 1 tsp Thai yellow curry paste; 4 medium carrots (peeled and diced); 1 to pped and tailed stick of celery (chopped); 1 low-salt vegetable stock cube; 350 ml boiling water; 1 tbsp coconut cream; 1 tbsp single cream; 1.5 tsp cornflour; Salt to taste

Published on 28 October, 2017
Last Updated on 11 July, 2018 by Emily Leary 27 Comments

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How do you fancy a fragrant Thai soup, packed with fresh veg and made delicious creamy thanks to some coconut and a dash of cream?

You’ll find my homemade recipe below, and right at the end I compare the homemade version to a similar Heinz soup – read on to find out which scored highest!

Here’s how to make this deliciously fragrant Thai carrot and coconut soup.

Ingredients

1 tbsp of olive oil
1 small brown onion, peeled and diced
1 clove of garlic, peeled and finely chopped
1 tsp Thai yellow curry paste
4 medium carrots, peeled and diced
1 topped and tailed stick of celery, chopped
1 low-salt vegetable stock cube
350ml (12 floz) boiling water
1 tbsp coconut cream
1 tbsp single cream
1.5 tsp cornflour
Salt to taste

Instructions

Add the oil to the pan over a medium-high heat until oil is shimmering. Add the diced onion, garlic and Thai curry paste.

Fry gently until onions are soft and light brown in colour Add the carrots and celery and fry for 2-3 minutes.

Add one stock cube and 350 ml (11.3floz) of boiling water to the pan. Stir, cover and simmer gently for 20 minutes.

Take the soup off the heat and blend it to an almost- smooth consistency.

Add the coconut cream, single cream and cornflour and stir through.

Take the pan back to a gentle heat and let it simmer for 2 minutes. Add a touch more boiling water if it seems too thick.

Pour into a bowl, add a small pinch of salt to taste.

Nice recipe, huh?

Now take a look at this soup…

This one is NOT homemade! It’s from a carton.

Now we all know that ‘tastes like it was homemade’ is a compliment packaged food producers strive for, but for the first time, I’ve been asked by Heinz to really put that to the test by running a side by side comparison of one of their products against a homemade version!

Heinz Soup of the Day comes in six fresh tasting varieties, each with distinctive packaging and plenty of flavour. The cartons don’t need to be kept in the fridge, and they‘re all made with natural ingredients and no artificial flavours, colours, preservatives or added sugar.

For the fairest comparison possible, I pitted my homemade soup against Heinz Soup of the Day Fragrant Thai Carrot and Coconut.

Souper Fresh Taste Test

The test was simple enough. The homemade soup uses a very similar set of ingredients to the ingredients in the Heinz Fragrant Thai Carrot & Coconut carton, so all that was left to do was to taste each of my deliciously fragrant bowls of soup and judge them based on three key criteria.

Time

My homemade soup took just 5 minutes to prep, but around 25 minutes to cook. Heinz Soup of the Day required no prep, of course, and heated in just 3 minutes.

Clearing up my homemade soup took 5 minutes (board, knife, spoon, pan, blender, bowl, spoon), cleaning up after a bowl of Heinz Soup of the Day took 1 minute (bowl and spoon).

Homemade still gets a high score, as anything that goes from scratch to ready to eat in 30 minutes is great in my book, but Heinz gets full marks for being just about a quick as any hot food can be.

Homemade 8/10

Heinz 10/10

Faff

I adore cooking and never really think of it as a chore, and with only 5 minutes of prep time, there was very little faff in making the homemade soup, so it scored well.

However, strictly comparing the effort involved in shopping for the ingredients, peeling and prepping etc, versus the ease of popping the Heinz soup in the microwave means Heinz just pips homemade to the post with full marks yet again.

Homemade 8/10

Heinz 10/10

Taste

The big one!

Taste-wise, the difference between the two heated soups was far more subtle than I expected it to be. Both bowls gave a distinct nod to Thai flavours, and in both bowls the creaminess of the coconut and sweetness of the carrot blended perfectly.

Although both excellent, I feel the flavour for both could have been elevated further with totally fresh, authentic Thai ingredients and methods, but that’s a very minor niggle as my blog is all about recipes that manage to be delicious without requiring you to trek to specialist shops.

I slightly preferred my homemade soup, but mainly because I had full control over the final texture and seasoning to make it just how I like it. The carton soup was just as fresh tasting and delicious tasting, so there was very little to separate them.

Homemade 9/10

Heinz 8/10

Final verdict

When you’re in a hurry, time and faff are big factors, but you still want to eat something tasty.

While I love the taste of a freshly cooked meal, it’s clear that Heinz Soup of the Day is a brilliant option when, for example, you want something tasty for lunch but have very little time to spare. Or perhaps on nights when you’re looking for something healthy and tasty for your family and you don’t have much time to cook, but you really want to feed them something made with only the type of ingredients you’d use yourself, free from artificial colourings, preservatives and no added sugar.

Well done Heinz for putting their products out for judgment like that – very brave!

Have you tried the Heinz Soup of the Day range? What’s your verdict?

And if you’d like that homemade fragrant Thai carrot and coconut soup recipe for yourself, here it is in a printable format. Just click PRINT on the recipe card below.