New organic, all natural products for your pantry

After attending the Natural Products Expo East there are culinary items that should make their way to your kitchen cupboards. I have had the opportunity to try numerous samples from the manufacturers.  Let me share my picks:

Taste of India – Butter Chicken Sauce which is gluten free has no artificial flavors or colors and the heat level is mild. Packaged in a self-standing pouch with a pour spout this Indian cooking sauce also known as Murgh Makhani was a hands down winner for me.  Along with sauce comes additional seasoning pouches that you can use as little or as much as you wish, I used them all.  When I prepared it as instructed with their suggested amount of cubed boneless chicken there was sufficient sauce to have handled more chicken.  They suggested it would feed four it fed two of us with a little left over. - I served it with brown rice.  A suggested addition at the ended was chopped cilantro and cream. It was one of the rare times I had heavy whipping cream so I added two tablespoons.  You can go to www.tasteofindiafoods.com for further information but you won’t be able to purchase it there.  To purchase, go to Amazon.com where it is available in a 6 pack with an optional coupon plus shipping is ran me a little over $5 a pouch/meal.  Cooking time is about 10 minutes and prep, however long it takes you to cube boneless chicken.

There is always a preponderance of pasta sauces at any of the food shows and the Natural Products Expo had their share. A problem with the tomato based pasta sauces they have added sugar, and sometimes are too sweet.  With that in mind, my pick is Uncle Steve’sItalian Specialties which offers three sauces; marinara, tomato basil and arriabbiata. The three sauces have no sugar added along with being  gluten free, non-GMO, organic and Kosher certified.  You are able to buy on line in 3 pack.  This is a Steve Schirripa’s family recipe. You ask who is Steve Schirripa? He is most notable for his recurring role on HBO’s Sopranos.

Which Wich Black Bean Veggie Burger was outstanding that I tasted at the Natural Products Expo. I’m not one for veggie burgers at all and I was taken aback by how good it was. Which Wich is a chain of Texas Sandwich shops and they were looking for distributors to carry their black bean veggie burger. If you are lucky enough to have a Which Wich in your neighborhood you can enjoy the Black Bean Veggie Burger and hopefully we might see it in the near future in our specialty food store freezers.