SOUPS ON AT HAPPY PLANET
Happy Planet is a privately owned, community-minded, eco-aware and health conscious BC company known for selling fresh, organic juices.
Now they have extended their line to soups, and having sampled a few of them we think they are worthy of a recommendation.
The soups come in six versions: Berkeley Butternut Squash, Moroccan Chick Pea, Armenian Red Lentil, Louisiana Corn Chowder, Tuscan Tomato and Thai Coconut. “Like the juices their labels boast of many trendy virtues: low fat, low salt, vegetarian, gluten, stabilizer and preservative free, and in most cases also dairy free. Four of the six varieties have even earned the right to be labeled “organic.”
Kettle cooked in small batches and then packed into clear, plastic pouches that will stand upright in your refrigerator, they are undoubtedly convenient to use, but when it came to taste we found them to be as good as their promise: fresh and light and with a true vegetable flavour. The corn in the chowder tastes like fresh picked corn on the cob; the tomato soup reminiscent of ripe summer tomatoes, not tomato paste -- and all of it without that glue-y, salt charged texture that so often accompanies pre-made soup products.
Even so, as with all packaged soups, the Happy Planet products still make a better base for the home cook’s own inventive additions of fresh herbs, vegetables and spices than they do served alone.
Apparently the company has anticipated this however and they list their own flavour enhancement suggestions on the package. With the Tuscan tomato for example, they suggest the addition of Parmesan cheese, freshly chopped basil and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. We added crab, a little cream (there goes the low fat) and fresh chopped coriander to the corn chowder.
If we could have voted on one point though, it would have been for more local sounding names. However, we would guess this to be a marketing decision based on the fact that the soups will soon be available across Canada, and what may be one man’s Okanagan is not necessarily another’s Niagara.
The soup line debuted here in BC a couple of weeks ago and can be purchased in the refrigerated cases at local grocers such as Choices, Save-On Foods and Capers. It retails for approximately $6 a package. Although they can be frozen they are designed to be consumed fresh and have a refrigerated shelf life of about one month.
