BYPASS or BUY - Campbell's Pho Broth

This one had me all kinds of excited y'all. If any of you guys follow me on Instagram, you'll know I have a bit of an obsession with Pho. I think I tried it for the first time at the beginning of the summer and haven't looked back since. It's a once a weeker for me and my friend Jess. Steamy, comforting, full of crisp veg, loads of slurpable rice noods, and the most delicious, flavourful broth. I can't get enough!

It's been something I've wanted to play around with at home for quite a while now, but I've yet to sit down and test a few recipes in order to help me create my own. With that being said, I'd spotted Campbell's Pho Broth multiple times, and this time I decided to snatch it up and see if it even remotely compared. Scratch made is best, but if you manage to score a good pantry product, it's a nice replacement for going out all the time...shall we discuss the  broth?

Campbell's Pho Broth

I opened the broth and got it in to a covered pot to heat up while I prepped all of my delicious veggies. As the broth started bubbling away, I was very pleasantly surprised at the smell. It was giving Pho you guys, and for a brief second, I thought I had a pantry success here! All hell broke loose after this though lol

I boiled my rice noodles and blanched my carrots and broccoli ever so quickly because I wanted everything crisp. I included sliced carrots, sliced cremini mushrooms, broccoli florets, thinly sliced red onion, jalapenos, Thai chilis, and some finishing basil. As I said, it really smelled like I was on to something here and that I was about to sit down to a steamy, delicious and flavourful bowl of fresh veggie Pho. 

Taste Test

As I twirled my noods on my chopsticks and excitedly brought them to my face, the smell had me ready to jump for joy. That's when I tasted my noodles and immediately knew that this was going downhill quickly. Where was the flavour? There was absolutely NO FLAVOUR WHATSOEVER. I think a good comparison would be like, a cup of steamy tea. You know how tea often times has this aromatic smell, but when you take a swig, it's basically hot water that smells like it wanted to have flavour? Same same here. This broth tasted like absolutely nothing. No flavour whatsoever despite the aromatics of the broth itself. I didn't really know how to help it as it already had 30% of your daily sodium in one cup, so I was incredibly hesitant to pummel it with salt. On top of this however, where was the flavour of the anise or the ginger? There was absolutely nothing.

What I was now looking at was a bowl of veggies and noodles in hot, flavourless water. I was so disgusted with the situation that I tried to eat the veggies for the sake of not wasting them, but every bite was like crisp veggies sitting in boiled water. I couldn't do it. I strained and discarded everything. Lesson learned here you guys; either I take the time to test real recipes until I perfect my own, or I leave it as something that I enjoy going out for and leave it at that. This broth SUCKED!

BYPASS or BUY?

BYPASS - Don't ever buy this. Don't ever even look at it or you might for a split second, believe it to be a good, quick option for Pho at home. This was horrendous in every way imaginable and in fact, I feel like it was false advertising. How can something smell so fragrant and inviting, while tasting like nothing more than hot water with food colouring in it? 

A complete disappointment, failure, and waste of money. Don't be duped by this poopy product and save your money. What a complete joke, so much so that I actually wasted everything in disgust. NO!

HAPPY VEG