Rizopia Organic Brown Rice Pasta – Gluten Free Product Review

I actually bought this product a long time before considering going gluten free because I wanted to find something for Scott’s lunches so that he could still have pasta but a healthier version. This brand is called Rizopia, they make all different types of pastas such as spaghetti, fusilli, wild rice pasta, lasagna sheets etc and I found it in my local health food shop.

Image Source – http://www.goodnessdirect.co.uk (click on image to go to website)

Rizopia have a  Zero Tolerance Allergen Free Policy: No Wheat, No Gluten, No Dairy, No Nuts, No Egg, No Fish, No Soy. This means this pasta is pretty much suitable for anyone, unless your allergic to rice! It tastes just the same as pasta, especially once you’ve added your chosen pasta sauce! We couldn’t tell the difference in taste.

We could definitely tell the difference in texture though as once cooked rice pasta is a bit chewy and you can’t achieve the same al dente feel that you can with normal pasta. I found that if you cook it for around 30 minutes then it becomes less chewy and much softer. Also you have to rinse it well, similarly to rice, as I found that it was quite starchy after cooking.

Scott decided he didn’t like it but I have carried on eating it because I think it’s just as nice as normal pasta and it is perfect for when I fancy pasta now I am on my gluten free diet.

Uncooked Brown Rice Penne Pasta

I think the price was a little steep, I paid £4.95 for 500g, which compared to £1.68 for 500g of normal pasta in the supermarket is really expensive however I have found it a bit cheaper online for around £3.95 for 500g which is a bit better. Plus I guess you pay for quality of ingredients and the fact it is organic.

I will definitely be trying different types of gluten free pasta, the one thing I was very aware of when starting this was that I did not want to swap “real” bread and pasta etc for “free from” products which had just replaced the wheat and gluten with chemicals. I was drawn to this pasta because it had very natural ingredients (Brown rice, rice bran and water) and I liked that it was organic.

Cooked Brown Rice Penne Pasta

What gluten free brands have you tried before? What one item (ie bread, pasta, cake) can you simply not live without on your gluten free diet? For example I have not bothered trying gluten free bread yet but I really want some gluten free biscuits

Product Review – ’805 Foods’ Hot Chilli Sauces

I was contacted by 805 foods a couple of weeks ago about reviewing some of their sauces, I don’t usually do a lot of product reviews but this brand caught my eye because their flavours were punchy and the ingredients list was short and natural. I was kindly sent the sauces through the post and also a link to some recipes on their website to give suggestions for how best to use the sauces. But being a food blogger I thought I’d come up with my own

The sauces are suitable for vegetarians (and vegans), gluten free, free from additives, preservatives and artifical colours.

The Original Hot Monika Sauce has a very strong flavour and a real kick to it! The first thing I did when I received the pack was open it up and stick a spoon in to try it. I really should have taken a smaller spoonful because it did nearly blow my head off however the chilli hit was soon smoothed out by the softer peppery tomato flavour. On their website it says the sauces are pre cooked so they can be eaten straight from the pot as a dip or condiment however I knew straight away I wanted to heat this up for a nice warming spicy dinner.

Tofu Steaks cooked in Hot Monika Sauce served with Sweet potato wedges ands Broccoli

I sliced my Tofu and pressed it to make it firm, then heated some oil in a pan and started off by frying the tofu for a few minutes on each side. Then I spread some sauce on one side and after a few minutes I flipped the tofu over and added some more sauce to the other side. Once the tofu was nice and browned and the sauce was hot I served it up with some sweet potato wedges and some broccoli (to help balance out the spice). The tofu and the hot sauce were a perfect match and balanced each other out perfectly.

I enjoyed cooking with this sauce as I liked the strong colours and chilli kick, my only downside was the oil content which I felt slightly over powered the taste of the sauce. After mentioning this to 805 Foods they explained that they add in slightly more oil because they use no preservatives so one suggestion would be to seperate off some of the oil and use it as a flavoured chilli oil. I think this would be much better as (like many people would) I just poured it straight from the tub and had to blot up the oil!

Over all though this is a delicious and versatile sauce. Next I tried the Bell and Scotch Bonnet Hot Sauce! I dipped a spoon into this one almost immediately after the Hot Monika sauce so it may be because my mouth was already on fire but I thought it was slightly less in your face with more of a growing warming spicy edge to it. It was a much cleaner flavour with plenty of chilli and again a nice simple ingredients list. This one was definitely my favourite.

There were plenty of things I’d like to cook with this sauce (for example I could imagine using it to make a spicy toastie with some spinach and tofu) but for now I decided it would be a perfect way to spice up one of my favourite side dishes. Usually I make this dish more mediterreanean with some basil and paprika but it worked perfectly with the scotch bonnet chillies.

Pepper and Onion Stew flavoured with Bell and Scotch Bonnet Hot Sauce

In a large deep frying pan heat some oil and gently fry thin slices of  1 onion and 3 peppers (I used 2 red and 1 green pepper). Once softened stir in around 3 tablespoons of the 805 sauce and 1 can tomatoes. Continue to cook untill the sauce has thickened and the peppers are nice and soft. Serve along side some spicy tofu, with a cous cous or rice dish or even in a jacket potato.

I really liked the Bell and Scotch Bonnet sauce, it had a deep chilli flavour and worked well with sweeter flavours such as peppers. I like their slogan too “Foods for a better living”.

They also sell a creamy Garlic and Herb dip and are soon to bring out some spice seasonings which will compliment their sauces and bring a different edge to their product range.

Pelagonia Pumpkin Jam – Product review and recipes

I was sent a free jar of Pumpkin Jam from Pelagonia (after a few twitter conversations about how amazing it looked!) and although they didn’t ask me to do a product review I’m a food blogger so I can’t help myself! Here is a link to their website where you can see how to buy the jam and other products in their range – here!

The first thing I thought when I received the jam was how amazing the colour was, it’s so vibrant and bright! I wondered if there was anything unnatural in the jam to enhance the colour but the only ingredients are pumpkin, sugar, orange and raisins so this was an added bonus to me.

The next thing to do obviously was try the jam! I spread it on a slice of toast….this is what your meant to do with jam right? I’ll be honest I haven’t eaten a slice of toast with jam in years! It looks so lovely and bright and when I tasted it it was light and very sweet. It’s hard to describe but the jam had a savoury note of pumpkin with a rich sweetness coming through which balanced it out. I really liked it but the only criticism I have is that I think more than one slice of toast would be a bit sickly sweet, however that is my own opinion as I don’t have much of a sweet tooth.

I also tried this jam in a few other ways and I think using it with other flavours works extremely well. I loved how it could be used a sweet or savoury (something they point out on the jar).

The first thing I tried was to make a crostini/ canape with a slice of baguette, some spinach leaves, pumpkin jam and some feta cheese. I piled it all on to the baguette and put it under the grill for a few minutes to toast the edges of the bread and to melt the cheese slightly. I love feta because it’s quite salty and when grilled it goes gooey inside but still keeps its shape. Not only did these look pretty I think the flavour combinations were very good! The pumpkin jam was not lost under the feta, infact the sweetness and saltiness were a nice combination.

Second I tried a sweet recipe – porridge made with raisins and dried cranberries (I make my porridge with water not milk), then I stirred a tablespoon or two of jam into the hot porridge and sprinkled grated dark chocolate on the top. This was amazing! The raisins and cranberries gave a nice texture and bursts of sweetness, the pumpkin jam gave a different kind of sweetness and became almost gooey with the heat of the porridge and the chocolate melted and was slightly bitter balancing out the jam! I have to say this is one of the nicest breakfasts which didn’t include eggs on toast that I have had in a long time!

They have other chutneys, roasted peppers and jams which all look equally a nice! So thank you Pelagonia for the jam, I had a lot of fun trying it and will definitely enjoy whats left of the jar