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.