9 Trader Joe's Soups, Ranked Worst To Best

Trader Joe's is one of those stores whose enthusiastic fan base has always made sense to me. Besides the budget-friendly pricing, the in-house brands and prepared foods are consistently some of the best you can find — including their soup selection. As someone who shops at Trader Joe's multiple times a week, I've become an instant fan of some of its offerings (and have even reworked them into a cozy pasta sauce). Noticing a new option pop up in the prepared food section or in the canned goods aisle is usually all it takes for me to drop one in my shopping cart for immediate sampling.

When you look at the entire Trader Joe's lineup, though, which of its soups stand as the very best, and which ones are worth skipping? I went by my local store and scoured the shelves for the entire inventory (or at least what's available in New York City in mid-December). After speaking with people about which options would be most widely available, I narrowed things down and busted out my favorite bowl and spoon. Ultimately, I was surprised by how impressive they were across the board, even if there were one or two disappointments. Here's what I think of the jarred, boxed, and freshly prepared soups you can pick up from Trader Joe's.

As a child of the 90s, I grew up with this style of soup as a canned comfort, but it took me really looking through the soup aisle for me to realize Trader Joe's even sold their own jarred version. Still, their take reminds me of the recipe I remember, made with vegetables like carrots, parsley, and kale, acini de pepe pasta, and (most importantly) tiny meatballs. I immediately assumed this generously sized jar was going to be a quick meal cheat code if it lived up to my expectations.

Unfortunately, I knew things might not work out that well as soon as I started heating it up. It gave off a strangely musky odor instead of the savory, brothy smell you might expect. It visually took a turn when I noticed the broth had an almost glue-like viscosity as I put it in the bowl. The gelatinous texture that hit my tongue made it almost impossible to tell what ingredients were in my mouth, aside from the meatballs. In fact, the tiny, pillowy clouds of beef were the only thing that really seemed to pack any flavor whatsoever — and even that fell far short of my expectations. I've long known that the pasta in this style of soup imparts so much gluten into the broth that it essentially congeals, but I had held out hope that Trader Joe's had cracked the code. Instead, I was left with what felt like the most canned, processed soup of the bunch by a mile.

While I'd seen this jar staring me down in the aisle for years, I'd never brought myself to buy a style of soup I'm more than happy to make in bulk and freeze. It's made with plenty of the same vegetables I'd use when cooking at home, including sweet potatoes, carrots, onions, celery, tomatoes, zucchini, red bell peppers, and leeks, along with leafy greens like kale, spinach, and Swiss chard. When heating the soup up, I couldn't help but notice how fragrant it was and how the chunky texture made it look way less processed than any other vegetable soup I'd ever opened and heated up for myself.

It wouldn't be fair to say I was disappointed once I got my first spoonful. The robust, hearty texture held up and made it comforting in a way I wasn't expecting from a vegetarian soup. But at the same time, there was something missing that kept it from being a true "a-ha" moment of product discovery I've grown accustomed to with Trader Joe's. My wife tasted some and said it came across as a "totally 90s" recipe you'd expect from a cafe serving lunch — or at the very least, less like one of those Trader Joe's foods that taste homemade and more like the vegetable soup offering at a buffet restaurant. While I can't say I didn't like it, I also can't say I'll be replacing my own recipe with this shortcut anytime soon.

When making my selections for this ranking, I have to admit that I was most excited about trying this. The store associate who pointed it out to me said it had just arrived back for the season and that her coworkers were already buzzing about it. It uses a tomato base that incorporates some of the store's Calabrian chilis (one of my absolute favorite Trader Joe's items) to add a little kick. It also has dumplings — or more specifically, in this case, gnocchi.

A little research told me that Trader Joe's fans have been divided on this soup in the past, but with New York in the throes of a long-running cold snap, I was still eager to try it. The comforting element kicked in as soon as I started heating it up, and my first bite revealed a much brighter and uplifting base than I had expected. And as someone who might add a spoonful of Calabrian chili to their soup anyway, I certainly appreciated the noticeable kick at the end of each bite. 

After a few spoonfuls, though, there was a strange, acrid aftertaste that I couldn't quite put my finger on, that made it harder to go back to my bowl. The gnocchi were also not uniformly shaped, leaving some smaller manageable pieces alongside larger dense, gummy, and flimsier dumplings that didn't hold their shape well. Still, I would keep this in my back pocket as a heartier soup option.

Is there anything in the world that sounds more comforting than lasagna soup? I was thrilled to come across this in the prepared foods fridge as a seemingly perfect winter combination of ground turkey, pasta, and a creamy tomato soup base that essentially turns everyone's favorite layered noodle dish into a spoonable format. To say my hopes were high for this one would be a true understatement.

I'm not sure if the ongoing chilly weather has skewed my taste buds, but my very first bite of this soup felt like the first bit of respite from frigid temperatures I've felt in weeks. At the base level, it's a delectably rich and creamy tomato soup base that has the right amount of seasoning (if just a touch salty) with plenty of hard cheese coming through to provide balance. If anything, it was exactly the flavor profile I had hoped for!

My only gripe — which can be said for literally any packaged soup — comes down to the texture of the noodles, which inevitably become gummy. However, the thicker shape (along with bits of turkey making their way into each bite) partially solves what might otherwise be a textural dealbreaker. The next time I make this at home, I might toss in some fresh basil leaves, drizzle it with some good-quality olive oil, and grate some fresh cheese over it just to really seal the deal.

When it comes to packaged soups, chicken soup has its work cut out for it. As the one dish everyone has tried countless times, both in homemade and canned versions, it can be hard to meet people's expectations. Still, I was intrigued by this "small batch" version at Trader Joe's, which uses rich chicken broth, chicken meat, vegetables, herbs, and spices. You might've noticed the biggest deviation from the norm here, which is that there are no noodles — which is something that actually drew me to it even more.

Even as I stirred the soup on the stovetop, it looked and smelled almost exactly like the same soup as the homemade version I make to help cheer up my wife when she's down with a cold or flu. I was still pleasantly surprised when I took my first bite, and it all tasted as though it had come from someone's kitchen and not a processing facility. Not only was it not offensively salty as so many canned chicken soups tend to be, but the rich broth and larger chicken pieces hit all of the right notes.

Hands down, this might be the best way to get your chicken soup fix if you're too sick on the couch to make your own. Next time I make it, I might add some noodles (which I know will be firm when I eat them) and maybe a handful of baby spinach to wilt into the broth.

Typically, if I'm perusing the aisle for a canned soup I'm going to heat up at home, it's almost always tomato soup. It's the one style I might argue that even capable home chefs are willing to phone in with a store-bought version than they're willing to admit (and if not, canned tomato soup is a good cooking ingredient to keep as a shortcut). When the Trader Joe's employees helping me fill my basket pulled this off the shelf, though, I saw their eyes light up with an excitement that told me I wasn't working with just any old recipe. As the name says, this version incorporates feta cheese, along with cream, herbs, spices, and of course, tomatoes.

I immediately understood why this came so highly recommended right off the bat. This was miles away from the tinny, watery canned versions people have come to accept, but also not nearly as reliant on using too much dairy as many restaurants and cooks tend to do. The texture itself is more rustic, with actual small chunks of tomato and pieces of feta that haven't been blitzed into oblivion. This gives it an incredibly endearing homemade quality that took me completely by surprise.

It's also much easier on the palate than other off-the-shelf options, with a brighter flavor profile that I can only describe as summery. The next time I'm shopping for my tomato soup fix, I'm hard-pressed to think of anything else I would rather have than this.

Interestingly, I'm the most familiar with this item out of all the soups in the lineup. However, despite having bought it at least a dozen times, I've only ever used it to make the viral Trader Joe's lobster pasta (which I can't recommend highly enough). I was excited to embrace my New England roots and finally enjoy this bisque in the way it was intended.

As expected, this outrageously creamy, buttery soup is off the charts when it comes to decadent richness. Each bite brought a fatty wave of flavor over my tongue, complete with smaller bits of lobster that provided a bit of texture. Perhaps most importantly, it's still balanced so as not to be too heavy on the palate, which I credit to the use of sherry in the recipe.

The only knock I can think of against this soup is that it's possibly so good that it might be too rich to actually finish even a small bowl. At the very least, my wife and I agreed that if we had been blindfolded, we would've believed this recipe came out of a restaurant kitchen. In fact, if you're not turning it into pasta sauce, consider serving this with a couple of generous grinds of black pepper and plenty of oyster crackers alongside a nice glass of white wine if you want to feel like you're out on the town.

As a home cook, I've long said that if I ever feel like I'm spending too much money at Trader Joe's, it tends to be the one store where I can find a plausible replacement right from the shelf or freezer that comes at a fraction of the cost of the ingredients. And since my homemade version rarely costs very much to put together from scratch, I've long skipped over the prepared and canned lentil soups I've passed so many times. So after seeing this version hit the fridge periodically over the last few years, I was ready to really compete with myself on the flavor and quality.

Oh boy, do I have my work cut out for me. This soup is so deeply satisfying without being decadent or over the top, comforting without being too indulgent, and so convincingly of homemade quality that I could barely believe what I was tasting. Even my wife remarked that the dish tasted exactly like our own recipe, albeit with some added grains that meld perfectly into the stew-like texture.

While there are plenty of herbs that punch through, it's not overly salty, and it kind of serves as a relatively healthy option (especially for those looking to pack more protein and fiber into their diets). I'm fully counting on picking this soup up again the next time I'm staring down a busy week with little time to cook for myself.

As I mentioned before, I am no stranger to shopping for good tomato soup. That's why it's now confusing to me that I never thought to pick up this Trader Joe's tomato soup during one of my hundreds of visits to Trader Joe's over the past few years. With more glowing reviews from the store's employees, I also had high hopes, but fully expected this relatively straightforward soup to fall somewhere near the middle of the pack, at best, behind many of the prepared products touting fresher ingredients. How wrong I was! 

Maybe nostalgia is factoring in heavily here, but there was no soup in the lineup that hit quite as hard as this one. It has that classic smooth, silky texture I was looking for, along with some added subtle sweetness from the red pepper, which perfectly tempered the tomatoes' acidity and added an entirely new dimension to each bite. It's deeply comforting. It's wildly delicious. And I'm not entirely sure I'd be able to top this in my own kitchen!

It took all the strength I had not to stop the entire tasting and make myself a grilled cheese to go with my sample bowl. You can rest assured that during my next shopping trip, I'll be stocking up on these precious tetra packs for whenever my next craving hits.

Coming up with the rankings for the best Trader Joe's soup required some front-end research (and as it turns out, some careful planning and a few short bike rides). To ensure I wasn't pitting mundane options against standouts, I chose to focus on soups that were more exciting than the traditional base options (sorry, chicken noodle) but were still available as widely as possible. I also gave preference to options that weren't patently seasonal or a one-time special.

Once I made my purchases, I heated up each soup on the stovetop as per the instructions listed on the packaging. I looked for elements that made each a standout or a reason to keep it out of your cart. While this is clearly a ranking, I ultimately had to give tiebreaker preference to many of them, with higher spots going to the items I knew I would be buying the most of again.