I’m so happy that Passover is over. I had a wonderful holiday, but the long week of holidays left me exhausted. I didn’t really want to look at food. While some people turn to pizza or pasta for their first bite of leavened breads, my first must-have is always some warm Basmati rice. I rarely crave bread or pasta. Rice is something I could eat any day.
When I came upon the Saffron Road simmer sauces at Whole Foods, I was very excited to see that they were kosher certified. I love these kinds of flavorful sauces and usually have to make them from scratch. The fact there there were these packets of sauces and they happened to be kosher, opened a world of dinner possibilities for me. These sauce packets are flavorful and perfect for a busy weeknight.
Saffron Road recently sent me a package with all four varieties of the Simmer Sauces to try. That was a happy mail day! I had to try one of the flavors right away!
I decided to go with the Lemongrass Basil option first. I love Thai curries. Because these sauces are dairy or certified as made on dairy equipment, these could only be prepared with vegetarian proteins in my kosher home. If you don’t keep kosher though, the options are endless. The Lemongrass Basil would be perfect with seafood or chicken. I prepared this dish with tofu and vegetables. The directions were easy to follow and dinner was perfect. It was ready to go in less than 10 minutes! How awesome is that! The Lemongrass Basil sauce is so flavorful and seeped in to the veggies and tofu very well.For another dinner I prepared the Moroccan Tagine sauce. I added the sauce to a mixture of vegetables and chickpeas and then served over couscous. Again, I was surprised by the level of flavor in this dish! I didn’t expect a shelf stable sauce to pack that much flavor.
Last, I tried the Tikka Masala sauce packet. I sauteed some veggies and tofu with onion and garlic. When the veggies were ready, I poured in the sauce. I had rice ready to go. Dinner took around 10 minutes to prepare. The veggies and tofu were great. The Tikka Masala has a nice heat level to it, with a bit of underlying sweetness.
All in all, these sauce packets are perfect for a busy night. If they had been certified as kosher pareve, I would have added them to some chicken, and would have expected similarly tasty results. These Saffron Road sauces are all natural and packed with flavor. I will definitely pick them up again. I am looking forward to seeing what else they have to offer.
About Hindy Garfinkel
hysterical – warm basmati rice — I think I ate like 4 slices of pizza motzai yuntif – but this looks really yum!
In our neighborhood, you had to get on a waiting list for motzei pesach pizza at least a week in advance. Even then, by 1:30 am, the waits were still crazy.
These simmer sauces look really good! Those are some combos that I am just too lazy to make myself so it will be cool to get these and just pour them over my food 🙂
I’m with you – first bites of chametz were at lunch time Isru chag and they were rice! I love rice, and these look really good.
I like the sound of the lemongrass basil sauce with tofu! So awesome that it only takes 10 minutes!
I think the lemongrass basil sauce was definitely my favorite of the four.
I love these flavors, haven’t seen these sauces before though and am very interested. I did once use a Tikka Masala sauce from another company with fish and it was amazing. Thanks for introducing this product.
These flavors all sound delicious. I usually make curries and things myself but this would be a nice change for a quick dinner. I will have to keep an eye out for the sauces next time I am at the store.
yum yum yum! I’m a big fan of these guys. I try really hard not to buy pre-made stuff but sometimes I just don’t have time with working full time and taking care of the little one so I feel more confident when it’s a good quality product like Saffron Road.
Exactly! I do prefer to make my own curry sauce, but for those crazy nights – this is perfect.
These look great! Are they only available at Whole Foods?
they are available at other stores. The website lists other places. http://www.saffronroadfood.com/store-locator/
Yum! I am so intrigued! I have to try these!
These look really good.