A Tasty Bite of Indian Food

I've recently been writing a lot about Indian food.  Whether it is checking out D'Guru for lunch or playing around with chicken tikka masala, I've really been exploring a lot of fantastic Indian flavors.  After reading my blog, the folks at Tasty Bite offered to send me some of their quick and easy Indian meals to try out.  Now to be honest, I'm always a little dubious about already-prepared quick and easy meals.  I find that a lot of these food products may be simple to prepare but are lacking in flavor.  Because Indian cuisine is so full of flavor, I wasn't sure what to expect.

Tasty Bite sent me a lot of products...

And on Wednesday night, I finally got a chance to try some of them out.  On Wednesday, I had a really stressful day at work where I had to deal with some difficult people and also found out that I'd be making a last-minute business trip.  Just when I thought my day was over, I realized that I didn't pack my socks for the gym.  The day just snowballed.  After I headed home and went for a run to de-stress, I just wanted to make something quick and easy for dinner.

I picked out three different products to try.

The basmati rice, madras lentils and rogan josh simmer sauce were all really simple to make.  I've actually never heard of rogan josh before so I looked it up and found out that it is typically a lamb curry dish eaten in Kashmir.  We didn't have any lamb on hand, so instead I cubed two boneless chicken breasts and sauteed them.  When the chicken was almost done cooking, I added the simmer sauce with a cup of water and, well, let it simmer.  Once the rogan josh was ready, I poured the madras lentils in a bowl and heated it up in the microwave.  The basmati rice could be microwaved right in the pouch.  Dinner was literally ready from start to finish in about ten minutes.

The end result?

Although I'm a bit of a purist about rice and avoid instant rice at all costs, I've got to say that the basmati rice was spot on.  It tasted every bit like the rice I've had with many different Indian dishes.

The madras lentils was definitely the highlight.  The lentils had a creamy texture and you could really taste the lentils, tomatoes, red beans and cumin. 

The rogan josh was a bit disappointing.  I found it a bit watery and the additional water was definitely not needed.  I've never tried rogan josh but I found that the sauce was a bit bland and lacked heat.  In fact, I ended up adding some chili sauce to add some heat to the dish.

Overall, I was pretty impressed with how Tasty Bite brings Indian food in such a quick and easy way.  Most of the products I received are gluten-free, vegetarian (unless you add meat) and kosher.  In addition, none of the products contain preservatives or require refrigeration.  All of the products came in pouches, which keeps everything fresh for about eighteen months.

This was the perfect solution for a quick bite with lots of flavor and to be honest, it saved me from ordering take-out on Wednesday night.  Thanks again to Tasty Bite for sending these products to try out.  I can't wait to try out the others the next time I'm feeling lazy in the kitchen!

To learn more about Tasty Bite, you can check out their website here.