Several months ago, I noticed the many of the products on the Frontera website were noted to be gluten-free. Since then, some items on the website had their descriptions changed from “gluten-free” to “no gluten ingredients used.” This change happened before I got to try any of the sauces packaged in environmentally friendly pouches.
After carefully reading the very straight forward ingredients in the Red Chile Enchilada Sauce (in a pouch), I decided to give it a try. There wasn’t anything even slightly questionable listed on the label and I knew that very recently the company claimed the item was in fact, gluten-free. More from the website (as of June 20, 2011):
Ingredients: Tomato (fresh tomato, roasted fresh tomato, tomato puree, calcium chloride and citric acid), water, New Mexico chile pepper, apple cider vinegar, red bell pepper, salt, onion, garlic, evaporated cane juice, spices, xanthan gum.
No gluten ingredients used
The good news is the sauce still seems to be gluten-free. The bad news is that it was not very good. The pouch is so small I really needed two of them to make an enchilada casserole. Overall, the taste wasn’t that great which was surprising since I’d assumed it would be very similar to this wonderful sauce from the same line. It wasn’t. That’s what I get for assuming things and I’m old enough to know better.
Don’t get me wrong – the sauce in the pouch was not bad – it just was not very good. It was rather blasé and had very little flavor to it. I thought maybe it was past its prime (expired), but that was not the problem. From now on, I’ll use the sauce in the jar. It’s a much better value anyway and the taste of the sauce is excellent!
While perusing the Frontera Foods website, I found this link for recipes. Many of them are gluten-free and many others can be easily modified to be so. Check out this summertime treat of Mexican Fruit Pops made with mangoes. I’m thinking you could make an adult version of this by adding a little tequila. When things cool off a bit here (hopefully in mid-October), I might try making this Guava-Apple Crisp. I’m sure that the flour from both Pamela’s and Jules would work fine in place of the gluten flour it calls for. As you’d expect to find on a Mexican food website, there is a recipe for the perfect margarita. And for sure, it’s hot enough for those already most anywhere in the country!
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I used this sauce not long ago to put on Trader Joe’s gorditas and I really liked it. I only needed one packet, but yes, they are pretty small.
Maybe something was wrong with the one I bought. It just doesn’t make sense that it tasted so very different from the similar sauce from the same line that comes in a jar. Maybe I’ll give another flavor in the pouch a try some time.
There is a difference between the red sauce that comes in the jar and the sauce that comes in the pouch. The ingredients are not the same. The jar option has chicken flavorings for one thing.