ZENBVegan Friendly & Gluten Free Pasta Sauce, Mushroom & Aubergine Ragu Hidden Vegetable Sauces - 4 Pack (250g Each)

The combination of mushroom sand tomato is a bit unusual but I like it! It reminds me almost of stroganoff. Very savoury and flavorful, it has a satisfying flavor. I ate it with spinach and ricotta tortellini and it was a good combo, definitely worth a try. One of the best pre-made lazy meals I've tried

These vegetable sauces from ZenB were pleasantly surprising and very tasty. This pack of 4 comes in a cardboard box, each sachet with 250g of sauce which is usually half of what I would use as a basis for a meat ragu. This box includes 2 packs each of 2 different flavours: aubergine with basil and mushroom with majoram. Both flavours of which i found surprisingly delicious, they’re not usual go-to vegetable sauce choices but i would totally eat these again.I fried off some vegetables (mushrooms, onion, peppers) before adding one sachet of sauce to heat through then added the cooked pasta with a bit of extra pasta water and salt and made a decent light meal for 4 people.The ingredients are all natural and vegan friendly so make a good option for those on a vegan or other restricted diet. Although this package costs £17 (at the time of review) working out at £4.25 per pack which for me is too expensive. This sauce is very nice and tasty and i am pleased to have tried then but i wouldn’t buy these again purely based on the high cost, at a push i would buy these again at half the price but no more.

The ZENB pasta sauces arrived in a branded cardboard box and inside are x4 250g pouches – x2 of the aubergine ragu with basil and olive oil and x2 of the mushroom ragu with marjoram and olive oil. The gluten free, vegan and plant-based sauces are well presented and serves 2 portions per pouch.I thought that the concept of these sauces was very good. They deliver 1 of your 5 a day, are a great source of fibre / nutrients and don’t have added sugar. The mushroom ragu tasted okay and included whole mushrooms combined with garlic, black pepper and red wine. However, the aubergine ragu I personally really disliked the taste of. It had a strange flavour profile which included small diced aubergine with a blend of tomatoes and herbs.Of course, this is personal preference but the sauces were also very thin and runny which didn’t really stick to the wholewheat pasta I used, so a lot of the sauce was left at the bottom of the bowl afterwards. The sauces could be thickened up and it is best added to other ingredients such as chicken of other vegetables, but I’m still not a massive fan of the flavours.Priced at £17 at the time of reviewing, these are very expensive at £4.25 per pouch even though high-quality ingredients have been used, and considering neither myself nor my partner like the taste of the aubergine version I found these sauces a bit disappointing – particularly as you have to order the two flavours together.

Quick and healthy pasta sauces for a quick tasty dinner

This is a gluten-free pasta sauce which is good for me being a coeliac also it’s vegan friendly you get two aubergine with basil and olive oil and two mushroom with marjoram and olive oil Ragu sauces. They are very easy to use so convenient. Just add more veg or meat to your taste, I personally like the mushroom sauce best, but I put extra mushroom peppers and added meatballs lovely but very pricey

These sauces are full of flavour but very few calories, and no nasty ingredients, so they tick a lot of boxes.But they are completely impractical for just mixing into pasta is they have the consistency of a thin soup. Effectively just a veggie stock and they did add some depth to my vegan chilli.Disappointing.

If you are looking for a superior pasta sauce and are prepared to pay a premium price for it then I would certainly recommend sampling these pouches from ZENB. One pouch will serve two using 70/100 grams of pasta each. Once opened, any remaining contents will keep for 2/3 days. A couple of things to remember-these sauces need warming not cooking so place in a saucepan at the lowest heat and allow them to come up to a gentle bubble (7-8 mins) stirring from time to time. Don't be tempted to leave the sauce unattended because the consistency is good and you really don't want it to over reduce. Secondly, the sauce can be used on its own as it has a rich, deep flavour-the mushroom note is truly powerful as is a foundation of garlic, herbs and a touch of red wine. However, this also lends itself to be a base for a dish with either more mushrooms or even one that is mince based- I tried the sauces this way and found this added extra texture with the sauce still palpable. Either way these sauces are in a different league to the false acidic flavours of mass market jars and promise a more appealing easy to prepare pasta meal at the end of a hard day when you want to eat tasty and quick.

I was looking forward to trying these sauces but they just wasn't to my liking. The consistency was very watery and just wasn't really complementing anything that went with it. It's fairly pricey as well.