Blue Apron is a subscription meal delivery service. Every week, they send seasonal recipes created by their culinary team and the pre-measured ingredients you need to make them at home.
This is a review of the 2-person, 2-meal subscription plan ($9.99 per serving, or $47.95 per week). I normally cook for myself, but having meal kits delivered to my home has given me a way to lure friends over to help and enjoy the recipes with me. It's so much more fun with a buddy if you can spare one. No buddies? You'll have some leftovers then, so this doubles your value! In addition to their standard 2-person subscription plan, Blue Apron also offers a Family Plan that features kid-friendly recipes and family-style meals for four. You can now switch between 2 and 4 person meals easily with each delivery!
My Subscription Addiction paid for this box. (Check out the review process post to learn more about how we review boxes.)
About Blue Apron
The Subscription Box: Blue Apron
The Cost: You can choose from a 2 person plan or a family plan:
For the 2 person plan, it’s $47.95 ($9.99 per serving + $7.99 shipping) for 2 meals per week or $59.94 ($9.99 per serving + FREE shipping) for the 3 meals per week.
Family plans start at $71.92 ($8.99 per serving + FREE shipping) for the 2 meals per week, $95.88 ($7.99 per serving + FREE shipping) for 3 meals per week, or $119.84 ($7.49 per serving + FREE shipping) for 4 meals per week.
Limited Time Offer: Save $60 off your first three weeks ($20 per box) when you sign up here!
The Products: Fresh ingredients and recipes to make healthy meals at home.
Ships to: U.S. only
Blue Apron August 2018 Review
They recently redesigned their box to have a more traditional four flaps instead of a lid with two smaller flaps like before. The recipes are right on top and the first things you see as you open it up.
Blue Apron ingredients come packaged in a big silver cooler bag that's a lot like bubble wrap. Along with the plastic-wrapped ice packs in the box, the bubble wrap bag keeps the ingredients cool while they travel.
Now that it's getting hot outside, they've reconfigured how they pack their boxes. That's something I can appreciate!
A lot of the ingredients from Blue Apron come in bags, labeled, but you have to check out the recipe cards to know which meal they go to. Smaller items like butter or sauces come in a *recently updated plastic* "knick knack" bag so they don't get lost in the shuffle, and those are labeled with the meal name as well. I'm actually pretty stoked that they switched to plastic from brown paper because there was often leakage that got all over everything. The plastic bags are the same as the larger ingredients come in and recyclable as well.
If you get recipes with meat, you'll always find it at the very bottom of the box, up against more ice packs to keep them extra chilly.
Are you ready to see the recipes? Let's dig in!
Mexican-Spiced Salmon & Green Beans with Corn on the Cob
Calories per Serving (as prepared): 620 calories
Total Time According to Blue Apron: 20-30 minutes
Actual Time: 30 minutes
I totally forgot to choose my recipes this week, but Blue Apron will always suggest ones automatically based on how you rated past meals. They must know how much I love salmon!
The front of the recipe card has a nice plated photo, an overview of all the ingredients, and even suggests a wine pairing. There's also a short description of the dish, the number of servings, and total cook time.
The other side of the recipe card has step by step instructions and photos, all in the correct order you'll need to get this meal prepared in the least amount of time!
After prepping all the veggies, I patted the salmon fillets dry and heavily seasoned both sides with the Mexican spice included, as well as salt and pepper.
They went into my trusty non-stick pan, flesh-side down to start for 5 minutes.
While they cooked, I quickly whipped up the lime cream for the corn which was just sour cream and the juice from two lime wedges (plus, salt + pepper). It was a little thinner than I was imagining, so next time I may start with one lime wedge and slowly add more.
I then flipped the salmon to cook on the other side for an additional 4 minutes.
Once the salmon was cooked, I set them aside and used the same pan (without cleaning) for the green beans. I added 2 tablespoons of water, salt + pepper, and loosely covered them with foil to cook for 5 minutes.
I then turned the heat off and added the peppers. Love these two together!
By this time, the corn I had been boiling for a mere 3 minutes was also done.
Everything was plated and the lime crema topped the corn cob (and salmon), along with a dusting of the leftover Mexican spice and cotija cheese.
This was super delicious! I couldn't believe how quickly this was done, and it was soooo simple! It was also great to not have to use my oven. I really love corn prepared this way and now that I've made it, I know how easy it is to make!
Hiyashi Chuka Ramen with Tomatoes, Green Beans, & Soft-Boiled Eggs
Calories per Serving (as prepared): 620 calories
Total Time According to Blue Apron: 15-25 minutes
Actual Time: 20 minutes
This isn't something I'd normally choose since it's vegetarian and I like to showcase more meaty meals in my reviews, plus I'm always wary of soft-boiled eggs for some reason. I love eggs, but there is something about eating them outside of breakfast that is hard for me. Silly, I know.
Again, I was overjoyed to see that the total cook time for this was only 15-20 minutes. On weeknights, I never want to spend 45 minutes making dinner!
There is a lot of marinating going on here, and the cooking is actually really minimal which is nice for summer.
After slicing the little Persian cucumber, I put it in a bowl with half the vinegar, half the sesame oil, and some salt + pepper. This had to marinate for at least 10 minutes, and I made sure to periodically mix it around.
I quartered the tomatoes and added salt + pepper to them in a bowl. That was all!
Here, I added the noodles and halved green beans to boiling water to cook for just about 3 minutes. Not a super interesting photo, so I'll spare you.
I then used the white bottoms of the scallions I sliced to mix with sugar, soy sauce, and the remaining vinegar and sesame oil in a large bowl. I stirred it up until the sugar dissolved.
By then, the eggs I had boiling were ready to be peeled and salt + peppered. I'm so bad at peeling eggs and keeping them pretty. Mine always have huge chunks missing. Ugh!
Everything but the cucumbers joined the sauce in the large bowl to be mixed around. I'll note that when the noodles and green beans were done, I skipped a CRUCIAL step to run them under cold water. I'm so used to straining pasta and noodles and wanting to keep them hot that I totally spaced on this part. It made the noodles really sticky and clumped together.
Here's the finished product! Everything went into a bowl with the cucumbers added, and the soft-boiled egg on top. I then sprinkled furikake and green scallions to garnish.
I didn't end up loving this dish as much as I hoped, but it was 100% my fault for not cooling the noodles down which resulted in them being overcooked and a weird consistency that was not appetizing. Live and learn, as always! I'd say that the marinated cukes were my favorite part of this one.
Verdict: Blue Apron chose my meals for me this time since I forgot to, and it turned out to be 50/50 on things I liked. I probably would have enjoyed the noodle bowl more if I had properly followed the instructions, but thought green beans and tomatoes were odd ingredients in that one. The salmon and corn dish, however, was right up my alley and I love the lime crema, as always. I also loved how quick these recipes were to make on a weeknight after work.
To Wrap Up:
Can you still get this box if you sign up today? Recipes change every week, so these are gone for now, but popular ones always come back in the future. Sign up today to choose for a whole new crop of meals.
Limited Time Offer: Save $60 off your first month ($30 per box) with this link!
COUPON – New customers, save $50 off your first two boxes! No code needed, just use this link
Value Breakdown: At $47.95 ($9.99 per serving + $7.99 shipping), you're paying $11.99 per serving.
Check out all of our Blue Apron Reviews and find other meal boxes in the Meal Subscription Box Directory!
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What do you think of the Blue Apron recipes I got this week?
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