Being on a tight budget, I often buy a variety of Asda Smartprice products. For me these products tend to fall into either one of two categories - surprisingly good or rather quite bland. Which does Asda's 17p tomato soup fall into. Well, my dear reader, for an answer to that you must read on.......(dum, dum dummmm!)

The product.

You open up the can. You look into the can. A pale red liquid looks back at you. Sadly, this isn't going to be the case of love at first sight. The soup looks a bit too pale and a bit too watery for my liking. There was an advert on TV a while ago where it showed you a group of peas cowering, knowing that they were about to be crushed and turned into a can of mushy peas. One pea survived till the very last second of the advert, thought it was safe and then, of course, got very very squished. Imagine the same thing happening to the tomatoes selected to be in this soup. Although instead of being squished and turned into a mouth watering product, they launch a daring escape, never to be seen again. As a result the tomato soup you see before you seems to be somewhat lacking in the tomato department. Its pale, almost aneamic. The poor thing.

Cooking

Dave's cooking tip #1 - As with most soup products, you should simmer rather than boil so you don't impair the flavor.

Dave's cooking tip #2 - Actually there isn't a number two. What with this just being soup rather than a three course meal the cooking is fairly minimal. Just make sure you don't over-boil it and you'll be fine.

Now, it's said that the first bite of a meal is with the eyes. For me it's with the nose. Nothing gets the mouth watering like a sumptuous aroma drifting up out of the pan. It's a shame then, that Asda's tomato soup doesn't really smell like much of anything!

The taste

While the smell of the soup is practically non-existent, the taste fares slightly better. Yes, it is a bit watery but you can definitely taste the tomato, which for me is quite an important aspect of a tomato soup! What i tend to do to spice things up is to add a pinch of basil, this gives the soup a much needed kick. Couple this with a strongly flavored bread to dunk into the soup (I like to make a sun dried tomato and mozzarella) and you've got yourself a pretty decent meal.

Overall

Lacking in colour. Lacking in flavour. But not so much lacking in taste, which I feel is the most important factor. If you are strapped for cash one day then give this soup a try. It won't overwhelm you but it won't be a complete disappointment either.