European Creations - Watties Beef Stroganoff product reviews

I am a real fan of Stroganoff from back in the days when I used to flat. I used to fry the beef strips in onion then add the tomato sauce then stir in the sour cream until it went that deep rich dark brown colour. Cooking like this is what I grew up with. You didn't buy things in a jar or a can to just pour on over a protein. I am still a bit of purist like that but I have come to appreciate the time saving factor of having it pre-made in a jar.

When I saw the Stroganoff flavour I was really keen on making this meal. I prepared the strips like before and after cooking with onion and a little garlic I poured over the sauce. There is plenty in the easy to open and dispose of packet. It completely covered my 800gm of meat. When I stirred it in I left it to get to a simmer for a little bit to really get the heat through and let the flavours release. Served up on some white rice I have to admit it tasted amazing.

I am not a wine drinker but I love wine as a flavour in food. This flavour is very wine heavy and I loved that. Its colour is a perfect brown rich mushroomy colour and I could easily have eaten this entirely by myself. We will definitely be buying this in the supermarket and highly recommend anyone that is a fan of this dish particularly and loves rich winey flavours as this one will really deliver for you.

After a very stressful day I needed something quick and easy. Watties meals are ideal for this. I had brought some chicken earlier this morning and mushrooms and so had everything I required. I put some potatoes on to boil while I prepared the rest of the meal.

I have only ever had Beef Stroganoff and was rather curious about Chicken Stroganoff. I diced up the chicken and onions and fried those while chopping up the mushrooms. Worked out finished the mushrooms just in time, added those and gave a quick fry up before adding the sauce. While that was simmering managed to read the girls a book and by the time we had finished that my potatoes were cooked. I throw some frozen Watties steam vegetables in the microwave, mashed the potatoes and then added the sour cream to the meal and it was done. In a little over 20 minutes had dinner prepared and the girls read to.

My baby is not very well and hardly touched her meal, I am not blaming the food at all because the rest of us happily ate it. Although, I did note that no one asked for seconds. Both my elder daughter and husband said they enjoyed it. I found it ok, I actually found the smell of wine off-putting in the sauce, it was rather strong at times. I don't think I would purchase this again, purely because it was just ok and think you can do better in the slow cooker. I did note there was no slow cooker reference on the packet which I was rather surprised about.

I was enjoying the wattie creations so thought I would request to review some more products to get a good range of what is out there. Beef Stroganoff sounded good, now I have made this in the slow cooker before and very happy with my outcome but something easier to do taking 30mins all up if that would be right up my alley.

The packet once again easy to open and the instructions on the back very easy to follow, it said beef or chicken strips so we used a blade steak and cut into pieces so 400grams. Needed to add onion and mushrooms which is fine there are 2 out of the 4 in our house that like them and 2 out of 3 that can eat this watties creation. The aroma though my house while it was cooking was really nice and I was looking forward to it, I had to simmering a bit longer than I needed as I was waiting for my mash potato to cook but thats cause I decided to go from pasta to mash in the last 10mins.

This did have a lot of flavour in it and I could clearly taste the winey flavour and I wasn't a fan of that, I would of liked it a little less, I couldn't taste much else over that strong flavour and ended up getting a headache after eating. However my husband liked it, he can't tell me much more than that as he doenst review food for that reason. It wont be something I will buy again though as I can't control the amount of wine in it, so its back to making it from the start for me.

This recipe recommended beef strips, so I specifically bought schnitzel from the supermarket for this dish. Even following the instructions, I found that the meat was a little too tough in the end, so I would recommend cutting strips from a fillet in the future instead, to make the meat a bit juicier and succulent.

Apart from my bad choice in meat, the sauce was overall okay. It certainly had a mushroomy flavour, and you could catch a hint of wine, but the white wine flavour was not as strong as I could have hoped. While nice, it didn't strike me as a particularly great flavour. I found myself adding more wine to the mix and a generous application of black pepper over the top at the dinner table, to improve the palatability of the meal. The consistency of the sauce lends itself to work much better with pasta, than with rice.

The directions were simple so follow as with all of the Watties Creations range so far, with little prep work needed; which is great for a person with a fast lifestyle, but this sauce unfortunately harks back to the age of bland sauces, and won't be on my shopping list anytime soon. Not enough flavour for my taste buds.

I love beef stroganoff but as I am the only one in my household that likes mushrooms I was dreading serving it to them. The Watties Creations simmer sauce I had been given from KIWIreviews made it all sound so easy to make. I found with this sachet (perhaps more so than the other Watties Creations range) that it pays to read the whole packet before preparing the meal. I just looked at the "What else to get" section before going off to the supermarket to pick up the bit I needed. When I started to cook it I realised that the instructions said Sear your choice of meat so I could have used the chicken stir fry that was on special this week. I also purchased sour cream and then see in the tips section I could have used regular cream instead. Oh well, lesson learnt for next time.

I decided because of my husband and children's repulsion to mushrooms I would cook them separately and just mix them up with my meal when I dished it up. My girls love pasta so I served the stroganoff (if you are allowed to call it that without mushrooms) on pasta spirals. The meal was a big hit with everyone. I loved the mild flavour of the sauce which ran through onto the pasta as well as flavouring the beef and mushrooms.

I had the advantage of having some sauce, pasta and mushrooms leftover which I reheated for my lunch today. I thought it would be strange without the beef but was surprised at how enjoyable it was even reheated. This is handy to know as I could make and freeze some portions of stroganoff for those nights that the rest of the family are having takeaways but I want a healthier option. This would also be handy for people living alone or a couple.

I think I would make this again but next time will be more adventurous and try a different meat and cream, or even natural yogurt. I will however make sure the mushrooms are there for me to enjoy.

To start with I was a bit unsure when I purchased this product and placed in my trolley. Packet premixes tend to be known for being bland and down right horrid. But I was blown away with the final results.

Got home and begun cooking. I cut up the beef, browned, added in the onions and diced the mushrooms finely. Can't have them too chunky or the fussy toddler or my other half may not eat them! Put in the sauce and let it heat up. The aroma that came out of the pan was AMAZING! My other half got home from work and commented on how great the house smelt and asked what I was cooking.

Didn't take long before tea was ready and we served it up with some noodles and a side of mash. All I can say is DELICIOUS! I didn't have high expectations due to it being a packet mix but it was truly yumm! Nice and creamy, taste wasn't too powerful it was just right. We added in the recommended amount of sour cream and it thickened it up rather nicely. Great price, quick and simple to make, one pan (less clean up BONUS) and something even the other half can chuck together with limited instruction. Would definitely buy again.

I like a good stroganoff for dinner, so when I got this I couldn't wait to give it a go.

We almost never buy mushrooms, but decided that we would for this meal. We fried up the onion, adding some garlic to it too, as we just can't resist adding garlic to our dinner meals, and soon that gorgeous aroma of frying garlic and onions was filling the house. I chopped the mushrooms up finely, as otherwise my three children would be picking it out of their dinner, and then threw in the vegetarian beef, once they were all cooking away nicely I threw in the stroganoff sauce and let it simmer away for a couple of minutes.

We decided to go with pasta for the base of this meal, and so once all was ready, and we'd mixed a little bit of sour cream through, I served it on the pasta and we all dug in. I'm not sure I've ever seen my six year old eat a meal that fast, he loved it and was soon asking for more, as was my five year old. My wife and I really enjoyed it and there wasn't a scrap left on anyone's plate.

This was a nice sauce and I will be getting it again.

I remember making Beef Stroganoff in my early days away from home but for some reason, I haven't made it since. I used to love it so I was very keen to test out the Wattie's version of the sauce. My husband was on cooking as I was working, so I lined up the ingredients on the bench so he knew what I was wanting for dinner tonight!

He had a nice piece of rump steak to work with, so it had to be a good meal. He cut it quite chunky and that worked, however I think my preference would actually be more in line with the "strips" as recommended on the back of the packet. I think you can also get away with a lower grade of meat by cutting it into thinner strips. The suggestion on the packet was for pasta, however our family has a lot of pasta and we felt like a change. We used rice noodles and I think they worked a treat. They are light but give the same look as pasta like fettuccine. I often like a light option to go with something like beef in a sauce as that can be quite rich and the rice noodles make it more tolerable to me.

This meal was quick and easy to prepare and needed very little variation from the instructions on the back of the packet. There was one hiccup in the preparation on our side. There was a bit of guess work as to how much of the pot of sour cream should go in. There ended up to be quite a bit too much and as a result it was a bit over creamy. This was our mistake, however I would recommend not being over excited when adding the sour cream. The other side effect of this was that there was a lot of sauce. We ended up with quite a bit spare. This wasn't wasted as we put it on top of the left over rice noodles and it became lunch for my husband the next day. Usually when I use the Wattie's Creations sauces, I am adding meat and vegetables into the sauce and perhaps this is one reason that there was an excess of sauce this time - we only added the mushrooms to the meat rather than a full variety of vegetables as we usually do. Our family of four (2 adults and 2 small children) could probably get away with using double the meat and mushrooms to go with the sauce and therefore making enough for a second night's meal.

My husband, our two year old daughter and I enjoyed our meal and the plates were totally empty at the end. Mr 4, who is a pretty good eater, really didn't enjoy the sauce and we had to rinse the meat off in order for him to eat it. He isn't hugely into sauces at this stage in his life so that is nothing against the sauce.

I would consider having this sauce in my pantry for a quick family meal. The only issue with Beef Stroganoff is that you really do need sour cream to go with it and it isn't something that we would usually have in the fridge. Not a big deal really as we are out most days and can just pop into a shop.

I do like a good Strog meal, though I have a bad time with mushrooms. My tummy doesn't like fungii, it seems. Still, when I make it for my family I often cook the mushrooms in a separate pan and add them after I have dished my portion out. This means that I was wary of this sauce until I read that you need to add mushrooms to it. -whew- Experimenting time!

For something different - because why do it the way everyone does it - I used it to make a sausage pie. I chopped up some pre-cooked sausages, added an assortment of veges such as carrots, kale, silverbeet, capsicum, onions and courgettes, tipped in the sauce and gave it a good mix. Topping that with some potato and pumpkin mash and lastly a handful of grated cheese, the oven was calling. 45 minutes at 180 degrees and it was ready to eat.

The "strog" flavour was mild enough that I think it would appeal to a wide range of kiwi tastes, and the fact that it has a soft mushroom flavour but no actual mushrooms in the sauce made it appealing to me. Using it in a casserole meant it stayed a little wetter than ideal, but it was still very yummy - so much so that even fussy Mr6 ate some... albeit grudgingly. Mind you, if he will eat anything other than one of his 6 favourites, it's a major achievement.

Overall, quite the tasty dish, and I suspect this will be one I will buy a few spares of, to try with other meats too. I think a nice pork strog would go down a treat.

I was given a pack of this to review recently through KIWIreviews. I have had it before as I had recently purchased it to try and so I have tried this sauce a couple of different ways. On first trying this sauce, I had it with strips of beef, and onion cooked in the sauce and then with the addition of sour cream. I served this on pasta. The meal was tasty, and the only negative for me was that there was a great deal of sauce once the sour cream was added.

With this latest packet, I had the in-laws in town. So I roasted some chicken drumsticks in the oven, and then used the sauce to simmer the chicken in for the last 20 minutes of cooking. I served the chicken with roasted potatoes, kumara, butternut and some steamed peas, carrots and beans. I didn't add sour cream but found there was plenty of sauce for this larger meal and across 4 adults and 2 children.

Of course the real value of a sauce kit is that everyone enjoys their meal. Everyone was so hungry by the time the meal came out (we had a BIG day). So it was a great relief to find that everyone was very satisfied with the meal and commented happily the flavour of the chicken. Watties to the rescue!

I believe I will purchase this sauce again. It makes a nice change of pace from the stir fries and Mexican style meals we have just about every week. If I did buy this one again, I would be keen to see if the packet could do two meals. I suspect that it could, if I added a pottle of sour cream to the end of the cooking process in each meal. Many of the Mexican style sauces in this range have stretched to two or three meals for us, so it's quite possible that this sauce would also go the distance. To my mind, that is added value for money.

I love beef stroganoff but my husband is not a huge meat eater and would much prefer to be dished up chicken so when I was trying to decide what to do for dinner I spotted a suggestion on the packet that you could replace the beef with chicken. Of course I decided that I had to give it a go, I also wondered why on earth I hadn't thought to make it with chicken sooner.

The instructions on the packet were pretty clear just brown the meat, add onions and mushrooms add the sauce and simmer. Once cooked simply add some sour cream. I love how simple and easy it is to throw together, the fact that there isn't 100 different things to add to the flavouring is always a plus for me.

While the stroganoff was cooking I boiled some potatoes to mash and serve it on and I steamed some carrots and beans to serve on the side. One it was all done it was the all important taste test. The stroganoff was an instant hit and I will be trying it again. Watties have got the blend of flavour just right, the mustard flavour shines through but it's not too strong it's more of a sweet mustard taste. We had leftovers so the next night I threw the leftovers into some pastry and made a stroganoff pie which was really tasty! I am just in love with the ease of the Wattie's creations range it's perfect for anyone who needs quick and easy meal ideas.

Beef Stroganoff is something I like to make occasionally, but also something I'd not even think of making from scratch, so packet mixes here we come! I was lucky enough to get to try this Watties European Creations - the sauce is in a pouch so there's no extra liquids to add, not even that annoying 2 Tbls of tomato paste that sometimes these recipes ask for. This makes for a nice easy economical meal.

I like beef done in the slow cooker, but I noticed this wasn't a suggested cooking option so went with stove-top instead. I guess the thing with pouches is that there is no way to reduce the amount of liquid as I would normally do if I were using the slow cooker. And as it turns out, there was the perfect amount of liquid at the end (even though I put a few extra mushrooms and an extra 100g or so of beef in) so I was happy I cooked it the way I did. I used tender beef as per the instructions as didn't want it chewy at the end.

Basically all I had to add was the beef, mushrooms and onions and there was an option to stir in sour cream at the end which I did, however I taste tested before doing so and I don't think it was necessary if it were something you didn't have on hand. The whole cooking process took less than half an hour with some high heat sealing of the meat (and onions) at the beginning, then adding everything else and letting it simmer. Luckily I remembered to put the lid on at the simmering stage - I almost missed that instruction and wondered why it didn't look like there was enough liquid. It soon appeared once the lid was added though and there was plenty to soak around the accompanying potatoes and other veges that I had done.

The taste was nice enough - my husband, myself and my 5 year old all liked it but wouldn't rave over it. It's been a while since having beef stroganoff so I can't really compare to the sachet version I usually use. We found it was not overly salty but probably about right with a mild flavour. I'd happily buy this again for the occasional times that I like to do Stroganoff, but it's not going to stick in my mind as a particularly memorable meal. But I'm all for variety and Stroganoff will definitely come up on the menu again down the track and I'd probably go with this pouch again to make it.