The UK’s first gluten and diary free fish pie

Kirsty’s, the free from ready meal brand, is launching the UK’s first gluten and diary free Fish and Veg Pie after five years of product development.

The first to market Fish Pie contains generous chunks of MSC certified smoked haddock and pollock, cooked with spinach and peas in a creamy dairy free cheese sauce, topped with root vegetable mash.

The new addition to Kirsty’s ever-growing range of delicious, nutritious and satisfying ready meals contains one of your five a day, just 317 calories and with no red GDAs, the new Fish and Veg Pie is low in both salt and saturated fat.

According to The Quadram Institute and their database of nutritional values of UK food, Kirsty’s Fish and Veg Pie has, on average, 30% less calories than a shop bought Fish Pie and is over 70% lower in saturated fats.

Founder Kirsty Henshaw said: “This product has been five years in the making for our product development team and we’re delighted with the results.

“We’re proud to be bringing the UK’s first gluten and dairy free Fish and Veg Pie to market and given the positive reaction we’ve had to the meal during our development phase we’re excited for our customers to try it.”

One of the challenges that Kirsty and her new product development team faced during the development of the new ready meal was how to make the Fish and Veg Pie with its classic creamy cheese sauce whilst also staying dairy free.”

The solution was to use potato milk, a good source of Calcium, Vitamin D, Riboflavin, Vitamin B12 and Folic Acid, and moreover, that helps to create the signature creaminess of the dish.

Potato milk is the latest plant-based alternative milk to hit supermarket shelves, with Kirsty’s using DUG’s dairy free, original potato milk in their recipe.

Graham Stonadge, UK Sales Director for Veg of Lund UK, the company behind DUG said: “We’re delighted that Kirsty’s is using DUG potato milk in the first to market, dairy and gluten free Fish and Veg Pie.

“Our deliciously creamy milk, which is the most sustainable dairy alternative on the market, and Kirsty’s exciting product development team is most definitely a recipe for success.”

Kirsty Henshaw continued: “Potato milk has been on the radar of our product development team for some time now and we have seen the benefits of using it in our testing phase, from taste and texture to the obvious free from qualities.

“With our fantastic team working continuously on new recipes and new ideas it won’t be long till we see the next exciting new product emerge from our ingenious kitchen.”

The new Fish and Veg Pie will be made in Kirsty’s dedicated ‘free-from’ factory in Harrogate, to ensure no cross-contamination risk and will be sold nationwide in Sainsbury’s from 6 April and RRPs at £3.25.