Tesco Finest Produce

Tesco Finest have recently had a relaunch and I’ve been trying out some of the new products available on the Produce section.  What I like about the Tesco Finest Produce range is that they showcase more unusual (and often more flavoursome) varieties of fruits and vegetables.  At the moment I’m eating a lot of tomatoes and I hate insipid tomatoes.  So the Tesco Finest San Marzano on the vine and the Finest Piccolo Tomatoes have been going down a storm with me.  I eat a small bowl of salad every lunchtime and the quality of these shines through.  Each biteful is a tasty treat and I’m finding that my salads have suddenly got tomato heavy, I wonder why?

Every week we try to eat vegetarian at least once or twice.  We figure it’s better for us and better for the environment too.  It can be difficult to come up with new inspiration though and we probably don’t have enough vegetarian dishes in our repertoire.  Tesco Finest have a number of prepared products that can help you create a healthy, nutritious meal with the minimum of fuss and effort.

First up we tried the Tesco Finest Stir Frys.  I used a pack of the Thai Style Stir Fry with Oriental Sauce for me and my son.  This was a coconut based, delicately spiced and very tasty sauce.  It went down well with my adventurous six-year-old and I enjoyed it too.  My husband likes stronger tastes so he tried out a Thai Style chilli sauce. He loved the sauce too, which was full of flavour without simply being overloaded with chillis.  However, the Thai Style Stir Fry did contain a few surprises.  As is normally the case with these packs, the vegetable are cut up and are ready to go straight into your wok.  In amongst the other vegetables were some small, whole chillies.  A mouthful of one of those and your taste buds are ruined for the rest of the meal.  I was a bit surprised that they weren’t cut up because they were too strong to eat in one go.

Feeling very virtuous about managing a second vegetarian evening meal in a row, we tried the Tesco Finest Stuffed Forestiere Mushrooms. These large, flat mushrooms have a strong, almost meaty taste and texture.  They’re filled with a combination of caramelized red onion, smoked garlic and creamy soft cheese.  On top of this comes a crunchy, ciabatta crumb which is made using a 24 month-aged parmigiano reggiano cheese.  They were packed with taste and made for a quick and easy meal as they just need to go into the oven to cook.