Looks like Dish Water! (Tesco Smoked Haddock & Sweet Potato Chowder)

Member Name: sweetdaisy

Product:	Tesco Smoked Haddock & Sweet Potato Chowder
Date:	25/03/07 (571 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: The packaging is recycable (that's about it !)

Disadvantages: Contains miniscule amount of fish or potato, poor value for money

Had I bothered to read the ingredients before buying this soup - I definitely wouldn't have bought it. So why did I bother? I was drawn to the packaging and the lovely looking picture of a Smoked Haddock and big chunks of Sweet Potato on the front of the Soup. I often buy fresh soups and for a change felt like trying a Fish chowder, as I tend to buy the more popular soups such as Chicken broth, Tomato and Basil, Leek and Potato etc.

I came across Tesco Finest* Smoked Haddock & Sweet Potato Chowder in the chilled section of the Ready Made meals aisle. It is packaged in a clear plastic pot, which is recyclable and the pot is 600g and there is enough for two portions. The soup also appealed to me because it was buy one for £1.79 and get the other half price. The other I bought was Mulligatawny - but I haven't tried this yet as I am not expecting it to be nice.

Whilst cooking the Soup it smelt really nice and 'fishy' and thought it would be really nice, but it turned out to be a big disappointment. I would like to point out that even though the chowder is supposed to contain 5% Smoked Haddock, I only found one small piece of fish in the whole pot!! And the piece was about the size of half a penny. Perhaps it is me expecting more from Tesco's Finest* range as I was under the impression that the label was supposed to be higher quality - hence the higher prices you pay, but this has to be the poorest value for money Finest* product I have tried!

Neither did I see (or taste) any Sweet Potato in the soup. The only ingredients I can remember seeing was firstly yellow water (coloured by Turmeric and Annatto) which resembles your dishwater after you leave a plate of Chicken Korma in your washing up bowl!!, some sweetcorn and a few green bits of Basil. Even though this chowder has a very 'fishy' aroma it is actually quite tasteless.

The consistency of the soup resembled yellow water, with blobs of vegetable oil floating at the top! (Not surprising as half a pot contains 37% of your daily recommended intake of fat). It is basically water with a lot of yellow colouring and contains green bits - which apparently is supposed to be Basil (not that it tastes like Basil). The chowder contains whipping cream, however there must be a very small amount of it as there was no thickness to the soup and wasn't at all creamy.

In my opinion: Stay away from this soup!! Tesco Finest* Smoked Haddock & Sweet Potato Chowder is very poor value for money; it resembles dish water and contains a minuscule amount of fish and sweet potato. If you are a lover of fish soup, I would recommend sticking to Baxter' as they really are quality soups that contain real fish pieces.

Half of the pot contains: (% = recommended daily intake)
Calories = 308 (15%)
Sugar = 4.4g (5%)
Fat =26.1g (a very high 37%)
Saturates = 6.8g (a very high 34%)
Salt = 0.9g (15%)

Cooking instructions:
Microwave - 650 watt for 8 ½ minutes, 750 watt 7 ½ minutes or 850 watt 6 ½ minutes.

Hob - empty contents into a saucepan and heat gently for 5-6 minutes, stirring occasionally until piping hot. You mustn't allow the soup to boil (I don't know why they state this because there isn't any goodness in the soup to boil away!)

Ingredients:
Water, Potato, Onion, Sweetcorn, Smoked Haddock (5%), Sweet potato (5%), Vegetable oil, Whipping cream, Potato Starch, Garlic Puree, Basil (0.4%), Salt, Smoked Paprika, Black Pepper, Colours (Turmeric and Annatto).

Other information:
As a caution the soup states that it may contain minor bones (this would be true if it actually contained any fish!!)

Further information can be found at www.tesco.com

Summary: a disgusting chowder which resembles dish water