After going through 5 popular brands of Ready-to-eat Poha earlier, we revisited the list as we have a new contender in the segment. Meal Of The Moment or M.O.M’s Instant Poha meal is a delightfully fresh take on this popular snack and tastes better than any other product in this category. We followed the same process as earlier; cooking with M.O.M’s Instant Poha and Saffola Fittify Gourmet Millet-Poha (our earlier Top Pick) in our review lab. Post the cooking and tasting, we are happy to update our Top Pick with a tastier Instant poha variant, that we believe is the most flavorful Ready-to-eat Poha brand. Our earlier Top Pick, Saffola Fittify brought with it a combination of flavor and health, thanks to its use of a variety of millets in the poha mix. M.O.M’s Instant Poha is not only tastier, but it also uses absolutely no preservatives in this ready-to-eat meal making it healthier in comparison.
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Mishry Top Pick: M.O.M’s Instant Poha
M.O.M’s Instant Poha
M.O.M’s Instant Poha is Mishry’s updated Top Pick, as it packs in a balanced combination of health and taste. Containing no preservatives, the fresh flavors of mustard seeds, curry leaves is unmissable.
Size: 80 grams, Price: Rs. 40 x 3*
*At the time of review
Why is M.O.M’s Instant Poha our updated Top pick:
M.O.M’s Instant Poha is the tastiest Instant Poha snack across all brands we reviewed.
With fresh flavors, M.O.M’s Instant Poha cooks really well. The grains come out nice and fluffy, with an appetizing aroma.
It is worth mentioning that M.O.M’s Instant Poha contains no added preservatives. It is a rehydrated meal and can be prepared in minutes.
The snack comes with a little pack of bhujia that takes the taste up several notches.
Our Review Process:
Ready-to-eat is a fast-growing category and almost every day you find new dishes that can be easily eaten with minimal cooking involved. While these provide a fair degree of convenience to the consumer, it is imperative to not lose sight of the nutrition aspects of such foods. In our search for the tastiest ready-to-cook poha, we were clear not to pick an unhealthy version just because it was tasty. TASTE and HEALTH were given equal weight in our review.
Knorr Soup - Mixed Vegetable, 11g Pouch
Why We Update Reviews
Why we update reviews:
Food and beverage is a constantly evolving space, new products are launched every day and sometimes also taken off the shelves by brands for one reason or another. While we try our best to make our list of products as comprehensive as possible, sometimes the launch of a new product or re-availability of a discontinued product gives us a good reason to revisit the review. The new entrants are judged on the same parameters against all the final recommendations.
Brands We Picked
M.O.M’s Instant Poha – Updated Top Pick
24 Mantra Organic Ready To Eat
MTR Breakfast Poha
Mother’s Recipe Mom’s Style Poha
Saffola Fittify Gourmet Millet Poha
How We Picked Our Brands?
Poha is a traditional Indian breakfast/snack food enjoyed by millions, and cooked in a variety of ways. We wanted to review as many readily available brands that do any variant of Poha. While 24 Mantra does an organic Kanda poha, Mother’s recipe claims to have a more ‘mom’s style’ poha dish. Saffola Fittify, perhaps the newest entrant in this category, does a healthy version, adding millets to rice flakes and increasing the nutrition quotient of the dish.
All the brands we picked were easily available at several locations across Delhi-NCR. These are also easily available for audiences outside the national capital region through major online portals as well.
Team Mishry
Who This Is For?
One of the key reasons for us to review a range of Ready-to-eat Poha brands was to address the large population that is a fan of the convenience attached to such products. Breakfasts are often rushed for most of us, especially for those who live alone, live in hostels or don’t have the time to cook breakfast from scratch every morning. Since these are quite easy to make and can literally be made in a matter of minutes, these Ready-to-eat Pohas are a great way to not go hungry in the morning.
So if you are looking to find out which brands offer ready-to-eat poha, then this list will help you.
This review is also for those who wish to not let go of health in their pursuit of convenience. We believe so too. Just because it is ready-to-eat, ie not cooked fresh from scratch in your kitchen or at a restaurant near you, does not mean what you eat should be unhealthy. Or, that it should offer only empty calories, and no nutrition whatsoever.
While we do not advocate these as regular replacements for fresh homemade meals, we also realize that there are many who may not have the luxury or access to home-cooked meals on a daily basis. So if you do fall back on ready-to-eat foods once in a while, at least go for the ones that are tasty and healthy at the same time.
How We Tested: Our Parameters
The first step of our test involved preparing each of these Pohas as per the instructions that are given at the back of each packet. Each of these was easy to make and they all took roughly the same amount of time to get cooked. In addition, the factors we looked at:
Nutritional Value: It is important for every meal to provide adequate nourishment.
Taste: This is another important aspect of a meal. The taste is heavily responsible for the eating experience related to the product.
Observations upon tasting all 4 brands side by side.
The presence of peanuts was common to all, as was the use of curry leaves.
M.O.M’s Instant Poha: With fresh flavors, M.O.M’s Instant Poha cooks really well. The grains come out nice and fluffy, with an appetizing aroma. M.O.M’s Instant Poha contains no added preservatives. The box comes with a spoon and a small packet of bhujia.
The snack comes with a little pack of bhujia that takes the taste up several notches.
24 Mantra: This had the most number of peanuts, along with an overpowering smell of onions.
Mother’s Recipe: The flakes were very oily even before cooking. This also had a strong smell of onions. It had a strange aftertaste that didn’t go down well with the palates of anyone who tasted it.
Saffola Fittify: It contains broken pieces of peanuts, and because of the use of millets, the flakes are smaller in size. This cooked well and was the freshest tasting. The dominant flavor of cumin (zeera) noted.
It contains broken pieces of peanuts, and because of the use of millets, the flakes are smaller in size. This cooked well and was the freshest tasting. The dominant flavor of cumin (zeera) noted.
MTR: Tasted good, but was dry after cooking.
How We Updated This Review
How We Updated This Review
The new brand, MOM Instant Poha, just like all the brands earlier, was checked for aroma, quality of leaves, and flavor. We reconducted our Mishry Secret Sauce cooking test here. And judged the flavors of MOM’s Instant Poha as compared to that from our earlier recommended Top Pick – Saffola Fittify Gourmet Millet Poha. Upon tasting them both side-by-side – we felt confident to recommend M.O.M’s Instant Poha as our new Top Picks again.
Final Result For Our Taste Test
As per our updated review process, M.O.M’s Instant Poha ranked on top for its fresh taste and health quotient. The presence of millets helps in increasing the protein and fiber content of the overall product, thus making it beneficial for maintaining health along with being convenient.
Mishry Top Pick: M.O.M’s Instant Poha
M.O.M’s Instant Poha is Mishry’s updated Top Pick, as it packs in a balanced combination of health and taste. Containing no preservatives, the fresh flavors of mustard seeds, curry leaves is unmissable.
Size: 80 grams, Price: Rs. 40 x 3*
*At the time of review