Schwartz herbs & spices - recipe inspiration kits - review

Here at 'the castle' (yes it really is that posh here folks!) we have been giving some of the Schwartz spices range a bit of a test. We were sent some of the range to try, including some of the familiar ones like, rosemary, paprika, cinnamon, etc along with some of the curry powders, lemon pepper and steak seasoning seasoning range too, but I was a bit taken with the new RECIPE INSPIRATION KIT range that they have.

Here on a card you get six spices each in a measure amount that you then use with your own ingredients to create a fabulous homemade main course dish. A recipe card is included, that you can keep if you want to make the dish again, handy for sure!

We thought it was quite a canny idea in that you can make a lovely meal from scratch and you don't need to buy full bottles of herbs and spices, if you are not really that much of a frequent home cook and of course you might want to avoid that particular cost too. I must be honest I think a lot of people are put off making some dishes they would like to try because they think 'I haven't got everything I need to make that so I won't bother' with this kit range its easy and no fuss at all.

I felt this was ideal for a certain someone in our household who a) is not a frequent cook and b) on the odd occasion when he does cook likes to rely on jars; its easy you see the jars thing, no thought or effort required pretty much! But for me one of my all time pet hates is those pre done jar things...have you ever studied the list of ingredients on those things...have you tasted them...I'm not a fan!

We tried two meals with these Schwartz inspiration kits a lovely warming beef and beer stew with herb dumplings (made by the non cook in the household) and if he can make this so can anyone, I kid you not! (see below)

I tried the tray baked peri peri chicken recipe for one of the dishes I made for a family Sunday lunch this weekend (see it in its uncooked state above) The verdict was that yes we quite liked them, the beef and beer stew was lovely and tasty, the dumplings were delicious too, and the peri peri chicken had a chilli kick, fresh citrus flavours and vanished so fast there are no pictures to show you of the finished dish.

The infrequent cook of the household was so pleased with his beef and beer stew he was all for scanning in the recipe to make it again until he realised the recipe card was there to use again...doh! So thank you to Schwartz who sent us these lovely things to try and give a certain someone in the household a nudge to try cooking something from scratch. Result!

NB: This post was not sponsored by Schwartz, nor did they buy the ingredients we used to make these two dishes; they did not ask us to say nice things about their range. (and they didn't coax or cajoule the infrequent cook of the household to give up jars or cook anything either!)