Nothing Like Soup on a Cold Winter’s Day

There’s nothing like soup on a cold wintery day.  On a recent cold, dreary day, my family and I stopped by Panera Bread to try some of their soup.  My son and I ordered the You Pick Two with a Big Kid Grilled Cheese sandwich and Cream of Chicken and Wild Rice soup.  My husband ordered the You Pick Two with a Big Kid Grilled Cheese sandwich and Vegetarian Creamy Tomato soup. My daughter ordered French Onion soup in a bread bowl.  The soups came in generous portions and came with a large chunk of bread that had a chewy crust and was soft inside. The bread was wonderful for dipping in the soup. 

 

The Cream of Chicken and Wild Rice soup was hearty and filling.  It had a nice creamy chicken flavor and had a good balance of rice, chicken, and carrots. None of the three was overpowering. The carrots were nice and tender.

 

One of my husband's favorite comfort food is tomato soup.  The Vegetarian Creamy Tomato soup had a nice robust tomato flavor and went well with the Big Kid Grilled Cheese sandwich. The sweetness of the Applewood-Smoked  Bacon in the sandwich contrasted nicely with the robust tomato taste of the soup.

 

The French onion soup had a rich buttery flavor. It was mildly sweet and while there were a lot of onions in the soup, they did not have an overpowering onion flavor. It tasted especially good in a bread bowl, which by the way, also tasted great. The bread bowl was fluffy and had a pleasantly sour taste. The taste of the sourdough complemented the soup very well.

As a part of the DailyBuzz Food Tastemaker program, I received a gift card and stipend to try Panera Bread Soups. Thoughts and opinions are my own.