Trader Joe's Spinach & Chive Linguine Pasta

I bought this even though the second ingredient, after wheat flour, is onions--which I hate. And you can definitely taste them. I could not specifically identify by taste either of the titular ingredients, spinach and chives. But after adding Sausage-less Sausage and Autumnal Harvest Creamy Pasta Sauce, any flavor from the pasta itself basically faded into the background.

It seemed to cook up faster than regular pasta, though not nearly as fast as the package predicts (2-4 minutes).


Will I buy it again? 

No. I see no advantage over plain pasta.

Trader Joe's Creamy Polenta With Spinach & Carrots

This had been languishing in my freezer for a long, long time before I rediscovered it recently and cooked it up as a side dish for a dinner with Nina. (Nothing but the best for my honey!) How long? I looked for a "best by" date on the package, but couldn't find one. However, the metadata on this photo says August 6, 2017, so about 19 months. This undoubtedly explains why it came out of the bag in a big block of ice. It was...not ideal.

It was still decent, but I just didn't love the heavy spinach component. And the carrot portion of the program seemed nearly missing in action. It created a weird imbalance, at least compared to the expectations I had in mind from the product name and package photo.


Will I buy it again? 

No.

Trader Joe's Organic Spinach And Riced Cauliflower Salad

Trader Joe's seems determined to put cauliflower in everything. Within a few years, I fully expect to see TJ's stores stocked with cauliflower lollipops, cauliflower coffee, cauliflower bagels, freeze-dried cauliflower, and chocolate-covered cauliflower. And why not? People apparently make such products fly off the shelves. For the manufacturers, it's great to be able to use, instead of throw away, the cauliflower stems that are left over after they bag the more desirable florets.

Here, though, the finely chopped cauliflower plays second fiddle to the spinach. It's basically flavorless, adding nothing except a bit of crunch. Those bits tend to glom together, not disperse evenly.

The golden beets and almonds are so scarce as to be basically AWOL.

So what you're left with is basically a bag of spinach. It's perfectly decent spinach, but not very interesting. I, for one, want more from a salad than spinach.

After one bowl, I was kind of dreading the thought of eating my way through the rest of this. So Nina took it home and added it to a far more diverse salad that she was making to take to a potluck dinner with friends. It worked fine in that role.


Will I buy it again? 

No.

Trader Joe's Ricotta & Spinach Tortelloni With Red Pesto

Unlike most such boasts, the "ready in 5 minutes" here is pretty close to true. Just peel back a corner of the lid and zap it for five minutes.

However, the result is a pretty uninteresting mess of filled pasta and diced veggies. It has been terribly thrashed by the Trader Joe's Blandification Committee.

I fixed this, and simultaneously added a lot of protein to the meal, by separately cooking some thin-sliced fake sausage (this one, which is one of the best you can buy) and adding it to the dish. That made it about 10 times better than it was on its own.


Will I buy it again? 

Yes. I think it's one that Nina would like, so I'll get it at least once more for a dinner with her--appropriately improved by the sausage, of course.

Trader Joe's Organic Spinach & Ricotta Pizza

The thin crust on this pizza was quite nice--crisp and tasty. But the toppings were a disappointment. The spinach was tough and the ricotta cheese basically tasteless lumps of fat.


Will I buy it again? 

No.

Trader Joe's Chopped Spinach

I didn't know that this or any such product existed, until Nina concocted a soup in which this was a main ingredient. It worked fine in that context, and was much more convenient than chopping up fresh spinach. So this review is basically just to announce that this stuff exists, for those (like me) who didn't know, and might find it useful. It's not exciting, but sometimes utilitarian is all you need.


Will I buy it again? 

Me? No. But I suspect Nina will, and I'll happily eat whatever results.

Trader Joe's Ricotta & Spinach Filled Ravioli With Tomato Basil Sauce

Unlike most of the many refrigerated variations on the ravioli theme we've tried from Trader Joe's, this one is frozen. That means that it's not suitable for the familiar boiling-water method of preparation. Instead, TJ's offers you either microwave or stove-top directions. I chose the latter, which involves adding water and olive oil.

It came out great, in terms of texture and temperature. I liked the flavor of the ravioli itself--cheese and spinach both discernible, without either one dominating too much.

But the tomato sauce in which they're bathed is a disappointment. Nina characterized it as "Literally no flavor."


Will I buy it again? 

No.

Trader Joe's Spinach Lasagna

Easy to prepare. Decent flavors in the noodles, cheese, and tomato sauce. But way, way too much spinach. It's like stacks of spinach, interspersed with the occasional layer of pasta or cheese.


Will I buy it again? 

No.

Trader Joe's Spinach Tortellini

Considering that this stuff is stuffed with stuff that should be flavorful foodstuff, it's not very stuffed with flavor. In fact, it's kind of stuffy.

Seriously, I was hard-pressed to distinguish either spinach or cheese in the filling. This should not be difficult. But the generic taste of pasta was easier to notice than either of what should be dominant flavors. This was more mysterious than disturbing, but it was kind of a turn-off. What's the point of having pasta stuffed with cheese and spinach if stuffing it with sawdust would give the same effect?


Will I buy it again? 

No.

Trader Joe's Spinach & Kale Bites

These are, as the name implies, basically just balls of chopped spinach and kale. They are held together by egg and bread crumbs as a binder, with some Parmesan cheese sprinkled on top (which I could neither see nor taste), plus a little onion (fortunately not detectable), salt, and pepper.

I found these to be tolerable, though short of enjoyable. However, if you grade on a curve, I'd say that these bites are among the better ways I've experienced eating spinach and kale.


Will I buy it again? 

No. But it's nice to know that spinach and kale can be made palatable in ways other than as part of a salad.

Nina's View

I thought these were pretty good. I think they were a tad over-baked, and thus less succulent than would be optimal.

[Bob notes: That was my fault. At the end of the prescribed baking time, I thought they didn't feel as hot to the touch as they should, so I gave them another 5 minutes. This decision was probably influenced by having so many previous TJ's products needing more oven time than the label says. I maybe should have just gone with the directions instead of my not-so-keen culinary instincts.]

Trader Joe's Organic Spicy Spinach Blend

This is day five of New Products Week. 


This bagged salad is a brand-new thing at Trader Joe's. See the company's description of it here.

I like it. I mixed it with a bag of TJ's Organic Butter Lettuce and Raddichio, plus half a bag of TJ's shredded carrots. (Note: Review of the latter is pending. I tried to find my review of the former, and was surprised to discover that it doesn't exist, either published or in yet-to-be-published form. This is odd, because it's one of the products that I buy most regularly--almost a bag a week. How did I overlook it? But I'm not going to bother now, because it's identical to the regular Butter Lettuce and Raddichio, except organically sourced. I can't tell the difference, and for non-meat, non-dairy products, I really don't care about the difference between organic and non-organic. I grab whichever one I see first, or whichever looks fresher.) This is the same as my usual salad recipe, except with this new product taking the place of Organic Power to the Greens. Less often I combine the lettuce/raddichio and carrots with TJ's Organic Herb Salad Mix.

The result was a fine salad, with close to zero work. It's just as tasty as my usual blend, but even prettier, because this new product's ingredients have a wider variety of shades of green, so there's a lot more eye-pleasing color. The "spicy" part of the title is an overstatement. Sure, the mustard greens deliver a touch of zing, but not nearly as much as the herb salad blend. Really, you can't go wrong with any of the three, though I do think they all need to be combined 50/50 with a predominantly lettuce bag for maximum palatability. Maybe it's my mainstream Midwest upbringing, but to me it ain't a salad if lettuce isn't the main ingredient.


Will I buy it again? 

Yep. One trial has earned it a place in the regular line-up. I like the basic formula that I've evolved. I think I'm going to try to keep a regular rotation among this, the herb salad mix, and the Power to the Greens. I like them all about equally well, and I think that little bit of variety will be good for both my health and my interest in keeping a decent amount of greens in my diet.


Nina's View

This salad is Nina Approved. It is pretty and tasty.

Trader Joe's Butternut Squash & Creamed Spinach Gratin

This is another in an array of prepared side dishes that Trader Joe's releases this time of year to make holiday feast preparation easy. Nina bought it and served it as part of our dinner a few days ago.

For me, squash and spinach are both in the "I'll eat it, but I won't ever really like it" category. This prejudice makes me a less-than-ideal reviewer here. But with that caveat, I'll say that this combination was among the better ways to dress them up that I've encountered.

Will I buy it again? 

No. But I won't balk at eating it again if it's on the menu.

Nina's View

Ah the blandishments of the tasting station at Trader Joe's… I would never have bought this were it not for that little paper cup with a forkful of this in it FOR FREE. I have a life-long struggle with the idea of rejecting free food. Not gonna do it (except for the meat stuff and those few things I'm actually allergic to).

So, yeah, this has cheese in it, and I wouldn't have bought it otherwise, except: FREEEEEEEEE taste!

I tasted and it was tasty. I thought Bob might like it, and was pleased to find that it fell into the non-icky category for him.

The end of the story is not so happy, however. My first bite, at TJ's was "Oh, yum!" My next serving, at home was: "Yeah, this all right." My third serving, of leftovers, was "Yeah, not so much." I don't think this was because it had somehow degraded from sitting in my fridge for a day. I think the product's weaknesses just became more and more evident.

My biggest objection is to the thin-sliced treatment of the squash. It would be better as a puree. Maybe. Or little tiny diced chunks. Whatever, the texture (they're going for a 'lasagna' type presentation) is just not right. And the flavors never really meld as much as they should.

So, even if it didn't have dairy in it, I wouldn't be buying it again. But *you* might like it.