Coco Earth Ready Meals

Cocoa Earth ready meals are a bit of a surprise find and really exemplify what my website, Facebook page and Instagram are all about. And that is finding those hidden gluten free gems in the supermarket.

If you only eat out of the gluten-free aisle, you’re going to be disappointed and you’re going to be really limited in what you can eat.

It’s super exhausting to pick up packets off the shelf in the normal aisles and see if it’s okay for you.. I know this and on a bad day I absolutely hate picking up something and seeing wheat as the very last ingredient. Like why bother guys? Why didn’t you just use corn flour and make it happy for everyone.

But most of the time I am endlessly optimistic and I will happily pick up item after item and read the ingredients.. and I’ll share with you all exactly what I found those hidden gems.

I came across cocoa Earth probably around mid 2023 while I was compiling products for my gluten free Woolworths ready meal guide.

It’s a surprise find given that other products in the brand have either wheat in them or may contain warnings. But these two that I’m reviewing today are coeliac safe. No gluten in the ingredients and no may contain warning.

I bought these not because I was super keen to try them but because they were half price. I know a lot of people were quite curious when I posted them on my Facebook page, so I thought okay. I’ll buy them and one day when I’m lacking inspiration for lunch we’ll eat them.

Preparing Coco Earth ready meals

The preparation is really straight forward. It’s exactly the same as microwave rice. You peel or cut a small opening into the packet, stand it upright in the microwave and cook for 90 seconds.

The other preparation method is to submerge the two bags in boiling water and let sit until they’ve heated through. Not even active cooking, just pouring boiled water over it.

Then all you need to do is tip it out into a bowl. The packaging actually doubles as a bowl if you want to use it. It would definitely come in handy in the office or if you were out camping. Bonus, it’s also biodegradable so you could compost it at home!

The taste

Smokey chicken. Definitely smokey! If you don’t like that, do not get this. Having said that I’m not into smokey things but it’s fine.

That’s so much sauce, it’s almost soupy. Like the mango curry it’s really rich in flavour, you can taste the cream in the recipe too.

Also despite on onion coming in on the ingredients right after chicken. There weren’t any pieces of onion in the I also didn’t feel any reactions that I typically would after eating onion.. So I do think that maybe my stomach dislikes onion chunks more than it likes dislikes onion ground up in things.

I guess the thing everyone is wondering about is what is the chicken like. I’d say it’s tender but also very dry. So it comes apart when you bite in, kind of like how pulled pork would.

In terms of volume there’s three decent sized pieces and six or so small ones.

These aren’t suitable for kids, too spicy. I’d say the smokey chicken is spicier so keep that in mind if you’re not a fan of hot stuff.

I only tried one mouthful of the mango chicken as it was for my husband. I didn’t pick up the mango flavour but I could pick up that there’s fruit there like you can with apricot chicken.

The sauce is thick and it’s richly spiced. There’s definitely some chilli but it didn’t linger on my first mouthful.

My husband’s verdict was that it’s nice and he’d eat it again. He also added that there are definitely worse frozen meals on the market.

My hot tip

Break up the chicken pieces, like you would a pulled meat. This will help all that extra sauce coat the shredded meat pieces. It makes the meat less dry and thickens the sauce consistency.

I’d show you a photo of my bowl after I did that but it’s a hot mess.

The upgrade

Normally I’d serve up a ready meal with some cooked greens. However we had a tonne of undressed slaw in the fridge that needed using up.

Any veg is going to elevate a ready meal, especially one that’s shelf stable like this.

The verdict

So the verdict from my husband is that these are good and he would definitely eat them again.

I’m not planning to buy them again just to have as a lunch at home. However, if I was in a situation such as travelling for work this would be the kind of thing I would put in my suitcase. It would alleviate the concerns of not being able to find suitable food.

I think it’s really rare to come across a gluten-free shelf-stable ready meal. Off the top of my head I can’t think of another one so that is quite impressive

I can imagine this saving quite a few people when they’re caught out with flight delays, whether that’s eating food at the airport or heating it in your hotel room when you get in super late.

It’s probably also a decent meal to take on… I was going to say school trips school camps but maybe that’s too spicy for teenagers.

But for adults going camping who like a bit of spice, this would also be really useful since you can heat it just in boiling water.

Where to buy Coco Earth Ready Meals

I first came across these meals while researching for my guide, gluten free ready meals at Woolworths. So they are definitely at Woolies!

While Coles have a number of products from the Coco Earth range they don’t have these ready meals. They do however sell a shelf-stable range of curries.

PRODUCT DETAILS

Gluten free: By ingredient.
Vegetarian / vegan: They’ve got chicken.
Allergens: Milk, cashew. May contain: Peanut, sesame, celery
Serving size: One.

Check out more gluten free ready meals or browse through all of my product reviews!