Let me preface this post by saying that my partner and I have been using Hello Fresh for over a month now, so we have had many recipes to try and learn from. Needless to say, we have enough ammo to form an opinion on the service.
Necessary Supplies and Extra Ingredients
I'd assume that this goes for any meal kit service, but you are required to provide simple seasonings and oils in addition to the provided ingredients. They are always kosher salt, black pepper, and cooking or olive oil. The literal only thing that I never had until recently was kosher salt. It seems so silly, but I only had sea salt and regular iodized table salt. So, FINALLY I picked up kosher salt from the grocery store the other day and now Hello Fresh will never ask me for an ingredient that I don't have ever again. I already knew the reasoning as to why kosher salt preferred over table or sea salt. "Flavor". It's kind of funny because to me, I do think there's a difference when using one over the other to season food. Of course, because I am a Virgo and I'm particular, I made sure to get kosher salt.
In the context of someone who enjoys cooking and does so, regularly, having these ingredients is no problem. But, I am sure that there are individuals who don't have any of the requested extra ingredients because they don't cook and/or don't know how to. These same individuals probably only eat out or eat ready-made meals, so there isn't a need for any ingredients. I don't know. Maybe it's far-fetched, but maybe not. As for me and my house? The requested ingredients are reasonable.
The same can be said for required materials such as pots and pans of different sizes along with whisks, baking sheets, zesters, peelers, strainers, as well. I feel the same way about this as the extra requested ingredients. If you're not much of a cook, you may need to go out and purchase these materials, but as for me and my house, I'm prepared.
Ingredient Quality and Packaging
This is one of my few qualms about Hello Fresh's meal kits. The produce...is something else. I won't say terrible or horrible, because it's not like they're always rotting or anything of the sort, but the quality is ridiculous. We'll get very shriveled cucumbers or soft/bruised tomatoes or herbs such as cilantro and chives that don't even last throughout the week that the delivery was intended for. So, we've had to work around that and either use dried versions of the bad herbs or just nix them all together. In terms of the other ingredients, like spices or sauces (any kind of liquid): no complaints there. They are what they are and they haven't disappointed.
So much plastic. Hello fresh uses SO MUCH PLASTIC when packaging their ingredients and none of it has been recyclable. The only recyclable materials have been the brown bag that each meal is prepared in the containers that the chickpeas come in. Everything from the sauces and seasonings to the green onions are packaged in nonrecyclable plastic. That is a huge negative for someone who is trying to reduce their current accumulation of non-recyclable plastic and plastic in general.
Preparation and Cook Time
Honestly, I can be very lazy at times and so it feels like there's a lot to prepare when in actuality it isn't much. However, there are times like today where I've felt overwhelmed with the amount of things to prepare. I almost never pay attention to the cook times on the recipe cards unless I am feeling very lazy that day. Looking at them will only make me not want to cook anything because everything takes more time than none. The cook time is always shorter than the prep time in itself, so no complaints there. In regards to the overall time it takes to produce a meal: not the worst, but they aren't "quick and easy" per-say. It also depends on how you define "easy". Easy as in no basting, confit-ing witchery or easy as in less than five steps and finished in under 30 minutes? Let me know how you feel about that one in the comments.
Meal Likeability
There haven't been any meals that we've hated. However, there have been ones that we wouldn't eat again if we had a choice. They just weren't for our taste buds. We've been very impressed with how yummy the recipes have been, overall. In general, the meals we weren't too impressed with were the ones where it seemed like such a huge effort was made to make it a "healthy" meal that it just ended up completely missing the mark. We literally had one where almost every single ingredient was green. Don't get me wrong, I love greens, but they just tried too hard with that one.
Today's Meal: Crispy Chickpea Tabbouleh Bowls with Creamy Feta Dressing
Necessary Supplies and Ingredients Like with all Hello Fresh meals, kosher salt, black pepper, and oil (this time, specifically stated as olive) were required for this recipe. In terms of supplies, a strainer, baking sheet, zester, whisk, and small pot were requested amongst the cookware. Nothing, too crazy and I was actually surprised at the lack of extra pans and pots needed.
Ingredient Quality and Packaging Same old, same old. Everything except for the bell pepper, lemon, cucumber, tomato, and chickpeas came in unrecyclable plastic packaging. Those items were the harissa powder, bulgur wheat, scallions, dill, sour cream, and feta. Moral of the story is: it was a lot of plastic.
Preparation and Cook Time This was by far (what felt like) the most intense and complex preparation of a meal. What's crazy is, I'm pretty sure we've had meals before where multiple things are going on, but for some reason this one felt so intense and it took so long.
From the chopping, to the roasting, to the sauce-making, and boiling and mixing...I literally felt exhausted after making this meal. Don't get me wrong, nothing was difficult to do, it was just a lot to do and keep up with.
Cutting the produce is usually what takes me the longest, so either I need a better knife or a larger cutting board, or both.
After getting that out of the way, it was really the sauce-making and final touches that were "extra" in terms of the process. No accidents, cuts, or bruises, so in the end it wasn't that bad.
Meal Likeability My partner definitely enjoyed this meal more than I did. It wasn't bad by any means, but I couldn't bring myself to finish all of it. The flavor profile wasn't something that I was used to, so a whole bowl was too much for me. The flavors in and of itself were pretty good and I did eat quite a bit, but just not all of it. My partner however, finished everything, so he had no complaints, at all. "It's flavorful." was his response when I asked what he thought about it.
On a scale of one to ten I'd give this meal a 7 and knowing my partner, though he enjoyed it, he'd only give it a 7 or 8. He's a harsh grader. So, overall, not a bad meal. I'm excited to see how we like this week's meals.
If you've tried Hello Fresh or any other meal service kits, let me know in the comments what you think about them and if you have any services that you'd recommend. If you haven't tried these services, yet, would you? Let me know.
Thanks for being here. I really appreciate you taking the time to read my post. Have a sunny day.
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