Product: Campbell’s Condensed Unsalted Cream of Mushroom Soup
Specs: A 10.5-ounce can of condensed soup made with mushrooms, dried garlic, vegetable oil and less than 2 percent cream. A half cup contains 50 milligrams of naturally occurring sodium (opposed to 750 milligrams in the original version). The soup is among a new line of Campbell’s “healthy request” products.
Preparation summary: Empty contents into pan or microwave-safe bowl, add one can of water, and heat until hot.
High points: Zero, despite a suspiciously high consumer rating on Amazon that gives the soup 4.7 stars out of 5 the last we checked.
Low points: So this is what factory-manufactured food tastes like without added salt. Unless you’re on a prescribed diet of ultra-bland foods, or if the next milligram of sodium you ingest will send you to the grave, this doesn’t belong in anyone’s mouth. Imagine drinking a glass of water accented with a single button-cap mushroom and a pinch of dirt. As for the cream and garlic that supposedly goes into the soup, they’re completely undetectable.
Average retail price: $1.79
Availability: Major grocery stores
Any of Campbell’s creamed soups are, to me, too vile to even think about eating, with or without sodium. Read the rest of the ingredients. A whopping of sodium is the least of your worries. Added to a recipe surely kills the taste of everything else. That is downright nasty, nasty stuff.