Vegi ready meals

iamthe43

Hey all!
So I was in my local, friendly Tesco today looking for something quick to eat tonight for dinner, and low and behold, I left empty handed. Why is there such a crap selection of pre-made vegi dinners out there. Linda McCartney lasagne's and Quorn Cottage Pie's certainly dont appeal to me. What do you guys think?

iamthe43

I have tried those clivespies ready meals and their absoutely gorgeous but hard to get in Sligo

pq0n1ct4ve8zf5

I think those quorn cottage pies are actually quite nice! Linda Mc Cartney is a bit mank though. (And as for her ready meals!)

Lidl do a box of ready made indian stuff, heard it spoken of quite highly but never tried it myself. Of course there's always pizza, no good if you don't want to feel like you've just injected cheese directly into your veins though

iamthe43

I must try the indian food from Lidl alright, but TBH, I eat so much indian that a change would be nice. Pizza's are not for me either. WAY too much cow on pizza's.
The cully and scully stuff looks good and ive heard great reports about it from others, but as expected, they have negelected all us veggies!

JTMan

M&S have a great large range of top quality veggie ready meals.

maameeo

Fungus wrote: »

M&S have a great large range of top quality veggie ready meals.

really?? never saw any before, must check!

OP i know what you mean, im a terrible cook and sometimes id just love the handiness of a ready made meal, havnt seen any thos

I've gotten the tesco finest cannollini before but as you say, a lot of cow!!

ztoical

Second M&S though it can be hit and miss what they have in stock. ASDA in the uk has a fantastic own brand veggie ready meal selection. They do a decent chilli con carne, Veg casserole with dumpings, Spaghetti bolognese along with the standard pasta/lasagna/shepards pie range. I'd prefer to cook a proper meal if I can but they are dead handy when you've a deadline to meet and no spare time. Pity Irish shops don't offer the same but then we don't have the same population.

henryporter

Its probably down to numbers and critical mass - how many vegetarians/vegans in Ireland as opposed to the UK. I was thinking of starting my own ready meals business (and still might!) but consider the factors - fresh vs frozen, nutrition, cost of raw materials, getting fridge/freezer space in supermarkets (extremely difficult), selling direct, packaging and shipping costs, cost of production vs competitive pricing (for example would people be prepared to buy a ready meal dinner for €10?) etc., etc. all within a relatively small market - if the UK producers aren't selling here then they probably can't see a market here.

Feu

Tesco have a whole range of regular and finest veggie ready meals, but you might have to go to a larger branch. Just last week i got this new thing, sort of 2 large ready made 3 bean burritos [think there was a bit a cheese but not too much] quite delicious. They also have the usual suspects like veg lasagne, veg canneloni
, rakes of veg sausage and assorted veg indian or chinese dishes. They also have all the cauldron tofu, felafel etc. [but as i say you might have to go to a larger tesco. I was at the one in rathfarnham shopping centre that time]

as mentioned M&S has a mixed bag, and they can be sold out of stuff, but they do a butternut/gorgonzola risotto that is delish. In fact, they also do a cherry tomato ristotto that's not bad. They have a variety of veggie stuff, again veg lasagne etc, and asssorted chines/indian stuff. They often have 2for1 deals, so i'll just go in ocassionally and buy 4 and freeze 3 til i'm too lazy to cook!

But, if you're looking for something excellent, and quite reasonably priced, i got to recommend Avoca [if you're in the greater dublin/wicklow area ] Nyom nyom. They've got "ready" meals, but like they're fresh. So in their fridges they've got e.g. veg red curry, mushroom risotto, lentil and veg stew thingy, stuffed mushrooms, fresh veggie burgers, and also pre-prepared veg ie. mashed carrot, runner beans in sesame stuff. Most of it is gluten free too. Let's say the red curry is €9.95, but there's plenty for 2 people in it, so it's good value,and you don't feel too bold!

OP good thread!

Sauve

I find it very hard to find freshly made readymeals (maybe thats a bit too much for anyone to ask for!!) - there are plenty of these with meat in them in fridges in shops but nothing for vegetarians.
In my opinion, vegetarians on a whole tend to push for better quality food thats locally sourced where possible. Maybe it's because we've all sat down and had a good hard think about our attitides to food and what we are/aren't prepared to eat. I'm not saying that meat-eaters don't do this too, but the fact that vegetarians have chosen not to eat meat proves that we've all gone through this process.
It's just a pain that being a veggie is so hard sometimes

Absurdum

Could I be entirely unhelpful and suggest that you make up your own meals and freeze them for times when you might want to buy a ready-meal? I usually try and make an extra portion or two when I'm cooking something like a curry and freeze it. Cheaper and healthier than tesco ****e

schemingbohemia

Had a Tesco finest Mushroom Risotto last night, I hadn't been in a Tesco's for a while, thought it was absolutely delicious.

The Quorn Cottage Pie is really nice too. Superquinn have a really nice Thai Red Veg Curry, think it's butternut squash in the main.

Feu

good to hear all the suggestions

I wasn't gone on the Superquinn red curry, but i did freeze it first, and it said not to! Will try it again fresh!

schemingbohemia

yeah would say the butternut squash wouldn't freeze great, it's worthwhile keeping an eye out for the red curry in their special offer section where they put the about to be out of date stuff, i've often got it there for a quid or two cheaper.

Feu

yeh ditto M&S and Tesco can have half off on stuff like that maybe when new stock comes in

Aoifey!

After all these suggestions I think I'll be doing a sweep of the supermarkets tomorrow instead of my usual back up of noodles

Washout

if only amys kitchen was available in ireland

most tastiest ready m ade meals ive ever tasted

schemingbohemia

Had today a delicious City Kitchen 6 Mushroom Stroganoff - it's from Tesco around €4.50 - really lovely mushroom flavour and there's spinach and wild rice included too. Will be getting it again.

Slaphead07

Tesco have a new range of oven/microwave meals called "Vegilicious" . Linguine, Bolognaise, Hoisin Noodles and Couscous. Some, maybe all, have soya. I tried the Linguine earlier and I have to admit it was pretty good. Not huge but decent lunch size, €3.49 a go.

TheVoodoo

Slaphead07 wrote: »

Tesco have a new range of oven/microwave meals called "Vegilicious" . Linguine, Bolognaise, Hoisin Noodles and Couscous. Some, maybe all, have soya. I tried the Linguine earlier and I have to admit it was pretty good. Not huge but decent lunch size, €3.49 a go.

Tried the Hoisin Noodles a couple of days back, It was grand, i prob should have mixed/ shaken it more... or thrown it into a wok.

But still, i'd buy it again as a quick meal, that is actually ok.

CathyMoran

Marks and Spencers have some really nice vegetarian meals at the moment - they were on special but are not any more and are small - they are small microwave pots - one is spinach and ricotta tortelini; another has pasta, olives, peppers and other stuff. I eat a lot of their pasta salads with pine nuts...sorry that I do not have the labels handy.