I know I’ve said this before (and I’ll probably say it again) but as much as I like cooking from scratch and know that this is the healthiest and often the cheapest way to go, I have no issue with the odd packet mix or jar to help me along the way.
If you do have an issue with this then I would recommend you don’t continue reading this post. 😉
When I do buy a packet mix or a jar of sauce it’s usually one that is on offer at whatever supermarket I’m in and even though the big supermarkets do their own value versions, I’d never tried one until I decided to do a bit of a tried and tested feature on here.
First on my list to try was the Tesco Value Curry Sauce which cost me a grand total of 25p.
The Tesco website says that it’s made up of: Water, Tomato Purée, Onion (10%), Vegetable Oil, Sugar, Modified Maize Starch, Wheat Flour, Spices (contains Celery), Sultanas (1.5%), Salt, Acidity Regulator (Citric Acid), Garlic Powder. Nothing here jumps out as bad and there are no artificial colours, flavours or MSG so ingredient wise, unless I’m missing something I think it sounds OK.
I wasn’t expecting too much from it at that price but the next day, my Dad gave Miss F a bag of king prawns that he’d bought for her so we decided to make her a prawn curry with them.
I didn’t do much to it to be honest, I just fried the prawns with some onions and then added a handful of peas and the jar sauce. I like that the sauce was really smooth although I did think that the three or four sultanas in there were a bit random in there and we ended up fishing them out as Miss F really wasn’t keen on the taste of them.
The sauce itself though was quite mild and really tasty. It’s probably not one for those of you who like it spicy but for children (and me) it was delicious and actually something that we’ll buy again in future to keep in the cupboard.
It probably wouldn’t have been enough for all of us so I would use two jars if I was cooking for us all but for the two of us it was perfect and there was enough left over for a half portion for Mr Frugal to have a try to see if he would like it in future.
The verdict? We loved the taste and the convenience of this and I will definitely be keeping some in the cupboard for last minute curries in future.
Curries are a great way of using up leftover meat and veg and we often have them to use up what we have left in the fridge before we go shopping. I usually make them in the slow cooker though which does require a little organisation in the morning – this just involves putting everything in a pan and heating it all up. I won’t lie, the slow cooker curry is a bit nicer but it takes a little more time and organisation so we’ll still have slow cooker curries most of the time but I wouldn’t hesitate to have this again in future.
Well worth 25p!
