HECK Yes! The High Protein Sausages My Whole Family Smashed
By Danni Levy
There are certain food reviews that require tasting notes, careful consideration and perhaps a sophisticated discussion about provenance.
And then there are sausages.
In my house, the testing process is considerably more brutal: will I eat it, will my husband eat it, and, most importantly, will my three-year-old eat it without treating the kitchen floor as an alternative plate?
So when a frankly obscene amount of HECK landed in my kitchen, we got cooking.
I’ve always liked the idea of a sausage. I’m less enthusiastic about reading the back of some packets and discovering something that appears to contain roughly the same percentage of actual meat as my handbag.
HECK’s 97% sausages immediately had my attention. Properly meaty, high in protein and gluten free, they’re the sort of thing that can sit happily in a fitness-focused fridge without making dinner feel like punishment.
First up were the HECK 97% sausages. These are the no-nonsense ones. Big pork flavour, satisfyingly meaty and exactly what you want when only a sausage sandwich will do. My husband demolished them. My toddler stole half of mine. Strong start.
Then came the chicken invasion.
Chicken Italia seasoned mince, Chicken Italia sausages, Chicken Italia sausage rashers and, because apparently HECK has decided chicken should no longer know its place, Chicken, Red Pepper & Feta Chipolatas.
The Chicken Italia range was probably my favourite. Tomato, basil and garlic give it enough flavour to make it interesting without turning it into something your child examines suspiciously for 20 minutes before announcing it’s “spicy”.
The mince is particularly useful because you can basically throw it into anything. Meatballs, pasta, burgers, wraps, breakfast hash. It’s lean, high protein and already seasoned, which means dinner can look as though you’ve made an effort when you absolutely have not.
My quick midweek creation was Chicken Italia Loaded Pasta.
I browned the Chicken Italia mince in a pan, added chopped courgette and cherry tomatoes, then stirred through passata. Once the pasta was cooked, I threw everything together, added a little grated Parmesan and finished the grown-up portions with chilli flakes.
That’s it.
No 27 ingredients. No Himalayan mushroom harvested under a full moon. About 20 minutes from fridge to table.
The toddler ate it.
This is the culinary equivalent of receiving a Michelin star.
The Chicken Italia sausages went down equally well, while the sausage rashers are a genuinely clever little invention. They cook in around five minutes and deliver 9.6g of protein per rasher, making them dangerously convenient for breakfast sandwiches and post-gym “I need food immediately” situations.
Even the Cumberland chicken sausages disappeared rapidly.
And that’s ultimately what impressed me about the whole HECK haul. This isn’t “healthy food” desperately pretending to be normal food. It’s normal, tasty, family-friendly food that happens to make hitting your protein target considerably easier.
As someone who trains, has a hungry husband and negotiates dinner with a three-year-old dictator, I need food to tick several boxes at once.
HECK did.
And judging by the suspiciously empty fridge, the rest of the Levy household agrees.
HECK. That was good.