Review of ModVeg Grilled Butternut Satay w/ Kale from modPALEOs

A review of modPALEO's Grilled Butternut Squash Satay with Kale from their modVEG line of Paleo Vegetarian meals. Their Pegan/Paleo Vegan Meal Delivery Nationwide options have been expanding, which is good news for those trying to go gluten free and eat local organic produce that is in season while keeping Paleo and avoiding meat products. — In this article we share an in-depth review of modPALEO’s Butternut Squash Satay with Kale, one of their modVEG line of Paleo Vegan/Vegetarian meals. We walk through our experience all the way from receiving the delivery to the taste of each of the components of the meal, the convenience of the packaging for travelling to our experience with reheating the meals.

Note: Although the opinions expressed in this meal review are my own, we do have an affiliate relationship with modPALEO along with several other meal delivery companies that offer Paleo prepared meals, which also means they have offered a 10% off deal for our readers. If you are interested in trying out any modPALEO meals, you will receive 10% off on your first order. More details and the modPALEO coupon code can be found as part of our full write up on ModPALEO.

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My Review of the Grilled Butternut Satay with Kale from modPALEOs

I have been very excitedly awaiting my first order of ModVeg meals from ModPaleo, a food delivery service that offers both Paleo and increasingly Paleo Vegan meal delivery nationwide. I have known about ModPaleo for several years but given my need to eat not only Paleo, but also adding in my other personal food restrictions including only eating ingredients that are also SCD compliant and also choosing to eat only foods that are Paleo Vegetarian/Pegan, needless to say it’s not that easy for me to order Paleo delivery.

With their Mod Veg line, ModPaleo has created an answer for Paleo Vegetarians/Vegans and Pegans – whatever you consider yourself. These meals are not only gluten free, grain free and Paleo compliant, but they also center around a Paleo compliant vegetable dish and are crucially cooked only in olive or other Paleo vegetable oils or ingredients like coconut milk, not lard or other Paleo animal fats.

Receiving the Meals – ModPaleo Shipping via Fedex

The modPaleo delivery box - containing multiple Butternut squash Satay with Kale dishes (ModVEG Pagan/Vegan Meal Delivery Nationwide) — The Meals Arrived in an Insulated Box via Fedex

The meals arrived in a special insulated box that is sold by a company called Kodiak Cooler which I later found out is from Kodiak’s sustainable packaging line, using recycled fibers.

Both the Paleo frozen meals as well as fresh (refrigerated) Paleo meals were all sufficiently cold when delivered. Even in DC in the summer, where temperatures outside hover around 90 degrees.

Insulation on the ModPALEO delivery box - a Kodiak cooler branded shipping box with insulation - stood up to the heat, my Grilled Butternut Squash Satay meals were still refrigerated on arrival — The nside of the shipping Container included soft ice pack insulation

That said, given that the delivery was shipped by FedEx I had requested to pick up the delivery at a local FedEx office store the evening after it was delivered. Although very reliable, FedEx delivery personnel do not have a key to deliver mail to the lobby of our apartment building. Luckily, they do offer you to re-route any packages to a local Fedex shipping store if there is one in your area.

Reheatable Containers For the Meals

The Paleo Butternut Squash meal in the included repeatable container with the vacuum seal plastic removed — The Butternut Squash Satay with Kale meal – in it’s included to-go container

Meals are shipped in plastic containers that can be reheated in the microwave or oven. This is convenient if you are taking the meals with you. I had been taking them with me to work and reheating them in the microwave there.

All meal packages are covered with a vacuum sealed plastic cover, almost like plastic wrap covering the food. At first I was nervous that this might allow the meal contents and sauces to spill out of the container on my way to work but I’ve found the opposite to be true. The plastic seal is very tightly sealed against the food, sides and top edges of the container, so it takes some force to peel it off before heating. The containers are actually quite spill proof with the vacuum sealed wrapper and allow the meals to be easily stacked one on top of another inside a freezer as the plastic seal protects the food.

First ModVeg Meal: Grilled Butternut Satay with Kale

The modPALEO ModVeg butternut squash saute after reheating - with listed paleo friendly ingredients like Butternut Squash, Kale, Onion, Almond Butter, Coconut Aminos, Coconut Mana, Ginger, Garlic, Pumpkin Seeds, Salt and Black Pepper, it's a healthy and flavorful Paleo dish that can be ready anytime. — The Butternut Squash Satay and side of sauteed kale – reheated on a plate in the microwave

The first ModVeg meal I ordered was their Grilled Butternut Squash “Satay” with Kale. As pictured, this combined about equal parts butternut squash and equal parts sauteed Kale. The dish was shipped fresh from the ModPALEO kitchen in NC. I had ordered several of these to take to work, so I tried one that arrived fresh and then froze the rest to take to work over the next couple of weeks. I have to say it worked out a great as frozen meal as well as fresh.

Each meal also came with a nutrition label sticker on the bottom of the package with calorie and ingredient breakdowns per serving. Unfortunately, the sticker added to this package was for another variation of the grilled butternut squash dish with cauliflower instead of Kale – it must have been an older version of the dish.

What I Liked: ModVEG Grilled Butternut Satay with Kale

Grilled Butternut Squash Satay

I really enjoyed the butternut squash satay. Besides loving grilled butternut squash, you could tell they spent time on the recipe for this “satay” version. It contained coconut mana, coconut oil and coconut aminos to round out the flavors, giving the squash a sweet creamy flavor. The dish also contains pumpkin seeds, almond butter, garlic and ginger. A nice array of Paleo friendly ingredients.

I would say the squash portion is somewhere between sweet grilled butternut squash, a sweet coconut squash curry and a custard. But with ingredients like garlic and ginger it has a nice full, complex flavor.

Kale Side

Once nice thing about the Kale side is that they give you plentiful amounts of sauteed kale. The Kale is a nice compliment to the butternut squash in that it offsets the sweetness of the butternut squash dish. In each bite, you could balance the squash and sauteed Kale to adjust the level of sweetness and flavor you would like, with the squash being very flavorful and the kale being…well more like sauteed Kale.

Aspects that Could Be improved

Butternut Satay

I could see squash, if eaten on it’s own, could be a little on the sweet side for some people. Really my only feedback as I really enjoyed the squash satay would be that something simpler may have been good as well. Grilled butternut squash on it’s own is delicious in my opinion, and so I would say of all aspects of the dish the squash may not have been in need of a sauce. That said, I’m happy there was one.

Sauteed Kale

The kale on the other hand, although tasty on it’s own was a bit on the plain side. I could see that the purpose was to combine it with the sauce from the butternut satay but it would have been nice if it had a more robust sauce on it’s own. My other recommendation, although this may be personal to me, was that the center portions of some of the squash leaves (I believe they may be called ribs) were a little on the large side, and would have been nice to have been removed. I tended to eat around some of the larger ones, although there were also leaves with smaller center ribs which I didn’t have a problem with.

Reheating Experience

Reheating the meals turned out to be pretty easy, whether bringing the meals to work or at home. At home, I would tend to put the meals out on a plate and then heat in the microwave.

This would generally be my preferred method. It just looks more like a homemade meal and I typically try to heat up leftovers on ceramic dishes rather than directly in the tupperware.

But my experience at work was equally easy. The containers are microwave safe (and BPA free), so I have been using them to reheat the meals at work. I typically defrost the meals for a bit, stir the ingredients around a little as the middle tends to thaw more slowly and then continue heating.

In terms of taking meals with me to work, their “cryo-vacuum sealed” packaging method really makes things easy. You simply peel off the top layer and pop it into the microwave. The containers are also fairly large but not high, so they are easy to slip into a very full work refrigerator in a lot of places that wouldn’t have height clearance for a number of items.

I have never tried using the oven method with the containers, so I can’t comment on that. I would imagine that re-heating the meals in a pan may taste even better but I’ve always been too lazy or hungry for that.

Overall Experience

I’m happy with the overall experience with my first big order and plan to order from ModPALEO again. I am especially thrilled about the expansion on their ModVEG line. This summer they have even hired a guest chef from a local vegetarian restaurant in NC to help them with new inspiration for recipes in the ModVEG line of meals.

Note: Although the opinions expressed in this meal review are my own, we do have an affiliate relationship with ModPALEO along with several other meal delivery companies that offer Paleo prepared meals, which also means they have offered a 10% off deal for our readers. If you are interested in trying out any of the ModPALEO meals, you will receive 10% off on your first order.

modPALEO has more recently rebranded themselves The Good Kitchen, for our detailed write up on The Good Kitchen including reviews, see our in-depth coverage on them.