Smart Spuds (Asda Smartprice New Potatoes In Salted Water)

Member Name: Zmugzy

Product:	Asda Smartprice New Potatoes In Salted Water
Date:	03/06/09 (64 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Convenient and quick to prepare.

Disadvantages: Lack of flavour

Not the ideal way to buy potatoes but at least these are new potatoes and having a tin in stock does come in handy for making soups etc. They are in essence a canned vegetable convenience food. They are also very cheap at 29p per can and for many will represent a good value buy.

The potatoes are of various sizes and come stuffed in a green and white 345g can (rather than the illustrated red and white one) with only salt water for company. The can is of the ring pull design which is a blessing, making the can easy to open and quite unusual on a cheaper brand of canned food. Once opened and poured into a bowl the potatoes appear a uniform off-white although I wouldn't call it beige - calling food beige just doesn't seem right. On the whole the potatoes from the tin I opened seemed in very good condition with neither a blemish nor a black spot in sight.

I always drain the potatoes and rinse them to get rid of the salt water. They are easy to prepare. Just place them in a saucepan and heat them gently on the hob for five or six minutes making sure that you don't let them boil. These potatoes are not recommended for microwave heating. If your adding them to a soup chuck them in for the last ten minutes.

Taste wise although not brilliant, they're not bad. Eaten alone they are kind of bland with just the salt bringing out any residue of potato flavour that might have survived the canning process. Of course one wouldn't expect them to retain the vitality of fresh new potatoes bought in a bag. This is why these potatoes should really only be used in soups and casseroles. On the other hand, you could always spice them up a bit by adding a few herbs and drenching them in melted butter.

Summary: Value spuds in a tin.