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by Alison Chew
HelloFresh
HelloFresh is a pioneer in the meal kit space and continues to adapt to the changing needs of its’ customers. With over 20 easy-to-follow-recipes each week to offer dinner time variety, clearly labeled nutritional information to simplify meal selection, and high-quality ingredients sourced straight from local farms, HelloFresh brings you delicious convenient meals straight to your door.
Plus, with the addition of add-on’s like breakfast, lunch sandwiches, salads, dessert, and proteins, HelloFresh is your one-stop-shop for most of your weekly meal needs. Read on for our full HelloFresh review and unboxing video.
20+ meal kits each week, plus add-on’s like prepared meals, lunch sandwiches, salads, dessert, and breakfast
Seasonal and Holiday Kits and Boxes
What We Don’t Like
Can’t see the full menu with add-on’s unless you have an active account
Shipping is $7.99
HelloFresh Reviews: Meal Kits, Prepared Meals, and Big Game Kit
For our second set of HelloFresh reviews, we tried two traditional meal kits, a Game Day kit, as well as two Heat & Eat prepared meals. If you are new to HelloFresh or haven’t been back in a while, their new selection of add-on’s is a must-try!
The meal kits we selected include the Beef Bulgogi bowls for 4, the Brown Sugar Bourbon Pork Chops for 4, and the Game Day BBQ Ribs kit for two. Our box arrived a day late due to a huge winter snowstorm in my area, but luckily the ingredients were fine and lasted the5 days it took us to cook all of the meals.
Our first meal kit was the Brown Sugar Bourbon Pork Chops with Apple Pan Sauce, Scallion Mashed Potatoes & Roasted Green Beans. This dish was easy to make and full of flavor. The pork chops were seasoned with a brown sugar bourbon blend before they were cooked in a pan and the flavor stayed with them throughout the cooking process. The cooked apples were an interesting addition, not our favorite, but they tasted good.
The mashed potatoes with sour cream and green onions were delicious and something that I will do again in the future. We enjoyed the skin and the lumpy texture. The baked green beans were good, but I would limit the amount of oil used next time as they were pretty oily when removed from the oven. All in, it took about 40 minutes to prepare this meal.
Our second traditional meal kit was the Beef Bulgogi Bowls with Carrots, Pickled Cucumber & Sriracha Crema. This meal came together in less than 30 min thanks to the premade sauce and pre-chopped carrots. All we had to do was make the rice, cook the meat and carrots, marinate the cucumbers and throw it all together in a delicious bowl.
The Game Day Kit included recipes for BBQ Ribs, Loaded Potato Wedges, and Crispy Buffalo Onion Straws & Blue Cheese Sauce. This meal kit, which actually makes 3 different appetizers, is a Homestyle Feast and is an additional $9.99/serving.
For two servings, the total price for this seasonal offering is $37.96. For us, this fed two adults and one child and was very convenient, and less expensive than ordering bbq takeout for the Big Game.
The ribs were wonderful and arrive fully cooked in the sauce. We amped up the sauce with the included seasoning packets and warmed them up in the oven for about 20 minutes. On the package, it says 3 servings, and our family of 3 devoured every last rib. I would order these as a protein add-on as they were really tasty and super easy to make.
The loaded potato wedges were seasoned with a Southwest seasoning, baked for about 25 min, then topped with shredded pepper jack cheese until melted. The kit included ingredients for a simple lime crema (lime + sour cream + water) and pico (tomato, onion, lime juice, and jalapeno). I wasn’t sure that I would like these wedges with pico, but they tasted great and something that I wouldn’t have thought of myself.
Finally, the onion straws rounded out this seasonal kit. We liked that the tempura batter didn’t add a lot of breading to the onions so that you could actually taste the onion flavor, but didn’t love that you had to fry them all in oil in batches. I would much rather bake them. They were good dipped in the blue cheese sauce, but our least favorite of the three.
I definitely recommend trying a seasonal kit or box if the recipes look good to you. They are a fun and easy way to make your holiday or special occasion stress-free.
We tried two of the HelloFresh limited edition Heat & Eat meals. This included the Turkey Lasagna-Style Mac ’n’ Cheese and Coconut Cauliflower & Bean Curry. Both are priced at $8.99/each and in line with other Heat & Eat “prepared meals” that we have tried.
I have to say that I was surprised by how good both of these meals tasted. They were both one serving, ready in 3 min in the microwave, and packed with flavor. My only complaint is that the Turkey Lasagna pasta dish was a whopping 800 calories! I should’ve checked before I ordered. If you are on a diet be sure to read the label information before you order.
All of our ingredients were fresh upon arrival and no ingredients were missing. The portion sizes worked for 2 adults and we noticed that the amount of shrimp given was more than other meal kit services that we have tried. The food also stayed fresh for the 4 days that it took for us to make the kits.
We really enjoyed all three recipes, but the Hoisin Shrimp was by far our favorite. The simple hoisin marinade was a huge hit and for under 600 calories per serving it’s a tasty go-to dinner. The pork tacos came in a close second, but with a higher calorie count, around 960, and fewer veggies, it tasted delicious but we needed to supplement the dinner with a salad to make it complete. The pork tenderloin was also very tasty and under 600 calories, with the same style of green beans as the shrimp alongside crispy roasted potatoes and a sweet figgy sauce. This dish was healthy and super easy to make.
With 20+ recipes to choose from each week with additional add-on’s like lunch, breakfast, dessert, and proteins, HelloFresh maintains fresh and seasonal recipes that are sure to please everyone in your family. They are becoming your one-stop shop for all of your weekly meal needs.
Each week they have something for everyone – from customer favorites to burgers, several different seafood and vegetarian recipes, along with the standard pork, chicken, beef, and pasta. I would say that their recipes lean more American, home-cooking, comfort food with fewer international or global flavors which would most likely appeal to most. For us, though, we are more adventurous eaters and like to mix up our dinners to try new and interesting recipes. We will order HelloFresh when the menu fits our tastes and will skip when it doesn’t.
I definitely recommend trying a seasonal kit or box if the recipes look good to you. They are a fun and easy way to make your holiday or special occasion stress-free.
Read on for more details around packaging and ease of instructions.
HelloFresh Reviews: Packaging
Much of the HelloFresh packaging can be curbside recycled including the honeycomb paperboard, the box, the separator, plastic bottles, and brown paper meal kit bags. The ice gel packs can be emptied into the trash and then recycled. Depending on the time of year the liner may be recycled at a recycling center in the summertime or in the winter the liners have to be placed in the trash. The plastic bags that some of the produce comes in are not recyclable or you have to bring them to a store that recycles plastic bags. The HelloFresh packaging has evolved over the years and we hope that they continue to find ways to use less packaging and to include more curbside recyclables in their boxes.
Great news! HelloFresh is now the first carbon-neutral meal kit company! They have partnered with TerraPass to offset 100% of their carbon emissions. They expect to offset at least 50,000 metric tons of carbon and 24,000 megawatts of electricity.
Did you know that HelloFresh tests each recipe 45 times before adding it to the menu? This ensures that recipes are clear as well as delicious. The instructions for our recipes were easy to follow and the skill level required, in our opinion, would be entry-level to intermediate. The recipes do require prepping, chopping, and several pans, but the step-by-step instructions walk you through everything. We did notice that in the photos for the pork tacos the pickled shallots were bright pink, ours did not turn pink at all. This isn’t a big deal as they tasted fine, but something that caught my attention when comparing the final product to the HelloFresh recipe card. The average cook time for our three meals was between 30-35 min. See below for the Sizzling Hoisin Shrimp recipe.
HelloFresh Reviews: Quick Facts
Serving size options: 2 or 4 people
Recipe selections per week: 2, 3, or 4 recipes per week
Recipe choices: 20 dinner recipes, 3 lunch recipes, plus sides, desserts, and protein
