We were THRILLED with the results of this year's Great Taste Awards- not only did we win stars for our Seasonal Surplus Tagine and Thai Yellow Curry, but we were the ONLY vegan ready meal company in the UK to garner two 2* awards! We won these for our signature Persian Dried Lime and Herb Stew, and for our Miso Ginger Sticky Toffee Pudding! This means these two dishes are currently the highest rated vegan ready meals in the UK!
This is our first entry to the Great Taste awards as we only launched the business in September 2021 so it’s very gratifying for our team to get the recognition & encouragement they deserve for all the hard work they put in, and to show people that plant-based dining can be refined, exciting AND convenient.
We have always regarded the Great Taste Award body as the definitive guide to great tasting food and have always had full trust in their judgement which is why it's especially pleasing to be recognised by them! We’ll be back with more entries next year. We hope these awards will help us spread the word about our range as we expand our sales from delivery-only into more shops, and might convince some sceptics to add a few more plant-based meals into their diets.
Here are some of the comments the judges had about the Persian Dried Lime and Herb Stew: “ The quality of the ingredients are shining through and the well judges spicing has produced a very tasty and satisfying product. The excellent and varied textures are matched with all the different flavours... this product would stand out in any category of ready meal."
We’ve been making different versions of our Persian Dried Lime Stew for several years and have spent the last year and a half refining and perfecting it. The inspiration came from co- founder Shamim Gammage’s mother’s recipe, which he used to love as a child (and an adult!). The stew is based on a traditional Persian dish very popular in his family and in Iran made with dried black limes, which give the stew a rich and intensely savoury flavour profile. We of course 'veganised' it, as a traditional ‘Gormeh Sabzi’ would be made with lamb or beef. We use high quality tempeh and mushrooms to replace the meat.
The judges comments on the Ginger Miso Sticky Toffee Pudding: “This is a stunner! Quite the most wonderful pudding- so very clever, innovative and with interesting, bold flavours.. so often a sticky toffee pudding needs cream or ice-cream- this needs nothing.. gloriously self-contained. The sponge is soft and pillow like, perfectly sweet and bounces around on the palate, yet is also melt in the mouth. The sauce is sublime- the creation of miso as a sticky toffee sauce is so brilliant."
(Ginger Miso Sticky Toffee Pudding)
Here is what the judges had to say about the Thai Yellow Curry: “ A wonderful example of a ready meal.. the spices and herbs were brilliantly well blended.. the savoy cabbage still had a pleasing crunch and we loved the consistency. Very moreish.”
(Thai Yellow Curry)
As a food company we strive to reduce any food waste in our kitchen wherever we can and we decided to come up with a dish that would allow us to make use of any vegetables we had left over from cooking our batches. A Tagine felt like an obvious choice for this since there are so many different types of Tagine and no particular ‘rules’ as to what vegetables need to be used. We can vary the dish depending on what seasonal surplus vegetables are available to us, to keep it tasting at its best all year round.
(Seasonal Surplus Vegetable Tagine)
Here are some of the comments the judges made for our Seasonal Surplus Zero Waste Vegetable Tagine: “ What a fantastic idea. Bravo.. a great balance and contrast of salt and sweet... we love the idea of using surplus vegetables.... The aroma is comforting and follows through in terms of flavour. The spices are well balanced and you get lovely bursts of flavour with every mouthful."
