
Show HN: Saag as a Service – macronutrient-portioned Indian spinach curry - sohamsankaran
https://saag.pashi.com/#hn
======
sohamsankaran
Hi HN, I’m Soham Sankaran, the founder of Pashi, the company behind Saag as a
Service ([https://saag.pashi.com](https://saag.pashi.com)). We offer three
macronutrient-portioned variants of Saag (delicately-spiced Indian spinach
curry): High Fat Saag Paneer, Balanced Saag Tofu, and High Protein Saag
Seitan. We currently deliver weekly to customers in the SF Bay Area.

I started this service because I’ve struggled with nutrition all my life --
with obesity, the threat of my long family history of diabetes, and with
getting adequate protein as a vegetarian in the United States. I’ve never had
the time to consistently cook all my meals, and it’s hard to know the
nutritional value of food you’re getting at restaurants unless you stick to
salads or chain fast food (which is required to have nutritional information
but is routinely off by 20-40%). Even if you know the nutritional values of
the food you’re eating, attempting to log all your meals and snacks in a
journal or an app like MyFitnessPal can be a massive time-sink and mental
load.

‘Complete nutrition’ products like Soylent and Huel were appealing for
relieving the physical and cognitive burden of dealing with nutrition all the
time, but I perceived two major issues with them:

1) They taste absolutely terrible. These products are a massive step backward
from thousands of years of accumulated culinary experience, and I don’t
believe that most people are willing to forgo the pleasure that comes from
eating real food three times a day, even if some kind of meal replacement is
the right choice for their health. The biggest issue with diet plans and
nutrition studies of all kinds is pervasively low adherence -- it just isn’t
possible to get most people to consistently eat food that doesn’t taste good.

2) The retail versions of these products are not particularly customizable.
Different people have different nutritional needs -- certainly calorically,
but also in terms of macronutrient proportions. A female weightlifter and a
male endurance runner have different bodies and different goals, resulting in
different optimal nutritional profiles. Feeding them the same one-size-fits-
all meal replacement is a mistake.

I stated Pashi to provide a real-food based nutrition service that tastes
great but still retains the desirable characteristics of things like Soylent.
The long term vision is to usher in a world where people can eat real, tasty
food that is seamlessly customized to the specific nutritional profile they
desire.

I initially soft-launched Pashi as a producer of entire meals with fully
customizable calorie counts and macronutrient proportions, but this seemed to
confuse people and didn't get very much traction. As a result, we’ve scaled
back the focus to one of the most popular, customizable, and easily
explainable foods on our menu -- Saag. If this gets some traction, we’ll
introduce more fine-grained nutritional customization and more menu items
depending on the feedback we get from our users.

I’d love to get the community’s thoughts on this and answer any questions here
or via email (soham@pashi.com).

------
wurst_case
If I were to do 3 meals a day (1500 calories is low but let's say I snack
inbetween meals) and $13 per meal on average, this will cost me $39/day,
$273/wk, $1092/m. Maybe that's unfair. Maybe I use this to supplement one meal
a day and cook the rest. That's $364/m to supplement lunch and I'd still
probably have to cook some rice to go along with that. I just checked my local
Indian restaurants on Postmates in San Francisco. The highest priced one was
at $14.99 but ~%90 of the other options were from $8.99-$10.99 and I pay for
Postmates free delivery which is 7.99/m so pretty much negligible. The other
thing is that by buying from local restaurants, I can actually make a deal
with the owners if I wanted to replace all my meals for the month. Let's say
the catering discount I can get is %20, which is usually what you can get on
large orders ahead of time. I'm looking at $10-$2=$8 a meal or $672/m to
supplement all of my meals.

Finally, I've seen your response to this point elsewhere which seems to be,
but those restaurants won't provide the macro nutrient breakdown or have
different options for proteins. Just in the dishes provided around my house
there's chicken, lamb, tofu, cheese, beans. The only thing missing really is
seitan. And if I'm ordering from the same place consistently, can't I figure
out what the macros are by asking the chef for an ingredient list? One and
done.

I wish you all the best, and I actually love this idea but I can't make this
work in my head. To me this just seems like a new, order only, expensive
Indian place opened up near me. If you could reduce prices to at least meet
brick and mortar restraunts then I'd consider using your service occasionally
if it tastes good.

~~~
thelittleone
"can't I figure out what the macros are by asking the chef for an ingredient
list?"

It's possible but the burden of doing so means most people would abandon it
after a few days.

~~~
logiclabs
If you're eating the same meal every day and/or every meal, it's actually
pretty easy..

------
jelliclesfarm
After checking the website, why ‘never frozen’? This is perishable and flash
freezing and thawing isn’t a bad idea at all.

$12 is too expensive as many here have opined. Having said that, you can’t
make a profit..never mind break even at that price point on a never-frozen,
always fresh, delivered to doorstep stand alone perishable $12/order item.

I have done this model with ghee before. And it’s was only one ingrident:
butter and it was made in a commissary kitchen/permitted/licensed shared
kitchen. And I could make large batches as it was not perishable.

With rent, insurance, packaging, delivery, CoG, labour and other expenses, you
will have to sell a few hundred per week on one end and several thousands per
month just to get over the hump.

I know this. I have lived this. Freeze it. It’s not so bad. It’s actually a
good thing for perishable food.

Good luck.

------
mattlondon
I like the pun on on XaaS, but the price just seems outrageous. Why so high?

I know UK is not your market, but here is a comparison of the first two
grocery store own-brand saags I found:

£1.65/$2 - [https://groceries.morrisons.com/webshop/product/Morrisons-
Th...](https://groceries.morrisons.com/webshop/product/Morrisons-The-Best-
Saag-Aloo-/456278011)

£2/$2.43 - [https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-
GB/products/293944759](https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-
GB/products/293944759)

Perhaps you don't get as much protein with these though.

(Incidentally why is everything obsessed with protein these days? Seems like
every food you buy now says "source of protein!" Or "contains protein!)

~~~
KaiserPro
for the prices described you could go to a real Indian place and get some
fresh naans as well.

Speaking of which, I think I know what I'm having for dinner tonight.

------
yumraj
Is this just delivering a single Indian dish, in 3 variants, _as a service_
(whatever that means in this context)?

Currently available alternatives:

1) go to the nearest Indian restaurant and get it fresh when you need it.

2) use a food delivery service and get if from your favorite Indian restaurant

3) use a frozen variant found in many grocery stores.

4) cook yourself, which is not hard, but we can ignore it in this context.

What is the difference/ unique value prop from the above options?

~~~
sohamsankaran
With Pashi, you get to choose the macronutrient ratio, which is not something
restaurants expose or that frozen variants allow to customize.

~~~
yumraj
Ok. If that is enough of a value prop, are we going to see startups offering
KungPao as a service, Udon as a Service, Sushi as a service and so on - it
doesn't compute.

I really wish you success, since I'm sure/hoping you have other things on your
roadmap, but am not convinced this is a sustainable business model at the
moment.

~~~
ApolloFortyNine
Especially at $12 a serving... I find it really hard to believe you can't find
a restaurant serving fresh Saag in San Francisco for that price.

It is a very nice website though.

~~~
jakear
I live in SF, and I ordered a sample of this product. I could (and have) found
Saag nearby for a similar price point, but when you take it as a meal the
benefits become more clear, as you don't pay tip and drinks are a lot cheaper.

------
pkd
I hate to be pedantic about this but it bothers me that in the west, "saag"
has been taken to only mean spinach. There are other leafy greens that saag
can be made out of: mustard leaves, for example is a popular one. Fenugreek
leaves is another one.

Anyway, good luck with the business, but it would be great if you promoted the
more accurate definition of saag. "spinach _or_ other greens" instead of
"spinach _and_ other greens".

~~~
adar
On their website they state at the top: "saag [/sa:g/] is an Indian curry of
delicately spiced spinach and other greens"

I'm not sure if it was always there or done as a response to you.

------
prithvi24
Really like this concept! As a vegetarian, I have come across many other
services that focus on nutritionally customizable products, but when it comes
to vegetarian options, the macros / protein numbers leave a lot to be desired.
I've also noticed that a lot of the vegetarian options available at
restaurants in the bay tend to be much more carb heavy than I would prefer,
and it takes a lot of overhead to research / optimize each and every meal.

I'm always looking for ways to algorithmically optimize my meals, and
currently Chipotle and their app does the best job of enabling this in a
standardized way (can pretty easily get nutrition info and hook it into other
apps) , but it ends up being pretty boring on a routine basis. Something like
this, with an expanded product line would be really useful.

~~~
sohamsankaran
Absolutely, these are the exact reasons I started this. We plan to expand to
more dishes as we scale, but for now, if you're in the Bay Area, I hope we can
at least help liberate you from the monotony of Chipotle.

~~~
bluebluetimes
chipotle for indian / vegan/ vegetarian food is the holy grail

~~~
2pointsomone
Would love a low-down / interview from a founder of one of these chains
(there's also Curry Up now in the bay area) on the economics of making an
indian fast-food joint. It might be a one-sentence article saying "demand",
but I am sure there is a lot to unpack.

~~~
markbnj
I've always thought that tandoori chicken was an unexplored opportunity. Think
a similar model to the orignal Boston Chicken (now Boston Market), or El Pollo
Loco on the west coast of the U.S.

------
vedtopkar
I have often joked that if I could eat Saag for every meal for the rest of my
life I would. This exactly scratches my itch.

Not even trying to be funny, this is _exactly_ the type of service I have
always wanted (down to the choose-your-protein options).

I really hope that there is a lot of demand (though I fear there may not be?).
I will surely be a long-time customer.

------
fragmede
Minor technical thought - IMO have potential users customers enter their zip
code allows you to see where potential future demand is.

Other than that, the site looks great!

Bonus points for simplifying down to an MVP, and S(pinach)aaS has a really
good ring to it for the SF HN crowd.

Am also looking forwards to non-spinach options! (I'm allergic)

------
ccleve
Two thoughts:

First, $12/pound is too expensive. Yes, I know you've got delivery and other
costs, and it's best to start high. But know you'll need to reduce the price
over time.

Second, consider pitching this to the keto market. Spinach + fat is a great
keto item. It's really hard to order keto-friendly takeout. Might fill a
niche.

~~~
itake
$12 for 500 calories. That is barely enough calories for lunch.

~~~
walshemj
That was my thought, Sagg Panner is normally a side dish

~~~
sachdevap
Saag paneer is not a side dish in India, or in any Indian restaurants I've
been to in North America. Saag paneer served with rice or naan forms a meal
just like butter chicken with naan. That Indian meals often have multiple
entrees does not make saag paneer a side dish in any way.

------
iamshs
Ah, saag. The marvellous old world Punjabi food without the use of tomato,
potato etc. My grandma used to have proper procedure for saag. Let mustard
grow on an untilled land, pluck the stalks and shed off the mature leaves.
Take handful of stalks, make a bundle, chop them into 5 mm pieces. Put them in
an earthen clay pot, just submerge the chopped stalks in water and give it a
slow open flame. Season with salt. After half an hour, put common roadside
‘weeds’ baathoo, chilayi, spinach. Let it boil for another half an hour. Take
the pot off, put handful of maize flour and blend the mixture halfway. Use
more maize flour as required, saag should acquire a non-liquid appearance.
Serve it in a bowl, with churned raw milk butter. Maize flour roti or
‘tortilla’. And lassi, which is just the by-product of milk churning process.

The only old world, pre-wheat Punjabi main course meal that is seriously
tasty. It is nutritionally rich as it originated as a farmer’s meal while
being easy to make.

Good luck serving saag to the world.

~~~
kranner
By "saag" OP means spinach, not mustard leaves. I think the confusion is that
saag specifically means saron da saag in Punjab but the meaning changes
elsewhere.

------
mipmap04
When I saw Saag as a Service I was hoping for some kind of API where I could
place and order through curl or something! Kinda like the EverQuest 2 pizza
command.

Good luck!

~~~
sohamsankaran
The long-term vision for this, which we hope to fulfill once we get some
traction, is an API that allows you to order food such as Saag with arbitrary
nutritional values (within a certain range). We don't have the volume for that
yet, but with your help maybe we can get there soon!

~~~
saagarjha
How would you tweak those values?

~~~
sohamsankaran
Changing the proportions of the ingredients -- in the case of saag, we could
mix and match paneer, tofu, seitan, and a side of a carb like rice to produce
any reasonable macronutrient ratio.

------
spraak
This is really nice! As a Hindu & vegan I wish I lived in your delivery zone
:) (I live way out in the Pacific ocean, though) In any case, cool to see
you're trying a more narrow approach, and the website explains things well and
looks great. One question I was left with is how big is the portion? I may
have missed that. And if this were available to me I'd be eager for the next
available item to be chana masala. Thanks for sharing

~~~
sohamsankaran
Each portion is 500 calories. We serve them in 16oz containers, but the volume
of Saag depends on the variant ordered (to make sure they are all the same
number of calories).

------
oftenwrong
I love saag and I love the idea. Is $12-$14 per portion not too high of a
price-point for SF? Given a 500 kcal portion, I would guess that is a higher
per-cal cost than a takeaway saag dish in my area. I assume most San
Franciscans and I are like-minded: if we can get the same thing delivered for
less than your service, we will.

I have never seen seitan saag offered at any restaurants near me, but I love
seitan. I even prefer seitan to meat, despite being a meat eater. I try to eat
mostly plants, and I cannot digest lactose, so I usually order vegan chana
saag.

~~~
perl4ever
I am a little fuzzy on the difference between saag and palak. I frequently
order something with one or the other in the name at a restaurant, and it's
generally ok, but some places I like it much better than others. Some recipes
seem like they must have more cream or butter, and some are darker and more
oily and have more spinach. I prefer the latter, but I'm not sure what
ingredients this is reflective of or if it has to do with saag vs. palak.

~~~
sohamsankaran
Saag is the generic term for a curry of leafy vegetables
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saag](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saag)),
and Palak means spinach. Saag Paneer and Palak Paneer are often used
interchangeably in the US.

The quality of these dishes does vary widely from establishment to
establishment, despite sharing the same basic construction.

If you want a more oil-based Saag, take a look at our Saag tofu, which is
dairy-free.

~~~
perl4ever
Yes, so that is consistent with what I have read previously on the internet,
that they are overlapping terms, but what I see empirically in restaurants
where I live is that the terms are correlated with two different clusters or
modes, and I tend to prefer the ones that are called "palak". Yet you might
logically assume that means that I like spinach and the others have different
types of greens. I don't believe that is so; it's the rest of it that is the
major difference, not the greens.

------
ultrasounder
What next IAAS(idly as a service), DAAS(dal or dosa as a service), SAAS(Sambar
as a service). I mean it takes someone with NO cooking skills except making
coffee everyday about 30 minutes to throw everything into _instapot_ and
simmer it in a sauté pan for like 10 minutes. I saw someone starting a
Rasam/Curd rice as a service not too long ago. And people complain that
Silicon Valley has peaked.

~~~
ralphstodomingo
I'd like to see you try.

As an aside, clearly not everyone is gonna be within their target market, but
there is a place for ones who pander to specific palates like these. Live and
let live, I guess.

------
Semiapies
I just wanted to say that this is one of the best founder-talks-to-HN threads
I've seen on the site in a while. Great work explaining the service, and good
luck with it.

------
0x8BADF00D
I like that you can customize the food to your body type, nutritional needs,
etc. But don’t you think your customers would get bored eating the same thing
(even with minor variations) every day?

~~~
sohamsankaran
We absolutely intend to expand to more menu items as we get some traction and
people get used to basic concept. We actually started with a version of the
service with a lot of dishes, but people were getting very confused about what
exactly we'd be serving them.

------
gitgud
Reminds me of the article [1] "I sell onions on the internet"... There's a
market for everything I guess...

[1] [https://www.deepsouthventures.com/i-sell-onions-on-the-
inter...](https://www.deepsouthventures.com/i-sell-onions-on-the-internet/)

------
spraak
Isn't it ironic [1], don't you think, that the vegan option has less carbs
than the 'keto friendly' option? Tofu has less carbs than milk.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ironic_(song)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ironic_\(song\))

~~~
sohamsankaran
The Saag Paneer option has a lot more fat, which is why we targeted that at
folks looking for a keto-friendly option, but this is indeed somewhat amusing.

------
jelliclesfarm
Hi,

I feel you. I am from the South of India and we had greens everyday. Quick and
easy.

1\. have you considered partnering with farms? Especially indoor farms that
focus on lettuce but can also grow Asian/Indian greens.

2\. How do you think you will scale?

3\. How did you arrive at that pricing?

If you would like to chat, my email is = handle at gmail.

------
wenderen
I ordered from the website, and got no confirmation email or acknowledgement
SMS. No indication of whether this is a one-time thing or a repeat order.

I'd stay away from this service until it gets more polished.

update: I e-mailed customer support and Soham replied. I'm grateful for the
reply.

~~~
sohamsankaran
Hi, sorry about the confusion, I think we emailed you back. At the moment
we're only doing one-time orders, you'll have to re-order each week.

~~~
wenderen
Yep, I came here to update my comment. Thanks for replying!

------
xwdv
I take offense to the high fat saag being portrayed by some fat bastard
playing at an arcade machine while the other two images are of fit people
doing healthy exercises. A high fat meal is key to getting energy for grueling
tasks. This should be changed.

~~~
sohamsankaran
This was intended to represent a 'Classic' arcade game (Saag Paneer is the
traditional preparation), not as a comment on physical activity. My apologies
for any offense caused, and I'm happy to take suggestions for a new
illustration. Email me at soham@pashi.com if you'd like to talk further.

~~~
xwdv
The other images are comments on physical activity though, so it’s not hard to
see how an image of a video gamer is also a comment on the physical activity
of those who eat Saag Paneer.

If you are going for a classic vibe, then just have an Indian man in classic
Indian clothing doing something classically Indian, or just stirring a pot or
something. An arcade machine is not an association readily made with food.

------
antisthenes
Please be aware of the underlying business model.

You are being sold 500 calories worth of food for $14. That means that for an
average, moderately active human, the cost of eating a diet of this is
~$52/day.

Yes, it is good macro-nutrients (probably). Yes, you're not going to eat this
4 times a day. Yes, it's vegetarian so you get your signaling points.

But this is a $52/day niche meal service is targeted at rich (sub)urbanites
living in a bubble of abundant VC money and giant tech. Just be clear about
what it is.

~~~
adar
Pretty sure almost everyone on this site can do basic multiplication, I'm not
sure the aggressive "warning" is necessary.

------
andreilys
_“They taste absolutely terrible”_

That’s your opinion, I personally think it tastes great and haven’t had issues
drinking it over the past 4 years. Given that Soylent has continues to grow
signals that other consumers agree (investors also agree given they’ve raised
$50m led google ventures).

Also your product costs $12 per 500 cal (vs. $2.42 for 400cal for soylent)
which is a huge selling point for people that drink soylent (it’s affordable,
convenient and better than most fast food alternative)

~~~
inferiorhuman
Saying Soylent tastes like food is a bit of a stretch.

~~~
perl4ever
Increasingly, it seems like Indian restaurants where I live are including
southern Indian menu items with lentils, and I was happy to see something
beyond the usual at first and then disappointed that stuff like dosa, medhu
vada, etc, seemed pretty meh.

And I've tried mulligatawny soup at one of those places and been really
disappointed.

But there is an Indian/Pakistani restaurant near me that has lentil soup I
really liked and in fact that's what inspired me to start experimenting at
home as I was afraid they would go out of business.

Some months ago I made lentil soup and through sheer luck, happened on a
combination of spices and other ingredients that made it really, really good.
Unfortunately I didn't take good notes, and I'm not sure how to recreate it.

So what I'm saying is lentils can be anything you want, it's all in the
execution.

~~~
inferiorhuman
_Increasingly, it seems like Indian restaurants where I live are including
southern Indian menu items with lentils, and I was happy to see something
beyond the usual at first and then disappointed that stuff like dosa, medhu
vada, etc, seemed pretty meh._

Indian food in the United States has, IMO, fallen into the same trap that
Mexican food has. You get one or two items (e.g. chicken tikka masala or
burritos) that represent a small region of the source country and that's about
it. Or maybe you'll get some more unusual regional stuff and then half hearted
burritos.

 _So what I 'm saying is lentils can be anything you want, it's all in the
execution. _

Apropos of nothing there's a co-op restaurant in Sydney named "Lentils as
Anything". It's named after an Australian band but hey it works here too ;)

------
llarsson
Lovely idea and had I been in the area you target, I would have ordered some,
for sure!

Do you deliver yourself, or are you using a delivery service?

~~~
sohamsankaran
Thanks! We currently handle delivery ourselves. What area are you in? If
you're in the Bay Area but not in our coverage area, email me
(soham@pashi.com) and we can try to make it work.

~~~
jakear
I notice your zip codes aren't numerically sorted, at first I thought mine
(94117) wasn't available, because it wasn't in the first block of 94. Might
want to sort them, or just allow people to type it in. Cool product though!
I'm ordering some now.

~~~
sohamsankaran
Nice catch, fixed!

~~~
jakear
Would you mind sharing how that output happened? At first I thought something
about JS numeric string sorting, but that doesn’t check out.

~~~
sohamsankaran
Just a manual copy-paste mistake

------
tshanmu
Nice one! Did not realise the market for vegan cooked food in the bay area is
this big.

How are you planning to scale saag as a service?

I am tempted to ask after looking at your profile, is the
cooking/portioning/packing done by a robot? is that your secret sauce behind
scale up possibilities?

All the best! looks tasty...

~~~
sohamsankaran
We do have plans to use automation to scale in the long-term. If you're
curious about details, shoot me an email and I'd be happy to talk further.

------
neeleshs
Typically paired with roti or some other bread. Do you plan to introduce
something like this? I for one, love this idea, but cannot eat just the saag
on it's own :). I use daily harvest, but would switch if I had just a good
quality, non-chemical laden roti to go with it!

~~~
sohamsankaran
We currently expect people to provide their own carbs in the form of rice,
roti, or bread, but if you email me at soham@pashi.com, we can try to get you
some rotis for an additional fee.

------
devtanna
Love the idea and the implementation! I am living in Dubai and have the exact
same struggle with finding an appropriate vegetarian meal delivered that is
healthy and not a salad. I'm a software engineer too and would love to help
out with the tech if you need.

~~~
sohamsankaran
Feel free to email me (soham@pashi.com), happy to talk!

------
peternicky
I believe this is a niche service and I wish you best of luck and hope you
succeed.

I would love to understand how you produce the product currently (are you
outsourcing to a local commissary and if so, how are you controlling the
quality?) and how you intend to scale the business.

It's been mentioned here multiple times that the idea is equivalent to a
restaurant which offers delivery followed by comments suggesting the
difference between your service and a traditional restaurant is that you offer
"fully customizable calorie counts and macronutrient proportions". How do you
ensure consistency? How would you handle competition?

------
uniclaude
I would have bought some in a heartbeat if it was available in Tokyo. I'd
suggest adding a list of ingredients for intolerances and allergies, but this
already looks like a very appealing product.

Best of luck!

------
paultopia
Does anyone else who went to Stanford in the 00's remember Tiffin Dinner?
Delicious homemade Indian food delivery, sadly closed. That got me through the
quarter when I had a broken ankle..:

~~~
83457
Speaking of tiffins, here is a video of the lunch delivery system in Mumbai I
think others will enjoy...
[https://youtu.be/dX-0el2wuEU](https://youtu.be/dX-0el2wuEU)

------
ykevinator
I love this idea, I would sign up today if you delivered in New York.

~~~
sohamsankaran
Shoot me an email at soham@pashi.com, if we get enough interest in the area we
might be able to make it happen!

~~~
bluebluetimes
pls add daal as a service

------
boltzmannbrain
Excited to try this! Saag is one of my favorite foods but almost impossible to
eat at restaurants because of dietary restrictions (lactose-intolerant and
keto). So I've been making my own healthy versions at home for years. It would
be super helpful if you could include more ingredients info. For example, I
would order the saag tofu, but I'm curious where the fat is coming from
(assuming coconut milk base, my version is still leaner). Thanks Soham!

~~~
sohamsankaran
Great! The fat is coming from the vegetable oil used in the curry. If you have
other specific questions about ingredients, feel free to email me at
soham@pashi.com

------
Ayesh
Sounds like a good idea that r/keto would love to hear.

The thing with keto is that you have to stick to it. Current price at $12
feels more expensive. I appreciate the delivery, packaging, and other costs,
but I think people would appreciate a better value over time.

I think Blue Apron has nailed this. There are bigger variants to pick from,
often cheaper, and appeals to keto and other dieters alike.

------
witten
What about the high level of oxalates in spinach, the over-consumption of
which can result in kidney stones[1]?

[1] [https://nutritionfacts.org/video/oxalates-in-spinach-and-
kid...](https://nutritionfacts.org/video/oxalates-in-spinach-and-kidney-
stones-should-we-be-concerned/)

~~~
sohamsankaran
There is a fair amount of debate about this, with a number of high-quality
studies such as
([https://jasn.asnjournals.org/content/18/7/2198](https://jasn.asnjournals.org/content/18/7/2198))
coming to the conclusion that the additional risk is minimal even with low
calcium consumption.

------
somepig
What benefit do you provide over the Indian place down the block with similar
or even cheaper pricing? These prices are absurdly expensive even for us
overpaid tech folk.

~~~
personjerry
$12 per meal is "absurdly expensive"? I think it's comparable to eating out.

~~~
knubie
$12 for 500 calories is very expensive. For a typical 2500kcal diet that's $60
per day.

------
wwweston
Trader Joe's seemed to discontinue their $2/8oz pouch packaged saag paneer
about a year ago, and I haven't yet figured out how to make one I like on my
own, and even when I do, I might not always want to spend the time on it.

Hope I get a chance to try this in LA before too long. :)

------
blunte
Can't get more niche than this! But it's great. If I lived in SF, I would try
it.

------
girvo
How good is Seitan! My partner is vegan, and it’s been awesome to experiment
with

------
masukomi
ignoring the price issue which many have discussed, I love the MVP aspect of
this. only one thing to cook and then throw in the protein add-on. I love that
you're obviously driving this around yourself.

If you can make the pricing more competitive with local delivery (which would
also have more options) and figure out how to ship like Blue Apron I think I'd
happily sign up. Even more so if there were additional meals added, but for an
MVP to test the idea this is great.

------
quickthrower2
I think the issue here is the price. It’s definitely premium end and it makes
it hard to justify as a regular spend for most people.

------
mberning
$12/portion is a ridiculous price. Around here you can go to the Indian buffet
and eat yourself sick for less than $12.

------
muralimadhu
Great idea, a couple of comments. \- please let us know how you source your
ingredients. Spinach is one of the more pesticide ridden vegetables. And bad
quality dairy may do more harm than good. \- Seitan and tofu are not
particularly healthy. Gluten and soy are known to be inflammatory foods and
cause a lot of side affects. Would love to see a dairy-free, gluten-free, soy-
free, organic version of this. Then it’s a truly hearty meal that I would
order

------
shaunxcode
Please add 95014! I would order this daily!

~~~
sohamsankaran
We do have 95014, it's selectable from the dropdown! Send me an email at
soham@pashi.com if you have trouble ordering.

~~~
shaunxcode
I must have missed it before but I see it now. Excited to try it out.

------
shaunxcode
Just ate first portion and it was delicious! Had the tofu version but will try
seitan next time.

------
mcthrowaway123z
I would love to order some but it doesn't appear you deliver to 94607 (West
Oakland).

~~~
sohamsankaran
Email me your address at soham@pashi.com and we'll try to make it work!

------
pj_mukh
This is awesome. Is this $12/meal for one portion, or is it two portions?

~~~
sohamsankaran
12/portion (500 cals)

------
sharadov
Will take you less than 30 mins to make saag paneer in an instant pot.

------
aabajian
Okay, my favorite Indian dish is shrimp saag. Please add a shrimp option.

------
pkaye
Looks like someone needs to start Naan as a service to complement this.

~~~
selimthegrim
Rotimatic debuting an app in 3...2...1...

------
rayanami
Any chance for chicken tikka masala as a future menu option?

------
nngrey
Please add Portland and PaaS (Paneer makani as a Service)!

------
sgallant
I love the simplicity of this!

------
pjs_
eating sag aloo ... with my aggy crew...

------
2pointsomone
Love it! But this is Palak as a Service, not Saag as a Service. Saag, I think,
is mustard leaves

~~~
sohamsankaran
My understanding is that Saag is the generic term for a leafy vegetable curry
of this kind
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saag](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saag)).

Mustard is Sarson, if my Hindi isn't failing me.

~~~
kinkrtyavimoodh
From the website it looks like you are using spinach for this. In which case,
Palak as a Service is actually the less misleading term. People associate Saag
with either mustard leaves or at least a mix of green leaves. If it's only
Palak, calling it saag might not be technically wrong but it's still not what
people associate with that name.

~~~
sohamsankaran
We use a Palak-based Saag that has a mix of other green leaves as well.

------
romanows
Soylent tastes good. I actually crave it some days. Feels like there is plenty
of room in this market without resorting to negative advertising but maybe
it'll work for you...

------
kartayyar
Okay I hate to be blunt about this: though this is super high calorie food.

All 3 variants listed are fabulously unhealthy coming in at 500 calories per
serving.

If you want to pitch this as a tastier product and pursue that angle, that's
one story but pitching this as "healthy" is quite flawed.

~~~
Skunkleton
If you ate it for all three meals, you would only be at 1500 calories for the
day. What are you getting at? Since when do calories automatically make
something unhealthy?

