Review: Tomato Sherpa

Recently Tomato Sherpa came to my office for a demo about their product. They're one of those recipe-in-box companies that's popping up allot lately. Prepped local ingredients and a recipe delivered or picked up. Then you cook it up at home. It's in servings of two, you can order multiples.

I have to admit that I thought those things were pretty silly. As a seasoned cook I thought "Oh so I pay you and I still have to cook this marginal recipe." It was more an assumption over anything. Images of weight loss programs came to mind. #Chubbygirlproblems. Well I can say that I stand completely corrected.

There are many nights when I'm just too tired to go to the grocer and have no idea what I want to cook. These nites usually end up in take-away or eating out half-sleep at one of my Temescal haunts. If there was a kit with a really good meal all prepped and all I had to do was cook it, I would totally do that.

Kimia was super friendly and great at answering all of our questions. You can order one-off or sign up for subscription which saves you a bit overall, they have meals to fit most diets(vegan, gluten free, carnivore, etc.) and state all their ingredients should you have any allergies.

Tomato Sherpa generously gave us our choice of their meals for that week. The choices were:

Carrot Miso Soup with Sesame Roasted Brussel Sprouts

Fig-Prosciutto Pizza with Fresh Mozzarella and Red MustardSpiced Lamb and Potatoes with Citrus Tahini Sauce

I was leaning towards the lamb but that Fig Prosciuto Pizza was too tempting.

Recipe Directions front

The directions were very easy to follow, there was some olive oil (not provided) that was stated in the ingredients but wasn't in the recipe. I like how they also clearly stated the hardware needed at the beginning of the recipe. It's annoying to get mid-way through a recipe and have to start searching for another bowl, etc.

Wasn't expecting the pre-made crusts. In fact as I was cooking without my glasses when I saw the small balls of smoked mozzerella I thought that was the crust, lol. It took me about 10 minutes of prep.

Shallot, dressing, fig jam

The fig jam was AMAZING, proscuitto not too salty not too bland. the smoked mozzerlla really rounded it out. I loved that it had a healthy dose of greens and the vinagrette was nice, not too over the top so I still tasted the flavor of the greens especially that fennel. mmm.

Recipe Directions Back

Unfortunately the pre-made crust was not good and I'm not that picky about crusts. I'll eat a frozen lean cuisne pizza. I can't quite describe what was wrong with that crust. It tasted as if it was trying to be gluten free or something with an odd aftertaste. I made a "baguette pizza" with the other half of the ingredients. And it was so delicious. I understand that the goal of this is to be ultra convient but I feel that even for the novice cook, stretching out some pizza dough isn't too hard. Or maybe making it flatbread pizza?

Pre-made crust...not so muchy

Everybody else in my office enjoyed the other dishes.Especially the Carrot-Miso Soup. Though my co-worker who also had the pizza said the same thing about the crust. She ended up making a salad with the ingredients instead. My boss also chose the pizza and made after hearing our opinion so she made it with pizza dough she had and said it was really good. I feel like I'll definitely order from then again.

Tomato Sherpa is currently a SF Bay area local operation. They deliver to offices and to homes through Good Eggs. They have several selections for the week. You either order by 11pm Saturday for Tuesday delivery, or by 2pm Tuesday for Thursday delivery. All orders are available for pickup between 1-4pm. Lucky for me their pick-up location is near my work in West Berkeley. I kinda wish they offered something for us singles, Though in reality when I cook dinner, the left overs usually end up as lunch the next day anyway. Bonus points for having nutritional content.