The Spice Pioneer Power Pods
With being in lockdown for six and a half weeks now, plus eating a gestational diabetes friendly diet, our spice cupboard has taken quite a beating. Because we’re not shopping for ourselves, it can mean that it is difficult to replenish everything in as timely fashion as we’d like too. I’ll confess, the Spice Pioneer Power Pods had been put to one side and forgotten with everything that is going on, but today they caught our attention and gave us a really easy option for a tasty dinner. The most important reasons for this was that we could adapt what you needed to add to the power pods to suit a. what was in the cupboard and b. what I can and can’t eat in my last week of pregnancy.
Today we went for the chilli con carne Spice Pioneer mix. Each box contains a pre-mixed and pre-weighed tub of spice mix. On the box you will find comprehensive instructions about how to put your dish together. We didn’t have beef mince, but we did have the most amazing shin of beef dice from Butcher’s Block Bromsgrove that we thought creating a slow cooked chilli instead would be incredible.
Adapt your recipe for lockdown
Naturally this meant that instead of taking 40 minutes as per the packet recipe, it took several hours. But it was totally worth the wait! We did follow the rest of the recipe though, adding the garlic, tinned beans and tomatoes, peppers , tomato puree and water as recommended by The Spice Pioneer.
I have to admit, it was a great chilli. After a long cook the shin of beef just melted under the fork. The spice mix gave a light chilli punch (it tells me it is 2 out of 5 in terms of chilli heat, and I would agree with that) but there were lots of layers in there – sweet spice mixing with the sweetness of the peppers, a little earthiness to balance out the beans, and none of it overpowering the beef, which should always be the star of the show.
Using beef shin (or a higher fat content mince) means that there is a lot of protein and fat in the finished dish. Only useful if you are cooking a gestational diabetes friendly version! We paired ours with a spoonful of brown rice and a mini wrap along with a salad dressed with oil and feta. This meant all the carbs (including the beans and peppers in the recipe) were nicely balanced. I got a reading of 6.4 an hour later.
What else have they got?
They have a lovely range of power pods available, including the Katsu Curry which I am looking forward to trying when I allowed breaded chicken again! But as well as this range there are meal kits and recipe boxes available. The Kashmiri food box caught my eye, but there really are a global range of options. They are currently offering free delivery over £25. That means it is a good time to give them a go if your quarantine kitchen is starting to lack a little imagination.
I was gifted the Spice Pioneer Power Pods for the purposes of review. This write up reflects my honest opinion having tried the product.
