ASDA Extra Special Classic Beef Stroganoff & Rice

ASDA’s extra special range is their premium range of food products. I have recently bought another product in this range and been very disappointed, but thought on this occasion I would try a ready meal and see what it was like seeing as my boyfriend had been to McDonalds and didn’t want dinner.

This classic beef stroganoff cost £3.28 for 400g of tender beef in a creamy mushroom sauce, accompanied by a bed of white long grain and Camargue rice.

The meal is packaged in a standard plastic dish with two compartments, one for the rice and one for the sauce and meat. A thin film of plastic in sealed across the top and this is sat in a cardboard sleeve. The sleeve is recognisable as being part of the extra special range by its black background with the ASDA extra special rosette. It also depicts the meal in a well taken photo of the food pleasantly displayed.

Importantly there is a union jack flag on the front of the sleeve promoting the use of British beef.

This meal can be microwaved for 6 minutes in total or oven cooked, for 25minutes at 190degrees. I would recommend the oven cooked way if you have the time, as this usually prevents the rice from going hard around the edges, which can often happen in the microwave.

The meal itself is the perfect portion for one. Prior to cooking the sauce if very runny and I would be careful when piercing the lid when preparing to cook as I managed to splash the sauce everywhere by being far too vigorous with the fork.

The sauce is made with mushrooms, sour cream, white wine and added brandy. It is full of flavour but very creamy and still quite runny when cooked. This means that you can soak it up with your rice. Visually, I never think stroganoff looks that appealing, it’s the smell and taste which gets me. The sauce, when cooked was an orange type colour and you could see the oil in the cream dividing slightly on the top. This wasn’t overly off putting but the oil was noticeable.

The rice was lovely. The camargue has a nutty flavour and a more chewy texture to the long grain rice. Both types soak up the sauce well and it was nice to see a brand opt to mix it up a bit rather than give you a standard offering of white rice.

The beef was very tender. I was very impressed. Often beef can be chewy and tough, but this fell apart and was easy to break with just my fork. The pieces were cut into good sizes per mouthful. A few were a bit longer and needed to be broken in two, but this just means it lasts longer. I would say that it could have done with a few more mushrooms in the sauce but that there was just enough beef.

I personally have never looked at the calorie or nutrition intake on a food product before I have bought it. However, for the purpose of the review I can say that this product has 562 calories, 14.4g fat, 7.6g saturated fat and 2.1g of salt. It also has 4g of sugar.

The stroganoff isn’t suitable for those with intolerances for gluten, milk, wheat or mustard as this contains all of them. The sauce is made with sour cream.

Overall I would recommend this ready meal as an ideal dinner for those who cannot be bothered to cook for themselves or those in a rush.

I would not recommend this if you are buying for more than one person as it would be much cheaper to make a stroganoff yourself from scratch.