But they’re far from equal.
Some soups are salt-free, others are beefed up with sausage or other atypical additions.
I sampled five canned and jarred options from easy-to-find brands in search of the best-tasting minestrone on the market.
Photos: The brands. Design: Eat This, Not That!
It has a tiny amount of sodium and added sugar in the form of evaporated cane juice.
A can cost me $5.99.
The look:This was the thickest and most dense soup I sampled.
Lizzy Briskin/Eat This Not That
It’s stew-like with a darker brownish broth.
The carrots are perfectly diced into tiny cubes and the large peas are bordering on brown.
The taste:This minestrone had a strong taste of the can and not much else.
Lizzy Briskin/Eat This Not That
It’s from Campbell’s Chunky line and includes pieces of Italian sausage with spiral-shaped fusilli noodles.
Unfortunately, most of the noodles were broken.
The taste:The sausage had become soft and flavorless, while the broth was overly salty.
Lizzy Briskin/Eat This Not That
The noodles were very soft and almost dissolved into the broth.
It’s sweetened with added sugar and enriched with soybean oil.
A can cost me $4.43.
Lizzy Briskin/Eat This Not That
The look:This soup had the darkest broth of the bunch.
It was brownish-orange with specks of dried herbs.
The minestrone was thinner than others, with fewer veggies and beans compared to the amount of broth.
Lizzy Briskin/Eat This Not That
The taste:The Progresso minestrone was very herby with a strong oregano flavor.
The beans and chickpeas stayed firm, and the noodles were intact.
The noodles are wavy little radiatore pasta.
It has a moderate amount of sodium.
A can cost me $5.99.
The look:This soup had a great ratio of broth to other ingredients.
The taste:This minestrone tasted lighter and fresher than others.
It had a slight sweetness and the fun radiatore noodles added texture and chew.
It’s full of tiny diced onions, which likely enhance the sweetness.
The minestrone is made with whole and crushed tomatoes and dainty ditalini pasta.
This soup also contains potatoes, zucchini, peas, green beans, and kidney and garbanzo beans.
The 16-ounce jar cost me $5.54.
It has a deep red broth and lots of tube-shaped noodles.
The taste:The tomatoes gave this soup a rich, umami-packed flavor.
The broth was well seasoned and herby but not overpowering or too salty.
I liked the garlicky broth and the note of richness from parmesan cheese.
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