GLUTTONY @MANDALA, MUMBAI

Nowadays with growing inclination of people towards eating healthy, not only restaurants but also meal services are upping their game to provide superlative quality and nutritious food to patrons.

​A new, premium brand on the block in the wholesome meal delivery service space is Mandala. Just as the harmonic symbolic representation that the brand derives its name from, its meals have been worked out to balance the various principles of food pairings with organic produce and nutritional ingredients. Mandala’s focus is on bringing organic food to our tables through its nutritious offerings like salads, rice/burrito bowls, desserts and much more.

Here is a quick glimpse of some of the offerings from this delivery kitchen that I have sampled:

SALADS
My pick from among the different salads this place dishes up was the HONEY BALSAMIC ARUGULA. Healthy food can be scrumptious too and this salad stands epitome to that. Fresh arugula came dotted with sweet dried cranberries, toasted melon & sunflower seeds, roasted walnuts, refreshing orange slivers and feta. A dressing of mild honey balsamic brought all these gorgeous, organic ingredients together in a beautiful way.
Apart from the aforementioned salad, I also ended up trying out the following salads and was quite pleased with them.
· COOKED TABOULEH LENTIL, which was a very refreshing, summery salad of buckwheat mixed with beans, chickpeas brought together with a garlic vinaigrette.
· KALE, STRAWBERRY & AVAOCADO SALAD had a sweet and nutty flavour profile owing to generous presence of fruits, almond slivers and lemon poppy seed dressing.
One can turn each salad into a non-vegetarian one with a simple add on of chicken.

RICE & GRAIN BOWLS
These are substantial meals with an eclectic mix of ingredients inspired from different cuisines from round the globe like Vietnamese, Korean, Mexican and much more.
My favourite from these was the WILD FOREST BOWL. This bowl inspired from cuisine of Bali, Indonesia entailed a serving of healthy black rice with boiled chickpeas, fresh kale, lightly sautéed shiitake along with a flavourful coconut curry. The flavours were earthy and satisfying.
My taste buds also enjoyed the below mentioned bowls as well:
· KOREAN BIMBIMBAP; I am an ardent fan of sesame and this dish worked for me. The brown rice had a profound sesame flavour. The accompaniments of chicken, zucchini, mushrooms, carrots, spinach and sprouts all made this dish a very wholesome meal.
· SRI LANKAN RICE comprised of brown rice infused with lemon and mustard topped with boneless chicken chunks cooked in a subtly spiced gravy and a side of veggies like spinach, cucumber slices and pan-fried French beans.
· SWEET POTATO & GREEN RICE BURRITO BOWL was a deconstructed version of the classic Mexican delicacy, burrito. All the elements – herbed rice, boiled & spiced up potato cubes, bean mash, guacamole, corn salsa, sour cream and tortilla quarters blended together beautifully yet retained their distinct flavours.

Apart from the salads and bowl meals, the place serves up some delicious, guilt-free desserts like FLOURLESS CHOCOLATY WALNUT BROWNIE and GRANOLA & MANGO PARFAIT.

Mandala currently caters to South Mumbai through their kitchens in Lower Parel and Kemps Corner. Do check them out and give their offerings a try, I can vouch that the food will warm your soul and pleasure your taste buds.
Till then, HAPPY EATING...o