Saffron Fix September 2016 Subscription Box Review + Coupon

Saffron Fix is a meal and dinner kit subscription service that will satisfy your Indian food craving each month. The subscription costs $48 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 do!

Everything arrived packed in a cushy, reflective, foam-filled liner.  It comes surrounded with ice and stays nice and cool.

Everything needed for each recipe is bagged together, including the meat, but it is packed in heavy duty vacuum bags with much better integrity than typical butcher bags.  I expect the packing will continue to evolve over time, as that of every meal service has, but the current setup seems to work very well.

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 (If you eat gourmet Indian food all the time, I am very jealous), the color photograph is really handy for getting a sense of the desired appearance and consistency of the prepared dish.  Also useful 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.

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.

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 (from proximity to icepack, not quality of product).  Unless noted, the following pictures of completed dishes show one of two servings.

Saag Paneer (Spinach With Indian Cheese). 30 minutes, 400 calories per serving.

This dish is probably the most popular preparation of paneer in indian restaurants in the U.S., and I actually liked this version better than any I can recall having previously.  The quick blanching of the spinach left it with a vibrant green color that was absolutely gorgeous, and the base of the dish had plenty of spice and flavor.  The use of pre-fried paneer was really nice — it saved a whole step of messy frying, and it also meant that the paneer held together much better in the saag than if it went in raw.  This dish was really tasty and had great flavor — I didn’t mind it being vegetarian at all.  It was served with both rice and naan.

Methi Chicken Curry. 30 minutes, 400 calories per serving.

This spicy curry received a layer of sweet aromatic flavor with the addition of fresh fenugreek leaves.  This dish had great flavor and lots of texture from the greens and aromatics in the sauce.  The chicken cooked up very tender, and I enjoyed folding bits of chicken and sauce into the naan to eat.  This was served with both rice and naan.

Goan Fish Curry. 30 minutes, 375 calories per serving.

This fish curry had lots of turmeric, giving it a lovely golden color.   The musty spice balanced the fish quite well.  I loved the extra textural elements in the sauce — the fried mustard seeds and curry leaves added both a rich aroma and burst of flavor and substance to the sauce.  This was served with both naan and rice.

We continue to be super-psyched about getting a block of Indian nights every month!  The packing of the items is very nice, and I love the quality of the ingredients and recipes.  This trio of dishes would’ve been a real treat for anyone who is a fan of Indian food — each started with a common base of aromatics, but the subtle distinction in seasoning produced very distinct and lovely flavor profiles.  Each meal provides a very hearty portion for two, with each meal including both rice and naan.  This month, the naan was made from whole wheat flour. [Note from Brandy: I wish there was a choice or more variety. I prefer white naan!]

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, but it also cuts down the fridge life and means you want to be prompt in making your food.  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! Get $10 off any product, service, or even gift cards, on our website. Use coupon code  TAKETEN.