I recently partnered with Namaste Foods to bring an opportunity to win some wonderful products to our readers! Head over to our Instagram page before Monday, January 29 to take part! Contest is only open to Canadian and US residents. ***Contest is now closed***
I was contacted by Hilde Shetler with Namaste, and asked if I would like to partner with them, and try out some of their items. Having tried some of their product in the past, I was happy to try some more!
Having so many things to choose from made my decision difficult, but in the end I chose their No Sugar Added Muffin Mix, Barbecue Coating Mix, and a bag of their Organic Garbanzo Bean flour. Here are my experiences with them, along with photos!
I was really excited to receive the Garbanzo Bean flour (more commonly known as Chickpea), because I really enjoy making Pakoras. For those of you who don’t know what those are, they are a deep fried morsel of goodness, full of veggies and whatever else you want to put in them! I had only tried making vegetable pakoras in the past, but had purchased some yummy salmon fillets, so decided on making some Salmon and Green Onion Pakoras. You can find the recipe here!
Upon opening the bag, the first thing I noticed was how fine the flour was, which shows good quality. Then the smell hit me. Wow! I had never smelled such a fresh, light scent coming from garbanzo bean flour before. Others I have smelled have been almost sour in their scent, but the Namaste brand was far from that. It has a really nice aromatic scent, and the flavour tops that. It was a delight to work with, and had a very fresh and nutty flavour to it. I highly recommend it!
I chose the No Sugar Added Muffin Mix because I always find muffin mixes to be absolutely full of sugar, and they are always far too sweet for me. I like to add my own sweetener, which allows me to play with the flavours. I decided to make these into Pancake Muffins, by following the directions on the back of the box, and adding 4 tablespoons of Canadian Maple Syrup, and half a bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips. After spooning the batter into the parchment paper lined cups (making 12 muffins), I sprinkled the tops with a good amount of brown sugar.
These muffins came out perfect, as you can see by the photo! They were light and fluffy, and the texture had just the right amount of chew to it. They hold up really well to butter too! Because the batter has no added sugar, these can easily be adapted to a savoury muffin. Next time, and there will be a next time, I plan to add green onion, cheddar, and garlic to the batter to make a lovely cheese muffin!
Last but certainly not least, I opted to try out the Barbecue Coating Mix. Some nights it’s just nice to not have to worry about spicing or seasoning your meat before throwing it in the oven or in a frying pan.
I had bought some pork shoulder steaks that I was going to season and fry up on the stove, have a nice little side of pasta salad, and some yummy brussels sprouts. Having this seasoning mix on hand just made things so easy! Because my pork steaks were on the large side, I didn’t use one of the “shaker” bags from the box (for the record, the box contains 2 pouches of seasoning, and 2 bags), and instead spread the contents of one pouch onto a plate. I then laid each steak onto the seasoning, pressed down, and coated each side and edge. After shaking them off, I placed them in the oven to bake. So easy! My pork steaks came out moist, juicy, and perfectly seasoned, and the flavours were amazing!
To sum it up, I am incredibly pleased with the products that I chose to review for Namaste, and I would gladly work with them again! Head over to Namaste Food’s website to check out the rest of their product here! Wondering where you can find their stores or products? Click here! And if you are looking to find out more information on how Namaste Foods came to be, click here!
Michelle's Gluten Free Kitchen 