Product review: Maggie recipe bases

Before you declare I have sold my soul to Big Food, let me throw in a disclaimer: I have received multiple free samples of these recipe bases in a couple of events and I’m an advocate of making good use of free food.

Not all Maggie’s recipe bases are gluten free, but of course I tried the ones that are. All of them make 4 servings and need a few basic ingredients added in.

Once again, gluten free does not automatically makes a food product healthy. Some of the bases have ingredients I normally avoid such as “vegetable fat (vegetable fat, rosemary extract, sunflower lecithin)”, “flavours” and sugar. All of them have citric acid as preservative.

The bases are fairly easy to use and, in some cases, include instructions for a few different cooking methods (e.g. stovetop, oven, slow cooker). I’ve tried the Chicken Chasseur, Mince Cottage Pie, Beef Stroganoff, Satay Chicken and Chilli Con Carne. While I still prefer making my food from scratch, these can be handy when time is a constraint.