When you think of frozen, microwavable meals, you might think of unhealthy “TV dinners” featuring plastic trays filled with chicken nuggets, meatloaf, mashed potatoes, mixed veggies, and the like. Traditional TV dinners aren’t typically very healthy, but they can be popular because they’re convenient. All you have to do is pop them in the microwave for a few minutes, and you have a meal ready to eat.
Aldi sells a line of frozen, microwavable meals that aren’t like those old frozen dinners, though. The Whole & Simple product line, which is an Aldi house brand and not a company, sells a range of frozen single-serve meals that are actually made with whole, simple ingredients and can be quite healthy, and most them taste delicious, too.
This line includes:
- Tahini and chickpea bowls
- Pork or chicken enchilada bowls
- Shrimp and asparagus or shrimp and quinoa bowls
- Mediterranean style chicken quinoa bowls
- Chicken and Mexican style street corn or chicken and cilantro and lime riced cauliflower bowls
- Southwestern style chicken quinoa bowls
While a few of these bowls and meals are stocked year round at Aldi, most of them are limited-time specials that are only around for a little while. Fortunately, it seems like new bowls and flavors drop into Aldi pretty regularly. If you find one you especially like, it can be worth going back to Aldi before they sell out and stocking up your deep freezer.
The most recent Whole & Simple products to show up at Aldi are some Thai style meals. There are two varieties.
First, there’s a Pad Thai meal. The package describes it as “brown rice noodles and vegetables blended with a traditional recipe of well-balanced sweet, salty and tangy tamarind pad Thai sauce.”
Second, there’s a Yellow Curry with Brown Rice. The package states “creamy, coconut milk-based vegan yellow jackfruit curry finds its texture in the fried tofu, young jackfruit and chunks of eggplant, served with brown rice.”
I bought one of each of these Thai style meals to try at home.
The Whole & Simple Pad Thai Thai Style Meal and the Whole & Simple Yellow Curry with Brown Rice Thai Style Meal are Aldi Finds. That means they’re only in stores for a short time. Each store receives one shipment, and after that sells out, they’re gone unless Aldi decides to bring them back at some later time. Aldi does not offer online ordering for products that are not currently in stock at your local store.
These meals cost $4.49 for an 11.28-ounce single-serve package at the time of publication. These are a product of Thailand.
The backs of the packages have instructions for heating these meals in the microwave. Remove the cardboard sleeve. Then place the tray in the microwave without piercing the film. Microwave on high for 2 minutes. Carefully shake the tray and put it back into the microwave to heat for an additional 2-3 minutes. Remove the tray from the microwave and let stand for 1 minute before serving.
Keep reading for more information about each meal bowl.
Whole & Simple Pad Thai Thai Style Meal:
Whole & Simple Pad Thai Thai Style Meal ready to eat after microwaving.
This meal has some good rice noodles, and I like the peanuts scattered throughout. It has a lot of bean sprouts, though. It’s almost too many sprouts, unless you’re really trying to up your fiber intake. The bean sprouts add plenty of crunch, along with a somewhat bitter flavor that counters the sweet and tangy tamarind pad Thai sauce. This meal also has a smell that isn’t the most appetizing, mostly due to the bean sprouts, I think.
I didn’t like this meal enough that I’d buy it again. If it had fewer bean sprouts, I might change my mind. As it was, I left a few bean sprouts in the tray at the end of lunch time.
Whole and Simple Pad Thai Thai Style Meal nutrition information, ingredients, and heating directions. (Click to enlarge.)
If you’re looking out for allergens, this contains peanuts.
The full ingredients list includes blanched vegetables (bean sprouts, Chinese chives), cooked brown rice noodles (brown rice noodles, water), coconut sugar, peanuts, white radish, tamarind paste, shallots, rice bran oil, vinegar, sugar, sea salt, caramel color, and chili powder.
This has a lot of sodium and added sugars, and a fair amount of fat and carbs. On the positive side, it has plenty of dietary fiber.
One serving has 470 calories, 16 grams of total fat (21% DV), 3.5 grams of saturated fat (18% DV), no cholesterol, 990 mg of sodium (43% DV), 72 grams of total carbohydrates (26% DV), 6 grams of dietary fiber (21% DV), 27 grams of total sugars, 21 grams of added sugars (42% DV), and 10 grams of protein.
Whole & Simple Yellow Curry with Brown Rice Thai Style Meal:
Whole & Simple Yellow Curry with Brown Rice Thai Style Meal ready to eat after microwaving.
This meal is amazing, although it doesn’t look quite like the picture on the package because it has a lot of sauce, while the photo shows no sauce.
This smelled delicious while I was cooking it in the microwave, and other family members started to salivate over it and asked for a taste when it was fully heated. My family loves Indian food, and this hit all the right notes for us. It has great curry flavor, balanced with creamy coconut milk-based sauce. It’s on the upper end of medium in terms of its spice level, so I kept my water glass nearby while enjoying this.
I had never tried jackfruit before, but it was good in this meal. Its flavor ranges from sweet to savory depending on whether it’s ripe or unripe. In fact, jackfruit is often used as a meat substitute. In the case of this Thai style meal, it is probably less ripe, which gives it a mild, neutral flavor that is good in a savory entrée. It is tender and adds texture and substance to the dish, and it takes on the flavors of the sauce.
The other major components in this meal are tender eggplant (it’s green) and fried tofu with a flavor and consistency very much like chicken. The brown rice is in its own separate compartment in the plastic tray, and it has a stickier consistency. It all tastes great when mixed together.
One minor issue: while I left the plastic film intact while microwaving this, some of the sauce did bubble out over the side of the tray, but it wasn’t too messy.
This meal is so good that I bought four more packages the next time I went to Aldi. I’m looking forward to eating this again.
Whole and Simple Yellow Curry with Brown Rice Thai Style Meal nutrition information, ingredients, and heating directions. (Click to enlarge.)
If you’re looking out for allergens, this contains coconut (tree nuts), soy, and gluten (wheat).
The full ingredients list includes cooked brown rice (brown rice, water), coconut milk, eggplant, water, tofu, jackfruit, yellow curry paste, coconut sugar, rice bran oil, chili pepper, curry powder, sea salt, and turmeric powder.
This has some fat (including saturated fat from the coconut milk), sodium and carbs. It still has a decent amount of dietary fiber, though.
One serving has 400 calories, 15 grams of total fat (19% DV), 9 grams of saturated fat (45% DV), no cholesterol, 670 mg of sodium (29% DV), 53 grams of total carbohydrates (19% DV), 6 grams of dietary fiber (21% DV), 5 grams of total sugars, 3 grams of added sugars (6% DV), and 11 grams of protein.
The Verdict:
The Whole & Simple Pad Thai Thai Style Meal and the Whole & Simple Yellow Curry with Brown Rice Thai Style Meal are part of a product line at Aldi that features convenient frozen meals made with easily recognizable, healthier ingredients. The Pad Thai meal is okay, but we felt like it had too many bean sprouts. Meanwhile, the Yellow Curry meal is excellent, especially if you like Indian food. It includes jackfruit, eggplant, and tofu in a creamy coconut milk-based curry sauce, and it’s very good.
