Aldi Hearty Pea Soup (Deutsche Küche) Review
Author’s Note: The following review is my own silly opinion. I don’t work for Aldi. Nobody paid me to write this review. I have no affiliation with Deutsche Küche brand or Aldi. I don’t actually know what prison food looks like, and I’d like to keep it that way.
Stay out of Soup Jail.
OK, so first of all, I don’t hate this soup. Would I buy it again? No. Did I eat it all? No, but I tried. Would I recommend it to friends? Probably not.
I bought this during German Week in mid-September. German Week is a highly anticipated, twice-annual Aldi event which features many imported “Authentic German Food” options. Most of these are within the Deutsche Küche store brand, although other Aldi brands are sometimes imported from Germany, too.
Here’s the scoop on this Aldi canned Hearty Pea Soup from Deutsche Küche:
Sad beige soup.
This is “sad beige soup.” It has a few bright pops of orange carrots. Otherwise, it is a dull “greige” color. My camera was kind and gave it a slightly warmer, richer color than it had in real life. It looks like the stuff prison wardens plop in your bowl when you are in a very bad prison. Or orphanage.
There is little liquid between the vegetables, but what is there has a moderate thickness. The soup broth doesn’t fully coat a spoon, but it isn’t runny either.
Ornery peas and defeated carrots
The peas are enormous. And strangely colorless. Vampire peas. They are so huge, I thought they were chickpeas at first. I mean, look at them. They are roughly the same size and shape (and color?) as a chickpea. I guess I am used to “split pea soup” — which uses dried peas and has a softer, thicker consistency with more natural “pea color.”
The “heartiness” of this soup is definitely due to the vast quantity of these bean-like peas. Most of my bowl was a big pile of peas. They are filling, but I would suggest serving this with bread to complete the amino acids in the protein.
The peas have more structure than I expected. The skins are thick and slightly fibrous. Given the extreme softness of the other vegetables, it’s nice to have something to chew.
Anyway. Those peas. After you get past the thick skin, they have a soft, mealy inside. Not much like a vegetable. They taste like beans. In fact, if I didn’t know this was “pea soup,” I would swear they were just beans.
I know peas are kind of a gray area in the legume/veggie world. According to Harvard Health, peas are classified as a starchy vegetable when they are fresh or frozen, but considered a legume when they are “mature,” or dried. In this case, they function as legumes. I like legumes, so this is OK.
Do you like chickpeas? Perhaps you’d enjoy my slightly eccentric review of Aldi Lentil & Chickpea Soup.
However, the carrots are excessively soft. Carrot mush. There aren’t enough of them to be distressing, but I really hated their texture. It’s like they’ve just given up on life and aren’t even trying anymore. Come on, carrots! Fight back!
Surprisingly, the potatoes are fairly perky. They’re much firmer than “soup potatoes” would normally be. Not raw or deeply unpleasant, but still oddly stiff. If I could switch the carrot texture with the potato texture, I would. It seems backwards.
I found no leeks or onions in my soup, so I assume those are cooked into oblivion and merely lend flavor.
The flavors
Speaking of flavor, this soup has an OK flavor. It’s a savory, slightly smokey taste — like one might get from cooking a ham bone in the soup. However, there is no meat or bone broth in this soup — instead, there are “artificial flavors.” As in, plural. As in, multiple artificial flavors. How many? We don’t know. We just know they are here. Artificial flavoring in a soup is very disappointing. More about the ingredients later.
No, wait. I’m not done complaining. It should be possible to make a flavorful soup with actual food, and not with “artificial flavors.” If you need artificial flavors to make soup taste good, I question the quality and type of ingredients used. Do better, Aldi.
Anyway. This soup didn’t taste very salty. I added salt to mine. It also has no spice flavors or heat. Some freshly ground pepper perked it up a bit. Minus the smokey artificial flavors, it’s very bland food.
Ingredients in Aldi Deutsche Küche Hearty Pea Soup
Here are the ingredients from the label:
- Water
- Peas
- Potatoes
- Carrots
- Onions
- Salt
- Leeks
- Modified Corn Starch
- Artificial Flavorings
- Canola Oil
- Guar Gum
- Wheat Flour
- Sugar
- Spices
- Citric Acid (Acidifier)
Other than the listed ingredients, there’s also an allergen warning for potential soy, milk, egg, tree nuts, and fish. Well, that’s a lot.
Minus the artificial flavors, these are not “bad” ingredients. I don’t love the modified corn starch, of course. Added sugar seems unnecessary. Although, it must be a small amount, because the Nutrition Facts list zero grams added sugars per serving. Hmm.
Nutrition Facts in Hearty Pea Soup from Aldi
A serving is 1 cup and contains 170 calories. There is only 1.5 grams of fat, but an admirable 11 grams of protein. And an almost staggering 9 grams of fiber. From those ornery peas! You also get 29 grams of carbohydrates, of which 3 grams are sugars. Despite not tasting very salty, there’s a hefty 31% of your daily value of sodium per serving.
Yikes, the fiber. If you ate 1.5 servings at once (like I did), you got a terrifying amount of fiber. Almost 14 grams. I mean, fiber is good, right? Right???
Cooking Instructions for Aldi Hearty Pea Soup
The label offers two ways to cook this:
- Stove Top
- Microwave
Notably, if you choose the stove top method, you must not boil. Why not? I don’t know. Maybe you go straight to Soup Jail.
In Soup Jail, you probably have to eat this soup every day, until you escape by digging under the wall at night….
I chose to microwave mine — because Soup Jail sounds scary, and I’m no good at digging. I put it in a large glass storage bowl and microwaved it for about 3 minutes total.
Price and Servings in Deutsche Küche Pea Soup
The 28 ounce can cost $2.39 at my local Aldi. The label says it has 3 servings. This means each serving costs about 80 cents. This is an OK price for a meatless, non-organic soup.
I ate 1.5 servings as a meal. Because the soup is so thick and (indeed) hearty, a single large can probably yields at least two large meals. As a side item, you might get 3-4 servings. Maybe. Depending on what else you serve. Depending on how hungry you are from digging under the prison wall.
Shelf-Life
My can had a “best-by” date that allowed me about 3 years to consume. I like the handy pull-tab on top of the can. If you live in Florida, like I do, this is a potentially good candidate for your “hurricane food” stockpile.
This soup is made in Germany.
Other varieties of Deutsche Küche soups from Aldi include:
- Chickpea and Lentil Soup
- Harvest Potato Soup
- Lentil Vegetable Soup
- Harvest Vegetable Soup
- German Bean Soup
Dramatic Conclusion
This soup may motivate you to stay out of jail. If you like bland bean soups with a dubious fake “ham” flavor, this might be a great product for you. It’s a good item for putting tons of fiber in your diet. I am disappointed by the use of artificial flavors, so I won’t buy this again. Shan’t. Can’t make me.
The End.
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