Trader Joe's Fiesta Guacamole

I certainly didn't grow up eating a lot of guacamole, but I love it. I'm not sure if I'd consider myself a connoisseur of fine guacamole, but here are a few of my credentials: I've eaten it at more than a few decent Mexican restaurants. Sonia and I (emphasis on Sonia) have made our own guac before. We mashed avocados and added our own onions, tomatoes, lemon juice, salt, and a few spices. We've eaten and/or reviewed:

Trader Joe's Spicy Mango Habanero Guacamole

Trader Joe's Chunky Spicy Guacamole Autèntico

Trader Joe's Reduced Guilt Chunky Guacamole

Trader Joe's Avocado Mash

So you know, I'm at least a casual guac fanatic as I'm sure many of you are, as well. Sonia's been eating it since she was a kid, so her guacamole roots go back even farther than mine. And not only are we fond of guac, but we're quite fond of roasted corn and black beans, including any and all corn & bean salsas that we've tried. So Trader Joe's Fiesta Guacamole with Black Beans & Fire Roasted Corn seemed like it'd be right up our alley.

It's good, but it could be better. The corn and beans add a little bit of texture to the guac, but not a whole lot of flavor. And since the guac is so full of corn and beans—which would normally be a good thing—there's not a lot of room for all the pico de gallo type ingredients which give other guacamoles a lot of their flavor.

Don't get me wrong, the product still has some onion, garlic, and pepper flavor, but it needs more of it. It lacks that punch that a lot of excellent guacamole dips provide. It lacks sass. I want to love it, but I just can't help but compare it to the above-mentioned mango habanero guacamole. That stuff was spicy and potent and it brought a wonderful, bright tropical flavor that was totally unique. Corn and beans just don't have the pungency required to punch through the dense earthiness of avocado.

We put it in tacos, we used it as a dip with tortilla chips, and we did a few other fun things with it in the kitchen. And that's probably where this Fiesta Guacamole works best. It's versatile enough to add some creaminess, corn, beans, and a little bit of flavor to whatever you're making. I could see it working nicely on nachos, burritos, quesadillas, or even alongside some grilled chicken or steak. So it's not like this stuff is useless by any means. It's just that when we ate it straight up as guacamole, we kept wishing it had a little more personality.

We'll finish the tub, no problem, but we probably wouldn't go out of our way to purchase again. $3.49 for the 10 oz container. Found in the refrigerated section. Kosher. Product of Mexico. Seven out of ten stars from both the beautiful wifey and me for Trader Joe's Fiesta Guacamole with Black Beans & Fire Roasted Corn.

Bottom line: 7 out of 10.

Trader Joe's Kimbap

Nate's Notes: Post updated. New pic and paragraph below.

Good morning, folks! It's time to look at Trader Joe's Kimbap. Neither Sonia nor I had ever tried this dish before, but we both like sushi so we decided to give it a whirl. This one's primarily a video review in stunning 4K resolution but for those of you who just want to relax and read, here's a few paragraphs on our findings...

This Asian dish comes frozen and it thaws in 2-3 minutes in the microwave. The packaging recommends serving it hot or cold while Koreans who know the dish say it should be served at room temperature. I found hot or room temperature worked great while chilling the kimbap in the fridge made the mouthfeel a little funky.

Still, the taste and texture are remarkable considering it comes frozen solid. There's an unexpected sweetness to the dish—akin to sesame sauce—plus all the rich veggie flavors you get from tofu, burdock root, carrot, radish, spinach, and seaweed. It's filling, satisfying, convenient, and reasonably priced at $3.99 for nine big sushi-roll-esque discs.

Update: we purchased this product again just so we could try it pan fried. With this preparation method, you only microwave for one minute from frozen. Then apply egg wash and fry on each side 2-3 minutes. The result is absolutely scrumptious. The product is more structurally stable this way and packs even more savory flavors. See pic below.

Product of Korea. The packaging and traderjoes.com only specify that it's vegetarian, but there's nothing in the ingredients that wouldn't be vegan, and other actual vegans out in cyberspace have declared that it is, in fact, vegan. I give Trader Joe's Kimbap eight out of ten stars while the beautiful wifey will go with nine out of ten.

Bottom line: 8.5 out of 10.

Trader Joe's Shelled Edamame

Trader Joe's Shelled Edamame come frozen. They've had a few other edamame products throughout the years, some of which came refrigerated, but this one is our favorite so far. These edamame are on par with stuff we've had from Japanese restaurants—very high quality. They're not too pricey at $2.29 for the 12 oz bag, and they're a good source of fiber and protein.

Sonia boiled ours in salted water for about four minutes. We had them with rice, salmon burgers, and a cucumber salad the other day, and it was filling and satisfying without feeling heavy at all.

Like all good edamame, these soybeans are slightly firm on the outside, tender on the inside, and flaunt a nutty veggie umami flavor that goes great with grains and bases like rice, quinoa, or noodles. We usually eat them with fish, but they also pair well with proteins like chicken and tofu.

They’re super versatile. Toss them into a stir fry, throw them into a poke bowl, or blend them up into a vibrant green edamame hummus if you’re feeling adventurous. Some might call me a soy boy for stocking up on these little green legumes, but when a healthy food tastes this good and takes practically zero effort to make, I’ll wear that badge proudly.

Whether you’re looking for a quick weeknight side dish or just want an easy way to bump up the protein and fiber in your meal prep, these are an absolute freezer staple. You really can’t beat having a bag of restaurant-quality edamame ready to go whenever the craving hits.

Product of Thailand. $2.29. We'd both buy Trader Joe's Shelled Edamame again. Eight out of ten stars from me. Eight and a half stars from the beautiful wifey.

Bottom line: 8.25 out of 10.

Trader Joe's Creamy Corn

Even though Trader Joe's Creamy Corn is ideal as a Thanksgiving side dish, who's to say you can't have a harvest-themed meal or two in the fall months leading up to Turkey Day? What if you feel like eating sweet corn with a creamy cheese sauce just because it's Thursday? That's kinda what Sonia and I did yesterday.

And we were impressed. This four dollar bag of corn and cheese comes frozen and includes three different sets of cooking instructions on the back of the bag: stovetop, microwave, and conventional oven. Stovetop seemed like the logical choice. Just cut open the bag, empty the contents into a large skillet, cover with lid, and heat for 5-7 minutes. Ours took roughly 10 minutes to come to a steady simmer, but we've got an electric range and it can take a bit longer to heat things up.

The sauce isn't crazy thick, which Sonia and I both thought was a good thing. It didn't feel heavy or overly indulgent. There's just enough cheese to keep things interesting. Cream is, in fact, the second ingredient, followed by skim milk. There's also white cheese and cheddar cheese in the mix. The seasonings include shallot, sea salt, and white pepper. It's a nice flavor if you're looking for something sweet, slightly tangy, and subtly savory. A dash of your own black pepper, hot sauce, or something like Trader Joe's Everything But the Elote doesn't hurt if you're craving a bit of extra sass.

The texture of the corn was very nice. It felt surprisingly fresh. It had a nice bite to it, kind of crisp, and ever so slightly waxy. It wasn't a soggy mush like other creamed corn dishes can be, nor was it overly chewy. It mixed well with other veggies like peas and mashed potatoes, and it blended seamlessly with our other Thanksgiving-esque fare including turkey, gravy, and stuffing.

The "best by" date on our bag was well over a year in the future from our purchase date, so if you've got a big freezer, it would be easy to stock up. $3.99 for the 14 oz bag. Product of Italy. Sonia and I would both buy Trader Joe's Creamy Corn again. It's a-maize-ing. Eight and a half stars a piece.

Bottom line: 8.5 out of 10.

Trader Joe's Pickled Red Onions

Trader Joe's Pickled Red Onions are all about the convenience factor. For $3.29, you get 12 oz of the tangy, crunchy condiment. Sure, you could make your own. But will you? For some folks the answer is yes, and they're already in the habit of chopping and pickling their own onions right in the kitchen. For others, the answer is "I could, but I know I won't."

Both answers are valid. Sonia and I sometimes buy a jar of pickles and then when we've finished the product within, we save the juice and pickle whatever else needs pickling: onions, cucumbers, jalapeños...you name it. I just don't trust myself to get the vinegar to salt to sugar ratio quite as perfectly as a company that's been pickling stuff professionally for decades.

Trader Joe's Pickled Red Onions are quite vinegary—more so than other pickled onions I've tried. That's certainly not a bad thing, especially if you like the acidic taste of vinegar. There's plenty of onion flavor and the garlic, salt, and black peppercorn adds a faint but noticeable background essence. I think I prefer the Lime Pickled Onions from Broken Taco when it comes right down to it, but they tend to be a bit more expensive.

These pickled onions add a nice tang to tacos, burgers, and salads. We're especially fond of putting them in beef tacos—see pic. They're also legit on hotdogs and avocado toast. I threw some on top of an omelette as a garnish and it worked just fine. The sky's the limit. The only question is: how will we use the leftover pickle juice once the onions are gone? If we throw little cucumber slices in the jar will we get oniony pickles?

Sonia and I would both buy this one again. Just as good as Trader Joe's Pickled Jalapeño Slices. The beautiful wifey will go with eight out of ten stars on Trader Joe's Pickled Red Onions. I'll throw out seven and a half.

Bottom line: 7.75 out of 10.

Trader Joe's Stuffed Poblano Peppers

Not to be confused with Trader Joe's Chiles Rellenos con Queso, which come frozen and have an egg batter coating, these stuffed chiles are also made with large poblano peppers but they come refrigerated, have no outer breading, and are stuffed not only with Monterey Jack cheese but also chicken, rice, corn, and a creamy cilantro sauce. Sonia's more familiar with that other kind of chile relleno, but she thinks this variation on the dish might hail from a different region of Mexico.

Only microwave and conventional oven instructions are given on the box, but we tried our hand at the air fryer and these stuffed peppers came out great. The package comes with two poblanos and we tossed them both into our Ninja for 12 minutes at 375°F. Google's AI Overview mentioned you could turn it up to 400° if you wanted your peppers extra crispy.

The chicken, rice, cheese, corn, and sauce medley in the middle of the pepper is excellent. There's a generous amount of white meat chicken chunks and the overall flavor is well balanced. The roasted poblano shell flaunts a nice smoky, earthy flavor that complements the inner portions of the dish.

And now it's complaint time. The texture of the pepper was the only thing we had a problem with. Parts of it were a little tough—almost leathery. In stark contrast to the soft, well-cooked chicken, the pepper itself was very difficult to cut with just a fork and it was a tad harder to chew than Sonia and I would have liked. Still, it's not a dealbreaker. We admit it might have been our chosen heating method that rendered the odd texture. Perhaps the conventional oven might have made the pepper more pleasant, or maybe we should have turned up the temp on the air fryer a tad higher.

In the end, that's our only complaint. This Mexican-inspired meal gets a thumbs up from both me and the beautiful wifey. It'll run you seven bucks for this nearly restaurant quality dish. Perfect dinner for two on a budget. We'd buy it again. Eight and a half stars from the beautiful wifey. Eight out of ten stars from me.

Bottom line: 8.25 out of 10.

Trader Joe's Quinoa Cowboy Veggie Burgers

Nate's Notes: This review was originally posted eleven years ago this month. Sonia and I decided we'd gone too long without a Quinoa Cowboy Veggie Burger and decided to revisit the product, make a video review of it, and bump this old post. Turns out the quality is still there, the product is still great, and the price has only increased by 30¢ in more than a decade! It's gone from $3.69 for four veggie patties to $3.99. Our score from May 2015 still stands: 8.5/10 really darn good. And finally, I'll drop these air fryer instructions which are not included on the packaging: 400°F for 10-12 minutes, flip halfway. 

Thanks to the Hawaiian-themed grocery store called Trader Joe's, vegetarian cowboys are now a thing. What vegetarianism and cowboys have to do with the overall tropical island theme of the store, I'm not quite certain. But we've seen at least one other vegetarian cowboy-themed product, not to mention candy fit for cowboys and cowgirls, too.

I guess there's something earthy about cowboys—and there's something earthy about vegetarians and vegans as well. TJ's is just tying that all together for us. Or maybe they're aiming to challenge that stereotype of vegetarians being weaker than meat-eaters (I don't subscribe to that notion, by the way) by uniting it with the rugged machismo of the old western frontier. Regardless of all that, I'm fairly certain that more urban-dwelling hipsters will wind up eating this product than actual cattle-ropin' cowboys, if only because there aren't many Trader Joe's in the middle of cattle country.

Yet still, it's an amazing product. It's like a spicy black bean burger with chunky salsa cooked right into the "meat." It's not really one of those fake meat burgers that's desperately trying to taste like beef, so if it's a true burger you're craving, I say look elsewhere. But if you're adventurous and wanting something new, I'd encourage you to check this out. It takes the whole veggie burger thing one step further in terms of taste and texture. Not only is there quinoa mixed in with the black bean base, but there are chunks of peppers, corn, and whole black beans in the mix. It's a complex, hearty flavor with a slightly spicy southwestern vibe. I ate mine with a slice of asiago cheese and it blended perfectly. I mused about which condiments, if any, to throw on, and decided to eat it plain in the end. I'm a big fan of ketchup and mustard on almost anything that calls itself a burger, but in this case, I'd add a bit of extra hot salsa, if anything—but that's just my opinion.

We cooked ours on the stovetop in a tiny pool of olive oil. It came out firmer and crispier on the outside than on the inside, and overall, the product was a bit soft. If not held together by a bun, it might have fallen apart very easily. There's more substance in the peppers, corn, and beans than in the base of the burger itself—but still, I can't complain, since the aforementioned chunky ingredients were plentiful throughout.

All in all, it's not a great approximation of an actual beef hamburger, particularly in the texture department, but a delicious vegetarian lunch or dinner nonetheless. At $3.69 for four patties, it's a good value also. I'm always on the lookout for something unique and new, and this burger didn't disappoint. All you rugged vegetarian cowboys, saddle up!

Bottom line: 8.5 out of 10.

Trader Joe's Korean Bugak Sticky Rice and Seaweed Crisps

Never had bugak before. Apparently, it's pretty popular in Korea. Speaking of Korea, this product is a bona fide South Korean import. $3.29 gets you 1.76 oz of the crispy, crunchy snack in a non-resealable bag.

We lost our minds over the fact the bag wasn't resealable. Fortunately, Trader Joe's Sticky Rice & Seaweed Crisps didn't last long enough to get stale. I really enjoyed them and the beautiful wifey admitted they grew on her by the end of the bag.

The product is sweeter than you might expect. Sticky rice can be sweet, so I'm not sure why we were so surprised about the sweetness. I mean, it's not candy sweet by any means, but it's sweeter than most other seaweed snacks we've tried. See: Trader Joe's Spicy Tempura Seaweed Snack and Trader Joe's Wasabi Roasted Seaweed Snack, among others.

You can also taste sesame seeds, onion powder, and the titular seaweed, though no single flavor dominates. There's a really great umami essence to these snacks. The bag suggests using them as scoops for tuna, so we whipped up some tuna salad and did just that. The pairing was absolutely perfect. You can also add them to rice bowls. Sonia wanted to toss them in soup. And they're perfectly snackable right out of the bag.

As nice as the flavor is, the texture is even better. It's so perfectly crunchable and crisp, yet not hard at all. It's got a very satisfying consistency.

I'd definitely buy it again, and I think Sonia would be on board for a repurchase as well. I'm gonna throw out eight out of ten stars on Trader Joe's Korean Bugak Sticky Rice and Seaweed Crisps with Sesame Seeds and Sea Salt, but I will say that I doubt the average American palate will appreciate this quite as much as I do. If you know you enjoy seaweed, then give it a whirl. The beautiful wifey is down for seven and a half stars.

Bottom line: 7.75 out of 10.

Trader Joe's Onion Flowers

Finally, you can get a Bloomin' Onion from somewhere other than Outback. Trader Joe’s has decided to take a stab at this classic appetizer with their new Onion Flowers. Imported all the way from Thailand, these frozen apps aim for those same crispy petals, but the results are kind of a mixed bag. At $5.49 for a box of two, the price point is definitely more affordable than any sit-down restaurant bill. Sonia and I gave these a spin using both the air fryer and the oven to see if they could live up to the hype.

The actual flavor of these onions is fantastic, featuring pristine, sweet white onions wrapped in a light, tempura-esque batter that happens to be entirely vegan. However, the execution leaves a little to be desired. No matter how we baked it or fried it, the middle just would not cooperate. We tried the air fryer for one and the oven for the other, and both times the center remained stubbornly underdone and raw-ish. The batter also felt a bit stingy, especially near the core, and the final presentation fell quite short of the bar set by the restaurant version. If you're looking to impress guests, these might look more like wilted weeds than blooming flowers.

Trader Joe’s also committed the ultimate appetizer sin by failing to include a dipping sauce, despite showing one on the cover art. To save the day, I whipped up a custom recipe modified from something I got on ChatGPT, that honestly carried the whole experience:

Of course, I had to shrink the measurements down a good bit since I was only making enough for two people. Also note that if you don't have those exact ingredients, Google Gemini or ChatGPT will gladly help you alter the recipe based on what you do have on hand at the moment. AI may be coming for all of our jobs, and maybe eventually our souls, but I'll be darned if they aren't helpful in the kitchen. This sauce was delicious, creamy, and spicy and it worked perfectly with the sweet onion petals.

In the end, these aren't going to replace the theatricality of a freshly fried restaurant appetizer, and they definitely lack the structural integrity of their famous ancestor, but they're a solid choice for onion fiends like us who don't mind a little rustic presentation and a slightly mushy center, making them a fun, flavorful snack for a casual night in. Sonia and I are both in agreement on the final score, giving the Trader Joe’s Onion Flowers seven and a half stars. They're worth a try for the flavor alone, provided you have the right sauce to back them up.

Bottom line: 7.5 out of 10.

Trader Joe's Crispy Garlic and Trader Joe's Fried Shallots

Trader Joe’s Crispy Garlic and Trader Joe's Fried Shallots are the kind of products that make you feel kinda smug in the snack aisle. You’re not buying chips. You’re buying ingredients. Fancy toppings. Culinary enhancements. Definitely not something you’re about to eat straight out of the bag like a raccoon at midnight, although I must admit we did try both that way and they're not half bad.

Trader Joe's Fried Shallots on a burger

Anyway, both of these live in resealable bags, both hail from Thailand, and both feel suspiciously like they might come from the same magical allium factory overseas. The Crispy Garlic will cost you $3.29, while the Fried Shallots are a slightly more modest $2.49. Inflation is real, but apparently garlic still thinks pretty highly of itself.

Trader Joe's Crispy Garlic

Let’s start with the Crispy Garlic. These little guys look like almond slices, which makes them feel classy even as they’re absolutely wrecking your breath. The flavor is significantly more potent than the shallots. They’re fried in rice bran oil, and the result is deeply savory, crunchy, and wildly addictive. If you love garlic like we do, this is your jam. Or topping. Or handful snack.

The Fried Shallots are more familiar, more chill. Think fried onions, but with that shallot sweetness and depth. They’re fried in palm oil and are perfect on burgers, salads, rice bowls, noodles—basically anything that feels lonely. We threw them on a burger and immediately felt smarter than we are. They add crunch, a little zing, and zero regrets. They're also certified vegan (until you put them on a hamburger).

If forced to choose, we like the garlic just a tad more but that’s because we’re garlic fiends, not because the shallots did anything wrong. In a fairer universe, you’d just buy both. Which, spoiler alert, we would absolutely do again. Sonia will go with eight and a half stars on Trader Joe's Crispy Garlic. I'll go half a star lower with a solid eight. The beautiful wifey gives Trader Joe's Fried Shallots eight out of ten stars, and once again, I'll go just a half star lower.

Trader Joe's Crispy Garlic: 8.25 out of 10.
Trader Joe's Fried Shallots: 7.75 out of 10.

Trader Joe's Korean Japchae Fried Rice

Sonia and I are both quite fond of Korean barbecue, but we've never tried things like jumeokbap, kimbap, hotteok, and japchae outside of Trader Joe's. Fortunately, we've had good experiences with almost all of them. Let's hope that lucky streak keeps up.

Enter: Trader Joe's Korean Japchae Fried Rice. It's a product of South Korea. It's a fried rice medley with japchae sweet potato glass noodles mixed in. There's a great balance of flavors like the constituent veggies: shiitake mushroom, carrot, onion, green and red bell pepper, cabbage, spinach, and green onion along with spices like garlic, black pepper, and salt.

We heated ours on the skillet for about 12-13 minutes. We served it with lightly seasoned salmon. Sonia only added a bit of onion salt and black pepper to the fish so the flavors of the japchae fried rice could shine most brightly.

It's a nice umami flavor. It goes great with salmon, but we're certain it would go well with fried egg, tofu, or even bulgogi beef. We both think it's even better than the above-mentioned japchae noodle stir fry.

$3.99 for two big servings imported from the other side of the world. Found in the frozen section. Would definitely buy again. I'll give Trader Joe's Korean Japchae Fried Rice eight out of ten stars. The beautiful wifey will go with eight and a half.

Bottom line: 8.25 out of 10.

Trader Joe's Vanilla Bean Whipped Sweet Potatoes

Beware! The age of the machines is upon us! But seriously, though, it's a little startling how far AI has come in the past couple years. Like any new technology, I think the best approach is a balanced one. While it's never a great idea to depend upon something like artificial intelligence completely, it's also silly to avoid it entirely in my opinion. People were scared of everything from credit cards to computers to the world wide web when they first came on the scene. AI is no different. It will be used for evil. It will be used for good. Let's just hope more people will use this new tech for the benefit of humanity than the detriment of it.

Know what it's really good at? Recipes. Sonia has been feeding Gemini a list of the random foodstuffs we have around the kitchen and it gives her a complete recipe using only the things we have on hand. If you ask it nicely, it'll even give you the exact measurements for any specific number of people—in our case, just two.

So when Google's AI found out we had chicken and Trader Joe's Vanilla Bean Whipped Sweet Potatoes lying around, it gave us the idea to serve the two together along with spicy honey and paprika. Man, that's a tasty combo. And pretty healthy, too. We made some for our latest video review.

This product? Not bad. It's like a typical sweet potato casserole with marshmallows, except there are no marshmallows. The vanilla bean flavor kind of takes the place of the marshmallow flavor, but of course the texture is just a homogenous airy, whipped mash. I'd say it's a tad bit fluffier than your typical sweet potato casserole.

You could eat it on its own, but I recommend eating it with Thanksgiving or Christmas Day fare. But if you're fresh out of turkey and stuffing, the chicken dish mentioned above is spicy, sweet, savory, and scrumptious.

Trader Joe's Vanilla Bean Whipped Sweet Potatoes will run you six bucks. Keep refrigerated. We'd buy it again. Eight out of ten stars from the beautiful wifey. I'll go one star lower with an even seven.

(But I give the Spicy Sweet Potato Chicken Bowl recipe an eight and a half).

Bottom line: 7.5 out of 10.

Trader Joe's Vegetable Ravioli

I wasn't expecting a whole lot from this ravioli. The best thing about the last ravioli we looked at was the copious quantity of soft ricotta cheese inside the pasta. This pasta has some cheese, too, but we're looking at mild mozzarella here rather than indulgent ricotta.

Turns out the veggie and cheese blend is surprisingly tasty. There's a rich, savory, earthy flavor to it. It's just a veggie puree for the most part. Much to Sonia's disappointment, there are no big veggie chunks. The vegetables included are apparently zucchini, eggplant, and onion. There's some garlic in there, too. What an outstanding combination of natural flavors. I'm fine with the smooth veg and cheese filling texture alongside the very standard Trader Joe's ravioli style pasta.

Sonia tried hers with some Alfredo sauce. She admitted it was better with avocado oil and grated parmesan, the same way we served the above-mentioned Pasta Festiva. Oil and parm allow the intrinsic veggie flavors to shine a lot more than any traditional pasta sauce.

All in all, this is a very tasty product. Again, my expectations were somewhat low, but I'd say this is among the best pre-packaged ravioli we've purchased from Trader Joe's to date—and we've probably had in the ballpark of a dozen different varieties from them over the years. We'd definitely buy this again.

$3.99 for the 8.8 oz package. We felt like there were a few more pieces of pasta in this item than the other ravioli products from Trader Joe's. Maybe we just weren't that hungry, but this package more than satisfied Sonia and me for lunch one day. We're eager to pick it up again. I'll go with eight out of ten stars and the beautiful wifey will spring for seven and a half.

Bottom line: 7.75 out of 10.

Trader Joe's Autumnal Harvest Soup

So I guess people were using Trader Joe's Autumnal Harvest Pasta Sauce as a base for soup and really loving it. Word on the street is that TJ's heard about it and developed their own soup inspired by the pasta sauce by the same name. Don't confuse the red creamy autumnal pasta sauce with Trader Joe's Autumnal Harvest Alfredo Sauce. That stuff was weird and bland but I'm pretty sure it's not around anymore.

At any rate, this soup is tomato-based, but it's also bursting with big chunks of butternut squash, onions, celery, and carrots. There's pumpkin puree and butternut squash puree, too. Garlic, parsley, rosemary, and sage help round out the flavor profile and yield a surprisingly tasty, hearty soup.

We heated ours on the stovetop and made just over half the jar for our video review. We both enjoyed it quite a bit. It's savory and a little sweet—nowhere near as sweet as Trader Joe's Pumpkin Bisque, to be sure. It tastes "harvesty," if that's even a word. It should be. "Harvestacular" might be more accurate.

It's surprisingly chunky, filling, and none of the veggies were particularly stringy, which is always a plus. We'll easily finish the jar in a day or so, just the two of us. It's finally soup season here in the Upper Midwest, and cooler temperatures always put Sonia and me in the mood for dishes exactly like this one.

$4.99 for the 25 oz reusable glass mason jar. Would buy again. This is the best fall soup we've seen from Trader Joe's since the Harvest Chili we looked at seven years ago. Nine out of ten stars from Sonia for Trader Joe's Autumnal Harvest Soup. I'll give it eight out of ten.

Bottom line: 8.5 out of 10.

Trader Joe's Thai Style Red Curry Soup

Those of you who've been reading for a while know Sonia and I both love our Thai food. Trader Joe has had his hits and misses throughout the years, but in general, if it's Thai, we'll try it and usually like it. This product is no different.

We like it—but, unfortunately, we don't love it. What's working? The overall flavor profile is nice. The assortment of veggies is decent. The spice level is just about perfect. There's pumpkin, chicken, onions, tomatoes, mushrooms, and green beans in the mix. There's plenty of lemongrass and ginger flavor, too.

What's not working? The veggie pieces are quite small. Most aren't large enough to be considered "chunks." Oddly, there are a few relatively large sections of green beans, some of which are a tad stringy in texture.

The chicken is finely shredded, not very bulky, and the pieces are far and few between. I'd almost prefer a vegetarian curry with "meatier" veggies than the meager wisps of poultry in this product. I also think the curry itself is too thin. I feel like I've had Thai curry that's much richer and thicker, with a more indulgent coconut essence. I know red curry can be a bit more liquidy than, say, panang curry, but I still feel like coconut milk and red curry paste usually yield something a tad denser than what we have here.

The tub is $4.99 for 20 oz. It's considered two and a half servings. Kind of an odd size. You'll find it in the refrigerated section. It keeps more than two months if left unopened in the fridge.

We heated ours on the stovetop and ate it with naan bread. Adding rice, bread, and extra meat or veggies would help out the soup considerably. It's gluten-free as it stands. We'd probably not buy it again, but if someone served it to me as a guest, I'd happily eat it without complaint. Seven out of ten stars from me for Trader Joe's Thai Style Red Curry Soup. The beautiful wifey will go just a bit higher—seven and a half stars from her.

Bottom line: 7.25 out of 10.