Chef Collab: Fresh Prep x Vij’s

Fresh Prep collaborates with world-renowned Indian restaurant, Vij’s

Jul 7, 2025 • Food Inspiration • Chef Collaboration,easy recipes,Indian Cuisine,meal kits,meal planning,Vij’s

Here at Fresh Prep, we’ve been thrilled to work with some of our favourite chefs and restaurants to bring our customers world-class culinary experiences to their own kitchens. And our most recent collaboration with Vancouver’s own Vij’s is no exception.

Vij’s has been praised internationally for its unique approach to Indian cuisine, quality of ingredients, and exceptional dining experience.

In this exclusive Fresh Prep x Vij’s collaboration, customers will enjoy firsthand, everything that goes into creating the richness and depth of Vij’s renowned cuisine – without the hassle of sourcing exotic spices or spending hours in the kitchen. Experience the next best thing to a Vij’s dining experience with these two sensational recipes: Vij’s Chickpeas, Potato & Coconut Curry With Spiced Peas, and Vij’s Masala Chicken Curry with Spiced Cauliflower.

We had the privilege of chatting with Meeru Dhalwala, the culinary force behind Vij’s Restaurant in Vancouver. As a chef, cookbook author, and co-owner of Vijs’s restaurant, Meeru’s impressive journey and award-winning cookbooks make her a culinary trailblazer. 

In our exclusive interview, Meeru unveils the inspiration behind these two Fresh Prep x Vij’s collaboration meal kit recipes and also imparts invaluable advice for chefs at every level.

1. Vij’s has been recognized by the New York Times as “easily among the finest Indian restaurants in the world.” Can you share a bit about how Vij’s gained this recognition and what makes it stand out?

My Vij’s recipes are for the most part, my own, creative originals.  I grew up in an Indian household in the U.S. Therefore, as I learned about Indian cuisines (there are many per region!), I didn’t have the traditional boundaries, such as Punjabi, Bengali, Gujarati, etc.  I wasn’t interested in cooking traditional Indian foods. Because I didn’t have any traditional, professional training, I took my own deep dive into Indian cooking and I had to report only to my own hands and imagination. I have a deep understanding and love of Indian spices and therefore, my cuisine is “authentic”, but what I do with my spices is where my creativity comes in. I use ingredients from all over the world, and most importantly, what’s available in BC.  I have a dedicated BC organic farmer who sources for me.   In addition, I create dishes based on stories and issues that are important to me—to make it fun and create a meaningful conversation with my customers.  Example: I created a vegan dish called Vij’s Monarch Butterfly to highlight the plight of Monarchs and their potentially endangered status.  This dish was a visual presentation of the Monarchs flying with a backdrop of a sunny, blue sky. Orange butternut squash from BC, black wood ear mushrooms, and bright yellow coconut curry—all served on a bright blue plate to represent the sky. This dish was such a success that I served it to our newly elected Prime Minister and all of Canada’s Premiers when the Prime Minister held his first dinner on climate change in early 2016 at Vij’s. (My blue plates were handmade in Saskatoon, and the premier from Saskatchewan was extra pleased.)

2. Both Vij’s and Fresh Prep focus on reducing food waste and embracing sustainable practices. How have you incorporated these values into your business and cooking  practices?

My kitchen staff are all women born and raised in India, mostly in close-knit villages. Given India’s history with genocide and famine, we simply don’t waste food. Otherwise, our cooking lends itself to utilizing everything.  We also have a relatively small menu, so our control on food waste is easier and more organized.  Our only food waste comes from the customer side. All front staff are instructed to encourage customers to take any leftovers home. In addition, I work closely with Food Stash Foundation, which retrieves excess food from grocery stores and redistributes it to households, seniors, and local food organizations that need it most. Whatever fresh foods they were unable to redistribute, I often take those foods (bell peppers, yogourt, apples, asparagus, milk, tomatoes, etc.) and incorporate them in my cooking events in our upstairs private dining. You would be shocked to know just how much food grocery stores are ready to dump and it’s sometimes hard to distribute it all — we’re talking about 110,000+ lbs of fresh foods per week. Food waste is one of the reasons I love Fresh Prep—there is no risk of over-purchasing from the grocery store and then those foods go bad in your fridge and you end up composting (which is still food and money waste).  

3. What is the inspiration behind the two collaboration meal kit dishes,  Vij’s Chicken Curry & Masala with Spiced Cauliflower and Vij’s Chickpea & Coconut Curry?

I wanted one “meaty” dish and one vegan dish to start.  While I do have a beef curry on my menu, I treat beef like a special occasion meat we don’t need to eat much. Its carbon footprint is too huge and it’s not good for our arteries. In my home, we eat meat once a week.  When I was growing up, mom mostly made chicken (or goat) curry on Saturdays and we couldn’t wait. But we don’t eat just meat curry—it’s always accompanied by vegetables. Fun fact, goat is leaner and healthier than chicken. But goat also takes hours to cook. I’m not sure why goat hasn’t taken off in North America as a healthy meat option, but it’s a big seller on my Vij’s menu.  

Another beauty of Indian cuisine is that we don’t eat as per diets.  We eat because it tastes satisfying and delicious.  Indian cuisine is vegan friendly but it isn’t vegan on purpose.  We are vegan/vegetarian at home except for our once a week meat.  Indian cuisine has such a perfect balance of taste, health/nutrition, ingredients, if done right.  So my chickpea and coconut curry is my ode to the rich beauty of vegan curries, even for those who aren’t vegan.

4. You’ve written 3 award-winning Vij’s cookbooks and managed the Vij’s restaurant menus for almost 30 years. What keeps your passion for cooking alive?

I touch food with my hands and it brings me inner joy. I know instinctively just by smelling my curries if they taste perfect or even if there is too much or too little salt. The way a star sommelier can nose a wine and know all the details, I am that way with my cuisine. I started Vij’s, and created my cuisine before I had children. I’m an excellent mother and I would venture to say I have an even more excellent relationship to food—the history of food, growing foods, the soil, the oceans/rivers/lakes, farms. I’m also big into the easy balance of nutrition and taste. As an artist paints—I cook. My creations are an expression of what’s important to me as a human in this life on earth. When I’m cooking up a curry, the onions, ginger, vegetables, fish, chicken, beans, etc. all talk to me and I’m so comfortable and happy when I’m coming up with new ideas and recipes. It’s almost like the ingredients are giving me ideas of what to do with them, as though they are happy to be in my care.  

As an example of why writing, reading, and cooking are so instinctive, I went to high school in northern Virginia, in the suburbs of Washington, D.C.  Thomas Jefferson is from Virginia and his home (estate/farm/vineyard) is called Monticello and in Charlottesville, Virginia.  Whenever I visit, I always spend a day at Monticello and roam the grounds.  It was in the same week that I learned Thomas Jefferson introduced the eggplant to Americans and that the eggplant vegetable was born in India thousands of years ago. So, I went about pretending that I was having Thomas Jefferson over for dinner and how I would prepare an Indian eggplant for a (dead) French cuisine-loving US President. I get lost in coming up with such recipes and when doing so, I’ll have conversations in my head with Jefferson as well as the ingredients. When I put this dish on my Vij’s menu, it was such a huge hit that I now can’t take it off. This eggplant dish is our number-one-selling appetizer. And yes, I also served this eggplant dish at the Prime Minister’s dinner with Premiers in 2016 and told this exact story. The leaders of Canada loved this dish I created for an important leader of the US. In fact, this eggplant dish was their favourite dish of the entire evening. 

As easily as I create and cook, I also write. I love to share with people what’s going on with me and food because this is the easiest way I know how to smile and connect with our similarities and also bring our differences to a shared table. 

5. Drawing from your experience in managing multiple successful businesses, what advice would you give to entrepreneurs starting out in the food industry?

The word “passion” is overused. Sometimes you don’t even know what you’re truly passionate about until you experiment and learn about new things. Sometimes you create a passion from something that may not even be on your radar. Sometimes your third or fourth idea may end up becoming your passion. You create what you’re passionate about—it doesn’t always come to you. The path of least resistance and passion are not friends. The path of least resistance and meaningful businesses for the better are not friends.  

6. What impact do you hope this collaboration meal kit leaves on the way people approach cooking at home?

I can’t stress enough how important it is to cook at home. Yes, I want you to dine at Vij’s once or twice a month, but home cooking is the key to self-care, self-love, self-respect and this goes further to our families and partners. It doesn’t have to be fun to be important.  Like bathing, cooking is self-care. I’m so hoping that with these Fresh Prep x Vij’s meal kits, home cooks who aren’t that familiar with Indian cooking will be introduced to delicious Indian curries that are simple to prepare. And the bonus is, there will be no food waste.  

My personal quote from my international food fair, Joy of Feeding: “Cooking is the doorway to caring about where our food comes from, taking care of our families, and taking care of our health. It connects our hands to our senses and to everyone’s hearts.”

Head to the Fresh Prep menu to order Vij’s exclusive recipes. These meal kits are only available to Fresh Prep customers. If you haven’t signed up yet, try us now to enjoy these limited-time Vij’s collaboration meal kits, plus our amazing weekly recipes, salads and more.

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