There is nothing like a quick fix for hunger or something to warm you up on a cold day. As I was cuddled up on the sofa watching the depressing weather that England had to offer yesterday, I decided that I needed something to warm me up. I rooted through the cupboard and found these Ainsley Harriott cup soups that I'd brought home with me from university a few short weeks back. This is probably my favourite flavour of all of them, but before I go into detail about that, I'll give you a few facts about the soup itself.

For a box of 4 sachets, it costs approximately 78p a packet, but I bought them from Asda when they had an offer of 2 boxes for £1.50; not a massive saving I know, but they looked really nice. Each cup contains 70 calories, less than 1% fat, 0.4g of fat per sachet when made up with water and 1.38g of salt.

With regards to allergy advice it contains cows' milk but that is all. It even comes with cooking instructions, just in case people are struggling; empty the contents of 1 sachet into a cup or mug and add 200ml of boiling water, stir well and leave to stand for 1 minute - hardly complicated. In terms of natural ingredients it contains leek, onion, carrot, chicken, garlic, parsley, salt and black pepper.

Ainsley posts a message on the back of each box that says "Get ready to tickle your taste buds with the most sensational cup soup we've ever created!" I don't know if I agree with that but it is definitely one tasty cup soup. My general impression of cup soups is that they are watery, flavourless and a total waste of money. As a sucker for a label, with this one being endorsed and created by a celebrity chef, I decided to give it a shot and I was pleasantly surprised! The soup looks even more bright and colourful than the picture on the front of the box, there are a good few pieces of leek, onion and garlic in particular that sit on the top and right the way through the soup as you eat it. The carrot definitely adds a bit of colour to the different shades of green. It's got a really good flavour too; the stock has lots of parsley in it which adds a really good flavour. It isn't as watery as any other cup soup that I have tried in the past, it has a good bit of substance to it. The only downside is the distinct lack of chicken. Granted the soup stock itself does taste of chicken, but you are sometimes lucky to find one miniscule piece of chicken in your soup, which, given the name, is somewhat disappointing. Nevertheless it is an amazing soup given that it is a cup soup and at roughly 20p per sachet it is amazing value. I have bought these repeatedly for months as they are ideal to have if you are in a rush or don't fancy anything heavy for dinner.