Hello Fresh is a weekly meal delivery subscription that sends healthy recipes and the pre-measured ingredients you need to make them at home.
Hello Fresh lets you choose from a Classic Plan (choose from 8 weekly meat and fish recipes), a Veggie Plan (get 3 weekly vegetarian recipes), or a Family Plan (meat, fish, and veggie recipes perfect for two adults and two children). I like to eat a vegetarian diet, so I selected the Veggie Plan. Hello Fresh only offers 3 vegetarian dishes per week—where Classic Plan members can hop into their account and swap the recipes selected for them with other dishes on the menu, I've got to take what I get. I'm not a picky eater, so being subject to the luck of the draw has worked out okay for me so far. But I do wish there was just a little bit of wiggle room in the Veggie menu!
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This review is of the Hello Fresh Veggie Plan, $9.99 a meal, box.
The Subscription Box: Hello Fresh
The Cost: The Classic Food Box (for omnivores) starts at $9.99 per person per meal. The Veggie Box (for herbivores) starts at $9.99 per person per meal. The Family Box (for families) costs $8.74 per person per meal. Hello Fresh announced they will soon offer two plans: Unlimited Meal Choice ($11.50 a meal) or Basic Plan ($9.99 per meal). Learn more here!
ACTIVE DEAL: Limited Time Only! Free High Protein Item for Life + Up to 10 Free Meals One per box with active subscription. Free meals applied as discount on first box, new subscribers only, varies by plan. No coupon needed - just use this link.
The Products: Healthy recipes and pre-portioned fresh ingredients.
Ships to: The contiguous U.S.
Check out all our Hello Fresh reviews and the Food Subscription Box Directory for more meal boxes!
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I've been enjoying a couple meal kit delivery subscription boxes lately to add some ease to my weekly lunch and dinner prep. My experience with Hello Fresh has been quite good so far! Their deliveries seem to have consistently tasty meals, and their vegetarian options are filling, varied, and full of fresh, simple ingredients. I also love that healthy options are the main focus, and you're able to easily access the nutritional information of each meal with the included info card.
This box also came with a seasonally appropriate fold-out regarding grilling.
And there's information about a small change in the Hello Fresh box as well:
I'm loving the new '3 paper bags in a box' packaging. Hello Fresh used to package their ingredients for each recipe in little boxes. Now, after lots of trial and error, they've shifted to paper bags!
Each meal is divided into one bag making for even more ease in ensuring that you have everything you need. That means less waste, a smaller overall box, and more convenience.
However, the seitan for one of my dishes was being kept as cool as possible under the ice pack in the bottom of my Hello Fresh delivery box. Really appreciate the cute advisory note! Let's jump into it.
Smokey Seitan Rice Bowl
Calories per Serving: 660
Total Time, According to Hello Fresh: 30 minutes
Actual Time It Took: 30 minutes
I was really excited about this one! My husband is a huge fan of seitan and other imitation meats, so my hope was that this would be a hit.
These ingredients are so pared down that I was immediately a bit skeptical as to how this would become a well-seasoned meal. I mean, I love simple, but I wasn't seeing any spices or sauces. Where's the pizzazz?
I started with chopping all of my veggies. The recipe called for zesting the lime -- things are definitely starting out more flavorful than I had initially expected.
Seitan is already fully cooked in its package. It really just needs to be heated through, but some brown bits always add some welcomed extra texture.
My one big issue with this meal: the avocado provided was completely unusable. It was days away from being ripe enough for use, and this was the case with one of the meals in my last Hello Fresh shipment as well.
I suppose I should start checking each bag for avocados and other produce that does better outside of the fridge before packing it away. Not a big deal, but it does sort of defeat the purpose as far as ease is concerned. I don't want to have to open each bag and examine each included item prior to putting away.
Luckily, I had a nicely ripe avocado on hand, so I swapped it in for the much-too-hard one. Yay, guac!
My rice turned out a little gummy, and I'm not sure why. Since this is a rice bowl dish, it did a good job of holding everything together pretty well, so consistency wasn't an issue.
Yum! This wound up being a lunch for us, and it was SO filling. My husband and I were both surprised by how flavorful the seitan was. Every separate component was independently salt and peppered resulting in a balanced, savory dish. Even the lettuce was tossed with a drizzle of olive oil and salt and pepper.
We agreed that this reminded us a bit of a Chipotle-style burrito bowl. But, honestly, this was just as good and much fresher. I'll definitely be tossing together a variation of this dish next time the craving hits.
Rock the Zucchini Boat
Calories per Serving: 490
Total Time, According to Hello Fresh: 35 minutes
Actual Time It Took: 40 minutes
I've never tried my hand at stuffed zucchini (or stuffed peppers, for that matter!), so I was looking forward to getting started on this one.
The zucchini looks amazing, but my tomatoes were a little beat up. Good thing they're getting diced up anyway -- no matter.
Per usual, I started off with washing and chopping vegetables. The thyme in this dish gives away that it'll be especially savory. My last Hello Fresh box included a meal that had a similar list of ingredients, and its final flavor was delicious.
Lightly coat your halved and scooped zucchini boats with olive oil, salt, and pepper and toss in the oven at 450 for 15-20 minutes. I wasn't able to get my zucchini halves quite even, but I think that's okay. Each plate just ended up with a big boat and a little sidekick boat.
Once quinoa is cooked through, it's added to your veggie mixture and becomes the filling for your boats. The final product was really hearty. I loved the addition of some melted cheese on top, and the parsley added some wonderful freshness. The zucchini was soft with just enough bite!
Veggie Fattoush Salad
Calories per Serving: 800
Total Time, According to Hello Fresh: 35 minutes
Actual Time It Took: 30 minutes
Waitressing at a Mediterranean restaurant was my job throughout college, and hummus, tabouli, and fattoush have remained among my comfort foods years later. Needless to say, I was pretty pumped on putting this salad together to relive my youth.
Feta, olives, garbanzo beans, cumin... some of my favorites!
A rainbow of a chopping board. One of my olives had a pit in it, so be careful cutting!
Another warning: chickpeas explode when they're in the oven! I could hear them popping, but they seemed to settle down once I placed the tray on my stovetop to take this photo. Seconds later, I almost took a searing chickpea to the eye. Be careful out there, fellow Hello Fresh subscribers!
The whole wheat pita was covered with za'atar and toasted to a slight crisp.
This version of fattoush was really tasty. The feta finishes it nicely! At first, I was surprised to see that a salad was the highest in calories of all three dishes, but I suppose it's not really a shock considering the heavy hand of feta added in the end. Plus all that pita! It's not the lightest salad in the word, but it certainly is refreshing and makes for a filling meal. Plus, it's a great alternative to a regular old field greens salad.
Verdict: I am really enjoying my experience with Hello Fresh so far. Their meals' ingredients are heavy on the fresh produce, and their recipes are simple and easy to follow. I love that they have a veggie option in their plans, too. Unlike other meal subscription boxes that require you to manually choose each dish individually based on various dietary restrictions, it takes out some of the guesswork in 'what's available to me this week?'
On the flip side, I do enjoy having more control in my meals. And I would prefer that all ingredients are adequately ripe and usable for the week in which I'll need them. I also wish that Hello Fresh made more of a point to be eco-friendly, green, and sustainability conscious. Switching over to bags was an excellent first step!
The meals in Hello Fresh's veggie plan only cost $9.99 per serving. That pricing seems to be on par with other meal subscription boxes (Blue Apron at $9.99 per serving, Home Chef at $9.95 per serving, and Plated at $12 per serving).
Do you subscribe to Hello Fresh? What's been your favorite meal so far?
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