Ranking Popular Canned Soups From Worst To Best

Stocking your pantry with canned soups is a good idea whether you're planning your next meal or keeping your pantry stocked up in case of emergency. Soups are affordable, last for years in your pantry, and the best soups taste really, really good.

It's not just hoarders who buy canned soups. As of 2018, the 11 top-selling soups in America sold in excess of 420 million cans — with Campbell's Cream of Mushroom topping the list with nearly 80 million cans sold.

With so many canned soups to select from at your grocery store, picking the best cans of soup can be a perplexing endeavor and entail a lot of trial and error. But instead of dealing with that headache, we've made it easy by listing the best popular canned soups you can buy. The soups are ranked from worst to first, so grab and spoon and get ready to start scooping.

You very well could have grown up eating Dinty Moore soups. Their cans are recognizable and their soups created many fond memories over the last 80-plus years. Unfortunately, Dinty Moore Beef Stew is no longer what it used to be even five or ten years ago.

The problem will hit you right between the eyes once you open up the can. Dinty Moore Beef Stew went from being one of the beefiest stews around to being almost devoid of beef. Remember those big chunks of beef from your childhood? Well, those chunks have been replaced by smaller, less flavorful flecks of meat.

Additionally, Dinty Moore Beef Stew used to have an equal amount of potatoes and carrots. But these days, the quantity of potatoes far outnumber the carrots. To make matters worse, the potatoes don't have as pleasant of a texture as they used to and the carrots you do find will underwhelm.

Rao's makes highly-rated marinara sauce that is legitimately some of the best stuff that you can find anywhere in the world. They've become a trusted brand if you want quality. Rao's soups, which hit shelves for the first time in 2019, must also also be really good, right? Tragically, that is far from the case.

Rao's Italian Wedding Soup has beef meatballs, pork meatballs, spinach, carrots, onions, and pasta resting in chicken broth. Those are impeccable ingredients and Rao's clear soup jar makes it look fancy and could cause your mouth to water.

On your first bite, you'll realize the main issue: this soup has way, way too much salt. Technically, one serving of Rao's Italian Wedding Soup has more than 30 percent of the amount of sodium you should consume per day. Your taste buds will think the percentage is even higher than that.

Maybe this company will eventually learn how to make good soups. In the meantime, divorce any thoughts of purchasing Rao's Italian Wedding Soup.

Lentil soup is something you may believe can only be tasty if you make it from scratch in your own kitchen. While there are a lot of terrible lentil soups on the market that try too hard and add too many unneeded flavors, Amy's Organic Lentil Soup is an option that you can go to that is consistently above average. There are better soups available, but this stuff is perfect for a cold day when you just want to stay inside and relax while a hot bowl of soup gently warms you up.

In addition to lentils, Amy's Organic Lentil Soup has celery, onions, carrots, and potatoes. All those ingredients are organic and the soup is free of gluten, soy, and lactose. If you eat a vegan or plant-based diet, this soup should be in your cupboard.

If you're looking for a spicy soup, you've come to the wrong can. Though there are a lot of seasonings at play, they add to the depth of the overall flavor of the soup and not to any sort of spiciness.

Buying Progresso Southwest Style Black Bean and Vegetable Soup at your local market is a bit of a gamble. By the end of the day, you may be completely happy with your decision... or you could be regretting it. The reason for that is due to the fact that you never know quite what you're going to get when you open a can of this soup.

When it's good, Progresso Southwest Style Black Bean and Vegetable Soup is loaded with red bell peppers, green peppers, corn, tomatoes, and cilantro. All those veggies mix with the chicken broth and black beans to create a winner. Add a dollop of sour cream on top and you'll be in soup heaven.

Unfortunately, there's another scenario that could play out. Sometimes when you open this soup made by Progresso, the vegetables are scarce. Thus, instead of being a praiseworthy soup, it basically turns into a bowl of black beans sitting in broth. When that happens, it's truly heartbreaking.

Campbell's Vegetable Beef has a classic taste that hasn't changed one iota over the years. While the beef in this soup comes in small pieces, the pieces are plentiful enough and tasty enough to make up for it. To add to the beef flavor of this soup, Campbell's beef broth is amazingly savory.

Also, there's no shortage of vegetables. In Campbell's Vegetable Beef, you'll find green beans, carrots, peas, celery, and more. Since all the veggies have been bathing in the beef broth, they taste extra yummy.

The only thing that will slow you down when it comes to this soup is the sodium. Finishing off a can of this can be challenging because eventually you will tire of the saltiness. You won't be surprised to learn that a can of Campbell's Vegetable Beef has almost an entire day's worth of suggested sodium intake. It's best to plan to eat no more than half a can at a time.

Progresso Minestrone is the very best Progresso soup you can find — hands down. They've used the same recipe forever and the quality of the soup hasn't degraded at all over the years. If anything, it has managed to get better and better as the years have passed.

When you crack open a can, what will grab your attention first is the penne pasta. Progresso puts a generous amount in each can and all the pasta is the perfect texture. There's also a number of kidney beans and garbanzo beans that will grab your eye.

The real star of the show, though, is the wide variety of veggies. Progresso Minestrone has celery, carrots, green beans, spinach, peas, and potatoes. The base of this soup is made from tomato paste, which helps the flavors from the vegetables stand out.

While a lot of soups leave you yearning for more, you'll be surprised that Progresso Minestrone is able to fit so much goodness into one humble can.

While his chicken and dumplings soup we've already mentioned was a disappointment, Wolfgang Puck more than redeems himself with his Wolfgang Puck Tomato Basil Bisque. This goodness lives up to the hype and is worth every penny of its price tag.

Wolfgang Puck Tomato Basil Bisque isn't just normal tomato soup. It has actual pieces of organic tomatoes inside of it to make it notably more hearty. It also has an unmistakable basil taste and a sweet cream that immaculately balances out all the competing flavors. If you have any creme fraiche on hand, that's a great addition to this soup. One scoop on top really does the trick.

There are a lot of good Wolfgang Puck soups that you can buy at the store, but this one takes the cake. You wouldn't think a soup based on tomatoes would be so exciting, but all it will take is one can for you to be convinced.