Home > Categories > Food > Soups and Chowders > Down to Earth Organic Soup - Tomato with Cashewnut Cream review
Imagine tomatoes getting juicier as they soak in the sun while cashew nuts get rich with the salty breeze near the beaches of India. We've put the two together to give the ever-popular tomato soup a whole new taste and flavour.
Prepared from fresh, hand-picked organic tomato this soup is light and has high nutritional value. It is an irresistible soup with a spicy warmth and nutty sweetness look no further, this colourful delight is all that and more. It is also loaded with cancer-fighting eye opener and lots of antioxidants. Roasting the tomatoes with spices add a wonderfully smoky spicy taste to this creamy soup.
Cashew Tomatoes soup has hippie roots but its rich and spicy creaminess makes it a favourite for many carnivores, even though its vegan, cashew cream not only adds taste and nutrition but also it thickens the soup slightly. It is a quick and simple dish that can easily be consumed ahead of time and reheated just before serving.
Product reviews...
Down to earth is an excellent company that is doing their part towards smarter, healthier and sustainable products and their soup range is a great example of this being full of organic ingredients thriving with flavour. The tomato soup with cashewnut cream comes in a well-portioned 300ml can with some nifty illustrations around the label and earthy vibrant colours throughout. I ripped open the easy to tear lid and poured the soup into a pan noticing its really vibrant red hue and smelling its sweet tomato and ginger aroma. I heated the soup up and poured it into a bowl and proceeded to eat the delicious liquid which was very flavoursome.
The soup is bursting with a sweet tomato tanginess blended well with a rich peppery taste and sharp notes of ginger. I was surprised to see ginger listed so far down the ingredients list because it is such a dominant flavour besides the tomato. There's also quite a spice flavour from the soup but when reading the ingrediants there was nothing I could really pin the taste down to as I was expecting either chilli or paprika but neither are listed. Nutmeg is listed but I can't imagine that being the source of the spiciness so I would have to assume maybe a combination of the ingredients creates the spice flavour.
I really enjoyed this soup as I have with other Down to earth products and would definitely recommend to anyone who enjoys soups and sweet and spicy foods. Down to Earth is a fairly new brand to me and I really wish to see them thrive and watch their range expand as they are proving to be a great reliable brand.
I eat soup for my work week lunches at least 3-4 times a week, so I feel like I am a good person to rate new flavours of soup. This flavour of Down to Earth I have not tried before, so I was looking forward to trying it.
The can size is perfect to pair with my soup and I was excited that per serve it is only 43 calories! That means I could have a larger variety of food for lunch. Upon doling it out into my bowl, the consistency is pretty smooth and does not have any chunks. It also looks creamy. Even though it is a tomato soup, and probably due to the cashew nut cream, the colour is more orange than red.
As for tasting the soup, the flavours that stood out to me are the tomatoes, cream, black pepper, onion, and garlic. It is quite a sweet soup. It is too sweet for my preference. I usually like more of a savoury tomato soup. I paired it with my normal side salad, and I think it would be best served with the typical sandwich which would make the sweetness more tolerable and would potentially complement each other. Without having a sandwich or bread, this soup was a bit hard for me to eat. I did find it filling.
Down to Earth makes a lot of different organic and gluten-free soups and I have really enjoyed the others I have tried. This flavour is not one of them. Those that enjoy sweet soups may think differently, so if you do, then definitely give this flavour a try. If not, I still recommend the companyâ ™s other flavours.
One of my main meals to cook in winter is soup, I have a small range but they're perfect for those days when I can throw it in my slow cooker, knowing I won't feel like cooking in the evening. Tinned soup is a good alternative for those days we need a quick meal or I forgot to put anything on, eek! This time, though, this was perfect for throwing into my bag when I realized I hadn't prepared anything for lunch at work and I was sick of the sandwiches across the road. Because the benefit of this is that you don't need a can opener, but so be careful opening it as it isn't the easiest to open.
It didn't take long to heat up, a minute was good, though I did end up putting it on for another minute after a phone call distracted me. The colour is almost a dirty red, but when you're going with natural ingredients we don't want bright red tomato soup, do we? Aroma wise this didn't real have me watering at the mouth in anticipation, so I sat down, gave it a decent stir and had my first taste. I didn't have any salt on me, so I have to wonder if it would have been improved with a sprinkling and if so then it isn't really a take to work meal if I have to remember to bring that too. It had a nice, slight creamy taste to the meal and whilst I did enjoy it, I found mine to be a tad too spicy. That being said, I did finish most of it before my break ended.
I can't see my kids liking this, I may get it again if I see it on special as the taste was good (not great, but good) and I can imagine that my mother would rather enjoy it.
Soups are a great option to have on hand in the pantry for those quick meals, the "cannot be bothered" days, the sick days, and especially for us here in Marlborough, the COLD winter days. They are also a handy thing to take for lunch if you have run out of items, as often happens in our three hungry children household! I was excited to see these soups on the list to request, as I had not heard of them before, and love trying new brands and varieties, as well as know that they are good for me being organic and more keto/paleo than a lot of others.
The 300ml serving size of the can rather than a standard size made a good sized meal for me, and I found I could reheat is easily in a mug, which is a huge plus in my book, with less chance of spilling it in the microwave, or tipping it down myself!! It is a pull tab opening, so no need for a can opener - but, do be careful as it is easy to use a bit of force and spill it! I would also recommend giving the can a good shake BEFORE pouring it into whatever you are going to heat it in and again after heating, as some of the heavier liquid does separate.
What is the taste of the soup like, most importantly? Having not tried tomato soup with cashew nut cream before I had no idea what to expect but was pleasantly delighted! There is of course a definite tomato flavour, but the cashew nut cream reminds me of a curry sauce creaminess - but not in a really rich rich way. It is not as tangy as other tomato soups I have tried - but it is like my Mum's soup - with spices and herbs in it such as nutmeg, giving it a slightly sweet, less tangy tomatoey taste. I tried all three of my children on this soup and they all really enjoyed it - commenting it was a bit sweeter than others they had had and that was what they liked. (A definite plus for fussy children!!)
All in all, I really enjoyed the flavour and would absolutely recommend to others as well as buy again. Looking forward to searching out and trying the other flavurs in this brand to see what they are like as well!
I love my soups. Whether the generic powdered soups or the canned soups, they are a great item to keep in the pantry, with simple and fast heating directions, a long shelf-life, and no need to be refrigerated. Perfect to keep in your emergency packs, or buy in bulk ready for when you are rushed for time or feeling unwell. Soups are awesome.
Soups can get a little monotonous if you do have them too often, however, with the various brands not actually having too many flavours that are distinctive. Most brands will stock the same (or similar) flavours. Generally, the biggest difference is the texture, canned soups obviously being the brands that have better textures and larger chunks.
This product, however, is a tomato soup variety, so despite being a canned brand, there are no chunks to be found here. In fact, this is a very thin soup, so I would recommend giving the can a short shake prior to opening (to mix everything together) and then exercise extreme caution when opening. The can is not as easy to open as other cans, as the smaller stature of the can provides less to hold on to as well, making the can less stable.
The small size of the can does make it an easy soup to reheat with very little fuss, as you can easily pour it into a coffee mug, and microwave to your heart's content. Boom! it makes like 60 seconds and you've got a piping hot soup. You couldn't find an easier way to sort out a meal and only end up with a cup (and maybe a spoon if you really want) to clean afterwards. Perfect for the lazy bachelor, the rushed worker, or those that are sick and on bed rest.
How does this soup taste, though? Well, this isn't just a bowl of tomato soup or even an organic tomato soup. This soup also has cashew nut cream, and that makes a heck of a difference to the flavour. Perhaps it could also be put down to the sugar and nutmeg added as well, but there is a definite sweetness to not only the flavour but the aroma too. The ingredients combine in a way that oddly reminds me of the scent of raisins. A very peculiar smell for a tomato soup.
The flavour is quite nice though. There are a lot of little hints here and there of the different ingredients and stock types involved, but this is still very much a tomato soup, which has a great savouriness to it, along with a refreshing sweetness.
Personally, I prefer thicker soups (I'll often use two cup-a-soup sachets in a single cup), so the viscosity is low for my taste, but the flavour is definitely not something that I have come across before. It's not something I would have frequently. It feels a little too eccentric for that. But it's certainly something I wouldn't have qualms with keeping in the pantry for a rainy day.
Two of us shared this soup and were so excited by it that we tried to buy more when we were shopping next day. Unfortunately, it was a Central Otago town with just two smallish supermarkets, and neither stocked it. We recommended to both of them that they should! This is quite simply one of the best soups we have ever tasted, if not the actual best. It has flavour, it has texture, it has colour - we could not fault it. It is on the expensive side, and not quite enough for two to share unless served as a snack, but for a product of this calibre I don't mind paying that little extra. You could taste both the tomato and the cashew, but the blend was harmonious, and worked really well.
We were equally impressed that the product is organic - another plus as far as we are concerned. As to the vegan label, that is a plus for some, but we enjoy everything whether vegan, vegetarian, or designed for carnivores - good food is just that, something to relish and to share. However, I have lots of friends and family who are vegetarian, and a few who are vegan, so I look forward to introducing this soup to them. I am sure they would all enjoy it as much as we did. Because there were two of us sharing the tin, we had a bread roll apiece as well - but if I had been having it on my own, I might have skipped the bread altogether.
Sometimes "healthy" options disappoint in terms of presentation. Tomatoes that are pumped full of chemical preservatives before being made into soups or ketchups are frequently coloured bright red - presumably to entice the consumer into thinking they are the real thing. After all, most varieties of fresh tomatoes are judged by their colour as to whether they are fully ripe. However, despite being a "healthier" option, this product does not disappoint. The colour may not be bright, but it is an authentic reddish-brown - and of course it contains cashew nuts as well, which alters the colour somewhat. We found the presentation enticing; it certainly invited us to taste it.
I am going to buy some more cans when I return home as I think our children would like it, fussy eaters though they may be. Although full of flavour, the soup is not overly spicy so should appeal to our younger family members. It is more likely that they will ask for seconds and finish up the lot so I will have to keep an eye on them.
Random listing from 'Food'...
Organic soft blackcurrants are rolled in the highest grade organic premium 58% Dark Belgian chocolate. Wickedly moreish.
• Organic premium Belgian 58% dark chocolate
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