Trader Joe’s Pumpkin Soup

In our continuing effort to keep up with the onslaught of pumpkin inspired items this year, we next move on to Trader Joe’s Pumpkin Soup! This comes and goes with the seasons and is a staple during the Fall rush of new products and disappears after the holidays (What? We can’t eat pumpkin soup all year long!??!). I love eating a nice hot bowl of soup on a cold day just like anyone else and I am a big fan of all types of squash soups. Personally, I like butternut squash soup better, but pumpkin comes in a close 2nd place. So in my effort to try as many pumpkin inspired products this Fall I decided to pick up some Pumpkin soup for the first time.

Trying to make pumpkin soup from scratch is a quite an endeavor and I’ve only done it a couple of times. It’s much easier to buy it prepared at the store and with similar results. I know there are many of you out there that say it’s not as good but I can’t tell the difference between fresh homemade pumpkin soup and a good can of it at the store. Chicken noodle soup does not can well, but for some reason pumpkin soup is pretty decent out of a can (Or box as is the case here at Trader Joe’s).

So basically we have plain Trader Joe’s Pumpkin soup in a box. It’s pretty easy to prepare. You simply shake up the box and try to open the box! You have to pinch, then squeeze then tear the top of the box off. It’s a little more difficult that I expected, but finally was able to tear the top strip off the box. Then pour the soup into a pot and heat and serve! Well, there was on hiccup during preparation. When I poured the soup into the pot, apparently I didn’t shake the box up enough and ended up with a big lump of pumpkin soup that splashed cold soup all over the stove top when it went into the pot. Next time more shaking!

I heated it up and put it in a bowl and let it cool down a bit. When I tasted it, it just seemed a little bland as it was straight out of the box. I think this is why I like squash soup a little better than pumpkins because butternut squash has more flavor! So, I had to doctor it up a bit. First it didn’t have enough salt. I don’t have high blood pressure anything so I love my salt. Then a few grinds of pepper and a dollop of Creme Fraiche to give a little more richness. Ah, that’s much better!

OK, how to rate this? Hmmm… as it was on it’s own, it didn’t have much flavor. If you look at it as a base to make your own by doctoring it up with other stuff, then it’s pretty darn good. I could see adding some curry powder or some chili to spice things up a bit.  I guess I have to rate it as it comes out of the box and I simply thought that this would be a bit more flavorful out of the box. So, as this Trader Joe’s Pumpkin Soup comes out of the box, I am going to rate it 7 bells!