It will be no big shock to you all when I say I love food! Whether it’s savoury or sweet I’m equally happy. But sometimes it can seem like an uphill struggle keeping healthy and eating tasty food. Diet foods are all well and good, but they are often less satisfying than their full fat cousins. So I was delighted when I was contacted and asked to review Flora Cuisine!

You may have seen the recent adverts where Vernon Kay and his Mum are happily cooking away in the kitchen. But did they convince you to dump the oil/butter and give Flora Cuisine a try? From a health point of view the new Flora is high is Omega 3 & 6 and contains 45% less saturated fat than olive oil. It is in fact made from a blend of rapeseed, linseed and sunflower oil. Rather than just give you my personal opinion I can give you the opinion of several people as I decided to give Flora Cuisine the ultimate challenge, to cook for a dinner party.

As Flora cuisine has the backing of the famous chef Jean-Christophe Novelli it seemed only right to try out one of the recipes he’d created using this new ingredient. After several minutes of salivating in front of the computer we settled on Glazed Baked Stuffed Red Peppers for the main course. For the dessert I decided it would be better to try out a recipe not intended to be used with Flora Cuisine, Chocolate & Pear Pudding.

The Peppers

I love love love stuffed peppers, I’ve eaten them in this country and abroad. So I was absolutely gobsmacked when these particular stuffed peppers turned out to be the nicest I had ever eaten! I really was genuinely shocked that having eaten them in wonderful restaurants in the UK & Greece these beat them all. Of course you could put this down purely to the recipe, but I don’t think that’s the case. The Flora Cuisine was very easy to cook with, nothing stuck to the pan and the beef mince didn’t ooze an oily slick as it sometimes can when cooking with oil. I asked what the others thought of the peppers, they couldn’t stop raving about them and I was ordered to give them all the recipe post haste. If you would like to try them out too you can find this recipe and many more at www.floracuisine.co.uk.

Chocolate & Pear Pudding

This pudding was the perfect end to our meal, and it cooked perfectly using the Flora. We poured a little in the dish and brushed it around to grease. The pudding came out beautifully and again there was no buttery residue and it hadn’t overly crisped the sides of the pudding as traditional greasing can sometimes do. If you would like to try this recipe out it was created by Nigella Lawson and can be found on her website here.

Would I recommend Flora Cuisine?

Yes I would, not just to those people who are trying to be healthier but to everyone. It is a quick simple way to cut down on fats and increase your Omega 3 & 6 intake. It’s also easy to use and can be substituted in virtually any meal. I have heard it makes the most delicious roast potatoes. Price wise it’s very competitive as well with an RRP of £1.99, although I have heard it is appearing on special offer in some stores currently.

Could it be improved in anyway?

Maybe slightly larger bottles, but only because it’s so useful I suspect we’ll get through it quickly. It also has to be kept in the fridge, I don’t think that can be improved upon, just worth noting you wont find it next to the bottles of oil.