Sainsbury’s Taste The Difference Mexican Chipotle Soup

After several years of reviewing chocolate here at Chocablog, I don’t think there have been too many instances of me reviewing food which contains chocolate as opposed to being chocolate. Not through lack of willingness on my part, you understand, just because the opportunity hasn’t presented itself much.

Most of my friends know that I like most foods, not just chocolate. They also know that I like to try new and interesting foods (which is why I was given chocolate covered ants one Christmas) so when I was out doing a food shop & saw this on the shelf at Sainsburys, I knew I wanted to try it.

Adding dark chocolate to stews and chillis is nothing new. In fact it’s quite common in Mexican cooking (mole sauce anyone?) and this soup reflects that. It’s full of classic Mexican ingredients – smokey chipotle chillis, sweetcorn, rice and of course dark chocolate. I was very much looking forward to he tasting.

It’s also not hard to make. Throw in some water & a tin of tomatoes & it more or less takes care of itself. Perfect for people in a hurry (or lazy cooks). The packet even suggests that this soup base would make a decent chilli con carne with the addition of beef and beans. Versatile too!

After a short period simmering away (during which time the soup thickened considerably) it was ready to serve.

First impressions were good. The soup definitely has some chilli warmth to it but it won’t blow your head off, and the tomatoey, sweetcorn and spice flavours are indeed underpinned with hints of that dark chocolate.

Don’t get me wrong here, it isn’t a soup that tastes of chocolate, it’s a soup that uses chocolate as one of a set of ingredients, but without the chocolate it would taste quite a bit different. What the chocolate does is add a little body to the soup, plus a lovely undercurrent of chocolatiness.

They say the proof is in the eating, and we took care of this soup (with a few slices of home made bread) in not many minutes at all. Having read the ingredients I’d be tempted to make this myself from scratch (it’s not terribly complicated) but if you fancy a wee taste of Mexico in soup form I’d recommend tracking this one down.

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