Trader Joe's Organic Thai-Style Carrot & Sweet Potato Soup

I was looking for a Thanksgiving side dish that would be some sort of unusual twist on the traditional holiday fare. When I noticed this, it seemed like exactly the thing. Carrots and sweet potatoes, but "Thai-style"--perfect!

Well, it's a fine idea, but poorly executed. As Nina noted, there's nothing distinctly Thai about it. Which is kind of surprising, after realizing that the list of ingredients seems to hit all the right notes: coconut milk, onions, red curry paste, chili peppers, red bell peppers, lemongrass powder, turmeric, lime juice, ginger, etc. But it all somehow gets badly muted and ends up just conveying a vague sense of mild spiciness.

It's not bad. We both ate our share, and I finished up the rest with lunch a few days later. But it feels like a letdown, as if a really creative idea had been ruined somewhere between conception and production. I blame that infamous Trader Joe's Blandification Committee.


Will I buy it again? 

No.

Trader Joe's Sweet Potato Frites

I liked these more than I thought I would. However, I prepared them in a toaster oven, which was probably not ideal, because I had to crowd them together to fit on the baking tray. Nina pointed out--and I agree--that they would probably have an even nicer, crisper texture if spread out more on a cookie sheet in a regular oven. (I was trying to save time, on the basis that the toaster oven would get up to temperature faster. I was hungry.)


Will I buy it again? 

Yes.

Trader Joe's 3 Seed Sweet Potato Crackers

I thought I would like these better than I did the similar 3-Seed Beet Crackers, reviewed yesterday, on the simple grounds that I generally like sweet potatoes more than beets.

I was wrong.

These lack the nice crisp texture of their shelfmates. They're kind of mealy, soft, and crumbly. They taste so much more like corn cereal (and stale corn cereal at that) than sweet potatoes that I had to check the ingredients list. Sure enough, they contain more corn than sweet potato. What sweet-potato flavor there is completely lacks the "sweet" part.


Will I buy it again? 

No. This is a serious failure of a product. The beet version is better in appearance, taste, and texture.

Trader Joe's Ridge Cut Sweet Potato Chips

I didn't much care for these. I'd eat them in a pinch, but they seem to be an odd chimera that I don't need in my life. If I wanted ridged potato chips, I'd rather have, well, ridged potato chips, not ridged sweet potato chips. If I wanted sweet potato chips, I'd rather have Trader Joe's sweet potato tortilla chips (since I can't have the wonderful but discontinued sweet potato tortilla chip rounds).

Also: The bag I brought home had very few intact chips. It was mostly full of sad, broken pieces, too small to scoop up the hummus with which I was serving them. I have no way of knowing if this is representative of the product or an unfortunate anomaly.


Will I buy it again? 

No.

Trader Joe's Roasted Sweet Potato Wedges

Ugh. At least by the microwave method of heating, these came out with an unpleasant texture--tough on the outside and chewy inside. The taste was of mediocre sweet potatoes, but nothing "roasted" about them (except for the conspicuous char marks).

I ate a few and tossed the rest of the package. It would have gone back to the store for a refund, but I had gotten the outside of the bag kind of slimy in the process of opening and pouring, and I just didn't want to mess with it anymore.


Will I buy it again? 

No.

Nina's View

C'mon people. You can get perfectly delicious sweet potatoes by throwing whole ones in the microwave (after poking a few holes in them with a fork). If you buy pre-cooked sweet potatoes, the karmic price you pay is these unpleasant nuggets.

Trader Joe's Quinoa Duo With Vegetable Melange

The "duo" in the product name apparently refers to the fact that it contains two varieties of quinoa. The "vegetable melange" is an overstatement; it's just sweet potatoes and zucchini.

I thought this was OK, but nothing great. Zucchini dominated the flavor profile, along with the mild but hard-to-identify spice blend.

I just sat there for a whole minute trying to think of something else to say about this stuff, and failed.


Will I buy it again? 

No.

Trader Joe's Sweet Potato Gnocchi With Butter & Sage

This sat in my freezer for several months, because every time I looked at it, I could easily think of something else I would rather eat instead. But I finally decided that I needed to plow through all the stuff that was accumulating in the freezer, so I pulled it out as part of a hodge-podge dinner for one of Nina's weekly visits.

I was pleasantly surprised. In fact, I loved these little dudes. They're tasty and chewy, with next to no work of preparation. I would go so far as to say that they're my favorite way of eating sweet potatoes I've ever found.

Now, the caveat to that pronouncement is that they're less sweet-potato-y than you would probably think from the product's name and photo. That is because the sweet potato is mixed with wheat flour and regular potatoes, so it's far from a pure sweet potato product. For me, that's a feature, not a bug, because sweet potatoes are generally something I tolerate more than cherish. You might feel differently about it.


Will I buy it again? 

Yes.

Trader Joe's Maple Roasted Sweet Potatoes With Cranberries & Pecans

Truth be told, I'm not a big fan of sweet potatoes*. Or of maple. Or of pecans.

So why would I put a product like this in my Trader Joe's shopping basket? Because my millions** of readers will be starting to plan their Thanksgiving dinner menus, and they will all want to know, "What does Bob think of this?"***

I pointed out this important function to Nina over dinner this week when we were first sampling this dish. She gently suggested that one who doesn't like the main ingredients in a product might not generate the most useful review of it for people who do. Sigh. I suppose she's right--again.

Kind of predictably, I didn't like this much. The sauce is too intensely sweet for my taste (which is saying something).

I sent the leftovers home with Nina. With any luck, she'll provide a more helpful perspective to our millions**** of readers.

Will I buy it again? 

No.


*That is not to say that I actively dislike them. I don't. I don't mind having them when somebody else serves them to me, but I never buy them for myself, and never order them in a restaurant.

**By which I mean "dozens."

***No, I have NOT been formally diagnosed with megalomania. Why do you ask?

****See ** above.

Nina's View

I liked this dish when Bob served it, although it needed more cooking than suggested to render the potatoes tender, and I found it a little too sweet (shocker, I know!). But I liked it even better when I ate the leftovers over the next few days.

I served half of it over some Melodious Blend, and the sweetness was tempered by marrying with the savory seasoning of the lentil/bean blend.

Then I made a breakfast "hash" by sautéing a little red onion in coconut oil, browning some unsweetened coconut shreds, adding the sweet potato leftovers, and putting a fried egg on top. So very, very good.

I'll buy this if it's still in the store next time I go.

Trader Joe's Organic Superfood Pilaf

I made no deliberate attempt at a theme week here, but for the third day in a row, I'm reviewing a product that I fully expected to like, and then didn't.

After I served it for the first time as a side dish in a dinner with Nina, the leftovers just sat in my refrigerator. Every day I looked at the container and considered reheating it with lunch, and every day I decided instead on something else. After about a week, I stopped trying to fool myself into believing I would eat it, and threw it out.

Why? I think it's the balance. Specifically, too much kale. Kale is OK as part of a salad (or soup or casserole or whatever), but here it's just too dominant. And for me, that transforms what should be a pretty good mixture into one that falls just below the threshold of wanting to have it again.

Will I buy it again? 

No. I'll eat it if Nina has it at her place, but I think if I bought it for myself, it would once again just sit in the freezer forever, with me repeatedly picking other things that I like better.

Trader Joe's Sweet Potato Tortilla Chips

It's another brand-new Trader Joe's item! They have really been rolling them out rapidly lately. We've featured eight in the last 12 days.

This one I have known was coming for a couple of months. That's because I caught TJ's announcement that they were retiring the most excellent Sweet Potato Tortilla Chip Rounds for a similar but allegedly better product. The old ones are now gone, and the new ones are on the shelves in their place.

I am here to testify that they are not an improvement. They are not nearly as good. They're good, and I'll keep buying them, but every time I do I will curse the TJ's executives who made this decision.

Both versions are made from a blend of corn and sweet potato flours, but I thought the old version was much more weighted toward sweet potato flavor, while the new ones can best be described as "corn, with a little sweet potato if you pay attention."

Both versions are fried, but it shows much more in the new ones. They show their oil more. Is this because they're thinner? I don't know. Maybe. But I preferred the old style, with thicker chips that were sufficiently drained of oil that one could almost fool oneself into thinking they were baked. I also just generally prefer round chips to triangular ones.

In short, all the characteristics that made me love, love, love the old ones have been changed--for the worse. Despite that, they're still pretty good, and among the better tortilla chips that TJ's sells. I'm sure I would like them a lot more than I do if the predecessor product had never shown me how good sweet potato tortilla chips can be. *snif*

Will I buy it again? 

Yes, but with mourning for what has been lost.

Nina's View

Everything about Bob's assessment of these chips is correct  except the issue of sweet-potatoeyness. These have more sweet potato and less corn flavor. I preferred the previous balance, in part because it was—say it with me, folks—a tad less sweet. 

The big fail here is the fragile super-oiliness of these chips. 

They're still edible, for sure. But I, too, liked the old version much better. 

Trader Joe's Sweet Potato Tortilla Chip Rounds

I recently discovered that the Trader Joe's website occasionally publishes something called "The Product Gangway," a list of items that will soon be arriving, and items that will soon be discontinued. The latter is the more useful, as it gives fans of a product an opportunity to stock up on it for the last time. It also affords shoppers one last chance to try something they hadn't noticed before or had been putting off buying.

That last category describes me for these chips. I had noticed them many times, but always chose some other kind of chip instead. Frankly, I thought I would not like the taste of sweet potato in corn tortilla chips. But when I saw that they were going bye-bye, I thought I had better give them a shot while I still could. Y'know--for my legions of readers.

I'm glad I did. They are most excellent. In fact, they're among the very best tortilla chips I've ever had. The ratio of corn to sweet potato taste is just right, surprisingly harmonious and delicious. They are thick and solid enough to stand up to dipping in dense hummus without breaking, but not tough to bite into.

Now the problem, of course, is that I have fallen in love with something just in time to see it disappear--like Kate Winslet watching Leonardo DiCaprio slip off of their flotsam in "Titanic."

TJ's says that these chips are being replaced with a similar but improved version--angular rather than round, and with even more sweet potato flavor. I'm not convinced that either change would be an improvement, but I'll certainly give the new product a chance when it arrives.

If you've never tried these chips, don't waste any more time about it. TJ's estimates that their supply will be gone by mid-May. I'm going to grab a few more bags on my next grocery run. And I'm adding them to my Top Ten list--not quite posthumously, but pretty close, like the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Oscars being given to a director or star that everybody can see is on death's door.

Will I buy it again? 

At least once more. After that, who knows?