Sainsbury's Be Good to Yourself Prawn Rogan Josh with Pilau Rice

Update: ate another one the other day which had been in the freezer. The curry didn't suffer from the freezing process at all, but I WOULD recommend having the patience to stop and do the adding water to the rice thing if cooking from frozen. Zx
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I’ll start by apologising to those with delicate sensibilities, but the only way I can start this review is with a resounding and satisfied belch. Once again, I felt the need for a diet “treat”, and scoured the Sainsbury Be Good to Yourself aisle, this time in my Sainsbury Local, which has a less extensive, but still impressive selection to choose from.

I’m a curry fan, and having been so impressed by the Indian Meal for One, I decided to try the Prawn Rogan Josh and Pilau Rice. I wasn’t disappointed. What an unbelievable assault of flavours and textures on the palate! I should probably calm down now (although my tongue is still tingling as I ate this delicious meal for lunch) and write something resembling a sensible review.

THE IMPORTANT STUFF FIRST – HOW DO I COOK IT?
A microwave meal (although you can oven cook as well), comprising a double-section plastic microwaveable carton, with rice in one side, and prawn curry in the other. Oven cooking takes about 25 minutes at Gas Mark 5, and this will microwave in 7 minutes (or from frozen – it is suitable for home freezing) in 12 minutes. Like most microwave meals, you are supposed to interrupt cooking halfway through to add a little water to the rice, but I’m far too lazy and impatient for lunch to do this, I don’t find the rice suffers unduly.

NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION
Only 356 calories per 400g pack, with 3.6g of fat, of which only 0.4g are saturates. You will also get one of your recommended five daily portions of fruit and vegetables from this meal. The salt content is quite high, at 3.0g (of which sodium is 1.2g), and if you’ve been alarmed by recent news reports on recommended salt intake and how much an average person actually eats in a day, you might be a little concerned by this. For reference, a woman should have no more than 5.0g of salt a day, and a man 7.0g.

If you are following the WeightWatchers PurePoints programme, this meal comes in at 5 points, so is exceptionally reasonable for an evening meal, and not bad for a lunch.

Allergy information – GLUTEN FREE! Although it does contain shellfish, and milk, and due to production methods, is unlikely to be suitable for nut allergy sufferers.

COST?
A fairly hefty £3.25 from my Sainsbury Local, although they are notorious for slapping 10p-20p on things like ready meals in the small stores, and this may be considerably less in a large Sainsbury. This particular BGTY product isn’t listed on the basic product inventory of the Sainsbury to You website (and I’m not registering to get the full product details as they’ll spam me forever!), so I can’t give a certain answer, but you could expect to find it at £3.25 or less in a large Sainsbury.

It is, however, an extremely filling meal, and if you work in an office where a microwave is provided, it compares well both nutritionally and financially with sandwiches from somewhere like Pret a Manger. Also, at this time of year, it’s far more comforting to have a large hot meal at lunchtime, even if it does make you want to sleep the afternoon away!

SO WHAT DO YOU THINK OF IT THEN, ZOE?
Oh, it’s gorgeous. I made notes as I was eating (you see what I do for Ciao?!), although I could barely pause to put the fork down.

First of all, there’s a remarkably generous amount of large Tiger Prawns, in a very rich tomato and onion sauce. The prawns have been well marinaded, are tender and meaty, and taste very fresh. Spices that immediately hit the palate are chilli (this particular curry is a “Medium”, and although I usually disagree a bit with Sainsbury classifications, this time I agree), coriander (which is fresh, as there’s definite “plant matter” which is without a doubt coriander!), and ginger. Secondary notes after a fair amount of rumination are garlic and paprika. Other spices are Cumin, Turmeric, Garam Masala, and Lemon Juice, which is now quite apparent in a not unpleasant aftertaste. Mmm…

The rice is good quality basmati, neither too dry (even with my inability to halt the microwave and add any water), nor too sticky, in a very generous quantity. I only ate it all as I was feeling very greedy. I can’t really comment on any particular flavour to the rice, as I mixed it well with the rest of the sauce to soak it up! There may be rice connoisseurs out there, but to me, rice is rice, and that’s that.

PACKAGING
“Sainsbury Be Good to Yourself “ general style, of dark blue bottom border with white text, and basic nutritional information (calories, fat, etc.) in the bottom right hand corner of the pack.

The top two thirds of the pack is taken up with a product shot, which is a pretty good representation of what the food looks like, although there is rather more sauce than is indicated in the photograph. And oh look! You can see the fresh coriander!

CONTACT INFORMATION
The Sainsbury Careline is on Freephone 0800 636262, and you can contact them online at www.sainsburys.co.uk

Thank you very much for reading!