a peek inside the fishbowl

I posted about a lovely soup we had last week and promised a full review of Zestible, a new service which provides ready-to-cook meals for Ottawa folks.

First, I have to confess that I would enjoy dinner time a little more if (a) there were fewer steps involved (read: no shopping or pouring over recipes from every Pinterest board or website I’ve bookmarked) (b) everyone loved what I whipped up and (c) I had a personal chef. Fortunately, there’s a new service available to Ottawa folks that makes the whole process a little easier. In fact, it’s ALMOST like having a personal chef, but a lot cheaper. :)

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been giving Zestible a try. Zestible is an Ottawa-based service that is making dinners faster, healthier, and tastier.

First I have to backtrack for a moment. I met Zestbile owner, Valeria Iannitti, at her tidy industrial kitchen on Gladstone Avenue a few months back. I may be overstepping here (and Val may be surprised to be read this) but meeting Val felt a bit like meeting a kindred spirit. (I know, I know. How positively Anne Shirley of me to put it that way, but it cannot be helped!) Val is a mom, I’m a mom. She loves food, I love food! But here’s the difference: she’s so passionate about feeding people good food that she’s actually turned it into a viable business. So when Val asked me if I wanted to give her service a test run and I had to say yes.

Point of note: Zestible is run completely by Ottawa women, and supports local farms and artisans such as Rideau Pines Farm, Michael’s Dolce, Bekings Eggs, Suntech Tomatoes. Bonus.

So here’s how Zestible works:

1. – You place an order on the Zestible website. It’s very easy. You can look at pods (these are groups of recipes) or individual recipes. Note it is more cost effective to order in pods. All do you is click, pay, and it’s done. Then you wait. The order deadline is noon Thursday and delivery is Tuesday by 5 p.m., just in time for dinner!
2. – The ingredients and recipes arrive in a big insulated bag. Delivery is free if you spend $60 or more and you live within the main delivery areas. (They’ll deliver to areas outside of Ottawa proper for an additional fee.)
3. – You assemble the ingredients at any time, and voila, dinner is done. DONE. Prep time is usually under 30 minutes.

I tell ya, I felt like a kid at Christmas when this appeared on my doorstep:

This is what it looks like when you unzip it:

I was going to do a whole ZESTIBLE UNBOXING video but I reconsidered because of the very high nerd factor. I will say that everything comes neatly and professionally packed and labelled by dish title. The meat was sandwiched between big flat ice packs at the bottom of the bag. All I did at this point was pop the meat in the meat drawer and line the bags up in the fridge.

What did we try? Oy.

– Baked Salmon with Apple Walnut Slaw and Pickled Onions
– Thai Coconut Soup
– Maple Dijon Marinated Chicken Breast with Kale Salad
– Mint Pomegranate Tabbouleh with Grilled Halloumi
– Smoked Trout and Fennel Mixed Green Salad

These are just a few of the dishes we enjoyed.

Honestly, every meal we ordered was a winner but there’s a lot to love about this kind of service overall. It saved me time at the grocery store and with meal planning. As an added bonus, dinners became very easy to, er, assign to family members. The girls made the first meal, which was chicken tacos with mango salsa:

Zestible instructions are easy to follow too:

There is some food prep involved here, but it’s minimal, just washing and chopping for the most part. It’s something the family can do together too, which I like.

What I didn’t really think about beforehand, but became clear as we made more meals, was how little food waste there was. Each recipe comes with exactly what is needed for that recipe. For example, a tablespoon of fish sauce or three pieces of lemongrass. No more rotting cilantro in the back of the fridge. Yay! Also, some of the recipes featured ingredients I may not have tried on my own… like pomegranate seeds in a chickpea tabbouleh. But you know, it worked!

Dinners consistently provided me with some amazing lunches (many of which you probably saw on Twitter). This was one of them. The star of the show here was sustainably-sourced smoked trout that came via Whalesbone. Ack. It was so good.

The portions were generous and at no point was I worried that we wouldn’t have enough food. This was especially true with my order of marinated sous vide chicken. All it needed was a quick sear – and I had enough for leftovers AND for a second dinner. (Which was a BBQ chicken pizza of my own making.)

These dinners SAVED MY BACON on soccer night. And when my meeting ran late. And when the girls were out and it was just me and Mark for dinner and I was fresh out of ideas with no energy to shop and no desire to hit up a drive through.

As an added bonus, the recipe cards that came with my delivery are now a permanent part of my repertoire. Bwa ha ha! So I can now recreate these dishes on my own. (And I have already done so! My co-workers really enjoyed a salad I brought for the office pot luck last week.)

So who is this service good for? (Other than busy parents of course. Ha.) Seriously, anyone! Seniors, singletons, people who are new to cooking, people who hate grocery shopping, people who want to eat better (try the vegetarian pod!). Employers can also buy meals for their staff (I love this idea so much) and gift certificates are also available. It’d be perfect for newlyweds, housewarming, baby shower gift, or if someone is getting over an illness and can use a little extra help. Wouldn’t it make an awesome gift for a teacher too?

Every week there are 5-7 new recipes added to the site, which includes vegetarian and meat/fish-based options, along with a delicious quick salad. There are also extras such as True Loaf baguette, Bekings eggs and a healthy smoothie.

All in all, it’s a delicious idea, and I know when I’m feeling busy – or in a rut – I will be ordering again.

*Here’s the fine print: Zestible fed my family but the deal was that this would be a fair and honest review. Opinions are my own. If you’re keen to try it out, use my promo code for a special discount on your first order. The coupon code is fishdish and it’s good for $10 off your first purchase plus free shipping (meaning that the minimum order to access free shipping is waived). The discount expires July 14 so don’t delay. :).