'I compared Slimming World and Weight Watchers ready meals' (2024)

Cooking is one of life's greatest joys. I love unwinding after a long day by making something delicious in the kitchen, and I'm a firm believer that healthy doesn't have to mean boring. Sometimes, however you just need something quick and easy like a ready meal, but it can be hard to find ones that aren't laden with fat or are just generally bad for you.

Diet plans like Slimming World and Weight Watchers profess to teach you how to form new healthier habits with food, focusing on nutrition while maintaining the joy of eating. I picked up a couple of ready meals from these brands to see if they were actually tasty, and they were truly worlds apart in their quality.

The first hurdle I had to jump was finding ready meals that were pescetarian-friendly. In my local Iceland's Slimming World range, there were quite a few vegetarian and vegan options from noodle meals to soups, but all I could find from Weight Watchers in Asda and Tesco was a salmon dish - so it's a good job I still eat fish.

I opted for the Slimming World teriyaki noodles and Weight Watchers' salmon and broccoli melt - both frozen microwavable meals - and pitted them against eachother in a taste test.

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'I compared Slimming World and Weight Watchers ready meals' (1)

Weight Watchers salmon and broccoli melt - £2

First up was Weight Watchers' salmon and broccoli melt: salmon chunks and broccoli florets in a 'savoury sauce' with a crumb and mozzarella cheese topping served with crunchy potato wedges. It has 271 calories per portion, 3.2g of saturated fat and 15g of protein, but 1.2g of salt.

I went straight in with a salmon cube, which was overcooked (despite putting the meal in the microwave for the recommended 8 minutes), chewy and dry. The sauce was flavourless but oddly sweet, and the broccoli florets were tiny and disintegrated in my mouth.

The potato wedges definitely weren't crunchy, but tasted okay, and there was no crumb topping to speak of, just a very, very mild hint of cheese.

Overall, it was pretty bland and uninspiring, and the portion was so small it definitely wouldn't keep you full for long. It wasn't a good example of how delicious a nutritious meal can be, and I'd definitely be reaching for the snacks later on if that's all I'd had for my lunch.

Rating: 1/5

'I compared Slimming World and Weight Watchers ready meals' (2)

Slimming World teriyaki noodles - £2.75

Slimming World's teriyaki noodles smelled as delicious as a takeaway when I took the container out of the microwave, and looked much more appetising than the Weight Watchers meal.

The meal contains 284 calories per serving, just 0.4g of saturated fat, 12g of protein and 2.4g of salt, and was jam-packed with veggies including broccoli, mushrooms, peppers and water chestnuts. It's also vegan, which is a nice bonus.

The dish was absolutely delicious. The veg was crunchy and flavoursome, the teriyaki sauce was high quality and tasty, and each individual vegetable was perfectly cooked and had its own distinct flavour. The noodles were a little soft, which is my only gripe, but overall this meal was great. It would definitely keep you full for the afternoon, and was a good sized portion.

I won't hesitate to buy it again.

Rating: 4.5/5

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The verdict

It's a no-brainer: Slimming World's ready meal was way, way better. It had complex flavours, tasted healthy and delicious, and the range had far more vegetarian and vegan options. It kept me full all afternoon, and was even lower in fat and almost as high in protein as Weight Watchers' less-tasty salmon meal.

Yes, it was 75p more expensive, but that's totally worth it for a meal that's healthy, tastes good, and is easy to prepare for a quick lunch.

What's your favourite healthy ready meal? Tell us in the comments here.

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