We had an offer to try HelloFresh for free, so took advantage of it. HelloFresh is a food service that sends pre-measured ingredients in a kit that takes about 30 minutes to make. It’s real food with real ingredients. I’ve been a skeptic of these online, pre-measured meal kit services, but who can turn down free food?
We got three meals in our free trial. We chose them from a selection of 8-10 options for that given week. The box was insulated with ice packs to keep everything cold. I can’t say anything bad about the state of the food – it was all very fresh and well procured.
The first meal we tried was a pork chili. It made two nearly-overflowing bowls. It was good, but nothing extraordinary. Chili is something I make quite often and quite well – so this was nothing special.
The next meal was a steak and apricot salad. This is something I wouldn’t make. Mixing fruit into my savory isn’t part of my MO as a cook, though I do order similar things at restaurants from time to time. The meal was good and made two large salads. There should have been a dinner roll or something as a side, but that’s getting nit-picky. This was a successful recipe.
The final meal we made was chicken & couscous with homemade cream-of-mushroom topping and an arugula salad side. Again, the meal took about 30 minutes to make from start to finish. Chicken and couscous isn’t too far from my comfort zone, but the homemade cream-of-mushroom was. It was surprisingly simple to make and tasted wonderful! My wife grew up eating lots of things covered in creamy sauces, so it was like an upgraded version of her childhood food. I’m not that big a fan of creamy, but it was good. This one will be added to the mental vault for future use.
All-in-all, we had fun with the HelloFresh trial. The issue isn’t the food, but the prices. It’s about $20/meal for 2 people. The portions were small for that price. I’m a pretty decent amateur cook, so maybe I’m not the target audience.
Have you ever tried a meal kit service? Or HelloFresh? Any thoughts?