Earth Grown Lentil & Veggie Tikka Masala

I love Indian food, and I’m always looking for easy workday lunches. I recently spotted some new products at Aldi that check both of those boxes. They’re microwavable vegetarian pouch meals inspired by Indian dishes such as butter chicken, tikka masala, and korma. I picked up one of each to try at home.

Here, I’m taking a closer look at the Lentil & Veggie Tikka Masala meal.

Earth Grown Lentil & Veggie Tikka Masala appears to be a newer Aldi Regular Buy. That means you should be able to find it at Aldi all year.

We buy products for review using our own money. I paid $2.85 for a 10.05-ounce package at my local store in 2024. That comes out to about 28 cents per ounce.

This is a product of India. It’s kosher and is certified vegetarian by the American Vegetarian Association. The package indicates it is medium spicy, and it contains no artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives. The pouch is also BPA free.

If you’re looking out for allergens, this contains milk. It may contain traces of peanuts, tree nuts, and soy.

The ingredients list looks pretty wholesome. The full ingredients list is water, potato, onion, pumpkin, tomato, black grams, red pepper, tomato paste, carrot, red kidney beans, sweet potato, and less than 2% of cream (milk), sunflower oil, garlic paste, ginger paste, yogurt (whole milk, skimmed milk powder, culture), spices, salt, cilantro leaves, chili paste, and cumin seeds.

One pouch is one serving. One pouch has 220 calories, 7 grams of total fat (9% DV), 3 grams of saturated fat (15% DV), 1,230 mg of sodium (54% DV), 32 grams of total carbohydrates (12% DV), 9 grams of dietary fiber (32% DV), 7 grams of total sugars, 1 gram of added sugars (2% DV), and 7 grams of protein.

The package has directions for heating this in the microwave or on the stovetop.

To microwave, tear the pouch 2 inches to vent. Heat the pouch on high for 90 seconds. Carefully remove the pouch from the microwave. Let it stand for 1 minute before pouring into a serving dish.

To heat on the stovetop, empty the pouch contents into a saucepan. Gently heat for 3-5 minutes. Do not boil. Stir to heat through.

The pouch also offers some serving suggestions: enjoy this on its own or with naan, rice, or a protein of your choice.

I opted to heat this in the microwave in its pouch for a convenient lunch. To serve with it, I also heated a tikka style rice pouch I bought at Aldi a couple of months ago.

As advertised, this is moderately spicy. I don’t feel like it has a lot of flavor other than the spiciness, though. It already contains a lot of sodium, but I had to add some salt to help flavor it. It tastes all right, but for those reasons, I won’t be buying this meal again.

The Verdict:

Earth Grown Lentil & Veggie Tikka Masala features a variety of veggies and spices. It is heavy on sodium, so it may not be for you if you’re watching your salt intake. It’s medium spicy, and it doesn’t have much flavor aside from the spiciness. This tastes okay, but there are definitely better-tasting single-serve Indian meals out there.