Vegan AND gluten-free ready meals!
Freshly made food from scratch is amazing. It is healthy, delicious and encourages you to take the time to cook and eat with the people that you love. Nevertheless, we all know these moments that we just don’t feel like cooking. It’s busy at work, you have a challenging evening schedule, or you’re just feeling under the weather. Whatever the reason, everyone appreciates a low-effort meal every now and again, so it’s great that ready-to-eat meals exist! However, looking for a vegan and gluten-free option can be challenging. Tonight was one of these nights for us, and it was as if the universe agreed. When I quickly dropped into the Asian supermarket to get some spices that I had run out of, there it was… In the same aisle as the spices that I needed, by pure chance, I ran into Ashoka ready-made Indian food.
No-nonsense ready-to-eat
The words “vegan” and “gluten-free” first caught my eye, followed by the delicious-looking serving suggest and “ready in 3 mins”. Was I dreaming? Could this be real? Turned out that it was, and it didn’t even stop there. In contrast to many instant meals, the ingredient list of Ashoka consists almost exclusively of ingredients that you would use when cooking a fresh meal: vegetables, tofu, herbs and spices. Added to that is only a little bit of preservative in the form of citric acid. No artificial ingredients, no sugars.
Ready in 3 minutes
Back at home preparing the meals was really easy. It is as it states on the package: “ready in 3 mins”. To be fair, I think it could even state “ready in 1 minute”. The instructions told me to heat it for 3 minutes in the microwave, but it didn’t state at what wattage to use. Starting at a default 800 watts for 1.5 minutes the food was boiling and starting to get a little bit crusty. I chose to heat the second package at 450 watts, for two times 1.5 minutes, stirring in between. This delivered the perfect result. If you prefer to heat the food in a pot or pan, I’m sure that will work to.
These dishes are typically served with rice or naan, not included in the package. Boiling rice to go with the food was actually what took me longest to prepare for this meal. Within 10 minutes everything, including the rice, was on the table. If you feel like even that is too much work, Ashoka also offers different styles of rice (such as Biryani) with the same 3 minute preparation principle.
Without sorrow
Of course the final result doesn’t come close to looking like the serving suggestion on the packaging. However, I daresay this was one of the best ready-made meals I have ever eaten. The flavour-packed and nutritious instant meal are well worth their €3.25 per package (in the Netherlands). “Ashoka” means something along the lines of “without sorrow”, and this meal was just that for sure. They have a wide range of different foods and flavours to choose from. As far as I could see all options were vegan (but please check this for yourself) and most of them (but not all!) were gluten-free too. One package per person with a regular serving of rice was enough for dinner for us. We shared the two flavours, something I would highly recommend doing if you’re going to try this with more people.
Where to find Ashoka?
In the Netherlands I found these packages in Amazing Oriental, a large Asian supermarket chain. If you’re looking for the same ready-made experience where you are, an Asian supermarket would be a good place to start. For those living in Europe, “Taste of Asia” is an online Asian food store that ships to most of Europe and also sells Ashoka ready-to-eat meals. When closed, the packaging-method makes them last for about a year, so don’t hold back when placing your order! If you do find them in a local store in your country, please share in the comments. That way everyone can enjoy the taste of Indian comfort food: vegan, gluten-free, and ready in 3 minutes.