Cricket Design Works
Madison’s Pasture and Plenty, like national meal kit retailers HelloFresh and Blue Apron, has latched onto a great truth of modern urban life: People want to make home-cooked meals for their families, but don’t have time. I take great joy in cooking, but I’m also a busy mom with even busier kids, so dinner is a challenge. I want our family to eat healthy, but I also need “quick” to be part of the equation, and those two don’t always go hand in hand.
Pasture and Plenty has adopted and also adapted the current meal kit concept, concentrating on stocking those kits with food from local providers and offering flexible plan options. But it’s also added ready-made heat-and-eat meals and a ready-made “Farm-to-Freezer” meal as well.
Located in the former Sushi Box space at Old University and Highland, Pasture and Plenty is convenient to near-west-siders and UW-Madison students and employees. Its subscription meal service, which requires a minimum four-week signup, debuted in September. Omnivore (includes meat) is $132 for one, $244 for two and $460 for four; vegetarian is $124, $220 and $396 for the four weeks.
The subscription includes one cook-kit meal, one heat-and-eat meal and one frozen dinner. On Mondays, they’re either delivered to your home (available for the west side and Middleton) or can be picked up at the storefront. (Other pickup sites can be established if five or more households sign up in an area; currently there’s an Atwood Avenue pickup.) In the kit meal, all ingredients are portioned in reusable Pyrex containers and Mason jars. Mine contained smoked pumpkin tortelloni, pancetta, squash, baby kale, and shredded SarVecchio cheese. All I needed was two pans — one to cook the pasta (which was fresh but frozen) and one to combine everything together — and about 25 minutes. Very doable. The meal itself turned out very well, although if I could do it over again, I would make a pan sauce with wine (rather than water, as the instructions suggested) to get a little more complex flavor.
My ready-to-eat dinner was a blackened sweet potato sandwich on a brioche bun, with pickled peppers and cilantro-lime sour cream. I was surprised by how much flavor was packed into this sandwich, considering the sweet potato was seasoned with just a hint of cumin. The addition of the condiments was key. A roasted carrot quinoa salad dotted with scallions was a nice, filling side. This vegetarian meal could easily become vegan by leaving out the sour cream.
My “farm-to-freezer” meal was a roasted whitefish and vegetable casserole. This one was as easy as having the foresight to take it out of the freezer the night before. While this casserole had rich flavor, with hints of thyme and parsnips, I’m not sure cooked fish would be my first choice for a freezer meal. I don’t think fish reheats well, and the overall casserole seemed a bit watery.
Included in the subscription is just one sweet treat for the three meals, which seems like an omission. I eat something dessert-like most days and I wouldn’t have minded a couple more for good measure.
One of the best features of the subscription: few dishes to clean. Rinse the containers and return them to the canvas bag. It all goes back on Monday at your next pickup, and the cycle continues.
Diners unwilling to commit to a subscription, or anyone who happens to be hungry, can try one of Pasture and Plenty’s Wednesday takeout dinners. Like the subscriptions, these are available in servings for one, two or four, and there’s a meat ($14/$25/$40), a vegetarian and a vegan option (both $10/$17/$30). Order before 5 p.m. (online) or call the store; then pick up at the storefront between 5 and 7:30 p.m. A recent offering of mustard-braised chicken on a bed of garlicky mashed potatoes with roasted broccoli did just about everything right. Here, there’s a choice of dessert: on that night, hot milk cake — a coconut-topped pound cake — a brownie, a peanut butter blossom cookie or a gluten-free chocolate chip cookie. (Those with other dietary restrictions need to contact Pasture and Plenty in advance to make accommodations.)
Pasture and Plenty is clearly dedicated to going local. Elderberry Hill Farm and Winterfell Acres supply produce, while Reimer Family Farm supplies meat and eggs. Madison Sourdough and Wisco Pop! are a few of the other brands it works with. It recently partnered with Arcadia Books, Wilson Creek Pottery, Sylva Spoon and Large Batch Scratch to offer homemade Thanksgiving pies.
“We’re so lucky to be well supported by our community and are getting great feedback,” says owner Christy McKenzie. Several events are in the works, including wine dinners at Pasture and Plenty on Dec. 8 and 9 and an upcoming pop-up dinner at The Robin Room. It seems Pasture and Plenty is establishing itself as a neighborhood joint that can offer many different services to the community.
Pasture and Plenty
2433 University Ave., 608-347-9300, pastureandplenty.com
3:30 pm-6:30 pm Mon. (pick-up of weekly dinners only), 11 am-2 pm Tues.-Fri. (lunch), 5 pm-7:30 pm Wed. (dinners).
