Mitch’s Kitchen are revolutionising the way we think of vegan food, and more specifically ready meals. Gone are the days when you take a bland, unappealing ready meal from your freezer and place it in the microwave, hoping to god that it tastes better than it looks.

Based down by the south coast, Mitch, a gluten free vegan himself, has created a range of tasty, nutritious and mostly low calorie meals designed to inspire you. Every single dish in the range is both gluten-free and vegan. They are also free from nuts, cutting out yet more allergens (vital in this day and age).

All meals are prepared daily and shipped to you anywhere in the UK in a cool bag, designed to keep them frozen even if you’re not home to immediately accept delivery. Mine arrived at 10am via courier and were still frozen solidly at 5.30pm when I arrived home! The packaging for the meals is fully recyclable… could this company BE any better?

So when I was approached by Mitch’s Kitchen to review some of their ready meals, I jumped at the chance. As you will know, I am a meat eater but have been consciously cutting down my animal intake to opt for more plant based meals. It’s better for the environment, cheaper and usually just as tasty. Working full time and trying to keep up with this blog as well as going back to my dance classes, there doesn’t leave a lot of time to plan and cook healthy foo at home. However, can a ready meal, delivered frozen to your door, really compete with home cooking?

The short answer is yes! I was lucky to be gifted 6 meals, each different, to try out.

The ready meals were as follows:

Buckwheat Jambalaya – This was a delicious mix of spicy, hearty veggies, buckwheat and ‘chorizo’ made from soya, with a tomato based sauce. It was the first I tried and was bloody delicious. Although mildly spicy, it wasn’t overpowering like other jambalayas I have had (Here’s a short story for you, myself and an ex boyfriend went out for dinner one night. I ordered the jambalaya and it was so hot I got two bites through and had to swap my dinner for his. He was sweating all the way through the meal!). The chorizo (or as I like to call it NOrizo) was really delicious and I would happily eat this a million times. (my basil was dying at this point, poor basil!)

Moroccan Tagine – I was looking forward to this one most during my un-boxing. I love Moroccan food and having been to Marrakesh twice it brought back some lovely memories of sitting at the edge of the Medina, watching the world go by. Veggies such as aubergine, courgette and butternut squash were mixed with chickpeas and spices with chunky apricots (a highlight of the meal) to create a fantastic North African dish. Absolutely amazing.

Spanish Tapas – I was really looking forward to this, but had no idea what to expect – after all, how can you have Spanish tapas in a ready meal?  Chunky patatas bravas and ‘beet balls’ made up the bulk of the dish with juicy black olives giving it even more variety. There was also a mini tofu frittata (which reminded me of a Yorkshire pudding – no bad thing!) which I had never had before. I really enjoyed this one.

Coconut Kathal Masala – This Indian inspired dish was lovely. Cumin, Turmeric, Garam Masala and other spices bought this jackfruit and red rice dish perfectly together. As a rule I am not a fan of rice in any other colour than white, but the different flavour went so well with the coconutty sauce. Another winner.

Sunkissed pasta – This was the one I was looking forward to least. As a rule, creamy sauces are not for me at all and couple that with brown pasta… disaster for my tastebuds. Oh how I love to be proven wrong! The ‘creamy’ sauce was in fact sweet potato and sun-dried tomato. Jesus it was the best of the lot. I genuinely want the recipe please Mitch! Also I love artichokes so much and there were big chunks in there! I just added a bit of basil after cooking.

Chocolate chilli – This is the only one in the range I haven’t yet tried. I like chilli, but it isn’t in my top 10 dishes by any means. I am interested to see if I can taste the chocolate, I hear it gives it a slightly more rich flavour and compliments the chilli. Watch out for my Instagram story as I will be having that soon!

I genuinely enjoyed eating the Mitch’s Kitchen ready meals. It taught me that I do like brown pasta, and that ready meals certainly don’t have to be dull. I also love the fact that the back of each tray is signed by Mitch. It gives a little nod to the fact that he is so passionate about his product. if you are vegan, or looking to add more plant based food into your diet, I really recommend Mitch’s Kitchen. Give them a try, after all what could be better than a delicious meal, freezer to bowl in 10 microwavable minutes? Plus at the time of writing, if you subscribe to their newsletter you get 10% off your first order! I am now off to place my order for when I get back from the Lake District this bank holiday!

Find Mitch’s Kitchen at mitchskitchen.co.uk, INSTAGRAM, FACEBOOK or TWITTER. Pl