By Lara Alexander

A few weeks ago, this column told you about options of grocery and produce delivery to Edmonds homes. It is such a relief to get home from work and find ingredients for dinner and the next mornings milk and fruit waiting for me on the front porch. Not only is the convenience appreciated, I find that my grocery bill is reduced when I am not browsing aisles and adding things to my cart that weren’t on the list. To read more about grocery delivery to your home, here is last month’s article.

While researching grocery delivery companies, I also stumbled across a few companies that deliver complete meals, ready to heat and serve, including Turmeric N’ More. While talking to the owner, Mrs. Bukhari, I was invited to come down to see her kitchen and taste some of her creations.

The food of Turmeric N’ More focuses on vegetable and legumes, with a few dishes of chicken and lamb. The menu changes every week as Mrs. Bukhari has fun trying new dishes, tweaking recipes and playing with spices. Each dish has a detailed description on the website and your family can indicate your preferred spice level.

The stand out on the menu was the Tofu Tika Masala, each bite revealing a different element of the spice blend. I went back for seconds and not a drop was left in my bowl. The colorful Biryani rice was full of savory flavor and big pieces of chicken, and avoided the problem of being too greasy like many fried rice dishes.  A chicken Chapli Kabab, made of ground chicken meat, whole spices and finely chopped vegetables, came shaped like a chicken burger patty and would have made an excellent hot sandwich wrapped in a piece of nan bread and a few lettuce leaves.

Tumeric n’ More is not the heavy Indian food of most restaurants, and that’s (mostly) a good thing. I enjoy the flavors of Indian food, but it dawns on me, while slurping deep spoon-fulls of curry, that it’s probably hard not to love sauces made with generous amounts of cream and butter. The dishes from Tumeric n’ More are closer to how I would cook at home, with a focus on vegetables, grains and spices rather than oil, butter and cream.

Mrs. Bukharti cooks for her customers like a parent cooks for her family, with their well-being in mind. “My food is high in protein and fiber,” she tells me numerous times, “I make everything from scratch, no processed foods.” With a degree in nutrition, she is proud of the fact that she does not use heavy cream, butter or ghee in her recipes. Her goal is to “bring the best of Indian food to the community,” while showing that Indian food can be heart-healthy too.

I did find myself wishing that a couple of the dishes were creamier. Without the soothing hand of butter and full cream, the vegetable and lentil curried plates tasted sharp in contrast to their restaurant cousins. The acidity of tomatoes, peppers and tamarind called out for the mellowing action of yogurt or cream.

The ease of having dinner delivered speaks for itself. For families who are not concerned about calories, it may be just as easy to call in an order for take out and pick up dinner on the way home. But if you are concerned about your heart and your waistline, restaurant food is a major saboteur of a good diet. If you are looking to mix things up a bit, Turmeric n’ More delivers fiber, flavor and convenience.

Delivering food to about 45 families each week, Mrs. Bukharti cooks all of the meals in a commercial kitchen in North Seattle and employs a couple of drivers who make deliveries on Sundays to Edmonds and surrounding areas. Meals are delivered in insulated bags with ice packs to wait safely for you to refrigerate them. A $40 minimum order is required and a reasonable $3.50 charge is added for delivery. To find out more and to read the week’s menu, visit the website here or call (206) 859-9591.

A culinary adventurer, Lara Alexander grows, cooks and writes about food from her home in Edmonds. You can read about her garden and kitchen fun on the blog Food-Soil-Thread.