Real Food, Real Fast: Flavorful And Healthy Meals From Radish

By Melissa McEwen in Food on Jun 15, 2015 3:00PM

Radish is a new app that allows you to order dinner made with great ingredients and have it delivered ASAP. And the options it offers certainly aren't boring, with a chef-driven menu created by Chef David Yusefzadeh, who was formerly the executive chef of Baffo.

Grass-fed beef brisket from Strauss in Wisconsin braised in a tomato sauce, parsnips cooked in Madagascar vanilla, salt and olive oil, Moroccan chicken with green olives, oregano, lemon, olive oil, paprika, turmeric, cayenne pepper and golden raisins

Each night the dishes offered change, with recent offerings including parsnips cooked with Madagascar vanilla and thyme or grass-fed skirt steak from Strauss in Wisconsin cooked in tamarind, red onion, garlic and olive oil. To order your meal you select three of these dishes out of the seven to nine offerings each night. It's pretty easy to construct a menu to fit special diets, whether vegan, gluten-free or paleo.

It's relatively affordable, with each meal coming in at around $13 which includes delivery and a service fee. But if you require more calories you might want to order more or select two or three of the more protein rich items (they offer three of these each night, usually a red meat, a white meat and a vegan selection), since the portions are small.

Almost all of the ten or so dishes I've tried here have been delicious except a few that seemed a bit under-seasoned, but since they are delivered to your home that's easy to correct. Another minor issue is the containers they use are plastic, which can be tough to recycle.

Hummus with cucumbers, tofu with ramps, kale and avocado salad. Also bonus mini chocolate truffle that each meal comes with.

The delivery zone is also pretty small, mainly covering the Loop and some surrounding areas, but they told me they are planning on expanding. However, the small zone allows the meals to come quickly— mine have usually arrived within 10 minutes.

There are now a ton of delivery apps on the market, but the fact that Radish's menu is so creative and they use the kind of local ingredients that I'd pick up at the farmer's market is what keeps me using this app.

Real Food, Real Fast highlights local products that that contain the same ingredients your would use when cooking real food from scratch, but save you some time for those hectic nights when you're hungry.