Pollen + Grace Chickpea Tikka Masala Review

I don't often have ready meals these days, but with the ingredients for the couple that I bought in my online order from Waitrose last week being pretty good I decided to have a little splurge.

This Chickpea Tikka Masala from Pollen + Grace  was the first one I decided to try, mostly because it was the shortest dated of them all.

My first thought on sliding it out of the cardboard sleeve was that they were being a bit stingy with the cauliflower, and perhaps even with the rice.

But after cooking to the instructions in the microwave I had to admit that the cauliflower had been buried deep in the sauce and they were nice big chunky bits that needed cutting into smaller pieces to eat ... and the rice was the perfect amount once I had added the water as instructed and it was cooked.

Although there were lots of ingredients, to my mind they are virtually all good ingredients and most of which I have in my cupboard and spice drawer.  I guess if I was to make something like this from scratch myself the spice list would be a lot smaller and the flavour profile a lot less complex.

I like the nutritional information and it was handy to have the '14 Plant Points' count for anyone that is trying to get their 30 plants a week, as instructed by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall recently.  Gosh if I was I would be almost halfway there in one meal!!

So what is my honest opinion?

I really enjoyed it, the flavour was really good, complex but not overly spicy or disappointingly mild. The amount of food was actually perfect for me, if I had been serving Alan he would have needed a naan bread or something to make him satisfied, but I liked the portion size.  

Would I buy it again was the question I asked myself immediately on finishing ... yes I think I would if I needed a ready meal, but I think I would actually rather try to recreate it for myself next time.  Though it's handy to know that this is a good meal to have in my back pocket, one that is flavourful, quick to cook and healthy to boot.

A processed meal but in my opinion not an ultra processed one.

For anyone that's interested in UPF and their effects on us, and that can get BBC2 on television or iPlayer, Dr Chris van Tulleken is on BBC2 at 9pm tonight in what sounds to be a very interesting programme.  Lots of us have read his book Ultra Processed People, so this could be a good refresher.  He's also doing the Royal Institutes Christmas Lectures this year, which will be broadcast on BBC4 and iPlayer in late December and which I am really looking forward to.

Sue xx