When Rachna Prasad got married, she quickly realized that she had never learned how to cook the delicious Indian meals her mother had made for her family growing up. Even as a married woman, she would still have her mother make extras so Rachna could take some back to her husband.

One afternoon, Rachna had her mother, Rekha Prasad, prepare all the necessary ingredients to make a fine gourmet Indian meal for her friends in her home town of Markham, Ontario. With the right amount of spices weighed and labelled, all Rachna would have to do was pour, mix and simmer.

The dinner was a success and an innovative cooking concept was born. Together with Rekha and her sister, Mona Prasad, Rachna took their packets of spices and recipes to the Markham Fair to test its public appeal.

"In just three hours, all 600 spice packages were sold," said Rachna. "It was amazing and the public just loved it."

It wasn’t long before the Prasad ladies created Gourmantra — a kit of exotic spices, a sachet of garlic ginger puree, and basmati rice.

Prepared in four different flavours — Butter Chicken, Tandoori, Korma and Channah (chickpea) — home chefs simply add a protein, like chicken or beef, and a convenient meal is ready in 30 minutes.

The kits have just made their debut in Vancouver supermarkets.

Having won several awards in the last few months, the Prasad gals have been invited to share their creation at EAT! Vancouver, held in BC Place Stadium starting May 23.

Rachna says she is excited to see how the West Coast takes to the meal kits, especially now that South Asian food has become popular with mainstream Canadians.

Success for the Prasad family has come quickly but the true reward is being able to work with her mother and sister, said Rachna.

"We have a lot of fun while we work," she said. "And it’s perfect — we naturally found what we’re all good at. I’m good at PR, my mom is the cook and my sister is really good at operations."

Since the Markham Fair in 2005, the Prasad ladies have come a long way in developing their idea into a marketable product.

Looking to the future, they hope to add more flavours to the Gourmantra arsenal and expand into the U.S.

Until then though, Rachna says they’re going to keep working hard and "peddling spices."