There’s a new thing on the home delivery food scene … recipe boxes.  They come with all the spices, oils and condiments you need to make a delicious, easy and exciting meal for 1-3 people (or 5 in my case as I added extras to bulk it up for the family).  Having seen Simply Cook advertised on Facebook I thought it sounded interesting.  I’m always a sucker for anything new to do with food! The £10 price tage seemed quite high so the 50% discount code was the excuse I needed!

The box was delivered 3 days after I ordered, it wasn’t small enough to fit through the letter box so that could be an issue for those who work outside the home.  Inside you get 4 individual boxes, each containing 3 little pots of spices, oils, and stocks/condiments.  You also get 4 recipe cards which have a handy tear off bit with a shopping list on.  The impatient cook in me wanted to open all the little pots to sniff and taste but I managed to hold back!The first recipe I tried was the spiced butternut squash risotto.  Not a new recipe for me, but I wanted to start with something familiar, something that I had a frame of reference for.  Usually I would roast the squash whilst cooking the risotto, this recipe asks you to cook half the squash in with the rice, and fry the other half with proscuitto ham and pine nuts. You get a spice mix, garlic paste and vegetable stock in the kit all of which smelled amazing separately and out of this world together … all I could hear was ‘mmm, that smells great’ and ‘When is tea ready mum?’!

I followed the recipe to the letter, wanting to give it the fairest test.  However once the rice was cooked, the squash was still too al dente for my liking … so I spent 5 minutes fishing out the squash and newked it in the microwave to finish it off.  Next time I would definitely roast it as usual.

Finishing it off with butter and parmesan made for an unctuously creamy and flavoursome risotto.  The salty proscuitto and sweet pine nuts add a wonderful depth of flavour and fabulous mouth feel as you eat. A crisp, cold white wine would have complimented it perfectly too. I was very impressed with the obvious care and attention that had gone into developing the recipes, the blend of flavours is sublime.  Easy to cook and very satisfying to eat.  If my 4 food critics enjoyed it then it must have been good!

Tomorrow I’ll comment on the next recipe from the box – Cajun chicken and sweet potato mash.

Happy eating!