Pure Market Express Review [Raw Delivery Service]

We hear the cry all the time..."I like raw food... but I don't have time to make this stuff!" And for the most part, we're going to actually agree with you. Making raw dishes takes time. A lot of time, especially when you are just starting out and have never made raw food recipes before. Despite what you see when you first learn about raw food, most raw food dishes are time consuming to make.

We've seen so many people give up on eating a high or all raw diet once they encounter the "making the food" obstacle.

You have three choices in this case:

1. Grin and bear it.
   
   Make the dishes, and spend many hours in the kitchen. Hey, this is how some people do it. They make it their lives. Many raw foodists are stay at home moms or people who work at home. They practically sleep in their kitchen!
   
   
2. Go simple.
   
   This is how we do it. We eat a high raw diet and we spend some quality time in the kitchen, but not much. The easier, the better. We don't really enjoy making recipes that often and we probably never will. So we have "hacked" our raw food diet to take as little time as possible.
   
   
3. Get your stuff made for you.
   
   If you live near a raw food restaurant, you can go there whenever you want to eat raw food. But before you say anything....... we know what you're thinking. You don't live in L.A. or New York. Raw food is not on every street corner or at your local Whole Foods or co-op that you can just "pick-up". No prob, now you've got yourself an excellent and fairly priced raw delivery service at your hands: Pure Market Express.
   

Local For Us, Delivered Right to You

When we first saw that a new raw food delivery service was being created practically in our backyard, we were ecstatic. In case you don't know, Raw Food Right Now is based in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area in Minnesota. There aren't a lot of raw food options around here when you want someone to make something for you. Once Pure Market Express was announced and we found out that it was about 20 minutes from where we live, we knew that the raw food scene in the "Twin Cities" had changed for the better.

Pure Market Express is not a raw food restaurant. The owners, Quentin and Rebecca Irey, knew that making a local raw food restaurant probably wasn't a very marketable idea here in the Twin Cities. So instead of the typical raw food restaurant business model, they decided to have a bigger vision, and create a raw food delivery service to the continental 48 states.

Now, there are a few other raw food delivery services out there, but they haven't always been affordable for everyone. However, a quick look at the large variety and low prices for what you get at Pure Market Express will quickly expel the myth that deliverable raw food is expensive: http://shop.puremarketexpress.com/category_s/2.htm

The Process

How does this all work?

To put it simply: Pure Market Express is a new online raw food delivery service that features over 100 menu items that can be shipped directly to your door within 48 hours of ordering.

They offer gourmet dishes, pies, chips, snacks, and even smoothies! They also have an assortment of excellent raw ice creams.

The shipping is quick and arrives in reusable containers, with all the food properly chilled and extremely fresh. They guarantee delivery within two days of your order.

Every week they rotate a selection of dishes from their full menu of over 100 items. You can then either choose to order a full "week's worth" of items, or you can pick and choose and make your own selections. You can also order only raw ice cream, or you can stock up on pantry items like raw crackers and trail mix too. The choice is yours.

Check out their always changing weekly menu: http://www.puremarketexpress.com/thefood/nowserving.html


They've Thought of Everything

Every aspect of Pure Market Express has been carefully considered to be of the highest quality. To ensure this, Rebecca and Quentin hired a classically trained chef (Chef Jacob) and helped teach him the language of raw. Together they have created classic raw recipe favorites and new gourmet raw food masterpieces.

Since we live in the Twin Cities area, we were recently invited for a tour and private tasting at Pure Market Express. We were able to sit down with the owners, Rebecca and Quentin, and get to know them better. We had a lot of questions about their history of getting into raw food, their process of creating the business, and their current food philosophy and vision for Pure Market Express and beyond. While we were talking, Chef Jacob was bringing out dish after dish of incredible quality raw plates for all of us to enjoy.

Here is a peek at some of the food we tasted. Some of these items are available through the delivery service and some was special just for our dinner together. Let's take a look at the food, shall we?

Coconut Water, infused with mint: This is a simple recipe you can make at home! Simply take coconut water into a glass jar, and place fresh mint leaves into the container. Let it infuse for a while. In a way, it is a cold infusion of mint tea! Very refreshing.

Heirloom Tomato Salad: The simplicity of this dish brought out the bursting flavors of the heirloom tomatoes. The vinaigrette on the tomatoes was absolutely divine.

Jalapeno Poppers: These are one of the most popular items on the Pure Market Express menu, and after one bite, we understood why. For all your Jalapeno popper fans out there, these are perfect! I don't know how they perfected this recipe, but it makes my mouth water just thinking about these. The heat in the jalapenos is just hot enough to make your mouth tingle. Highly recommended. (FYI: You can order these at Pure Market Express!)

Caesar Salad: Have you been missing that particular Caesar salad in your favorite restaurant? When you order from Pure Market Express, you can enjoy that salad in a whole new way. After all, a delicious salad is all about the dressing! PME specialty fake bacon crumbles on top make this salad a winner with everyone...maybe even carnivores.

Tostadas: These were the best tostadas we've ever had. Even better than "non-raw" tostadas. Topped with a rich macadamia ricotta and walnut "meat" seasoned with their own Sassy Salsa!


Scallops with Red Pepper. This is even too good to comment on. Like a ravioli, but crunchy and sits in your stomach perfectly. Highly recommended!



Mushroom "Steak" with sweet corn salsa. We were both surprised when this dish ended up being our favorite of the night. Perfectly flavored and textured, we literally savored every single bite. Also highly recommended. (FYI: I think you can order this dish, or a similar dish through Pure Market! Yum!!!)

3 layer Mudslide Pie "Parfait". No raw food meal is complete without desserts. Everyone's favorite raw dish to eat and make usually involves some sort of sweet tasting dessert. This mudslide was very filling and tasted equally full in flavor. We spooned up every last drop, including the white chocolate mousse on top. (FYI: The mudslide is available as a pie through the delivery service, but we were served the pie in parfait glasses for an extra special treat. You could order the Mudslide Pie and do something similar at home!)

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Of course, we loved all the food, and were totally stuffed when we left. We recommend everything we had inside of Pure Market. It was all delicious. Besides everything on the menu, if you want to get a fun experience and are feeling wild and free, you can even select the "Chef's Choice" option, in which Pure Market Express will ship 25 items chosen by Chef Jacob, and shipped to your door, for 175.00. Wow. That is an excellent value with a lot of food!

In particular, the Chef Choice would be a great option if you are traveling somewhere and don't have access to a kitchen, or can't bring your kitchen equipment with you. Perhaps it would be a good option for you if you are going somewhere for the holidays? Can you say Christmas with the family?! Um, hello!!


Getting to Know Quentin and Rebecca

A very happy group of pleasantly full people
Us with Quentin, Rebecca and our friends
Vince and Jinelle

Pure Market Express - A Company Run By People Who Care

We had a lot of fun getting to know all of the Pure Market Team, especially Quentin and Rebecca.

While we happily enjoyed incredible dish after dish, we got to hear the entire story about how Rebecca found raw food. In fact, Rebecca has been a long time reader of Raw Food Right Now, and grabbed a copy of our Thanksgiving ebook when it was first released!

We also got to hear the hilarious story of how they decided to start up a raw food business while they were already running a business together as a married couple! Instead of trying to re-tell the story, we will let them tell you their story in their own words. Read their story here: http://www.puremarketexpress.com/ourstory/ourstory.html

When we asked Rebecca Irey to explain how she found the inspiration to create her new business called Pure Market Express, she simply told us "It all started on a road trip with a husband, 6 kids, and a mother-in-law."

Hey, all good adventures start with a crazy road trip, don't they?

In her own right, Rebecca is a trained raw food chef. After a couple years mastering the basics of raw food creation, she found herself raw during the pregnancy of her 6th child. After taking a road trip with her husband and her children, she found it hard to stay raw while traveling on the road.

So Rebecca's husband, Quentin, wanted to do something special for her birthday while they were on this long vacation, and paid for a large order from an undisclosed raw food delivery company. When it finally arrived, she unpacked bags of various sauces that looked like green gooey astronaut food. While the food tasted all right, it wasn't the same as the raw food she makes at home.

After her first experience, she then tried another online raw food delivery company. While the food looked more presentable, "it tasted like cardboard", she told us.

At that moment she was determined that there had to be a better way.

When Rebecca and Quentin arrived home, they both realized that making fresh, healthy food available to anyone, anywhere, was important to both of them. Even though they already owned and managed a successful company, it was time to start a new business. One completely from the heart.

And thus Pure Market Express was born!


Getting the Behind The Scenes Tour

When we visited their facility for the tasting (which is an old bread bakery in Chaska converted to an incredible raw kitchen) and had an opportunity to have an amazing tasting and complete tour of their operation, were able to see their business from the inside out.

Everything is extremely clean, well-thought out, and organized. Every detail has been anticipated and fulfilled. These two are dedicated to integrity and quality. They even have an entirely separate room completely dedicated to sprouting wheat berries so as not to mix it in with their regular menu to ensure those who are gluten intolerant are safe.

There's just one thing we want to let you know.. not everything is organic. Although they are striving to make everything organic someday, you may want to check with them first if you are concerned about all of your food being 100% organic. Even many raw food restaurants are unable to be 100% organic. At least Pure Market is being up front and honest about it.


Wrapping it All Up

Having raw delivery service options to everyone is a fascinating and much needed service. Pure Market Express is different because they are focusing on this particular need so they can provide for those who find it hard to stay raw in their area, don't have time, or are on the road and want to guarantee quality raw food wherever they go. In fact, if you are going on an extended trip, Pure Market can guarantee to have food delivered to you, on time and in each area you arrive. You can even plan ahead and get it delivered to your hotel or other location before you arrive. Now that is service!

Visit Their Website and Learn More:

http://www.puremarketexpress.com

~ Heidi and JS
Raw Food Right Now

P.S. Attention Minnesotans! If you are in the Minnesota area near the Twin Cities and want to do a pickup, make sure to order online first and let them know you will be in to pick it up. If you have any questions about how the process works, simply call the Pure Market Express team at 952-452-4865 and they will answer any questions you have. And if you are near Lakewinds Co-Op...they now have a Pure Market Express refrigerated case with fresh raw food deli items available for take out! Raw food deli items in a grocery store - one giant leap for Minnesota!

P.P.S. Special hello to Joe and Jeanne who are long time Raw Food Right Now readers. Joe scored an awesome job at Pure Market Express and was just promoted to a full-on Sous-chef! Congrats Joe!!