Paneer Makhani with Brown Rice 5 Pack

I'm one of those people who enjoy trying new things, so when I was offered a box of the Dal Makhani with Basmati Rice in exchange for an honest review I was happy to do so.It was easy to cool and very delicious. I love Indian food, and I love the fact that you can cook it without much fuss and still get the flavor you enjoy in your food. There are a couple of ways to prepare it. I put it in boiling water for about 5-10 min and it was ready to go.Get ready to be amazed by this innovative way of preparing food by Gits. This is one of those meals you are going to want more of.

These Indian ready-meal packs are akin to MREs in that they're pre-cooked meals that you just have to heat up, either in the microwave or in a pot of boiling water, before serving. As far as ready-to-eat packaged meals go, these are fantastic. I tried the Rajma Masala, a kidney bean curry with Basmati Rrice. I won't say it tasted better than Indian takeout—one of my favorite cuisines—but it was still exceptionally tasty (trust me, I've tried some unpalatable MREs and this was nothing like those).I love how these are all-natural and don't use any harmful preservatives or fillers; the ingredients list is on the back of the box, and it's pretty wholesome and "clean," no weird unnameable ingredients you'd encounter in regular processed foods. This is just prepared food, vacuum-sealed and ready for you to eat, no frills and nothing bad for you.Both the rice and the curry come in two separate sealed packageds. The texture of the rice itself was rather disappointing as it comes in a rectangle and you have to break all the rice grains apart—a bit dry for my taste. However even the rice was seasoned (with butter and salt) so it was good on it's own. The curry was much more liquidy than I expected but had a generous portion of beans included, so it was a filling, balanced meal. The flavor was spot-on—super curry-ish and salty like good Indian food should be. It's labeled as "mild" in terms of spice level, but I found it to be not spicy at all—a little more spice would have improved it greatly.All in all, this took me less than five minutes to prepare, and would be a wonderful pantry staple to keep for days you just don't feel like cooking, or for dorm living or travel when going grocery shopping is limited! The packaged items have a pretty long shelf life (around 6 months) so you can keep them on hand for emergencies. While this doesn't taste better than a home-cooked meal or an Indian restaurant, it's much cheaper and faster to make, and for what it is, it's actually quite delicious too. An added bonus is that it's completely vegetarian and free of preservatives or processed junk found in other packaged foods. I'd definitely try different flavors of this!FTC disclaimer: FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary sample of this Rajma Masala ready meal from Gits Foods in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. I was neither paid nor sponsored for my opinions—positive or otherwise—and all thoughts reflected in this review are solely my own.

I'm stuffed. I just had this for dinner. I love Indian culture. I own a huge collection of Indian classical music, I try to play sitar, I love the art and religions, but when it comes to the food, I'm out of luck. My city doesn't have an Indian restaurant. So I decided to try Gits Brown Rice and Paneer Makhari. This was so delicious. When I checked out the nutritional info on the back, I was a bit worried. A single serving is 600 calories, with 62 grams of carbs, 32 grams of fat, but only 13 grams of protein. I'm a fairly big guy with a fairly big appetite, and there was enough here to let me feel bull full when I was done. I matched this with leftover Christmas ham, for some protein. Vegetarians might want to cook some dahl (lentils), as a side dish for this meal.PREPARATIONInside the box were two aluminum boil in bags. I don't own a microwave (well, not one that works anyway), so I loved the convenience of cooking a meal without any dirty pots. After 3 minutes floating in boiling water, I cut open both bags, and stirred it together in a bowl. If you want to cook this in a microwave, just pour the bags into a microwavable bowl, and nuke it.TASTEThe brown rice has cream and butter on it, so its really tasty. Paneer Makhani is basically cubes of cottage cheese, with the texture and appearance of tofu, floating in a gravy made from tomatoes, cream, onions, butter, cashews, and a long list of exotic curry like spices. Its not a hot curry, its not a spicy curry, it's somewhere in the middle. The spices include ginger, garlic, coriander, red and green chili, fenugreek leaves, kasoori methi (?), turmeric, green and black cardamom, cloves, cumin, pepper, mace and nutmeg. I suppose 15 spices are enough, especially for your typical American who's being exotic in their culinary experiments, when they add garlic powder and parsley to their salt and pepper spice arsenal. This dish had a mild spiciness to it. Cream and butter tends to hide hot spices. If I were to try to describe the taste of the makhani sauce, I'd say complex, warm and rich. I have no complaints at all. If I knew Indian food was this good, I would have tried it ages ago.I was provided a free meal for review purposes.