We used to subscribe to Gousto. It was pretty good. Ingredients very good quality. Flavours complex and interesting. The recipes were well thought out - some have even become staples in our repertoire. The recipes come on nicely printed cards, and they provide a folder for you to keep them in.
Can’t recall exactly why we stopped - probably a fit of frugality, or maybe the fact that the boy was home from uni and the recipes are only designed to feed two.
Recently we’ve been on a trial offer of Hello Fresh. It has the advantage that the boxes can be adapted to suit three or four people. It’s ok but not nearly as good as Gousto. The portions are huge, which may be seen as a positive, but that’s largely down to the amount of stodge they contain (potatoes, rice etc). The dishes are tasty but a bit basic, with flavours that you wouldn’t exactly call complex. We had a chicken dish for which the main seasoning was a teaspoon of thyme (for three people). I embellished it with some more thyme from the cupboard. In last weeks box, the key flavouring for one dish was supposed to be dill, but the ingredient was missing. Chiz.
Ingredients are mostly good quality but I was disappointed with the state of the carrots in the most recent box - limp and rubbery, definitely past their best.
The recipes come on A4 inkjet printed sheets of cheap paper - not designed to be kept. Also the layout is badly designed to the extent that it offends me. And timings are badly underestimated
My other gripe about Hello Fresh is that the recipes don’t really work for three people because some of the ingredients only come in portions for two - eg a carton of black beans serves two, so for three people, two cartons provided, of which the recipe requires 1.5 cartons, so you’re left with half a carton of black beans. I thought one of the main points of these recipe boxes was to only provide exactly what is needed, nothing more, nothing less. I would just shove the lot in the dish but that’s just too many beans.
The boy is sodding off for the summer, so we’re thinking of going back to Gousto. I don’t think we’ll be carrying on with Hello Fresh when the trial offer ends though.
Anyone have any experience with others of this ilk? I’m aware of Mindful Chef but haven’t tried it. Not sure what else is out there.
I think what I like about them most is that it takes away the having to think about what you’re going to have for dinner after a day at work. I know what some people will say - you don’t need these services to knock up a decent meal of an evening. Well, yeah. And I’m more than capable of rustling up something tasty from whatever we have in the fridge/cupboard but, you know, sometimes I just can’t be bothered to make even that much effort. And having the ingredients delivered is a bonus.
The packaging is a slight issue but again Gousto is better on this score - chilled stuff comes wrapped in raw wool for insulation (the smell of it drives the dog mad), whereas Hello Fresh chilled ingredients come in non-recyclable plastic foam.