Thai food is one of my all time faves. I love the fresh, aromatic flavours and somehow it seems lighter than Chinese and Indian cuisine. The thing is to get those flavours really spot on you usually need to commit a fair amount of time in the kitchen, not to mention having your cupboards stocked with all the proper ingredients. It get’s expensive and let’s be honest most of the time we probably can’t be bothered!
However, I was recently sent some Thai meal kits from Thai Taste that promise I’ll be able to whip up an authentic, tasty Thai meal in 15 minutes.
Now that is a challenge I like the sound of!
There are 4 meal kits available in the Thai Taste range:
- Pad Thai.
- Thai Green Curry (Gang Keow Wan)
- Thai Yellow Curry (Gang Garee)
- Thai Red Curry (Gang Ped)
And I was sent three of them to try out on the family. The meal kits are priced at £2.50 each and come in a plastic pouch containing the basic ingredients you need to create that particular meal. You then add in your favourite meat, fish or veg, and serve with rice, noodles etc. to complete the meal. Each pouch serves 2-3 people, which I found was enough for 2 adults and 1 child. If you’re feeding more than that you’d need an extra kit to make up the volume, but it worked well for us as my daughter isn’t too keen on spicy food. Having said that the Pad Thai isn’t spicy and so I made us a Thai buffet one evening of the Pad Thai and the Thai Red Curry, which the 4 of us dipped into and by the time I’d added rice and prawn crackers it was plenty.
Easy Pad Thai
Contents of this kit include – rice noodles, Pad Thai sauce and peanut mix.
Ingredients include – tamarind, shallots, radish and fish sauce.
Need to add – prawns, chicken, tofu, plus veggies for example: spring onions, mange tout, pepper etc., 1 egg and some oil to cook with.
I used prawns, mushrooms, spring onions, and broccoli to create my version of this dish and it wen down an absolute treat with the family. Sweet, nutty flavour that isn’t spicy in the slightest and the addition of the peanut mix at the end gives it a really lovely crunch.
The beauty of this kit is that it comes with rice noodles so you don’t even need to sort out a side dish. The rice noodles are cooked separately for 8 minutes in a saucepan of boiling water and then rinsed in cold water and tossed to help separate them out. While they’re cooking, cook the prawns, chicken or tofu along with the vegetables for approximately 2 minutes in a large frying pan or wok. Beat the egg and pour into the pan. Stir until the egg begins to scramble and then add the prepared rice noodles and Pad Thai sauce. Heat through and then serve immediately.
Easy Thai Red Curry (Gang Ped)
Contents of this kit include – red curry paste, coconut milk, Thai herbs.
Ingredients include – red chilli, lemongrass, galangal (an asian plant similar to ginger), coriander and kaffir lime.
Need to add – meat, fish, meat alternative or vegetables of choice, plus accompanying rice, noodles, crackers etc. and some oil to stir fry.
I used prawns, red pepper, water chestnuts and mange tout and served with rice. The packet describes it as being of mild heat, which I chose not to tell my daughter who basically won’t touch anything remotely spicy with a barge pole. Fortunately, the addition of the coconut milk helped to dampen down any spice and instead gave it a lovely creamy warmth. My daughter didn’t flinch when I served it up, although I did give the husband evils when he dared mention the curry word. Regardless of that she ate it and didn’t moan, which trust me is a big deal. The rest of us loved it and it was so nice to enjoy a family meal together that didn’t consist of pasta and plain chicken! Plus I was happy because I didn’t have to spend ages in the kitchen making something that didn’t get eaten – always a huge bugbear of mine!
Easy Thai Green Curry (Gang Keow Wan)
Contents of this kit include – green curry paste, coconut milk, Thai herbs.
Ingredients include – green chilli, lemongrass, black ginger, galangal, kaffir lime.
Need to add – meat, fish, meat alternative or vegetables of choice, plus accompanying rice, noodles, crackers etc. and some oil to stir fry.
I used chicken, baby sweetcorn and sugar snap peas and then served with rice and Thai crackers.
The green curry is described as being medium heat, but I personally didn’t find it that spicy at all and there were no complaints from my ten-year old son. Lovely and creamy with beautiful fragrant flavours and oh my goodness so quick and easy to make.
Simply heat some oil, add the green curry paste and mix in a tablespoon of the coconut milk. Stir for a couple of minutes and then add whatever meat or meat alternative you’ve decided to use. Coat in the paste and then add the vegetables and remaining coconut milk. Cook for about 5 minutes, making sure if you are using chicken that it is cooked all the way through. Ensure the sauce doesn’t thicken up too much and then add the packet of Thai herbs. Stir and cook for a further 3 mins. It’s seriously that easy!
All in all I was really impressed with these kits, in particular how easy they were to make and how good they tasted. Sometimes pre-packaged stuff just doesn’t hit the mark, but the beauty of these is that yes it’s pre-packaged but there’s still a bit of work involved and with the addition of the fresh ingredients it creates a really yummy meal. Fantastic as a midweek dinner when time’s short, or as a ‘fakeaway’ treat at the weekend – just as tasty plus way less calorific and significantly cheaper than ordering in a takeaway!
And the best bit is that Thai Taste currently have an on-pack promotion where not only can you receive 75p off your next purchase, but you can also have the chance to win a trip for two to Thailand as well as a runner’s up prize of a copy of Thai food expert, Seb Holmes’, cooking book. I mean really what more could you ask for?!?
*product gifted for review.
