The Worst Amy's Canned Soup We Tried Tastes Like A Whole Lot Of Nothing

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Since the late 1980s, Amy's has focused on creating great recipes with real ingredients. What began with making pot pies at home gradually evolved into a full-sized kitchen operation. In time, the team was slinging burritos, mac and cheese, and pizza for hungry customers. In 1999, Amy's Kitchen added soups, beans, and chili to its portfolio and, not long after, began enforcing a strict non-GMO policy for its products. Amy's soups are therefore made with organic vegetables, grains, and slow-simmered broth. With tons of different recipes to choose from, even strict dietary demands can be catered for. To that end, Tasting Table picked up 14 different Amy's canned soups to sample and rank from worst to best. Unfortunately, a classic favorite fell to the bottom of the list, as the texture and taste of the low sodium minestrone soup required significant doctoring.

First and foremost, it's worth noting that Amy's sells two different kinds of minestrone soup, one of which contains far less sodium than the brand's regular recipe. This low-fat, light in sodium minestrone soup is formulated using tomato broth, organic veggies, beans, and pasta. The instructions direct home cooks to shake the can and then either heat the soup in a saucepan or place it in a microwave-safe bowl to cook. Disappointedly, this soup required added salt and seasonings just to make up for the lack of flavor. Customers agree; as one shopper wrote on Well.ca: "Nice combination of vegetables, lovely consistency. BUT what threw us off was how bland and boring it was overall. No flavor to speak of."

Sure, there is plenty of texture to be found within cans of Amy's light in sodium minestrone soup, but we found that, overall, it more closely resembles a diluted attempt at a hearty homemade minestrone recipe, tasting of tomato and little else. We appreciate the no-nonsense list of ingredients of Amy's low sodium minestrone soup, however, and online shoppers echo the sentiment that the store-bought purchase can easily be gussied up with accoutrements if desired. 

"Very good, healthy soup. I did keep back the fifth star because it's a little too bland for me but that was easily fixed," noted one Amazon buyer. "If you find it a bit bland, you can add your own salt or spices, thus controlling the amount of sodium yourself," added another. Unless you're simply looking for a base that can be dressed up with your favorite spices, herbs, and soup garnishes, there are plenty of considerably better, and tastier, ready-made soup options on the shelves. 

But, if you do want to enjoy some hearty minestrone without needing to reach for the salt shaker or prepare additional ingredients to make it a real meal, you might want to simply try Amy's regular minestrone soup instead of the low sodium version.