New food delivery service offers international flavours and healthy eats

Vancouver is overflowing with delicious takeout spots, but if you’re on the lookout for healthy delivery foods or homecooked-style meals that are packed with nutritious ingredients, you might find your options somewhat limited.

But a new health-conscious food delivery service is on a mission to change that. Healthful Eats is bringing handcrafted, and artisanal foods to locals — ones that are underlined by robust, international flavours.

Infused with spices and seasonings like za’atar, lemongrass, preserved lemons, tahini, saffron, and miso (to name a few), the offerings at Healthful Eats have international flair. From North Africa to China, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia, the ever-changing menu at this locale is challenging notions that health food is bland.

Sustainability being top of mind, the Healthful Eats menu incorporates seasonal, local produce that’s packaged in eco-friendly to-go containers.

Food safety is a top priority, which is why the kitchen is taking extra care when it comes to food handling, abiding by the strictest standard of protocols. Employees will only be handling food with disposable, non-latex foodsafe gloves while wearing head coverings and masks in the production area.

Beetroot Salad/Healthful Eats

A teacher by profession, owner Kathy Rastar runs her own private tutoring business. Fueled by a passion for the culinary arts, Rastar decided to pursue her zeal with the launch of Healthful Eats after attending The Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts.

“The Healthful Eats’ mission is to embody a health-conscious meal that’s hand-crafted by a local, passionate food artisan that understands robust flavour profiles while delivering it directly to the consumer in a tech-forward sustainable way,” says Rastar.

In addition to its foreign flavours and dishes, Healthful Eats plans to stir things up with its rotating food and dessert menu. Variety is the name of the game, and the new food spot plans to keep customers on their toes by cooking up emerging food trends and seasonal ingredients.

Think blueberry elderflower dessert cups in the summer when fresh fruit is abundant and hearty comfort foods, like braised stews, and holiday-themed offerings in the winter months. The company puts less sugar in the dessert cups to maintain its healthier eating ethos.

Asian Shepherd’s Pie/Healthful Eats

Natural Cabana Lemonade/Healthful Eats

Similarly, the array of available drinks contain 80% fewer calories than your standard grocery store-bought soda.

When it comes to keeping things healthy, traditional dishes will be used with less oil and salt to be calorie-friendly, while refined carbohydrates are swapped out for fibre-rich grains, like quinoa, spelt, millet, buckwheat, bulgar, farro, rye berry, wheatberry, and freekeh.

The healthy delivery spot plans to put a fresh spin on classic dishes. Their Caesar salad, for instance, opts for kale instead of romaine and is topped with grains, tahini dressing, and harissa croutons. The company’s shepherd’s pie has been enhanced through Asian seasonings and vegetables, like edamame, and topped with sweet potato mash and black sesame seeds.

Its inclusive menu also caters to vegans, vegetarians, pescatarians, and meat lovers. Wherever customers might fall on the spectrum on any given day, there’s something for everyone.

Veggie-based options, like the spiced bean bowl, Healthful grain salad, roasted cauliflower, tofu fried rice, and beetroot salad are flavour-rich meals intended to be unfamiliar to the local palate.

Mediterranean Salmon/Healthful Eats

In case you weren’t already salivating, upcoming menu items include pomegranate chicken pie, lemongrass chicken pie, goji berry chicken bowls and wraps, pork banh mi wraps, stewed beef red pepper couscous, za’atar chicken, and miso ginger salmon.

Eventually, Healthful Eats also has plans to launch a broad assortment of fanciful dessert cups filled with cake, pudding, and expansive flavours, including sticky toffee (a variation of Kate Middleton’s favourite dessert), German chocolate, black forest, tiramisu, strawberries Romanoff, peach cobbler, coconut mango, English trifle, and Persian love cake, which is infused with saffron, pistachios, cardamom, and rose water.

You can order from Healthful Eats via https://healthfuleats.ca/.