Culiniste Delivers Fresh Ingredients to Prepare Meals at Home

GoodFood Delivery Service

We all know the benefits of cooking together at home: you share duties, you get to spend valuable time together and it’s much cheaper than going out to a restaurant. Montreal-based GoodFood (formerly Culiniste) food delivery service, now available in Toronto, makes it easy. It allows you to select meals online and GoodFood will deliver the fresh ingredients and recipe to your home so that you can prepare meals without having to search for new recipes or shop for ingredients. The subscription service ends up costing less than $10 per person per meal and the delivery is free. You select three out of six meals each week (gluten free and vegetarian options are available). I was approached by GoodFood to try their food delivery service on a complimentary basis for two weeks. I was eager to try GoodFood because I enjoy cooking, but I have to admit, I sometimes find it time-consuming to shop for ingredients. I was advised that I would receive fresh ingredients and recipes to prepare three dinners for two people each week.

The ingredients for all three first week meals arrived on Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. via UPS. The food was packed in ice packs and insulated material so you don’t need to worry if you are not home when they arrive because your food will be kept cold.

Salmon Fillets with Warm Barley Salad and Chopped Herbs with Lemon Juice

The first meal I prepared was Salmon Fillets with Warm Barley Salad, Chopped Herbs with Lemon Juice. GoodFood recommends preparing any seafood dishes first.

I was really impressed with the quality and freshness of the ingredients. The salmon was gorgeous and both pieces were approximately the same size. The baby spinach was also super fresh, as were the aromatic dill and sorrel.

The first steps of the recipe involved cooking the barley and then washing the produce. I then had to chop spinach, grate garlic and lemon rind and pick sorrel and dill leaves off their stems. I found the last step time-consuming. Perhaps there is a better way to remove herb leaves from their stems, but I was meticulous because I didn’t want to taste any stems in the finished product.

The next step involved sauteing the garlic, lemon zest and spinach until wilted. I never would have thought to saute lemon zest with spinach, but it is a brilliant idea!

Now it was time to cook the salmon. Very simple: Just a few minutes on each side in a frying pan with olive oil.

Once the salmon was cooked, all I had to do was fold the spinach mixture into the barley and add a few remaining ingredients and then combine the dill and sorrel for the garnish.

Here is my finished plate. Ta da!

I have to admit that my meals don’t usually look this visually appealing. In fact, I don’t think they ever do. I was quite impressed with the end result and it tasted delicious. The recipe instructions were very clear leaving no room for error. It did take me longer than the 35 minute preparation time that GoodFood had indicated, but I did all the preparation on my own.

Stay tuned for further posts on my remaining meals from GoodFood! Do you think you would use GoodFood food delivery service?