Wolfgang Puck Organic Tortilla Soup

Before I even begin telling you my impressions of this soup, I must get one thing off my chest: Wolfgang Puck annoys me. I'm not sure exactly what it is that rubs me the wrong way, but I think it has something to do with his over-the-top self-promotion vibe. The bio on his soup web site, discussing his path to becoming "the most famous chef in America and arguably the world," breathlessly exclaims "Fame and acclaim quickly followed - a combination of a dynamic personality and a culinary brilliance that bridged tradition and invention." Well, that's tootin' your own horn, ain't it?

Anyway, all of that aside, I do have to say this soup was a winner. Based on a vegetable stock base, the soup's texture was thick, thanks to the tortilla flour, and chunky with black beans, corn, and tomatoes. My husband noted that the veggies were "surprisingly crunchy" compared to the overcooked mush of many canned soups. There was a mild spicy flavor but nothing to be afraid of. My one complaint was that is was a bit too salty for my taste. Like most canned soups, it contained an outrageous amount of sodium (980 mg per cup!), which means if you down the whole thing in one sitting you'll need to be pretty much salt-free the rest of the day to stay within daily values.

Wolfgang's line of organic soups currently has at least 8 varieties on the Web site, including minestrone, butternut squash, and chicken with wild rice (I say "at least" 8 because the one I tried isn't up there yet--so the picture above is of the non-organic version). I might even give a few more a try, even though it means I'll have to be subjected to Wolfgang's smiling mug sitting in my pantry (yes, his picture's right on the front of the can).

About Wolfgang Puck's World of Soup: There isn't a whole lot of company information on the soup line's corporate site, but you can find lots of information about the different varieties. The official Wolfgang Puck web site doesn't give much more information either, except to detail the various bits and pieces of his empire. I don't get the sense that they make many efforts towards environmental or community causes, as many purveyors of organic products do (or if they do, they don't talk about it on their Web site).

Wolfgang Puck Organic Tortilla Soup Ingredients: Organic vegetable stock (water, vegetables and concentrated vegetables [carrots, celery, onions, tomato], salt, autolyzed yeast paste, cane sugar, soy sauce, [water, soybean, salt, alcohol], maltodextrin, natural flavor, potato starch, aotolyzed yeast extract, dried onion, dried garlic, spice), organic tomatoes (tomatoes, tomato juice, calcium chloride and citric acid), organic onions, organic corn, organic black beans, organic cornmeal, organic red peppers, contains 2% or less of the following: organic tomato paste, organic extra virgin olive oil, organic evaporated cane juice, sea salt, organic spice, organic jalapeno peppers.

March 8, 2006

Wolfgang Puck Organic Tortilla Soup