I recently found a web link to Efoods, which offers a Mountain House-like dehydrated food. They had a special offer to send 3 packages of food as a free sample (9.95 shipping and handling). I was sent Tortilla Soup, Potato Soup, and Cheesy Chicken Casserole. The first one I sampled, which I will review today, is the Tortilla Soup.
Front of Package
Back of Package
As you can see it has a best by date of 5/11/2026. Figure 15 years is not bad, but the website claims a shelf life of up to 20 years. It does require what I consider to be a large amount of water to reconstitute (Four and half cups). Cook time was about 13 mins, and I let it rest for 5 mins per the instructions.
Upon opening package
I was surprised by the number of large chunks of vegetables and chicken that were visible. It also has a pleasant aroma of taco seasoning.
First spoonful
Here is the first bite. It had a nice assortment of red and brown beans, decent size chicken chunks, and big plump slices of carrots. The carrots tended to be just the slightest bit chewy, but the rest was quite tender. I had the salt and pepper on standby, but they were not needed. It had a very pleasant taste, texture, and level of flavorful spice. It was quite reminiscent of Applebee's Tortilla Soup. It was missing something though.
After adding some crumbled tortilla chips I had laying around, it was the perfect Tortilla Soup! It just need that bit of crunch offered by the chips.
Overall this was a very good portion size. My wife, daughter, and I all had a hearty portion. In fact my wife and I went back for seconds. When we did we noticed the remaining soup had thickened up nicely, and had an even more pleasing texture. If I ever get the chance to try this again, I will let it sit 10 mins instead of 5 as per the instructions.
I give it a thumbs up, and can't wait to try the Potato Soup and Cheesy Chicken Broccoli!
