ZENB Cherry Tomato and Garlic Pasta Sauce
This article covers products made by ZENB. To create this review we received the products for free from ZENB and we will benefit from commission on any purchase you make after clicking the links in this blog. All of our opinions are genuine, however, and we only post if we agree that the products are delicious and worth recommending!
A delicious roasted tomato sauce
At Cook, Eat, Repeat! we usually make our own pasta sauces, and sometimes the pasta too! We pride ourselves in making food from scratch. So a brand offering ready made “gourmet” sauces and gluten free pasta needs to be REALLY good to turn our heads.
Well! Let me introduce ZENB pasta, sauces and crackers. This company meets all the criteria we look for if we are going to partner with a brand. The Pasta is gluten free, vegan and made with yellow pea flour - all things which I will sometimes consign to “faddy” and not pay attention to. Often pastas made with alternative flours collapse when cooked, or just have a weird texture.
This is absolutely NOT the case for ZENB products. We were sent fusilli, macaroni and penne and all are excellent. So good that we are going to feature each one individually in their own recipe, because they deserve it. We also tried the pasta sauces too - in my mind I was worried they were going to be Dolmioesque overly sugared fakes. But not a bit of it. Each sauce we tried (again in their own posts coming soon) was really easy to use, and, most importantly, - delicious!
Here I’ll will take a closer look at the Roasted Cherry Tomato and Garlic pasta sauce, I’ve used fusilli pasta from the ZENB range too. Plus, it was a gorgeous spring day when I was cooking, so I’ve used the sauce with fresh red peppers and broad beans from the local farm shop in the centre of the village. It’s a tasty, light and really quick and healthy way to feed the family on an average weeknight. I hope you enjoy it too!
Oh and I didn’t mention the crackers did I? Hands down some of the best board gaming snacks I’ve had so far. Tasty, moreish and clean on the hands when you’re ready to play your next turn.
Who are ZENB?
ZENB (which is pronounced ZEN-BEE, just in case you were trying to roll zenb off your tongue) specialises in vegan, gluten free products with no added extras such as sweeteners or preservatives. Their ingredients listings on packets are refreshingly short, for instance the Cherry Tomato and Garlic sauce has absolutely no unrecognisable ingredients, and in fact says tomato more than anything else!
Compare this to a standard pasta sauce such as Dolmio tomato sauce for bolognese. ZENB uses whole ingredients, nothing emulsified or packed out. Just flavours. Dolmio?? Acidity regulators, maize starch and “natural flavouring” whatever that might be. There is also a yeast extract which I’m hoping is just something like Marmite - but you can never be sure with mass produced rubbish.
The difference is clear in the taste - ZENB tastes like something I would have made at home, but more convenient for when I’m just too busy.
Their philosophy chimes well with me too. The reason I started Cook, Eat, Repeat! was because of Ikigai, which translates from Japanese into “a reason for being” and my reason for being is doing the things I love, and doing them well. ZENB comes from the word ZENBU which translates from Japanese as whole. ZENB want to maximise the flavours and benefits from their products while minimising their impact on the environment and our bodies but utilising the whole plant, whole food experience throughout a whole day. There is a clear vision and purpose to their product range.
Each ZENB sauce is designed to provide:
A Source of Fibre
Plant based - Vegan too
Gluten Free
1 of our 5 a day
ZENB Subscriptions
Once you’ve tried ZENB’s range of pastas and sauces, you will want to know how to get them regularly. ZENB offer a flexible and personalised subscription service called PICK & MIX. Subscriptions come with free shipping and no obligation (you can cancel at any time). It works through picking a bundle size containing a number of products (5, 10 or 20) then choosing the items up to that number in the bundle. After that ZENB handle the rest, arranging delivery of your pastas, sauces and also crackers (we REALLY recommend the crackers!).
Because there is no set bundle option to sign up for, you can change which products you want each time, so it doesn’t get boring!
ZENB also offer 20% off when you sign up to their newsletter, plus other introductory offers - making the first order very good value for money.
ZENB Yellow Pea Pasta
All ZENB pastas are made with 100% yellow peas. And in true following of a ZENBU philosophy, the whole pea including the skin is used, which is why ZENB are different from other gluten free pastas and have managed to maintain a traditional pasta texture, the skin helps achieve that al dente finish that wheat pasta does so well.
A key benefit of using yellow peas to create the pasta flour is a high level of protein in the pasta. Good for fitness buffs, but also for everyone else, as the body processes protein much more efficiently than starch. It’s also a good source of iron too, helping stave off tiredness or fatigue.
Yellow pea pasta is suitable for vegans and coeliacs as well. Plus from an environmental point of view, yellow peas are nitrate fixing, which means they actually improve the quality of soil they are in rather than requiring nitrogen based fertilisers.
One major feature of Yellow Pea - it tastes blumming lovely in a pasta dish!
A quick and easy fusilli recipe
Ingredients for Roasted Cherry Tomato and Garlic Fusili with Peppers and Broad Beans
Serves 2 as an evening dinner
1/2 x packet Roasted Cherry Tomato and Garlic ZENB Pasta Sauce
170g x ZENB Yellow Pea Fusilli Pasta
1 x shallot thinly sliced
150g x Broad beans, fresh is best, but the frozen packets from the supermarket are also nice
1/2 x large red pepper, seeds removed and roughly chopped
1 tbsp x Olive oil
Basil, to garnish
Salt and Pepper to taste
How to make Roasted Cherry Tomato and Garlic Fusilli with Peppers and Broad Beans
Boil the pasta in lightly salted water until al dente, reserve a tablespoon of the pasta water before draining.
In the meantime in another saucepan - heat the olive oil and then fry the shallot gently until it softens.
Once the shallot has started to brown slightly, add the red pepper and saute for around 3-4 minutes on a medium heat,
Add in the ZENB Tomato Pasta Sauce and heat through.
Once simmering add the broad beans and cook until just going soft (you want bite, not mush)
Add the pasta back to the saucepan and stir to thoroughly coat the pasta.
Season to taste then serve with a garnish of basil on top
Easy - DONE!
