As a cook, sometimes I feel a bit guilty when I buy ready-made shop bought things. But when I’m short of preparation time, I’m really glad there are great convenience products on hand that can help me out just when I need it.
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 times 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’ve just simply filled this one 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 and defrost when needed. This delicious mixture of fruit also works so well with Greek yogurt and as a base for a sponge pudding.
Ingredients (Serves about 6 people)
1 Lee’s Meringue Pavlova
300ml double cream – lightly whipped
300g frozen summer fruits – defrosted
Whisk the cream until nice and thick and transfer into the pavlova case, smoothing out, but leaving a dip in the centre so it can cradle the fruit. Drain the fruit and arrange on top. Pour over a little excess juice if that’s what you prefer. I liked that it ran down the sides a bit, but that’s up to you.
Yes, so that’s it, nice 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.
Mixed fruit
Once in the meringue base, simply top the cream with all your favourite fruit…. I would aim for as many different coloured fruits if I was to do this, as it looks so good!
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…. I made it a little while ago and it is extremely good!
Liz x
**Ready-made meringues by nature should be naturally gluten free, but that may not always be the case, there may be additional ingredients added too, so you do need to always check when picking them up to ensure it’s suitable.
*Check this product out to ensure no gluten containing ingredients or ‘may contain’ or ‘not suitable’ warnings on the pack. If in doubt leave it out.
