REVIEW - Tesco Chickpea and Sweet Potato Pies

Confession: I'm not the greatest fan of meat. Whilst I wouldn't classify myself as a vegetarian or a pescetarian, I find that meat doesn't make it my daily diet very much. It does feature occasionally but more often than not I find myself going for a veggie option. Forget meat-free Monday, I could probably do a meat-free month without even noticing! 

All supermarkets now do a range of meat-free products in their frozen aisle and I like to have a few on standby for those evenings when cooking from scratch just isn't appealing. I've probably eaten the majority of the Tesco range since starting university so I immediately spotted these new Moroccan Style Chickpea and Sweet Potato Pies when I was shopping a while back. The packaging describes them as "Shortcrust pastry encasing chickpeas, sweet potato, peppers and spinach in a spicy tomato sauce topped with a butter enriched puff pastry lid and topped with a paprika crumb" which sounded pretty appealing to me, so into the trolley they went! They come as a pack of two and were £1.50.

Suitably puffed

The first thing I noticed when taking my pie out of the oven after its allotted 40 minute cooking time was that puff - suitably impressive! Admittedly it was slightly uneven but I could probably put that down to my dodgy oven which has never really grasped an understanding of how to cook food properly. The smell coming out of the oven was great - quite intense and spicy - and, after some wrangling, the pie popped out of its container fairly easily.

Well, Tesco definitely weren't lying when they used the word 'spicy' in the product description! The filling inside was delicious, with a good mix of chickpeas and sweet potato, but the sauce was definitely pretty hot! I'm a fan of spice so this wasn't a negative point for me, but I was definitely quite surprised by it. I think the issue is that so many products that are described as 'spicy' can actually be quite mild, therefore I've come to expect a lack of flavour and heat. However this definitely wasn't lacking in the flavour department; the only thing I would say is that any taste of sweet potato was completely masked by the spice which was a bit of shame. Aside from that I did really enjoy the filling and it had a perfect texture as well.
The pastry itself was fine and cooked well in the time stated - a really crispy top with a solid shell to hold the filling. The 'paprika crumb' was a nice idea as well, although perhaps with the spiciness of the filling wasn't entirely necessary.

I think these pies are a good addition to Tesco's current range and I wouldn't hesitate to buy them again - I would just be more prepared for a mouthful of spice! I see that Tesco also do a 'Mediterranean Vegetable' version of these which I might keep an eye out for when I'm back in store (and may be a good option for people who don't like spicy food). 7 out of 10 from me for these!