Saffron Fix June 2016 Subscription Box Review

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Saffron Fix June 2016 box
Saffron Fix is a meal and dinner kit subscription service that will satisfy your Indian food craving each month. The subscription costs $48.00 per month for 2 meals or $60 for 3, and you can choose vegetarian or non-veg, and you’ll receive fresh pre-chopped ingredients and hard-to-find spices to prepare a delicious home-cooked Indian meal. Every month they’ll send you an email for meal selection.

Note that this box delivers only to New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Virginia, Washington DC, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Delaware at the present time.  The limited geography ensures limited time in transit, which means fresher ingredients.  Hopefully they will add additional locations from which they ship, so everyone can enjoy it as much as we did!

Saffron Fix June 2016 unboxed

Everything arrived packed in a cushy, reflective, foam-filled liner.  In our first review of Saffron Fix, we noted that there was only one ice pack, and it didn’t keep everything as cold as we’d prefer.  I’m glad to see that they have upgraded their packing, adding several ice packs (three or four in total), and surrounding the food with ice instead of vice versa.   The meat was still in with the rest of the ingredients, but it was pre-marinated and came in heavy duty vacuum bags with much better integrity than typical butcher bags.  The ice was right up against the bagged food, but nothing suffered from it.  I expect the packing will continue to evolve over time, as that of every meal service has.

Saffron Fix June 2016 (1)

The recipe cards note the cooking time, calories, and number of servings, and it separately lists those ingredients included in the kit and those items you need to supply (e.g. salt, butter, saucepan, etc).  Because the dishes prepared are likely to be relatively unfamiliar to the cook, the color photograph is really handy for getting a sense of the desired appearance and consistency of the prepared dish.  Also useful, given the somewhat exotic nature of Indian cuisine, is a short description of the dish, including notes on any unusual ingredients or techniques, as well as a guide to adjusting the heat level of the dish.

Saffron Fix June 2016 (2)

The back of the card has the actual recipe guidance, complete with pictures.  The instructions are very clear, concise, and easy to follow — I think the sentence construction is more natural than that sometimes employed in other subscription boxes, and I appreciate the relative brevity.

Saffron Fix June 2016 review

Each recipe was packed separately, and neatly, in its own bag.  Everything was surprisingly fresh for being pre-chopped — only the cilantro showed any signs of wilting.  All of the following pictures of completed dishes show one of two servings.

Saffron Fix June 2016 (3)

Kadai Paneer. 30 minutes, 300 calories per serving.

Saffron Fix June 2016 (2)

Indian cuisine is probably the best in the world at making vegetarian dishes filling and satisfying.  This one was particularly so, because it incorporated large blocks of paneer – pressed white cheese.  The cheese had a texture like firm tofu, but it tasted like cottage cheese, minus the tanginess of the whey (which I believe essentially describes its composition).  Fabulously simple to make, this dish very tasty and showcased a wonderful non-spinach preparation of paneer.  This picture shows both portions of the main dish, but only one half of the rice — I’ll explain below.

Saffron Fix June 2016 (4)

Chicken Makhani. 30 minutes, 475 calories per serving.

Saffron Fix June 2016 (1)

Also known as butter chicken, this dish manages to blend the wonderful flavors of curry with the lushness of a French sauce.  The sauce was so thick that you can’t really see the large chunks of chicken within it.  This sauce is so good that I would be happy eating it on pasta or rice without the chicken.   There was one discrepancy between the recipe cards and the ingredients provided — both the chicken makhani and the kadai paneer recipes called for rice and naan, but each came with only one of the two.  I noticed this after preparing both sides with the chicken makhani, so this dish was served with both items.  I reserved half the rice for the paneer (but we ate all the naan, of course!).  This dish was almost too easy — the pre-marinated chicken takes alot of the would-be prep out of the dish.  It seems so wrong that it is more difficult to make macaroni and cheese from a box than it is to make this lovely dish!

Saffron Fix June 2016 (5)

Chicken Tikka Kati Roll. 30 minutes, 250 calories per wrap.

Saffron Fix June

This was the most involved dish, but it was still pretty easy to put together.  I had to keep an eye on the chicken under the broiler and cook the onions and peppers separately, but still a breeze with the pre-marinated chicken (love it!).  Very tasty, with a chicken gyro feel, though the roti is about 90% tortilla and only 10% pita.  The cilantro spread was a great, bright touch.  There was no written guidance on the use of the lime, so I took my cue from the recipe pic and served it as a squeezable garnish.

We continue to be super-psyched about getting a block of Indian nights every month!  I like the improvements in the packing material and love the quality of the ingredients and recipes.

It’s worth pointing out very specifically that this box currently only ships once per month. We cooked our meals over 3 days but you could sign up for 2 and cook them all together. This box was really delicious and we hope you’re in their shipping zone! Taking the chopping out of the meal preparation really cuts down the prep time.  We wish more subscriptions would provide pre-prepared ingredients, because these meals were so easy to pull off!

Visit Saffron Fix to subscribe or find out more!

The Subscription: Saffron Fix
The Description: Saffron Fix is a meal-kit service specializing in Indian cuisine and flavors. We deliver fresh pre-chopped ingredients and hard-to-find spices so you can cook delicious and authentic Indian meals right at home, in UNDER 30 MINUTES!Flexible subscription delivered first Friday of every month . Skip or cancel anytime you want – no questions asked! We currently deliver to New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Virginia, Washington DC, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Delaware
The Price: $48.00 per month
See Saffron Fix in the Hello Subscription Box Directory!
The Categories: , . .
The Reviews: See all our Saffron Fix Reviews.

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