Hello Fresh: Here’s what I thought

Hello Fresh meal delivery service

Hello Fresh.

Have you heard of it?

Well, Hello Fresh is a meal delivery service. It’s a what? A meal delivery service – sometimes called meal subscription service. The basic idea is delivery of fresh ingredients right to your door, recipes included.

Now typically, this isn’t something I feel I need in my life. I mean I like to cook. Heck, I even like to grocery shop (yes, yes I really do). And I think I’m pretty adventurous when it comes to trying new things in the kitchen. But I’d been hearing a lot about these services lately and was curious. So, I thought why not give it a try?

I’ve tried other meal delivery services before – the ones that just deliver produce to your door. But this service is different. Here’s how it works: choose a meal plan and the number of meals per week, then pick out the recipes you want to try. Your meals arrive on a specific day in a insulated carton. Each meal is portioned out and comes with a large recipe card. Oh and did I mention the recipes are approved by their in-house dietitians? Yup, each one.

I got three meals – Do the Dukkah Chicken, The Great Caper: Cod Piccata and When Steak Met Potatoes. These are considered Level 1 meals (there are three levels) which means they’re basic meals with minimal multi-tasking involved. But there’s a few things to know: even the level 1 meals assume you have some basic ingredients on hand such as olive oil and butter. It’s also assumed you have some kitchen tools that not everyone may have such as a zester. And lastly it’s assumed that you want to actually be involved with prepping the meals – like butterflying chicken breasts. For me this is no problem, for others it may be more work then they want.

So I put the recipes to a test. I had my other half cook one of the meals. Now you need to know, in the 8+ years we’ve been together not once has he ever cooked dinner. Or lunch. Or breakfast actually. True story. And – full disclosure – this was actually his idea. How’d he do – he did great! But we both agree on a few things.

One – the serving size on the vegetables was bit skimpy. Maybe some of you don’t care about that (you should!) and I know I probably eat more vegetables per meal than the average person, but if I was to do this on a regular basis I would need to add veggies.

Two – it takes longer to prepare and cook the meals than stated on the recipe cards – especially if you’re not a “seasoned chef” in the kitchen. Not terribly longer – maybe 10-15 minutes.

Three – the meals were tasty. Though these meals were pretty basic, they were good. And I like how they included some different elements that maybe I wouldn’t have though of – such as adding lime crema to the dukkah chicken or the peppercorn sauce for the steak.

Oh and you know what else? Despite my love for grocery shopping and meal planning, it was a nice break to have all my ingredients delivered and meals planned for a few days. In the time I would have taken to do this, I was able to focus on other things.

Okay, down to business – what did I think? If your looking to have all the work done for you – veggies chopped, meat prepped – this may not be for you. But, if you’re willing to take a little time, and do a little prep work, chances are you’ll love Hello Fresh. Would I try them again? You betcha! After-all, don’t we all deserve a little break in the kitchen every once in awhile?

Have you tried any of these services? What did you think?