Being forever on the go, it becomes increasingly difficult to prepare good nutritious lunches ahead before work, and a trip to the local Tesco is sometimes the best we can do. We all prefer a bit of cheeky chicken in our meals, so it hurts to have to look at the vegetarian foods sections in the ready-to-go meals sections at our local supermarkets…and then Foodery happened.
Foodery have launched Halal ready-meal pots and they really have changed the game. So far, their pots are available in three flavours: Thai Green Chicken Curry, Moroccan Chicken Tagine and Jamaican Jerk Chicken. Just like the great guys at Halalnivore, Foodery were generous enough to give us a bunch of food pots to try at The Muslim Vibe head office.
Once again, any other businesses out there reading this *WE LIKE FREE THINGS*
Afrah – Moroccan Chicken Tagine
This one was pretty good and what I really liked about it was the spicy kick that it had. It was packed to the brim (take note, Walkers crisps) with goodness, with an excellent balance of protein, carbs and vegetables. The flavoursome Moroccan chicken tagine is paired with couscous and butternut squash (plus the odd piece of black rice, raisins, green peas and olives).
The chicken pieces were quite succulent and decent sized – no need to get out a knife and fork for this one! Also, the medium heat advertised on the packaging lived up to the promise; this was perfectly fine for me, as I like a bit of a heat kick in my food, but I’m conscious of the fact that others would find it a little too much.
If I’m honest, I would have preferred a smaller grain of couscous and to have the butternut squash cooked through a little more, but I think that would be more out of personal preference as opposed to anything else.
The best part of this is that the whole pot sits at 452 calories (who isn’t dieting nowadays anyway?) so I felt like it was very decent for a midday meal.
All in all, this one was a solid 4/5.
Salim – Jamaican Jerk Chicken
So, if Afrah’s going to do the whole calories thing, then I guess I should too. And this one is a winner at 380 calories per pot. It’s a flavoursome mix of rice, sweet potatoes, kidney beans, pineapple, green beans and obviously chicken. For those of you, like me, that don’t actually like pineapples, I should state here that the pineapples are not overbearing at all. It, dare I say it, actually goes pretty well with the rest of the ingredients.
For me, most importantly, it’s a very filling meal. I’m a pretty boring person and tend to get the same thing for lunch every day. My meal of choice used to be the tuna pasta salad (as part of the £3 meal deal), which I’ve been getting for months now. Yes, believe it or not, I don’t change it up ever. But last week I discovered that my local Tesco now stocks foodery pots, and this one has become my meal of choice. It’s filling, it’s easy to prepare and best of all (in this weather) it’s a warm meal!
Also in terms of portion size, it’s pretty decent, albeit a bit of a tease. It’s a big enough portion to get you through the day, but leaves you enough room to want just that little bit more!
It’s an easy 5/5 for me
Salim – Thai Green Curry
Thai Green Curry is generally one of my favourite meals when going out to restaurants. It’s kind of a benchmark which I use to compare Asian restaurants. For that reason I was really excited when I saw this one and instantly shotgunned it in the office.
The curry itself was nice and thick and had that sweet fragrance of coconut milk, lemongrass and all their friends. So far so good. The chicken, as with all the meals, is tender and perfectly cooked and once again the portion size is just right for lunch.
Within the curry there are small pieces of red peppers, green beans and baby sweetcorn. This gives the curry that perfect balance of crunch alongside the sweet coconut milk base of the curry.
Sadly, my local Tesco currently doesn’t stock this, so I’ve been religiously sticking to the Jamaican Jerk Chicken one, but I’d happily alternate between the two from Monday to Friday every week for the next couple of years at least
I’m going to give it a 4.5/5
Where can I find these?
The Foodery Halal ready meal posts can be found in Tesco and Asda. Click here to find your nearest store selling them.
You can also buy all their products online here: https://foodery.co.uk/shop/
