Heinz No Added Sugar Beanz

"Heinz beans made their UK debut in 1886. Little wonder that, 130 years later, its baked beans remain the nation's favourite.
The recipe has evolved over time (pork was dropped during WWII), but Heinz still sells 1.5 tins of beans a day in the UK, and domninates 65-70% of the British market" (The Guardian, 27 April 2016)

That's a whole sea of beans. Difficult to imagine such a huge number of tins. Baked beans is not a food I was familiar with, growing up as a child in the Soviet Union. I most likely first tried it in my 20s, when I arrived to the UK as a student. One of the girls with whom I shared the house, used to have beans on toast for dinner almost daily.
I can't say I often buy them, but I do enjoy beans as part of the full English breakfast. I sometimes fancy a little bit of beans, and would have them for lunch with a side dish of roast tomatoes and mushrooms. Add sausages or a bacon rasher, and it's a proper feast.

Full English breakfast, minus bacon and fried bread

This January Heinz has launched No Added Sugar Beanz, a brand new variety of beans, which is available in supermarkets from February.

The new variety will sit alongside standard Heinz Beanz.

"With 34% of the UK households cutting back on eating sugary foods too often and, of those, 92% trying to actively reduce the amount of sugar in the foods they buy, it is clear that Brits are becoming increasingly concerned with overall sugar consumption".
The new recipe from Heinz will replace the 50% Less Sugar variety.

The amount of hidden sugar in many products is quite scary. As a consumer I am all in favour of famous brands working on the issue and introducing products with less or no sugar.

Heinz Beanz are naturally high in protein and fibre and low in fat, gluten free and vegetarian friendly. They also contribute to one of five a day.
Another plus - No Added Sugar Beanz is produced with 25% less salt than standard Heinz Beanz.

Francesca Mattiussi from Heinz Beans comments: "With health concerns high in consumers' minds, we are delighted to launch a No Added Sugar variety to meet the needs of families across the country that are looking for even lower sugar options. We have dedicated years of expertise to carefully crafting the new and delicious Heinz No Added Sugar Beanz without compromising on the much loved great taste of Heinz".

Where does the sweet note in No Added Sugar beans come from? These beans are naturally sweetened with stevia plant extracts.

Heinz No Added Sugar Beanz are available in different sizes, cans, multipacks and snap pots.

I received several tins of new beans to try. As I'm not a big expert on baked beans, I shared tins with my friends and asked them to give me feedback, which was all very positive.

I probably should have done a blind test, and compared the new variety with the original one, but it does taste very similar.

How often do you eat baked beans?

Disclosure: I received several tins of No Added Sugar Beanz for the purposes of testing and reviewing. All opinions are our own.

Heinz Tomato Ketchup 50% Less Sugars

Prawn cocktail

Like many parents nowadays, I am looking for lower sugar and salt choices, when doing grocery shopping for my family. Thankfully, many brands have started introducing lower sugar and salt versions of the classic food products. To go with the times and healthy trends, Heinz has launched a new Heinz Tomato Ketchup 50% Less Sugars, which has 50% less sugar and 25% less salt than  regular Heinz Tomato Ketchup.
Heinz has been producing its famous ketchup for over 130 years. Heinz Tomato Ketchup has reached the iconic status and even got immortalised in the artwork by Warhol.
I always have a bottle of Heinz ketchup in the kitchen, and we enjoy it with a variety of foods, from French fries to Russian borscht.

Heinz Tomato Ketchup 50% Less Sugars replaces the current reduced sugar and salt ketchup and also meets 2017 Government salt targets.
It contains sweeteners from natural sources, with some of the sugar being replaced by stevia, a plant from South America.
New ketchup has appeared on the shelves of the major supermarkets in September (priced £2.05 for 555g top down bottle).

I confess I am quite partial to a good old retro-style prawn cocktail with a sauce made from mayo and ketchup. You will need half an avocado and a handful of cooked prawns per person. Mix them with chopped chicory leaves and pour a sauce over it, made of mayo, ketchup and a god squeeze of fresh lime juice.

Sometimes, when I am on my own, and don't want a sandwich for lunch, I do a quick dish of sauerkraut, fried in the olive oil with chopped frankfurters and mushrooms and good dollop of tomato ketchup.

My son Eddie enjoys his fish fingers, fries and peas with a bit of ketchup. This is a treat for him, as I don't often offer him French fries (I usually bake the fries in the oven rather than fry to cut down on fat). He didn't guess that I offered him a new variety of ketchup, as it has the same unmistakable taste of the original Heinz ketchup.

At the moment this is Eddie's favourite meal, he even got a sticker at school from a lunchtime assistant for polishing off his plate (and he often leaves the other foods untouched). When we got out together as a family, that's what he asks for lunch.

This new variety of Heinz tomato ketchup would appealing to parents as it has a much lower sugar intake without compromising in the taste.
Have you tried Heinz Tomato Ketchup 50% Less Sugars?

Disclosure: I received a bottle of new Heinz tomato ketchup for the purposes of testing and reviewing. All opinions are mine.

Vegetarian borscht with mushrooms

Let me tell you first that the correct Oxford transliteration for the Russian word борщ is not borscht, but borshch, but I will use the spelling above so as not to confuse my readers.
There are as many variations of borscht as there are cooks in the former Soviet Union. Its origins are Ukrainian, but it has become a staple dish of Russia. Some like it hot. Some prefer a cold version. It could be meat-based, or meat-free.

Several years ago The Guardian dedicated a whole article to the Russian borscht, you can still find the article here (it is well written and is worth reading).

"...Borshchland lives on. Recipes, like birds, ignore political boundaries. Just as the British empire still has a culinary pulse, beating in a curry in Scotland or in the mug of builder's tea with sugar and milk you are handed in some roadhouse on the Karakorum Highway; just as the Ottoman empire breathes phantom breaths in little cups of muddy coffee from Thessaloniki to Basra; so the faint outline of the Tsarist-Soviet imperium still glimmers in the collective steam off bowls of beetroot and cabbage in meat stock, and the soft sound of dollops of sour cream slipping into soup, from the Black Sea to the Sea of Japan and, in emigration, from Brooklyn to Berlin" (James Meek)


This is one of the versions of borscht that I cook when I have beets with fresh leaves, for example, when they are delivered in the veg box from Abel and Cole. It boasts a multitude of flavours.

3 medium beets, with leaves
1 medium carrot
1 celery stalk
1 medium potato
3 small tomatoes
2 tbsp Heinz ketchup
5-6 chestnut mushrooms or small portobello mushrooms
1/2 red onion
3 spring onions or a small bunch of chives
1 garlic clove
2-3 tsp sunflower oil
dill and soured cream to serve with

Chop the beets and add them to the frying pan with one teaspoon of the sunflower oil (you can use a mild olive oil as well, but the sunflower oil would give you a more authentic flavour). Cook on low for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. They won't be cooked yet, but will acquire a sweeter deeper flavour. You can skip the frying part and just chuck all the chopped veg in the pan to cook in water, but that's how my Mum taught me to cook this soup, and I find that omitting this step gives you a less exciting fusion of flavours. After ten minutes, remove the beets from the frying pan and put them in the big pan where you'll be cooking your borscht.

Repeat the same with the chopped carrots and celery, they can be cooked together. Again add them to the beets.
Chop the mushrooms and fry them with the chopped onions, spring onions & garlic. Again add to the rest of the veg in the pan. Slice the tomatoes, add to the pan. Pour in water, bring it to the boil, add two tablespoons of Heinz ketchup (my secret ingredient). Cook for at least 35-40 minutes on low before adding chopped potatoes and beetroot leaves, then cook for another 10 minutes.

Serve with a very generous dollop of the soured cream (Yeo Valley Greek style yogurt works very well too) and chopped dill.

If you don't like mushrooms, add a chopped sweet pepper instead. Just don't forget the soured cream.