Following my review of The Skinny Food Co #NotGuilty Hazelnut Spread, today it's a review for their savoury Skinny Sauces, which come in three flavours; Sweet Chilli, Tomato Ketchup and South West Sauce. These are available from The Skinny Food Co's website: https://theskinnyfoodco.com/
The sauces contain zero carbs, zero dairy, zero gluten, zero calories, zero sugar and zero fat...so are suitable for a wide range of dietary requirements indeed! Instead of all the above, whatdo they contain I hear you ask?
The South West Sauce is a mixture of tomato, citrus fibre, xanthan gum, spirit vinegar, mustard, spices, and the sweetener sucralose. So that's about the only true artificial thing in it, whether that's good or not I suppose depends on your feelings on artificial sweeteners. Personally I'd prefer stevia since it's more natural, but the world isn't ready for stevia sauce just yet I guess!
This sauce is certainly very tasty, with a sweet, punchy and slightly sharp flavour, similar to the one you can get in Subway. It's the sort of thing that goes well with burgers and red meat, and maybe even as a garnish on salad. The artificial sweetener is noticeable, but not too bad. Id' rate this 7.5 out of 10.
The Tomato Ketchup one was a bit more up my street, partly because it's a classic flavour that's hard to come by in "free from" form. Again this is zero carb, zero dairy, zero calorie, zero sugar and fat. Now it's not strictly true that it contains no calories or carbs...per 100ml there's 22 calories and 4.1g Carbs, but apparently this is low enough to lawfully be called calorie free (as far as I know anyway!)
It tastes pretty good, the tomato flavour is strong with the sweetener rounding it out. It goes well with burgers and meat, but it doesn't have enough punch for chips I think (which you shouldn't be eating on a low carb diet anyway - tut tut!). It's lacking maybe due to a lower percentage of tomato, but for a lower calorie tomato ketchup this is probably as good as you can get. I'd rate this 8 out of 10.
Last but not least, the Sweet Chilli Sauce one I was looking forward to most because I do like a spicy kick to sauce. It's pretty similar to the Ketchup in texture but with the spiciness being more prominent and slightly sweeter in the taste. Again, this goes nice with burgers and meat. I'd rate this 8 out of 10.
Overall, I have to say whilst artificial sweeteners may not be everyone's cup of tea, and stevia would be a lot more preferable, on the whole these sauces tick all the boxes they're supposed to. If you're on a particular diet like low carb or low calorie, or need to avoid dairy and gluten they're ideal. Hopefully they'll become more widely available in shops!
For more info on the range and to buy see: https://theskinnyfoodco.com/