Saturday 3 August 2013

Ilumi Gluten, Nut and Milk Free Foods ~ Review


Ilumi are a County Durham company who make a range of nut, milk and gluten free foods. In their own words:
Our mission: to create delicious, colourful, deeply flavoursome foods that our customers can trust, to make them accessible and convenient, and to spread the word about eating for wellness to the wider community.
I arranged to review Ilumi Curries before my partner became ill and my parcel arrived just after he came home from hospital. Because his tummy was still sore he was unable to really test the curry, and I had stupidly not mentioned the fact I'm a vegetarian, so for a couple of days we had 2 chicken curries and rice, and 2 Celia beers sitting on the kitchen table.


It was all too much for my 2 curry-loving teenage step-daughters, so after much pestering I allowed them to take a turn at reviewing - but I had the terrible task of preparing my own curry to accompany the beers (it can be a hard job sometimes). 


The meals are presented in very attractive pouches, ready cooked and simple to heat up in the microwave. Both girls had them ready in what seemed moments, in fact one had eaten hers before I could get there with my camera!

The house smelled gorgeous, the curries were incredibly aromatic and even the rice had a lovely fresh-prepared smell.  It looked really nice on the plate too, not too much oil, and a very appetising colour.


The girls' verdicts were very favourable. Their comments ranged from "delicious" and "just like a curry from a restaurant" to "well-cooked" and "smells lovely". They did comment that there was a lot of sauce, but I've found that whenever I buy them any chicken curry it tends to have a lot more sauce than a vegetable curry, and they ate the lot in a couple of minutes, so it obviously wasn't an issue. My partner tried a few forkfulls and he was also delighted with the depth of flavour.

I'm really impressed and I very much enjoyed my gluten-free lager. There was definitely no loss of flavour with any of the meal, even though people with allergies can be confident that they are buying something which will not adversely affect them.


As a vegetarian and someone who cares about what my family eat, I love the fact that Ilumi have the ingredients on the front of the pack, as it is what I would always refer to first when choosing something new. The packaging is lovely and clear, and you can tell at a glance that you are buying something which is made with care and consideration.


I will definitely buy Ilumi meals in the future, I'm very jealous that I didn't get to try them on this occasion and my partner is keen to sample one of their Pork, Mushrooms and Madeira pouches. The prices are very good and easily competitive with other brands which aren't so thoughtfully prepared. They have a large and interesting range of sauces and meals, soups and rices and their website is amazingly simple to use, with the option to exclude and include specific ingredients, so you can view exactly the products which are appropriate for you.

Ilumi Thai Red Chicken Curry (275g) costs £3.50 and Yellow Basmati Rice (175g) is £1. Ilumi currently have a special offer of £4 discount, free gifts and free postage on orders of £20 or more.
 
Anna at In The Playroom reviewed the Vegetable and Chick Pea Jalfrezi. You can find her review here.

20 comments:

  1. This looks like a great range, perfect for convenience cooking for people with dietary intolerances. The packaging is great, such a good idea to make it really clear to anyone looking for ingredients that they need to avoid.

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    1. It really is actually. I am very impressed and it's almost not like cheating if it's properly made anyway :p

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  2. I had tried them and love it!

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    1. :D Well I know how picky you can be - so that's great praise! :p

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  3. These look like a great idea. I will have to have a look as there are a few of us with intolerances here

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    1. There really is far more than curry, loads of different sauces from different cuisines :)

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  4. they are good! liked the veggie one we tried. i have tried other gluten free things lately, thinking oh it will be ok cos the ilumi one was nice, but no! lol. the other i tried was rank!!!!! this one tastes like normal food and really nice

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    1. It really isn't missing any flavour whatsoever - I can't wait to try the veggie one too!

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  5. Sounds like they were really yummy! I do love a good curry and for that price, what a bargain!

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    1. You can't really go wrong at the price, it's definitely far cheaper than a takeaway!

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  6. I have to say that this curry was fab, could have done with more chicken for me, but the sauce was really very good indeed.

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  7. We tried these too and thought they were yummy

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    1. I'm looking forward to trying a veggie one! I really missed out here :D

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  8. Sounds good, means mother in law can join in our curries properly! I may even give them a go myself!

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  9. Tonight's going to be our curry night, they look lovely makes me hungry...

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    1. It smelt gorgeous! Much better than my curry even though I'd made mine from scratch myself!

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  10. It does look very nice, just needs a bit more chicken and a bit less sauce from looking at the pictures!

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    1. It's possible, I don't really know about meat. One of the girls always orders chicken tikka from the takeaway and that always seems to have a ton of sauce... :D

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