Yorkshire Provender Christmas Turkey soup & All The Trimmings

I am a great lover of soup, normally I stick to New Covent Garden Soup Co fresh soups but I chanced upon this Yorkshire Provender soup in Waitrose. They aren't a brand I've tried before but I couldn't turn down the chance to try a Christmas soup! 

'Christmas Turkey soup & all the trimmings' is just that:

Tender turkey partners roast veg, sage & onion, finished with a hint of cranberry sauce. 

The actual ingredients are onion, potato, turkey, parsnip, carrot, Savoy cabbage, cranberry sauce with some herbs, cream and stock. 

The soup had a distinct poultry scent to it, it had a familiar Christmas dinner smell to (slightly turkey, slightly stuffing) but mainly it smelt like chicken soup. 

There was no mistaking the turkey meat for chicken though. Not only were the pieces absoloutly huge - proper chunks of chopped turkey but praise God, they actually used dark meat. In a nation obsessed with 'clean eating' everything is breast meat, which is dry and tasteless - the dark meat is where it's at! Rich juicy and full of flavour, this was some tasty turkey! It wasn't chewy or stringy in the slightest it almost melted in my mouth - I was very impressed with the quality of the meat, especially for a soup. 

The soup itself was pleasant, it tasted slightly chickeny but it is made with chicken and vegetable stock. The herbs give it more of a stuffing flavour (unlike the strange huge stuffing balls in the Marks & Spencer Christmas soup as reviewed by Lucy over at Reaching For Refreshment) and overall had a roast dinner type flavour which, when eaten with the turkey had a festive feel. It is on the watery side however the addition of the, again, huge vegetable pieces gave it a much thicker and more enjoyable texture. The potato is nice and adds a bit more chunkiness, the Savoy cabbage and carrots had a great texture - still slightly crunchy or 'al dente' if you're posh and were full of flavour. The parsnips were slightly softer but not mushy and were delicious too. The one thing I didn't notice was the cranberry sauce but never mind - I'm not that keen on it anyway! 

Just one more picture to show every piece of turkey really was that big, it wasn't a fluke! You can also see the seasonings which they hadn't scrimped on either, not too little or much - the goldilocks of soups! 

Very nice and freezable so I'm going to stock up! 

8/10