Speaker 1: Is your favorite takeaway meal at Indian Curry? Do you
Speaker 1: love whipping up a Tika masala in your kitchen like
Speaker 1: Master Chef? There is a growing range of curry sauces
Speaker 1: in the supermarkets, and today we are going to review
Speaker 1: two popular Tika masala sauces just for you. Hi, I'm
Speaker 1: Susie Burrow and I'm Leanne Wood, and we bring you
Speaker 1: the Nutrition Couch, a bye weekly chat on everything you
Speaker 1: can find in the supermarket and our very honest reviews
Speaker 1: of some of our listeners much loved products. So Leanne Curry,
Speaker 1: is it your favorite order when you get some cheeky
Speaker 1: uber eats?
Speaker 2: No, I just I always feel sick after eating it,
Speaker 2: and I think it's because I have a little bit
Speaker 2: of a sensitive gut. I just find it very very rich. However,
Speaker 2: David loves Indian like as a cuisine into order, so
Speaker 2: he gets very upset because I never let him have it.
Speaker 2: Whenever we go and you get some reats, I always
Speaker 2: be too hones saying we're not having that because I
Speaker 2: can't eat it and I'll feel sick tomorrow and you'll
Speaker 2: have to deal with me tomorrow. So the poor guy
Speaker 2: probably hasn't had Indian takeaway in years. But I do
Speaker 2: like that there are a growing range of sort of
Speaker 2: sources where you can make your own at home. You
Speaker 2: can sort of balance it out a little bit more.
Speaker 2: But this curry is something that you love? Is it
Speaker 2: a go to in your household? SUSI?
Speaker 1: Oh, it's so funny because when I was growing up,
Speaker 1: my parents would routinely have curry nights, so they would
Speaker 1: have their friends over. They would have the little bowls
Speaker 1: of coconut and banana and pumpams. It was a massive
Speaker 1: social occasion. And I have to be honest, I'm a
Speaker 1: very plain eater, as I've shared before. I like, really,
Speaker 1: you know, a piece of salmon and vegetables. I don't
Speaker 1: mind like a tie kind of curry, but it's certainly
Speaker 1: something I don't make regularly at home. But like you,
Speaker 1: my husband loves it, and as soon as he gets
Speaker 1: my parents around her, if I'm not here, they will
Speaker 1: always whip out for a curry. So I'm a bit
Speaker 1: of the limiting factor. We won't disagree, but we should
Speaker 1: say that we know you guys listening love this because
Speaker 1: when Lee and I said to Leana, we really doing
Speaker 1: curry and she said, yeah, it's really popular. We've had
Speaker 1: several requests for it, so it's our job to bring
Speaker 1: you the information. So we've got two pre made sources
Speaker 1: in the supermarket because we know you guys enjoy it.
Speaker 1: So the first one we're going to talk about today
Speaker 1: is that. And if I'm pronouncing these names wrong, please
Speaker 1: forgive me, am I saying it correct? Per Tax Is
Speaker 1: that right? I think it's yeah, Pa Tax, I think
Speaker 1: pat tax and Tika masala. That's how you say it,
Speaker 1: isn't it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm pretty sure.
Speaker 1: So this is a source found just in the supermarket.
Speaker 1: It's actually made in the UK, which is interesting because
Speaker 1: one of my best friends is from the UK and
Speaker 1: she also loves a curry, so it probably doesn't surprise
Speaker 1: me so much to see one of these products comes
Speaker 1: from overseas. So if we look at the ingredients, the
Speaker 1: first ingredients water tomatoes fifteen percent, yoga five percent, so
Speaker 1: on the whole, it's even starting out looking pretty clean,
Speaker 1: some concentrated tomato, pure vegetable oil, cream, may starch, and
Speaker 1: then it goes down into a lot of spices and thickness,
Speaker 1: which admittedly will be in very small amounts given that
Speaker 1: the next ingredient's only fifteen percent tomatoes and five percent yogurt.
Speaker 1: It's very low in calories, leanne you know, per serve.
Speaker 1: It says, is it one serve per jar?
Speaker 2: Know?
Speaker 1: How much is that jar?
Speaker 2: Three?
Speaker 1: Four serves per jar? Just under one hundred calories, one
Speaker 1: point protein, only five point three grams of fat coming
Speaker 1: from a little bit of the yogurt and cream, but
Speaker 1: still low in saturated fat. Eight point one grams of carbohydrate,
Speaker 1: four point five grams of sugars, which I hastened to
Speaker 1: say it would be mainly from the tomatoes. Is that
Speaker 1: ingredient sodium?
Speaker 2: There's a little bit of added sugar a little.
Speaker 1: Bit not so much though, because that's cream three percent,
Speaker 1: so the main starts going to come in under three percent.
Speaker 1: So overall pretty low. Three one hundred and thirty milligrams
Speaker 1: of sodium, which is an insignificant for that smaller portion.
Speaker 1: But really this hasn't got a huge amount in it
Speaker 1: other than a bit of tomatoes and spices, so on
Speaker 1: the whole, you know, I think that it doesn't really
Speaker 1: contain so much at all. I don't think there's anything
Speaker 1: really wrong with it. If a client brought that to me,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't have any real concerns with it. I don't know,
Speaker 1: what do you think. Maybe I'm not taking the sauces
Speaker 1: seriously enough. I just would say to them, it doesn't
Speaker 1: have really much in it. And if you're using it
Speaker 1: as serves four as described on the label, there wouldn't
Speaker 1: be an issue. But if you started to make it
Speaker 1: serves just too you'd be getting a fe whacka sodium.
Speaker 1: But if you're doing it with lean meat and some brown,
Speaker 1: hopefully brown whole grain rice, you know it's adding some flavor.
Speaker 1: Sure it could be a little bit cleaner, but on
Speaker 1: the whole, there's not a whole lot wrong with it.
Speaker 1: I don't know what do you think?
Speaker 2: And I think this is quite amusing because when I
Speaker 2: put these two products together, Susie, I actually chose to
Speaker 2: pattas one as the quote unquote bad one. I didn't
Speaker 2: even really read the nutrition. I just grabbed it off
Speaker 2: the shop. I thought, I'll try this and then I'll
Speaker 2: I'll pop it up there. And I'm sure that you
Speaker 2: know it looks too sort of decadent to be like healthy,
Speaker 2: if that makes sense. So it's actually a really good option,
Speaker 2: and it's quite I sort of chose it as the
Speaker 2: one where I'm like, no, there's definitely a better option
Speaker 2: on the market, and the second one we're reviewing that
Speaker 2: from a marketing perspective, you would look at the front
Speaker 2: and pack label and that and say, you know, that's
Speaker 2: the better option, or that's a lower calorie option, that's
Speaker 2: a cleaner option. And so I actually find it quite
Speaker 2: amusing that this is actually not a bad option. So
Speaker 2: I'd be more than happy for my clients to use
Speaker 2: something like this, as you said, with a bit of
Speaker 2: whole grains or legumes to bulk it out, some lean
Speaker 2: protein and a ton of edgies. I think where we
Speaker 2: would run into problems if we're just doing this with
Speaker 2: some you know, chicken thie with some meat or something
Speaker 2: and white rice and then maybe a little sprinkle of
Speaker 2: you know, I don't know, some broccoli or something on side.
Speaker 2: That's where we'd run into troubles if we're not using
Speaker 2: it as part of a balanced meal. So I really
Speaker 2: do feel like it comes down to what you pair
Speaker 2: it with. But this as a source in terms of
Speaker 2: something that you might get you make this yourself at
Speaker 2: home versus you ordering in like an Indian curry. This
Speaker 2: would be a lot healthier and a lot better long term,
Speaker 2: I think, particularly because a lot of our Indian takeaway
Speaker 2: is quite westernized in Australia as well. It's not like
Speaker 2: what you would get if you went to Indian ordered
Speaker 2: sort of a dicker missile lot up the street. It's
Speaker 2: definitely not the same thing. I think a lot of
Speaker 2: times in restaurants we use a hell of a lot
Speaker 2: more oil and yogurt and cream in them. Whereas I
Speaker 2: like the top two ingredients in this water tomatoes followed
Speaker 2: by yogurt. It's not you know, vegetable oil or cream
Speaker 2: at the top, which I think is really really important.
Speaker 2: And I think that's why I actually don't tolerate take
Speaker 2: away you know Indian that well, Susie is because it
Speaker 2: is so high and fat and it is so greasy.
Speaker 2: I just don't digest or do well with too much fat.
Speaker 2: So I actually think this is quite a good product,
Speaker 2: And as you said, it would add a lot of
Speaker 2: flavor to meals, and if you didn't want to make
Speaker 2: it into more of a curry, you could just choose
Speaker 2: like maybe a tablespoon if there's over the top of
Speaker 2: some veggies, just to get a little bit of extra flavor.
Speaker 2: I think that would go down really well as well.
Speaker 1: And one of the most common questions I have when
Speaker 1: I've seen a new client is what can I put
Speaker 1: on my vegetables to flavor them up? And my general
Speaker 1: rule of thumb is I don't care what you add
Speaker 1: to the vegetables as long as you eat them, So
Speaker 1: you're absolutely right. I'd be very happy if people were
Speaker 1: using this kind of sauce to flavor out vegetables, and
Speaker 1: I couldn't agree more. My biggest feedback to clients when
Speaker 1: talking about Indian cuisine is the quality of the protein,
Speaker 1: so making sure it is chicken breast, for example, not
Speaker 1: the fatty chicken thigh or drumsticks, or in the case
Speaker 1: of having things with it, you know, if you're having
Speaker 1: potatoes plus pomp and ms plus white rice, it's all
Speaker 1: processed carbohydrate, whereas if you can stick to the veggie
Speaker 1: based carbs are a very small amount of brown rice,
Speaker 1: it will improve the overall profile of that meal. But
Speaker 1: I'm just having a quick look at these sources, Lee
Speaker 1: and because again I'm not overly familiar. This retail is
Speaker 1: at about four dollars. It's on sale this week at
Speaker 1: Willis when we're recording Pajar. But you do have to
Speaker 1: be careful because I'm just having a look now at
Speaker 1: one of the other popular products, which is the butter chicken.
Speaker 1: I know butter chickens very popular, and when I look
Speaker 1: this is the same brand. When I look at this
Speaker 1: nutritional the first ingredients water followed by vegetable GE. So
Speaker 1: for me, that's a big concern because ge is going
Speaker 1: to give a high saturated fat, so that's coming in
Speaker 1: at four gram saturated perserve. So I would certainly be
Speaker 1: opting for products like this Ticka Masala which is a
Speaker 1: vegetable based rather than a fat base. And that's probably
Speaker 1: another take home message for people when you're buying pre
Speaker 1: made sauces, particularly that a curry or Indian flavor, making
Speaker 1: sure you're choosing the veggie based options rather than ones
Speaker 1: that have that creamy base, because that inevitably will be
Speaker 1: adding a lot of saturated fat, as is the case
Speaker 1: with this one that's the butter chicken compared to the
Speaker 1: Ticka Masala, which is the tomato based. So it does
Speaker 1: pay to have a quick scan of that ingredient list
Speaker 1: and just make sure you're getting more of the veggies
Speaker 1: rather than the fat which can be very present in Indian.
Speaker 2: And definitely and just from an allergen perspectives to wrap
Speaker 2: us up, this one is green light for our Celiacs,
Speaker 2: no detectabile gutin. But it does obviously contain milk because
Speaker 2: it does have that yogurt and cream in there as well,
Speaker 2: So not a vegan based option, but is okay from
Speaker 2: our Celiac point of view. And there's an allergen statement
Speaker 2: maybe present tree nuts, so that's just something to be
Speaker 2: aware of as well if you have allergens in the family.
Speaker 1: And so the second product we're looking at is one
Speaker 1: of the more boutique products. It's not in a japers say,
Speaker 1: they're in the pouches, and certainly in Asian cuisine we
Speaker 1: see the pouches, which we would want to say, as
Speaker 1: a rule of thumber slightly better nutritionally, but not always.
Speaker 1: This is the spice tailor, again I haven't seen it myself,
Speaker 1: which is called the original Tika Masala, so a direct
Speaker 1: comparison to a product, this one comes from India. The
Speaker 1: first ingredient is thirty five percent onion, twenty seven percent tomato,
Speaker 1: pure milk, curd, water, some flowl oil, butter, rice, flour, garlic, salt, ginger,
Speaker 1: red chili powder, cashew nuts, and then a whole lot
Speaker 1: of spice. Is very similar to the per tax one.
Speaker 1: We've just had a look out. There's a lot of
Speaker 1: ingredients on here. When I have a look at the
Speaker 1: nutritionals per hundred grams serve one hundred and fifty calories,
Speaker 1: two point two grams of protein, eight point seven grams
Speaker 1: of fat, says per serving hundred Yeah, so a bit
Speaker 1: higher in fat this one. Saturated fats still less than
Speaker 1: three percent at two point three seven point six grams
Speaker 1: of sugar, again not insignificant, one point six grams of
Speaker 1: fiber and six hundred and twenty milligrams of sodium. So
Speaker 1: I think for Melian it's reasonably similar. If I had
Speaker 1: to choose nutritionally one I prefer, I probably would slightly
Speaker 1: err towards the per tax one. But given it's kind
Speaker 1: of the same product, it's sort of splitting hairs, I
Speaker 1: think this one's probably more expensive. That we have a
Speaker 1: quick chat it is. Yeah, have you tried have you
Speaker 1: tried this brand before? In any product?
Speaker 2: I've tried both, and I honestly think I think the
Speaker 2: taste is fairly similar. I actually think the pa tax
Speaker 2: gives a little bit of a better mouthfeel. So because
Speaker 2: it is a it's cheaper, but it is lower in
Speaker 2: overall fat content and lower in overall salaries, and I
Speaker 2: personally think it had a better taste and a better mouthfeel.
Speaker 2: I would actually lean more towards the pa tax one,
Speaker 2: which really surprises me because I really thought that I would.
Speaker 2: I would sort of go over more the Splice tailor
Speaker 2: one because, as you said, generally, in terms of pouches,
Speaker 2: you can see the visible herbs and splices in there,
Speaker 2: so it looks like a lot more of a whole
Speaker 2: food based product. But when you actually look at the
Speaker 2: ingredients and the nutrition facts, and really comes down to
Speaker 2: is that actually they're quite similar products. So from a
Speaker 2: price and a lower calorie perspective, I would probably go
Speaker 2: more for the Patax one if I was being honest,
Speaker 2: and I think it did taste slightly, but they were
Speaker 2: both quite enjoyable if I was being honest, They both
Speaker 2: had really nice flavors.
Speaker 1: This one, you're right, This retails for two dollars more,
Speaker 1: almost six dollars per serve versus the Pertax, which is
Speaker 1: only four for four serves. This is two to three
Speaker 1: serves per pack. I'm just having a look at another
Speaker 1: one in the range to see if it's the same situation,
Speaker 1: and the creamy ones are the ones to kind of avoid.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I think the first one is slightly better.
Speaker 1: But I think the other take home message is that
Speaker 1: we get a lot of questions about package sauces because
Speaker 1: I think we sort of put a sweeping statement that,
Speaker 1: you know, we shouldn't be using packet sources at all
Speaker 1: and their process. Now, I think for ease, if you
Speaker 1: had to go lean and buy every one of those
Speaker 1: ingredients that's required to make a delicious ticker masala, I
Speaker 1: would hasten to guess that that's going to cost at
Speaker 1: least thirty dollars by the time you buy the fresh
Speaker 1: produce all of those individual spices, without even considering the
Speaker 1: protein and the carbohydrates required, you know you're looking at
Speaker 1: a good at least twenty, if not closer to thirty
Speaker 1: dollars spend. I would estimate now for the average person
Speaker 1: with the weekly budget, it's not feasible to be spending
Speaker 1: thirty plus dollars per meal unless it's a special occasion.
Speaker 1: So I think in the case of budget reasons ease convenience,
Speaker 1: certainly there's When it comes to packet sources, there are
Speaker 1: some really good options, and I think the best message
Speaker 1: with it is looking for ones that are relatively low
Speaker 1: and saturated fat. Seek out ones that have as little
Speaker 1: added sugar as possible. So we like to aim for
Speaker 1: around less than five grad of sugars perserve, and you know,
Speaker 1: use them to flavor up healthier meals, you know, use
Speaker 1: loads of veggies and things with them, and then there's
Speaker 1: nothing to feel guilty or be worried about using a
Speaker 1: packet sauce. And if we're comparing preparing a chicken masala
Speaker 1: at home, a tick a masala at home versus something
Speaker 1: you would order in, you will always be better nutritionally
Speaker 1: to make it yourself. And if that means using a
Speaker 1: packet sauce, admittedly trying to seek out the best one
Speaker 1: that's there, but there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. Nutritionally,
Speaker 1: you don't, you know, fare better because you've made everything
Speaker 1: from scratch. If anything, strategically, you are going to be
Speaker 1: much better to invest in the more vegetables in there.
Speaker 1: In a leaner chicken or protein sauce than being worried
Speaker 1: about a little bit of processed sauce being added to
Speaker 1: make that flavor that meal up. So I have no
Speaker 1: concerns with packet sauces, but my general feedback to clients
Speaker 1: is avoid the ones that are creamy. Or when you
Speaker 1: look at the ingredient lists, have vegetable oil as one
Speaker 1: of the first ingredients, and you'll be on the right
Speaker 1: track definitely.
Speaker 2: And I think if you're a real fooder, you'll probably
Speaker 2: have them. Bulk of these is at home in your
Speaker 2: pantry anyway, so probably wouldn't cost you too much if
Speaker 2: you had the time and you really enjoyed it. Of course,
Speaker 2: making it from scratch is probably slightly better. And of
Speaker 2: course I think the sodium content's the biggest thing to
Speaker 2: be wary of. When we look at these two brands, Susie,
Speaker 2: we break down the sodium content. The per tax is
Speaker 2: only nearly three hundred milligrams per hundred grams, or is
Speaker 2: the spice tailor one is six hundred and twenty per
Speaker 2: hundred grams, So it's got more than double the sodium,
Speaker 2: So it's more expensive product, it's higher calorie, it's double
Speaker 2: the amount of sodium in it, and it only serves
Speaker 2: three compared to the pattax which does four serves, and
Speaker 2: so I think you're going to make it stretch a
Speaker 2: little bit more for lower calorie and also for a
Speaker 2: lot lower sodium content. So I think for me that
Speaker 2: one's the winner overall. Or you can do it yourself,
Speaker 2: as you said, but it really does take a long
Speaker 2: time in the kitchen. So I definitely wouldn't even hesitate
Speaker 2: to use something like this in a home made meal
Speaker 2: because I would much rather prefer to do it myself
Speaker 2: and enjoy it and make it the way I would like,
Speaker 2: versus ordering in something from Uberots which isn't going to
Speaker 2: make me feel great at the end of the day.
Speaker 2: And as we talked about, Western style curries are much
Speaker 2: higher in than doing it yourself.
Speaker 1: Very true, But in the meantime, enjoy your homemade Indian
Speaker 1: We look forward to seeing some of your images if
Speaker 1: you want to send them through, and we'll share them
Speaker 1: on our Instagram. So that brings us to the end
Speaker 1: of the Nutrition Couch product review for another week. If
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Speaker 1: the meantime, we will see you on Sunday. Thanks for listening,
Speaker 1: catch you guys next week.