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As the winter nights draw in, comfort food and instant gratification are what we really crave. We are a nation hooked on ready meals. In the past year we spent more than £900 million on throwing a quick-fix dinner into the oven. Industry experts reckon UK consumption of ready meals will increase by 20 million in 2006.

The joy of ready meals lies in their convenience not in their taste. They've never tasted as good as the real thing and the textures have always been off putting: bechamel sauces that quiver like unset jelly; grated cheese that lies on top like mini polystyrene chips; thin red ragus speckled with dried oregano; and the telltale tang of E-numbers.

Cheap, supermarket ready meals are the nemesis of fresh, healthy eating, with additives and preservatives galore and salt levels to harden the healthiest arteries. In a survey last year, the Food Standards Agency found that 75 per cent of the salt we eat comes from processed food - not to mention trans-fats, cheap, often nasty, ingredients and industrial-scale production methods.

But look beyond the frozen aisles of the supermarkets and dozens of small, independent producers across the UK are making tasty “home-made” ready meals using locally sourced organic ingredients and recipes without a chemical in sight. Their growing market: food-loving, time-poor individuals.

Kudos Foods, a small company based near Lewes, in East Sussex, was founded by Avril Clarke in 2001. “I had two small children and a hungry husband to feed but just didn’t have the time to go out and buy ingredients. I realised that I couldn’t be alone in this.” Clarke and her small team of kitchen staff produce tasty traditional recipes made from local foods, frozen and delivered direct to your door. Popular dishes include red onion and goat’s cheese quiche made with Golden Cross cheese (voted best soft white cheese in the British Cheese Awards 2005) and lamb and apricot tagine using meat from Goat Farm, two miles up the road. “Everything is hand-made and uses local produce,” says Clarke.

Two Fish Wives launched last year. It is run by two friends, Jo Greengrass and Nereid Boyce, who were convinced that they could create something a little more imaginative than the lacklustre offerings we often find at the bottom of our freezers. "We wanted to elevate the humble fish pies from those nasty meals that are full of preservatives and look like cat food," says Nereid."They are much maligned and we felt they could be healthy as well as delicious if produced well."

So they ditched their corporate jobs for a course at Leith's Cookery School and set up shop, cooking daily from their HQ in north-west London. Their range includes salmon and dill fishcakes, smoked haddock fishcakes and fish pies. "We deal with reputable suppliers at Billingsgate and sustainable sources in Scotland.

It's important that our ingredients can be traced," Boyce says. There's also no added salt or other nasties such as hydrogenated fats that have been linked to higher cholesterol levels.

Northumberland based Look What We Found, another company also launched last year, takes traceability very seriously. "Provenance is critical", says the founder Roger McKechnie. As is the personal touch; when you eat a sausage, it's called Barry Shaw's Cumberland Sausage, with a wholesome-looking photo of Barry on the packet. "They all come from him, a little guy in Cumbria," says McKechnie proudly, who offers a range of gourmet British classics, from Colin Kerr's venison meatballs to Shaun Richardson's braised Herdwick mutton and David Miller's wild rabbit.

"I was working with a regional food producer and I knew there were a lot of local people who are not good at marketing but great at what they do." McKechnie has brought them together under his label and sells through Waitrose, delis and farmers' markets.

And if you don’t have the time or patience to cook for a dinner party then top-end caterers Harry’s Kitchen, based in South kensington, will help you to pass off “rustic-chic” cooking as your own. Harry Hensman provides a mouth-watering array of seasonal dishes to dazzle your guests. “The dishes are made with the care and attention that you would expect from a top chef but all you need to do is heat them up in the oven,” says Hensman. “And you don’t have to pay a team of waiters and cooks to serve it.”

Shepherd’s pie with a confit of duck and celeriac puree and butternut soup with chorizo and chestnuts are on the menu. The company focuses on sustainable produce, using suppliers such as Marylebone’s La Fromagerie cheese shop and the Ginger Pig butchers who favour small producers and can trace their food to its source. He encourages recyling and offers his food either in earthenware pots or fully biodegradable containers.

Best of British: ready meals that taste like home cooking

Kudos Foods
The Food Shop, Church Lane, Ripe, Lewes, East Sussex BN8 6A Delivers within a 35-mile radius or you can visit their shop.(01323 811811; www.kudosfoods.co.uk)

Look What We Found
Richard Woodall's Waberthwaite pancetta in a wild mushroom sauce has a rich, intense mushroom and bacon taste in a creamy brown sauce and, unusually, not at all glutinous in texture. A royal appointment recognises the quality of this produce. There's even a photograph of Colin Woodall, Richard's nephew, who takes care of this part of the business, on the packet. (01207 588783; www.lookwhatwefound.co.uk)

Two Fishwives
Started by two friends, they offer hand-made fish based meals from sustainable suppliers. The Fish pie has a great flavour of fresh cod, salmon and smoked haddock with a good ratio of potato to fish.Sources its fish from three fishmongers at Billingsgate. (020 8537 1168; www.twofishwives.com)

Cook
Gourmet home-cooking frozen and delivered to your door. The minted couscous and Moroccan lamb tagine, cooked by Luke Baker, has an authentic sauce with sweet apricots and almonds, and really tender lamb. All ingredients sourced at Billingsgate and Smithfield markets (www.cookfood.net; 0870 0489305).

Bigham’s
Upmarket ready-meals, from teriyaki beef to Breton chicken and goat's cheese millefeuille, with clear and extensive labelling (www.bighams.com; 020 8453 9898).

Graig Farm Organics
Ready Meals. Labels include details of the farm supplier, breed of animal and the specific website where you can find out more. Range includes baby food (www.graigfarm.co.uk; 01597 851655).

Harry’s Kitchen (0207 2592728 or 07946441502)

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