Eat Real Hummus Chips Sea Salt

It's the penny sale at Holland and Barrett at the moment and whilst it can be a bit pricey, this is always a good chance to stock up on some nice little snacks. I bought these Hummus chips by Eat Natural in the penny sale, getting 2 bags for £0.86, which is pretty reasonable.

These are crisps made from chickpea flour mostly and then also some rice, potato starch, rapeseed oil, corn flour and sea salt. And that's it so pretty natural, simple ingredients. As a result of the chickpea flour, they are a little higher in protein than normal crisps and they also have 30% less fat than standard crisps as well. They are also suitable for vegans and gluten free.

The 45g bag is pretty large and you get a lot in here. Although it's worth noting when looking at the nutritional information it is per 28g as the bag apparently contains one and a half servings, which is a bit cheeky! What's the point of half a serving. Either make it one serving or two!

Inside all the chips were whole and intact and in attractive cone shaped shells. They have a nice firm texture and a really good crunch. They're fairly hard but I really enjoyed texture. The taste is fairly neutral and plain with a nice salty flavour but one that would work very well in any kind of dip. Because of the shell shape I imagine they would be great for scooping up salsa or even houmous if you want some chickpea in your snack. The crisps actually have a fairly, nutty chickpea background taste as well but I imagine no one would guess these aren't potato chips unless you told them.

The salt content is maybe a little high but these are a pretty healthy little snack and one that are very tasty to boot. Nice and light with a clean, natural flavour and excellent crunch, I might have to stock up on them.

Price: £0.85
Bought at: Holland and Barrett

Score: 7.5/10

Koele Triple Baked Coconut Chips - Lemon and Chilli

More coconut reviews again today. I am trying to buy other snacks I swear. I wasn’t really sure what to expect from these coconut chips by Koele. I knew they would be a little like the strips of coconut but was interested to see if the addition of a lemon and chilli flavouring would actually deliver that savoury crisp feeling. For a small 30g bag at 130 calories, it feels huge and there are loads in here. I genuinely can’t believe they are 130 calories. Predominantly this is coconut that is tripled baked along the seasoning and coating. It’s gluten free, natural and free of preservatives. 

Opening the bag you get a good hit of aroma with lots of spiciness and a good savoury hit. The pieces are very small flakes, which are very thin and I was a little worried because of their thinness they would just be soft and flaky.

But surprisingly these are really crunchy. They have a good crunch in the mouth, feel very satisfying and actually do deliver that crisp sensation to a certain extent. If I wasn’t looking at them as I put them in my mouth, I could very easily convince myself I was eating shards of crisps. The flavouring is spot on – it’s really punchy and strong flavoured. I’ve found on a lot of these types of products (especially popcorn) the coating is really sporadic and not evenly coated but that’s not the case here. Every piece was bursting with flavour and it actually delivers on the taste it promises.

The lemon and chilli seasoning is actually fairly spicy with a nice, mild heat. Combined with the more subtle lemon it makes for a nice sweet, tangy, spice sensation. It also works very well with the natural coconut tropical taste and whilst there is the potential for this to go too sweet, it stays nice and savoury and salty.

I wasn’t expecting a lot from these but they were really nice. They actually remind me a little of all those lentil crisps or wholegrain waves out in the shops at the moment with a nice light texture with a nice crunch and a good flavour hit.

Price: £1.89

Bought at: Holland and Barrett

Nutrition per bag: 130 calories, 10g fat, 4g sat, 6g sugars, 0.16g salt

Score: 7.5/10

Holland and Barrett Open Sesame Sticks Review

At work, it's nice to just have a bag od something savoury for nibbling on or for grazing on. Nuts are always a good option and very nutritious but sometimes you want something a bit different. I found these open sesame sticks in Holland and Barrett and initially whilst I did think they looked rather bland and boring, I nevertheless bought them to have at work.

An alternative I guess to crisps these are sesame noodles that are essentially made out of chickpeas. The ingredients list is very pure and simple, consisting of gram flour (from chickpeas), rapeseed oil, sesame seeds and salt. So all very natural and clean.

Pouring them out there's lots of different sized pieces ranging from long to short. They feel nice and firm in the hand and have a hard, crunchy texture that I really enjoyed. Harder than crisps but not as hard as say the roasted chickpeas I tried from garbanzo, they had moreishly addictive quality I get from satisfyingly crunchy snacks.

The flavour although fairly neutral is deliciously savoury and whilst the ingredients list is so short and they look a little dull, I have to say I really enjoyed them. There's a slight mild chickpea nuttiness along with a more dominant sesame flavour but they are quite savoury in a really unidentifiable way. I managed to get 3 servings out of the bag but it would be very easy to demolish them especially as a nibble with drinks.

As an added bonus because they're made of gram flour, they're actually 18% protein, which can't be a bad thing either. I will definitely buy these again.

Price: £0.89
Bought at: Holland and Barrett
Nutrition per 100g: 499 calories, 30g fat, 3.5g sat fat, 1.3g sugar, 18g protein, 1.6g salt

Holland and Barrett Good Stuff Nicely Spicy Pumpkin Review

Everytime I go into Holland and Barrett, I just can’t help but come out with more than I need. It’s one of those places I always enjoy having a browse and come out feeling good due to all the healthy snacks. Whilst I can happily eat nuts on their own, I tend to only eat seeds if they’re mixed into muesli or porridge or with yogurt as I find them a bit dull for grazing on.

These pumpkin seeds however are coated in chilli and paprika, which sounded a bit more intriguing and I thought they would make a good bag for just diving into at work as I’m trying to not always go for a sweet snack. Nutritionally pumpkin seeds are full of good stuff – loads of magnesium, high in plant protein and good fats and some studies have linked them to lowering cholesterol as well as being a natural inflammatory.

Like most H+B products, they’re good quality – no dry or stale bits in here with a nice crunch. The coating helps make them a lot nicer to eat. They have a very gentle heat that is sweet and mellow with a bit of back burn too. There’s other herbs and spices going on – some garlic, some coriander, some cumin. It all just makes a nice savoury snack.

It’s a nice little 85g bag – I hate massive sacks of nuts and seeds. The only thing I would like to see and this goes for all H+B products like this is help make it resealable – even just provide a sticker or something to close it and make it easier to open so you don’t end up ripping a big hole making  it even harder to reseal. It’s also low in sugar and salt is pretty good at 0.7g per bag – often savoury snacks can be really quite high in this. Packed full of flavour, this is a winner with me

Price: £2.49
Bought at: Holland and Barrett
Nutrition per 100g: 510 calories, 35g fat, 6.2g sat fat, 4g sugars, 0.9g salt

Score: 7.5/10

Good Stuff Super Seaweed Peanuts Review (Holland and Barrett)

Sad as it sounds, a trip to splurge on unncessary things in Holland and Barrett is one of my favourite things and a real guilty pleasure. I had some vouchers that needed spending so popped along to gather lots of healthy little nibbles and unusual and exciting on trend ingredients. One of the many purchases (I always go overboard in H+B) was these seaweed peanuts.

They're described as 'a delicious savoury snack with whole peanuts coated in a crispy seaweed coating' and looked appetising through the clear part of the bag with lots of different colours and textures going on. I also love the new look of the bags in H+B - so colourful and bright looking. They make me happy just looking at them on the desk.

What was nice when I poured these out was that they were all intact - no broken bits and all a good size. They had an excellent crunchy texture - though some might find them a bit too hard and a good savoury flavour - a nice hit of salt but not overly so in anyway with lots of umami and savoury flavour. The slightly sweet and savoury coating is a great mix of spices - Chilli, Coriander, Fennel, Aniseed and of course soy sauce. No one comes out strongly but they all work together to make these rather moreish although I wouldn't easily identify a seaweed flavour. My favourites were the ones with sesame seeds on the outside for their extra crunch, sesame flavour and mix of textures.

Funnily they feel both light and substantial - I guess as nuts, there's some protein in the peanuts but with a good crunchy outside , they don't feel too heavy either. My little 75g provided two portions and kept me going mid morning until lunch on each day I had them. Overall a good savoury snack, that's a little different to crisps or crackers but my one criticism is the sugar - at 18% this is getting into the levels of digestive biscuits and I would expect H+B as a health retailer to be cutting back on this.

Price: £1.49
Bought at: Holland and Barrett
Nutrition per bag (though I got two servings from it): 344 calories, 13.9g fat, 2.9g sat fat, 13g sugars, 10g protein, 0.8g salt

Score: 7.5/10

Neal's Yard Boost for Breakfast Berry & Raisin

Porridge is very much a staple product for me. Warm and fuelling, its creamy texture makes it one of my favourite breakfasts. I also love how much you can customize it. Honey, blueberries, a banana, pecans, linseed... porridge is a great blank canvas to make of it what you want.

Dried fruit is another great topper. Usually I add boring old raisins so when I saw this Berry Boost in Holland & Barrett, I was excited to liven up my standard breakfast.

The bag contains a colourful and fruity mix of cranberries, blueberries, gojiberries, raisins, goldenberries and golden raisins for a really inviting mix. Sprinkling it over porridge made it look so appetizing. All those colours, textures and shapes. Because of the generous mix, no two mouthful are the same and you get some really nice contrasts and combos.

Sweetness from the raisins vs the sharpness from the blueberries and tart cranberries worked brilliantly and the gojiberries added a little more depth and earthiness (Plus its superfoods status). All if the berries were large, plump and juicy and didn't get lost in the porridge for a dominant, fruity explosion of flavour.

This is something I think I'll use quite regularly on my morning porridge as it provides a lovely refreshing and zingy sweetness that gets your day off to a great start.

Available: Holland and Barrett

Pros: Interesting and unusual berries. Great quality. Good contrast and mix. Only need a few to make your breakfast more interesting.
Cons: Quite high in sugar (like all dried fruit although you don't need to eat that much).

Score: 7/10