Why are people eating less soup?

This appears to be a report on “canned soup”, which is arguably not soup. It’s liquid dog food.
I wonder what the stats on real soup consumption shows.

I love soup, and In response to @tom_g‘s comment, I’ve found a few brands to be pretty darned good. And, for us bachelors, canned soup makes is ane asy meal to make and clean up.

But to answer @quiteaffable‘s question, food types go out of style, and I wonder if soup has become slightly “old fashioned.”

Haven’t you heard that Campbell’s Collapse Syndrome is rampant?

Because most soup is disgusting.

I love soup. Maybe it is on the decline because now we can microwave meals like pizza and tons of other frozen foods quickly and conveniently. A can of soup used to be a quick meal.

The Hispanics I know, to refer back to the article, make their own soup. A lot of them also live in the lower third of the country where the climate tends to be hot outside.

There’s too much damn sodium in Campbell’s Soup- it’s like sipping warmed seawater. Amy’s Soup seems to be holding its own.

And I have noticed lots of stores carrying take-out, made soup these days.

Since I have gotten old enough to make my own soup, I seldom buy canned soup anymore. I have a couple cans on hand for emergency use, but that is about it.

Also as families have gotten smaller, there is less need to make your food budget stretch to last the month.

I just purchased three quarts of home-made soup at our food coop, two of gazpacho and one of cold cucumber dill. I live on the soups provided by the coop, hot ones in the winter.

There are times I live on soup.

I dispute the premise that people are eating less soup.

People are eating less Campbell’s. I boycott any product made with non-organic, GMO ingredients. Campbell’s also has gluten & MSG in a vast percentage of their products. Sounds like they’ve received a wake up call.

I eat more soup, but I make it myself. Also, this is not the time of year for soup.

In related news, Italian cuisine is in decline and can be seen in reduced Chef Boyardee sales.

I second @tom_g‘s observation, re. dog food.

I started eating homemade soups a few years ago, and it was a revelation. It’s actually food!! And it’s made out of stuff I was on the verge of throwing away anyway! Win/win!

I bought a can of Campbell’s soup this winter for a quick meal, and threw it out after one spoonful. I can’t believe I used to eat it regularly.

@marinelife: Here are easy recipes for twelve cold summer soups from the NYT, my Tuesday gift to you.

Because these days, life turns shitty for a lot of folks. Shit draws flies. Nobody likes flies in their soup.

In today’s society, it is considered “high-class” and impressive to indulge in lifestyles such as obesity and diabetes. While some types of liquid food, like canned soups, do provide very high sodium levels, the average homo sapien prefers to indulge in foods that pack more calories per cubic inch (volumetrically measured, of course). In order to achieve the optimal obesity lifestyle, people do indeed prefer foods such as raw sticks of butter, fried butter, slightly warm butter, and salted frozen butter (eaten like a popsicle).

Tinned soup is up to almost $3 a can these days. It’s ridiculous. For that price I’ll make my own damned soup.

People aren’t buying canned soup because the cans are said to be contaminated and because there is too much salt in them. We are still making our own soup, so it hasn’t gone out of style.

I love soup but I never buy it, I always make my own. I make a spicy lentil soup, and whenever we have a whole chicken I make soup with the leftovers.

I don’t mind soup, but I don’t have it very often. It kind of betrays the palate because it’s neither food or drink, but something in between, duplicitous slurping bastard that it is.

Alternatively, I’d like to add this:

Canned soup is around $3 a can. It also has to be cooked somehow, which can take from 3–15 minutes depending on your method. You also have to wash the dish.

Fast food joints have sandwiches, dollar menus, and whole meals that cost from $1 to $10. There is no preparation on your part, you dispose your remnants of fast food filth into the trash can, and you receive almost instant gratification. The same can be said about easy microwave meals.

I’m not saying this is a sole cause, but I know people who’d rather go the fast food/instant gratification route than preparing soup, which is honestly not that hard. There must be a small percentage of this statistic that accounts for the lack of canned soup buying.

Just my opinion, though.

It does not have enough high fructose corn syrup, grease and salt in it.

A soup diet takes too long to develop that beautiful fat ass, and big gut that seems to be so popular these days.

Maybe it’s the portions. I grew up in an Italian home and whenever there was soup, it was a gargantuan bowl. When I went into restaurants, I was aghast at how measly the portions were. Four sips and I was done. It doesn’t help that soup is also seemingly overpriced at restaurants.

We actually eat a lot more soup (homemade) than we used to. Canned soups are not very tasty, or very healthy, but if you make your own, they can be very tasty and quite healthy and low fat. I just had some delicious Vietnamese phở last week.

Could have fooled me, the Vietnamese are attacking in full force around here with amazing Pho, and the Japanese with their ramen, and they are always packed. Maybe American soups are just too boring for the modern consumer?

Here’s my lentil soup recipe:
Ingredients
4 cups or 1 litre chicken or vegetable stock
half-pound or 250g dried red lentils
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon cumin
up to ½ teaspoon cayenne or flaked chillis
¼ cup fresh coriander/cilantro (I couldn’t find a European conversion for this. It’s like… a big handful.)
3 tablesp lemon juice

Instructions
Bring the stock to the boil and add the lentils. Simmer for 20 minutes. keep checking & stirring to make sure it doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan.
Meanwhile heat the oil in a frying pan and cook the onion and garlic until the onion is soft.
Stir the cooked onion and garlic into the lentils, season with cumin & cayenne/chillis. Simmer for a further 10 minutes.
Meanwhile chop the coriander (I find this easiest to do with scissors).
Remove the soup from the heat and puree in a blender until smooth.
Just before serving, stir in the chopped coriander and lemon juice.
Delicious served with strips of lightly toasted pitta bread to dip into it.

Serves 4 (Unused portions can be frozen)

^^ Yummy! I think we should all post our favorite soup recipes.

Mine is Chinese Hot and Sour Soup

I don’t like most soup, but I really love Tortilla Soup.

serves 4–6

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

1 red pepper, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon cumin

pinch of cayenne pepper

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

32 ounces low-sodium chicken stock

4 ounce can of green chilis

⅓ cup red enchilada sauce

¼ cup sour cream
for garnish:

whole wheat tortillas/tortilla strips, toasted in the oven

sour cream

shredded cheddar/monterey jack cheese

avocado

lime slices

fresh cilantro
In a large pot add olive oil and heat on medium heat. Add onion and pepper and saute until soft, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and sprinkle in cumin and cayenne and stir. If using chicken, cut into small chunks, season with salt and pepper, and add to onions and peppers. Brown on each side, about 8 minutes total. You can also use pre-cooked, shredded chicken and add it in at this time, just proceed to the next step.

Pour in chicken stock, chilis and enchilada sauce. Bring to a boil, reduce and simmer for 30 minutes (or longer if you want). Right before serving, stir in sour cream. Serve with tortilla strips, avocado, cheese, sour cream and lime.