New Survey Confirms America’s Appetite for Soup (NAPSA)—Homecooks: grab a can and start cooking! You’ll be joining the 90 percent of Ameri- cans that regularly cook dinner at home, and often make soup a part of their meals. In fact, a new soup survey of nearly 800 primary meal preparers conducted by Campbell’s Kitchen found that one-third (33 percent) of respondents use soup as a cooking ingredient between one andfour times a week. The overwhelming majority (80 percent) of survey respondents consider dishes prepared with soup to be homemade. Convenience and flavor continue to reign as driving forces in Americans’ food choices with ease of preparation (76 percent), taste (72 percent) and versatility (39 percent) cited as top reasons for using y soup as a cooking ingredient. “Our research revealed that many people enjoy soup several times a week for both cooking and eating,” said Cindy Ayers, head of Campbell’s Kitchen. “Home cooks realize that soup is versatile, easy to prepare and tastes great, making it a perfect partner in the kitchen.” Favorite Family Dishes Include Soup Nearly two-thirds (63 percent) of those surveyed say that one to three of their family’s favorite dishes include soup as an ingredient. Soup provides convenient meal options when combined with a few additional ingredients, with chicken most fre- quently identified as the favorite soup pairing (52 percent). Other SOUP SNAPSHOTTimesof Year Americans Eat Soup No matter the season, almost half of all Americans i (47 percent) say they eat soup one or more times per week, 100 98% 89% 80 60 40 ke be 62% 47% 3 A a 2 x 20 - = Winter Spring f Summer Fall 4 Soup Stacks Up at Home 90 percent of home cooks cookdinnerat homethree or moretimes a week. 80 percent consider dishes cookedwith soup to be homemade. 63 percentsay one to threeof their family’s favorite dishes include soup as an ingredient. e 55 percent typically add three or fewer ingredientsto a recipe when cooking with soup. Theonline soup survey was a survey of 798 primary meal preparers conducted by Zoomerangin June 2002 on behalf of Campbell Soup Company. @ top choices include pasta or rice (18 percent), vegetables (15 percent) and beef (12 percent). When cooking with Campbell’s soups, Cream of Mushroom is used most often (67 percent), followed by Chicken Broth (52 percent), Cream of Chicken (49 percent), and Tomato(38 percent). “Today’s busy home cooks are turning to condensed soups as an ideal alternative to creating timeconsuming sauces from scratch,” addedAyers. “In minutes, Cream of Mushroom soup can bring the qualities of a complicated bchamel sauce to countless family-favorite dishes.” For great recipes, visit www. campbellskitchen.com and sign up for an e-mail subscription to Mealmail, a free daily or weekly recipe newsletter sent directly to your e-mail in-box.
