| Product: |
Uncle Ben's Express Golden Vegetable Rice |
| Date: |
14/08/08 (67 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Quick and easy preparation
Disadvantages: Expensive, bland and tasteless
I've recently started doing a lot of running, to train for a Half Marathon. One of the things I've heard recommended is a diet high in protein and carbohydrates, which means a lot of things like chicken, rice and pasta. Coming in from a long run late at night, the last thing I really want to do is wait for pasta to cook, so Uncle Ben's Express Rice caught my eye.
It is kind of difficult to ignore, with the range coming in bright orange plastic packs and sitting on the supermarket shelf in a bunch, like a group of badly dressed 1970s muggers. The range covers pretty much any kind of rice you may want in a hurry, from plain pilau rice through to special fried rice and including more or less anything you might normally see added to rice; egg fried rice, mushroom rice and vegetable rice dishes.
However, it's not the packaging that attracted me to the product, nor the wide range of flavours. For me, the appeal was that it was an easy snack, high in carbohydrates, that would be ready in around two minutes and wouldn't require much in the way of washing up afterwards. In short, it had everything that this hungry and exhausted person would want.
I'm a lousy cook, so simple preparation of any meal is a must for me. With Uncle Ben's Express Rice, it couldn't be easier. Just squeeze the pack with your fingers to help separate the rice, make a tear in one corner of the pack and pop it in the microwave on full power for 2 minutes, assuming you have a 700 W microwave. Mine's 800 W, but I put it on for the full 2 minutes anyway. Apparently, you can also prepare the rice in a saucepan, but this would increase both preparation time and the amount of washing up, which would defeat the object from my point of view.
It probably says something about the rice that it's the squeezing of the packet that I enjoy the most; generally even more than the eating. I have also spent the couple of minutes waiting for it to cook wondering what would happen if you failed to tear the corner of the pack; the only conclusion I have reached is that the result would probably be explosive and messy, so I've not tried it out.
Of course, the result after cooking is a little messy as well, as when you rip the top off and turn out the contents, you get a lump of pale brown tinged rice with the occasional brightly coloured vegetable piece hidden between the grains. It does separate a little more when you fluff it with a fork, but there's always at least one large lump, which I think is the bit that comes out of the bottom of the pack.
The pack describes the contents as "cooked and seasoned" rice. Whilst I have no reason to doubt the first claim, the second is possibly a little more debatable. The addition to the rice seems to be no more than some kind of vegetable stock, so whilst this does add some flavour, it doesn't add a great deal, so you get a slightly bland generic vegetable type flavour. Unfortunately, the vegetables themselves don't help with this, as they're too few and far between to actually have any real effect on the flavour. The onion is pretty much invisible and the sweetcorn adds more to the texture than it does to the flavour. The red pepper does have a distinctive taste, but you find a piece so rarely that I'm lucky if I can get two tasty mouthfuls in a whole bowl.
Of course, this only applies if you're eating it as a snack on its own, which is what I tend to do most often. If you combine the dish with something with a stronger flavour as part of a main meal, it does absorb other flavours and whilst it's still more important for bulk than for flavour, this is less of an issue if you're using it as a side dish. Incidentally, the Uncle Ben's website at www.unclebens.co.uk does offer some recipe ideas, although I didn't spot any using the Golden Vegetable rice in particular.
In either case, you're paying for the ease; which is always the case and one of the reasons why eating out is more expensive than eating in. In this case, the speed and ease of preparation are balanced out by a price of £1.35 per 250 gram pack in Sainsbury's, although there is an offer on at present of 3 packs for £3.50, which is more in line with the Tesco price of £1.15 per pack.
This doesn't make it too bad as a snack if that's all you're likely to eat before collapsing into bed, which is what I tend to do, but as a single part of a main meal, the costs would soon add up. Either way, it's very expensive when compared to the costs of a similar amount of rice, a handful of frozen mixed vegetables and a vegetable stock cube. But as bland as this might taste, the quality of Uncle Ben's is always very high and if the same could be said of my cooking, I wouldn't need to bother with convenience foods like this.
On the plus side, Uncle Ben's products are free of artificial colours and additives and the only potential allergen in the Golden Vegetable variant is yeast. So anyone looking to follow a vegetarian or gluten- or dairy free diet would be able to do so with Uncle Ben's Golden Vegetable Express Rice.
As expensive as they are, I do like the Uncle Ben's express rice range, as they fit in nicely with my dietary requirements and the time and energy I have available when I need to eat. Personally, however, I would recommend many of the other flavours in the range over the Golden Vegetable one, as this just tastes a little bland to me. The mushroom variant has more flavour and the special fried rice has more added bits and therefore a more interesting texture and flavour. So whilst I may not be able to recommend this product, I would certainly recommend the range if you're after something quick and easy.
Summary: A nice idea, but not the best in the range
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