Panera Bread Is the First Restaurant Chain to Offer a “Clean” Soup Menu
Healthy food resolutions in the new year aren’t always easy to achieve. For some, it may be getting back to the gym, but the cold weather makes us want to reach for comfort food instead of salads. If you’re still hoping to up your diet and eat clean in 2016, there’s good news! Today, national chain Panera Bread has announced that its entire bakery-cafe soup menu is now completely free of artificial colors, flavors, sweeteners and preservatives (here’s their official no-no list, in case you’re wondering).
The quick food cafe, which has always strived for a high-quality menu, has taken things a step further by embracing a firm “no artificial additives” commitment and applying it to the approximately 200 million servings of soup they sell each year. This wasn’t an easy commitment, however.
“A lot of care went into these recipes,” said Dan Kish, Panera Bread’s Head Chef, admitting that the chef team revised the broccoli cheddar soup recipe about 60 times. But the dedication to “soups that our guests will love” won out in the end, with today’s unveiling of the company’s top selling soup (yes, the broccoli cheddar), and their other nine core soups and seasonal favorites, including turkey chili and autumn squash.
New clean Broccoli Cheddar Soup recipe: no artificial colors, flavors, sweeteners or preservatives. #ComingTomorrowhttps://t.co/mZiBNNgPIa
— Panera Bread (@panerabread) January 5, 2016
They’re not all business and no pleasure, however. In a hilarious new trailer about the process of creating the new clean broccoli cheddar soup, Panera is having fun with their announcement by dramatizing the grueling process that Chef Kish went through to perfect this recipe.
Not only are they featuring a 60-second video trailer of the story behind the clean remake, but the company is also encouraging fans to try the soup for themselves and tweet their reviews using the hashtag #SoupReview. More tweets will be added (appearing in the style of movie critic reviews), each featured tweet unlocking a few more seconds of unique film.
It seems that clean eating has never been easier. After all, what’s better than some heart warming soup in the cold months?
Are you excited about this @PaneraBread news? Tweet us and tell us all about it at @BritandCo!
(Photos via Panera Bread)
