As a cook, I sometimes feel guilty when I buy ready-made shop bought things. However, when I’m short of prep time, I’m grateful that there are great convenience products, such as Lees meringue pavlova available.
This Lees meringue pavlova that I picked up from Aldi the other day is a perfect example of a fab ready-made treat to have stashed away in the cupboard ready to be transformed into something quite magnificent when time is not on your side. It’s **naturally gluten free, as it’s simply made with pasteurised egg white and sugar. Yes, that’s it, and what you top it with is entirely up to you!
On this occasion, I just simply filled it with lots of whipped fresh cream and a pile of delicious summer fruits, again from Aldi, and something I tend to have in our freezer to defrost when needed. This delicious mixture of fruit also works so well with Greek yogurt and is fab as a base in a gluten free sponge pudding.
Ingredients (Serves about 6 people)
1 Lee’s Meringue Pavlova
300ml double cream – lightly whipped
300g frozen summer fruits, fully defrosted (add sugar to taste if you want to sweeten it up a little)
Whisk the cream until it’s nice and thick and then transfer it into the pavlova case. Smooth out, but leave a dip in the centre to allow for the fruit. Drain the fruit and arrange it over the top of the cream. Trickle over a little of the juice if you wish.
Yes, so that’s it, lovely and simple. And here’s a few more ways in which this meringue pavlova could be jazzed up…
Lemon and Lime
Grate the zest of 1 lemon and lime and stir into whipped cream, add to the meringue and then drizzle fresh lemon curd over the top of the cream.
Raspberries and *pistachios
Scatter fresh raspberries over the whipped cream and sprinkle with pistachios.
Fresh fruit
Simply top the whipped cream once in the meringue with all your favourite fresh fruit… make it as colourful as possible for maximum goodness and beauty!
Strawberries and *white chocolate
Lovely combo of fresh strawberries piled onto the cream. And you can then either grate white chocolate all over the top or melt the chocolate and drizzle randomly over the strawberries.
Got a bit of extra time and you fancy pottering around in the kitchen? Then maybe you would like to pop together this pavlova from scratch.
For now,
Liz x
**Ready-made meringues by nature should be naturally gluten free, but it may not always be the case. So do double check when picking up to ensure it’s dietary suitable.
*Check this product to ensure that there are no gluten containing ingredients, ‘may contain’ or ‘not suitable’ for a coeliac/gluten free diet warnings on the pack.
