New Covent Garden Soup Co: Great British Recipes

New Covent Garden Soup Co. have celebrated this year’s summer by bringing out a great new range of soups. But, even better than that, they invited me to come and try them.

I went along with my friend Helen (who blogged about the day here) and when we got there I was asked which soups I’d like to try. I said ‘any as long as they’re vegetarian’ and was told that they all were. Whoop.

First of all I tried the Vintage Cheddar & Piccalilli flavour which is a British Ploughman’s in a bowl of soup featuring cheese, piccalilli, small chunks of vegetable and a hint of mustard.

Then I was handed a sample of the Garden Pea, Rocket & Lovage flavour which reminded me of something but I wasn’t sure what. It was suggested to me that maybe it tasted of celery (as supposedly lovage does – I wouldn’t know) and yes, it did taste of celery, although this soup was gorgeous and I don’t usually like cooked celery. Raw celery is fine, especially when dipped in a mound of hummus but then again, there aren’t many things that can’t be improved by putting hummus on it.

Next up were the cold soups. I’m a ‘COLD SOUPS ARE WRONG’ kind of girl but I’m always up for a challenge, especially a soupy one and so I gave them a go. I should point out that the following two soups don’t have to be eaten cold, they can also be heated up.

The Parsnip, Apple & Elderflower was first to be tried. Weird. But nice. Very nice, in fact. It’s something that would be great at a picnic or BBQ.

Then came the Beetroot & Horseradish soup. Hmm. An acquired taste I think. Both Helen and I said that it was ok but a bit odd.

I went home with a sample of my favourite of the day – Garden Pea, Rocket & Lovage which I’ve had for lunch this week and it was just as nice as I remembered it.

I was also given one of their new Fresh Bowls – a soup base and selection of fresh vegetables separated by a tray in a microwaveable pack. The vegetables are cooked through by the steam from the soup and then dropped into the steaming bowlful by removing the tray. I didn’t get a chance to try this though, as Helen ran off with the bag it was in. She says she’ll buy me a pint though to compensate me, so it’s not all bad.

Thank you to New Covent Garden Soup Co. for inviting me to try your new soups.