Today’s review is on Organic Tomato Basil with Pasta soup mix, Augason Farms. Inexpensive, easy to make, readily available and it tastes… well… read on…
Why all the Augason Farms reviews? Because we’re trying out a selection as we seek long term storage, easy cook solutions. MREs are sorta ok, but too much of it is junk food (desserts and sugared drinks), they’re bulky, and they’re expensive. This Tomato Basil with Pasta soup mix costs about $3ish for a bag (Amazon, when we bought it) with 8 servings and takes about ⅓ the space of a normal sized bag of potato chips.
Preparation of the Tomato Basil with Pasta soup mix:
The Tomato Basil with Pasta soup mix’s directions say to add 1 cup water to ⅓ cup dry mix per serving, whisk, and simmer 20 minutes. I put mix and water in my Instant Pot pressure cooker, gave it a quick stir, and ran it 10 minutes just because it’s so darned easy that way. Perfect.
I also gave Tomato Basil with Pasta soup mix the ‘hard times cooking’ test, which needs nothing more than a way to boil water and an insulated container. I put hot water in one of our insulated Yukon growlers to preheat it, then dump it (it can be re-used), add the dry mix, add half the boiling water, cap and shake violently (as a substitute for ‘whisk’), add the rest of the boiling water, and leave it sitting until lunchtime. This mix passed that test with a C: flavorful and the perfect temperature, but the pasta had a bit of the undercooked, chewy groove.
Pros:
Very nice flavor, rather like an upscale cream of tomato soup with some pasta added. There’s a definite cheese undertone without it coming off overtly cheesy. The tomato flavor resembles real tomatoes, not lame winter-grocery-store tomatoes; and the basil is prominent but not too much. Good texture and mouth feel. It doesn’t taste super-salty or way too sweet like cheap canned tomato soups often do. The nutrition is ok. 150 calories a cup. 5 g protein; not a ton but decent for a cup of soup. A good amount of iron (35% RDA).
Cheap, long shelf life, easy to prepare, a good number of servings in a bag, and feels like real food.
Cons:
Negligible fiber, so no improvement on the MRE tendency to plug a body up. How do you put so many tomatoes in something and end up with so little Vitamin C and A? They must be destroyed by the processing. There’s a lot of salt, at 600 mg (but not as bad as some canned soups). The pasta is not whole wheat — you get a lot more nutrition for not much different flavor if you go whole wheat.
Pro tip:
This would be a great place to add in some dehydrated vegetables. They’d increase bulk, satiety, and nutrition; and if you didn’t go too heavy handed and used small pieces they’d be inconspicuous enough to not trigger rejection by the vegetable-averse. The next batch is getting some dried carrots, a sprinkle of spinach, and some zuccini squash. Tossing in some beef substitute would increase the protein and make it seem more meal-like.
Summary:
This one’s a win. It meets the test of being cheap enough and good enough that I’m happy to rotate it by eating some every now and then and replacing it.
Organic Tomato Basil With Pasta Soup Mix
4.41
Pros
- Nice flavor
- Good texture, mouth feel
- Doesn't taste too salty or sweet
- Nutrition is "OK"
Cons
- Negligable fiber
- Not many vitamins
- Lot of salt
- Pasta not whole grain