A LITTLE BIT ABOUT INNOCENT:


Innocent are a company whose USP is that they strive to be ethically aware, using sustainable and natural ingredients, recyclable packaging and sharing 10% of their profits to charities each year.

If you are ever on their website, check out the story of how they started out - selling smoothies from a stall at a music festival out of £500 worth of fruit that they had bought. They put up a big sign saying 'Do you think we should give up our jobs to make these smoothies?' and put out a bin saying 'YES' and a bin saying 'NO' and asked people to put the empty bottle in the right bin. At the end of the weekend the 'YES' bin was full so they resigned the following day!!

12 years on and their range has expanded from just smoothies to also include: Thickies (with yoghurt), Juices, Fruit Tubes all of which are made out of 100% natural ingredients.
I have been eating their veg pots for about a year now, mainly sticking to the Mushroom Risotto one, but I was lucky enough to be chosen by Innocent to receive a free 30 pot drop to my office one lunchtime - result!!


INNOCENT VEG POTS:


There are 8 varieties in this range, all vegetarian (some vegan) and each 400g pot contains 3 out of your 5 a day.

They change the flavours in accordance with the seasons, but currently the flavours are as follows:

* Italian Mushroom Risotto
* Thai Coconut Curry
* Moroccan Giant Cous Cous
* Mexican Sweet Potato Chilli
* Indian Vegetable Masala
* Indian Daal Curry
* Portuguese Red Pepper Piri Piri

And the one I'm reviewing today - Roasted Aubergine Moussaka


MOUSSAKA...BUT NOT AS WE KNOW IT:


This is not a moussaka in the traditional Greek sense as in it is not layered, plus it doesn't contain béchamel sauce. So its moussaka-ish with thinly sliced potatoes, carrots and borlotti beans, with some roasted aubergine, fresh spinach, onion and a herby tomato sauce. All topped off with a little bit of cheese.

The plus points of this recipe variation is that it is far less calorific than its traditional cousin with each pot containing 274 kcals, 5.7g fat and 35g carbs. Each pot contains 92% of your GDA of fibre making this one of the healthier meal options out there.


TO COOK:


To cook, you take off the cardboard sleeve (the inside sleeve is worth a glance full of quirky little facts), pop the lid off the plastic tub, loosely replace it and cook for 3 mins on high in the microwave. Stir the moussaka then cook for a further minute.


SO, IS IT ANY GOOD?


It's personal taste but I add salt to these, but then again not everyone will feel the need to, I just have a terrible salt habit I'm afraid!

I have to say I really enjoyed this Veg Pot - the aubergines were soft and had no trace of bitterness you can often get with them. The carrots and potatoes still had a good amount of bite to them and the sauce was rich and had a nice minty edge to it. My one criticism is that the garlic is a little overpowering, I can understand why it needs a touch perhaps but it is beyond me why manufacturers seem to use garlic as a substitute for any other taste, especially with vegetarian food. Anyway that aside, an tasty and very filling lunch option. Comfort food without the guilt of calories or additives which is a rare thing indeed.

I enjoyed it so much that I had another one for my dinner, this time with a side salad which was again, filling enough for me.

As mentioned previously I was lucky enough to get a batch free, but usually these pots cost £3.75 at Sainsburys although they tend to have a few price promotions.

Suitable for Vegetarians
Allergy info: contains milk, mustard


Also posted on Ciao as ciaomiaow - thanks for reading