Aldi is a discount grocery store that has its origins in Germany. While most of the food you’ll find at Aldi is typical of what you’d find in many American grocery stores, Aldi occasionally rotates German food into its stock for a short time and sells it until supplies run out. German treats you may find at Aldi a couple of times a year include schnitzel, strudel, Jaffa cakes, German pickles, potato dishes, cream cakes, sweet mustard, whole grain mustard, and more.
Although most German food at Aldi is sold only for a limited time, there are a few German items Aldi appears to stock all year. That includes several types of canned soup, including Deutsche Küche Fall Harvest Vegetable Soup and Deutsche Küche Harvest Potato Soup. Aldi also sells a German pea soup, which I’m looking at today.
Deutsche Küche Hearty Pea Soup costs $2.09 for a 28-ounce can at the time of publication. It’s from Germany, and the label says it’s “thick and creamy, accented with savory flavors of peas, carrots and leeks.”
Ingredients are: water, peas, potatoes, carrots, onions, salt, leeks, modified corn starch, canola oil, wheat flour, sugar, spices, guar gum, artificial flavorings, and citric acid (acidifier).
Deutsche Küche Hearty Pea Soup nutrition information and ingredients. (Click to enlarge.)
If you’re watching out for allergens, this contains wheat, milk, and egg. It may also contain soy, tree nuts (coconut), fish (pollock, Atlantic salmon), or crustacean shellfish (shrimp, lobster, crab).
There are about three servings per can. A one-cup serving has 150 calories, 1.5 grams of total fat (2% DV), 690 mg of sodium (30% DV), 24 grams of total carbohydrates (9% DV), 9 grams of dietary fiber (32% DV), 3 grams of total sugars, no added sugars, and 10 grams of protein.
It can be heated on the stove top or in the microwave.
To heat on the stove, empty contents into a pot, heat, then serve. Do not boil the soup.
To microwave, empty the contents into a microwave-safe bowl. Heat on high for 2 minutes, stir, then heat on medium for 1 minute.
Deutsche Küche Hearty Pea Soup, ready to eat. It has plenty of peas.
This soup comes out of the can thick, but it thinned out some as it heated on my stove top. It has tons of soft peas, along with just a few pieces of potatoes and carrots. My family does not eat a lot of canned soups other than tomato soup and New England clam chowder, so none of the Deutsche Küche canned soups have really been standouts for us. This one is all right, and I like it about the same as the Deutsche Küche Harvest Potato Soup, and it’s better in my opinion than the Deutsche Küche Fall Harvest Vegetable Soup. If you like peas, you might like this soup. If you like the taste and/or convenience of canned soup, you might also like this soup. You can also try doctoring it up by adding diced cooked ham or bacon, or serve it with some buttered bread or toast.
The Verdict:
Deutsche Küche Hearty Pea Soup does not skimp on the peas. It has plenty of soft, whole green peas in a thick and savory broth. It’s not our favorite canned soup, but it’s not the worst either. If you like canned soup, or if you’re making a point to try every single Deutsche Küche product that Aldi sells, then this may be for you.
Ha, this is an interesting insight from an American. I am actually from northwest Germany, and I used to make Pea Soup (Erbsensuppe) from scratch. Like every German would who was born before 1970.
When my American husband brought a can of this Aldi soup home, I was pretty astonished how authentic it was (is). This soup tastes exactly as if I made it from scratch!
Of course you want to add some (real or faux) meat to it. In regular German kitchens the meat will be added to the pot while cooking for 3-4 hours. I have been a vegetarian since 1984, so I am using fake meats. But nowadays you’ll find really good faux meat products, especially in America. Try Beleaf vegan bacon or Sweet Earth bacon, or Fieldroast sausages, for example.
Now in Germany you would also add a liquid seasoning from swiss brand Maggi, it’s called Maggi Würze. It’s based on a german garden herb Liebstöckel that is used in every soup.
Unfortunately this plant doesn’t grow on this side of the Atlantic, so I can’t plant it in my yard. But I found a bottle of Maggi Würze in an upscale grocery store in Pennsylvania (Wegman’s), so that problem was solved. You want to add 1 or 2 splashes into your plate after serving to make it really authentic.
Feel free to contact me with any questions regarding authenticity of specific Aldi products or German recipes or whatever.
But check out the Sodium levels in these soups…
That may be a show stopper for some.