We got hit with a surprise snowfall this morning and that, coupled with the nasty windchill made this the perfect day for chili. And, since I had to run my wife to work anyway, I decided to stop off at Wal-mart to pick up the ingredients.
One of the things I needed was tomatoes. Normally, I would grab a couple jars of garden tomatoes from my parents’ house. But, because of the weather, I didn’t want to drive there and decided to look for a can of tomatoes instead. I ended up buying a can of petite cut diced tomatoes from Wal-mart’s Great Value brand.
This wasn’t the first time I have purchased a can of diced tomatoes. But, it was the first time I have bought them from this brand and, because of that, I wasn’t really sure what to expect, especially since my overall opinion of the brand is somewhat mixed. In fact, if it weren’t for the price (which was much cheaper), I probably would have picked out a more familiar brand.
I decided to make the chili in the slow cooker and opened the tomatoes as soon as I got home. When I first saw them, I was concerned about them because they looked more like crushed tomatoes than diced. It was almost all liquid with very few solid pieces. I like chili that is somewhat thick and I wasn’t sure if this would have an effect on that or not.
However, as I cooked the chili, I did find the tomatoes worked pretty well. It was a bit on the soupy side. But, it wasn’t nearly as bad as I was expecting it to be so, overall, I think I would give that part a passing grade.
I also have to say I was somewhat surprised by the taste. As I mentioned before, I have had other canned diced tomatoes in the past and the last couple brands I purchased just didn’t taste right. One was a bit salty and the other just had a weird overall flavor to it. That wasn’t the case with this brand. I still think using homegrown tomatoes would have made the chili better. But, they didn’t ruin the flavor of the dinner either.
As a result of that, I have to say I was happy with this purchase and would recommend it to anyone looking for canned tomatoes to put in chili or another recipe.