Healthy Choice Bean and Ham Soup Review

When I spotted Healthy Choice Bean and Ham Soup, I decided to give it a try - after all, I probably wouldn't be making a pot of bean soup anytime soon. When I opened the can, all of the vegetables were on top, suspended in a clear broth, like some 5th grade science-fair project. Emptying the can revealed that all of the beans and their thick sediment had sunk to the bottom of the can. A quick stir in my pot combined the two layers, resulting in a soup that looked like canning liquid mixed with dishwater. Needless to say, thus far I was dreading actually tasting this soup. I heated it, poured it into a bowl, and took a spoonful.

The flavor, thankfully, is nothing like what I thought or what it first looked like. The broth has a mild smoked pork flavor, and the bean sediment thickens the broth and gives it body. There's actually two kinds of beans - navy and pink - though both were overcooked and indistinct. The carrots were practically baby-food grade mush, though the potatoes were surprisingly firm. I counted about four chunks of ham, all of which were dry and chewy. Honestly, the best part by far was the broth, and even that had the "loaded with sodium but still needs salt" syndrome.

One can (249 grams) of Healthy Choice Bean and Ham Soup has 2 servings. Each serving provides 180 calories, 2 grams of total fat, 1 gram of saturated fat (3% and 5% of the daily value), 480 mg of sodium (20% DV), 11 grams of protein and 29 grams of carbohydrates, which includes a whopping 40% of the DV for fiber (10 grams) and 4 grams of sugar.

This was pretty filling, thanks to the high fiber and protein, though it's a bit higher in calories than what I'd like to spend on a can of soup. This wasn't a terrible soup - it just wasn't worth the $1.50 that I paid for it.

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