This week is the National Vegetarian Week hosted by The Vegetarian Society, which runs from 18th – 24th May 2015. To celebrate this #NationalVegetarianWeek, we were invited to try out a range of Amy’s Kitchen’s delicious vegetarian and gluten free dishes.
A bit of history on Amy’s Kitchen – they began in America 26 years ago, when Andy and Rachel Berliner wanted to create delicious, healthy, natural and organic meals for health-conscious people too busy to cook. Since then they have created over 200 frozen meals and ambient products, including pizzas, pocket sandwiches, pot pies, entrées, snacks and whole meals. They also began producing a gluten free line for those with gluten intolerances, and expanding their vegan options. There are no meat, fish, poultry or eggs ever used in any of their products. In 2010, Amy’s Kitchen was brought to the UK where they have a factory producing the products for sale the same as they do in America. All the ingredients are naturally grown without the use of pesticides and other harmful chemical. Everything they sold are vegetarian and dairy cheese does not contain animal enzymes or animal rennet. To find out more on their products, go to http://amyskitchen.co.uk/
These are just a few from their vast range of products: Rice Mac & Cheese, Thai Red Curry, Vegetable Lasagne, Broccoli & Cheddar bake and Breakfast Sandwich. They are all frozen ready meals. Each packet takes 5 to 7 minutes to cook in the microwave except for the breakfast sandwich which takes about 2 minutes. If you cook them in the oven, it will take well over half an hour for the quickest product. Each portion is quite small but if you have an accompaniment or another course like dessert then it is about the right amount. I like their packaging as it clearly shows the ingredients and typical values. I love that they using paper trays instead of plastic trays as the container. However, do be careful when handling them just after heating as they can become quite soft.
We tried it all and my family all enjoyed the food. My children didn’t even realised that there were no meats in the dishes. We all shared the Rice Mac & Cheese, Vegetable Lasagne and Broccoli & Cheddar bake. They are packed full of flavour and taste great.
I enjoyed the Thai red curry. It comes with mini tofu, broccoli, carrots and sweet butternut squash which combine with an authentic coconut based curry sauce to create this delicious curry. The rice portion is quite small and slightly wet. I do eat rice on a regular basis and must have a big bowl of rice for every meal but this ready meal did fill me up. It was sweet and tangy and the vegetables were crunchy. It had a lovely coconut flavour.
I would definitely recommend them if you have guests who are gluten intolerant or vegetarian. You would not go wrong with that! Their range of products are great too with plenty to choose from. They can be found in Asda, Morrisons, Ocado, Sainsbury’s and Tesco.
Disclosure: We have received the samples to do an honest review.
