By I was really fortunate recently to have been given the opportunity to try some products from Alligga’s line of oils and roasted seeds. In return they’ve asked for an honest review to be shared on Socialnature.com, and here we are.
Full disclosure, I like trying new things and I like different foods. Except haggis, that’s a solid NO, but I’m pretty happy to try most new and interesting things and then look for what’s great about their uniqueness. Except haggis. Did I mention that?
Alligga’s is a Canadian company based in BC that produces a variety of flaxseed products that seem to be high quality, pleasant tasting and a source of Omegs 3s. The seeds are Non-GMO and are grown in the Canadian Prairies and they adhere to GMP (Good manufacturing practices). Some of the products additionally are organic and kosher certified and their website includes a pretty respectable section of suggested recipes for cooking, baking, smoothies, and dressings.
The products I was given to try were the organic cooking oil, the roasted seeds, and the chili flavoured oil. I took a few days to try them all in and I really was happy with the products.
The cooking oil smoke point is 250 degrees Celsius, which placed it above olive oil but below safflower oil. It’s also good for baking, and that was where I started out. On it’s own the oil has a unique flavour, but I baked some muffins with it and they turned out very well with a nice texture and flavour. We did try the oil in a pan with scrambled eggs (twice) and there was still some sticking (maybe I didn’t use enough?, but the eggs themselves were light and fluffy. Moving forward I want to try some of the dressing recipes from the website, straight into smoothies, and maybe a bit more baking. But so far I am pretty happy with it. My husband finds the flavour a little stronger than he would like, but like anything you have to match the right product with the right recipe. Verdict: Yes with more experimentation required since it’s a novel product to me.
Speaking of which, the flaxseeds themselves are an easy sell at our place. The smelled fresh when opened, and on their own they were crunchy and had a great texture for chewing. These won’t last long in our house since they’ll be topping yogurt, oatmeal, other hot cereals, and meeting their match in my blender for smoothies. I’d hazard a guess that they will be good sprinkled on top of melted peanut butter on toast too. Verdict: Seemlessly fits into our household, two thumbs up, I’ll take this product and run with it.
Finally, my socks were knocked off by the chili flavoured oil and here is why: I wasn’t sure what to do with it and was a little worried I wouldn’t find something worthy of giving it a good run. The chili oil is not the high temperature cooking oil that we also received, the instructions call it a finishing oil, good for seasoning, salad and as a heatable cooking oil. It was a bit more of a challenge because again, I wanted to match the right product with the right recipe.
I remember a number of months ago reading an article about how supposedly millennials aren’t buying houses because they are spending their money on avacado toast in fancy cafes. Cafes aside, I’ve discovered that I like avocados on toast with a bit of salt and pepper and a drizzling of olive oil and a smidge of cayenne for mild heat. So naturally this was a good fit for the chili oil, and I already have a mortgage, so talk about low risk experimentation!
I loved it, really loved it. My photo is a bit gnarly because my avacado went from green to brown in 17.3 seconds. Had I thought of it I would have drizzled a little bit of lime juice on top as well to keep it bright, but whole grain toast, avacado slices, sea salt, pepper and a light drizzle of the chili flaxseed oil was the best lunch I had all week.
The second thing I tried was again, scrambled eggs, we don’t actually eat that many eggs but they are a good vehicle to try the oils and test the impact they have on delicate flavours. I was ok with it, my husband again not so much BUT I do think this would be a nice oil drizzled on an omelette with strong cheese or a similar dish with bold flavours that can hold it’s own. Verdict: My favourite of the three. I was really happy about how good it was with the avacado and I’d really be interested in trying their other flavours: curry, garlic, orange, and rosemary. I’m a huge fan of flavoured olive oils so maybe this was just an easy product to win my affection.
You can buy these products online at alligga.com, Amazon, Avivahealth..com, happyhourproduct.com, or check their website for stores near you.
Thank-you Alligga’s for sharing your products and giving me the chance to review them.
contentedkitchen 