Scratch Me-al All Over

Leonora gets cooking at Shinesquad HQ and here’s what she thinks about Scratch Meals:

As an avid fan of food programs, whether it be surviving your brunch/hangover weekends with Saturday Kitchen or salivating over Masterchef creations, I’m never one to turn down an opportunity to sample new culinary delights.

Scratch Meals have been promoting their new fresh food meals developed by Michel Roux Snr and today it fell to me to test and taste. We’ve got a few coupons in the office and we’ll be working our way through the range.

First things first, these meals are ideal for all manner of cooks, especially city dwellers who find themselves without the luxury of time in the evening to devote hours preparing food. In fact, it’s a revolution for all lazy chefs and time-stressed commuters with a desire for fresh and healthy living but perhaps just don’t have time or inclination on week nights to slave over a stove.

Now to the cooking! Simply purchase your preferred meal box from your local Sainsburys, trot on home and follow the ever so simple instructions…

Reading the Scratch manual

There are no long cooking times. It’s all as simple as add ingredients piece at a time to the single pan. I chose the Chorizo and King Prawn Paella.

Chorizin!

The concept of paella in 7 minutes seemed too good to be true; it’s a famously time-consuming dish. However, this was the quickest, hassle free paella I have ever cooked…

Paell-a-cookin’

My only criticism during the beautifully brief cooking period was that I did have to add more water than instructed to and this may have affected the overall strength of flavour in the end result.

“Ole“

which wasn’t as potent in flavour as the gorgeous mixture of herby smells during cooking process would have suggested.

Quite a tasty meal for the speed at which you can prepare the healthy, fresh ingredients. Paella does require time and tlc and you can’t put a price on the magic of time when infusing those delicious Spanish flavours together.

My summary? An ideal quick fix for the more discerning and health conscious foodie.

www.mealsfromscratch.co.uk/