Adelaide residents are embracing the concept of ready-to-cook, home-delivered meals, according to the mother and daughter team behind new business Provi To Your Door.

Vicki Monteith and Vanessa Clarke set up the service last year, offering an online menu of meals for which they deliver the ingredients, along with a simple recipe. Here, Monteith explains the idea behind the business and how it works, and shares their recipe for baked salmon with capers and cherry tomatoes.

What inspired you to set up Provi To Your Door?

We were looking for a business related to food, something we’re both passionate about, and had heard of this concept overseas. There was definitely a need for a service that sits between the pre-cooked, take-home meals and supermarket grocery delivery service.

What type of people are using the service?

All sorts of people! Everyone from young families, busy singles and couples to older people – the common thread being they all want good-quality ingredients and convenience, yet really like cooking great meals at home.

On average, how many meals are you delivering each week?

At the moment we’re delivering around 150 meals per week, but we’re growing every week.

What seasonal ingredients are you are currently enjoying incorporating in your recipes?

We try to make sure we use as many seasonal ingredients as possible. Some of the ingredients we’re currently using are asparagus, cherry tomatoes, spring onions and snow peas.

Where do you source your ingredients from?

We’re lucky to have such wonderful produce in SA. We source most of our meat from Richard Gunner’s Feast Fine Foods. The bulk of our vegetables come from growers in Virginia, and our seafood comes from Cappos. We’re always on the lookout for new suppliers

What are five must-have staple ingredients every pantry should contain to make it easy to prepare home-cooked meals?

Good olive oil is a must. We have small list of staples that we suggest our customers keep on hand, such as butter, milk, flour and a variety of vinegars and oils. We supply the rest in exactly the right portions for each recipe, so there’s no wastage.

Who develops the Provi To Your Door recipes, and what are the guiding principles behind them?

I develop and test the recipes with guidance and inspiration from chef, Steph. We take ideas from all sorts of places to keep our menus as varied as possible. The main guiding principles behind our recipes are that they need to be prepared and cooked in 30-45 minutes, are not too complex, don’t require too many appliances, are nutritionally balanced, and also delicious.  We feel the key to healthy eating is having great food prepared at home with lots of really fresh produce.

Are there any special challenges running the business as a mother and daughter team?

We actually work very well together as a team. Vanessa is mainly the admin and social media person, and I do most of the practical day-to-day running of the business, though being a small business and having to multi-task you’ll also often see us out delivering in our van, too.

The great thing about being related is we can disagree and know that we’ll still be talking the next day!

Baked salmon with capers and cherry tomatoes

Serves 4

Ingredients

4 salmon fillets
800g potatoes
300g cherry tomatoes
2 garlic cloves
1 lemon
2tbsp capers
4 fresh thyme sprigs
4tbsp olive oil
150ml vegetable stock
3 cups mixed salad greens
1tbsp red wine vinegar

Method

1  Preheat oven to 200 degrees C.

2  Scrub and thickly slice potatoes. Place in a saucepan of hot water and bring to boil. Cook for 5-7 minutes until just tender. Drain.

3 Chop garlic finely and pull leaves off thyme sprigs.

4 Place cooked potatoes and half the thyme in a non-stick roasting pan, lined with baking paper. Drizzle with half the oil, season with salt and pepper and shake in the pan to coat. Bake for 20 minutes.

5 Meanwhile, grate zest from lemon and squeeze the juice. Mix together juice, zest and garlic. Rub a little oil onto each side of the salmon fillets.

6 Heat a fry pan to high and sear the salmon fillets for 1 minute each side.

7 After the 20 mins in the oven, place salmon on top of the potatoes in the roasting pan, sprinkle over lemon and garlic mixture and remaining thyme. Scatter over tomatoes and capers and pour stock into pan.

8 Roast for a further 8-10 minutes until fish is cooked through and potatoes are tender.

9 Put salad greens into a bowl and pour over the remaining olive oil and the vinegar. Toss to combine.