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).
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 DEAL: Save $60 of your first three months of Blue Apron ($20 per box) with this link!
The Products: Fresh ingredients and recipes to make healthy meals at home.
Ships to: U.S. only
Blue Apron March 2019 Review
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.
The produce was packed atop a cardboard divider, beneath which was the meat and a nest of ice packs.
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 “knick knack” bag so they don’t get lost in the shuffle, and those are labeled with the meal’s name as well. The plastic bags are the same as the ones larger ingredients come in and are recyclable.
There were no advertisements or info cards in this month’s box, much to my surprise.
Anyway, let’s get these dishes started!
Meal #1: Bánh Mì-Style Beef Burgers with Sesame-Roasted Broccoli
Calories per serving (as prepared): 940
Total cook time according to Blue Apron: 20 minutes on the site, 15-25 minutes on the recipe card
Actual time: 40 minutes
After unboxing all of the ingredients, I separated each meal into its own plastic grocery bag for storage in the fridge, so nothing got lost or accidentally incorporated into another dish. Here’s a look at everything for the first meal.
To start, I pre-heated my oven to 450 degrees, lined a large sheet pan with foil, then chopped the stem off the broccoli before separating it into florets. On one side of the sheet pan, I tossed the broccoli with sesame oil, then seasoned it all with salt and pepper. Easy. It went into the oven to roast for 10 minutes.
Next up, I peeled and shredded the carrots, then thinly sliced the radishes. In a small bowl, I combined the sugar with the rice vinegar.
I tossed the veggies in the vinegar mixture until the sugar dissolved. Everything sat to marinate for the rest of the cooking time.
In another bowl, I mixed the mayo with the entire container of sambal oelek, then followed that up with a little bit of salt and pepper. The mayo cooled the heat of the sambal oelek quite a bit, so the condiment was more flavorful than spicy. I don’t usually like having ingredients leftover from meal subscription kits, so using up everything was once again a wise choice.
At this point, I mixed together the entire pack of curry powder with the package of ground beef. The recipe said to use as much seasoning as I’d like—up to half—but I would still have some leftover. Hah. Never! It was only 2 teaspoons of seasoning, so why not use it all, you know? I added some salt and pepper to this, too.
I formed the ground beef into four somewhat equally-sized patties and set them aside while my large non-stick pan heated. After shaping the patties, I quickly washed my hands, lest they be stained yellow from the curry powder.
When the broccoli finished roasting after 10 minutes, I added the sliced baguettes to the other half of the sheet pan, then hit ‘em with a little bit of olive oil, salt, and pepper. Everything went back into the oven for 6 minutes, until the bread toasted.
Once the pan was nice and hot with a drizzle of olive oil, I tossed in the patties to cook for 4 minutes on each side.
Here it is, the completed dish. Although it didn’t take me 20 minutes to complete (I’m not sure how that would even be possible because I was working pretty quickly and it still took me twice as long as suggested), it was certainly worth the wait. The bread was soft and toasted, the mayo was incredibly flavorful, and the curry powder in the ground beef was a marvelous touch. The radishes and carrots were crunchy with a lot of bright, refreshing flavor, and were a great topping for this sandwich. I wish there would have been a bit less of the veggie topping and a bit more broccoli for the side, but that’s my only piece of feedback.
Meal #2: Crispy Chicken Schnitzel with Mashed Potatoes and Mustard-Dressed Kale
Calories per serving (as prepared): 910
Total cook time according to Blue Apron: 40 minutes on the site, 35-45 minutes on the recipe card
Actual time: 1 hour and 3 minutes
I could tell right away this dish was going to make a typical Monday night feel like a real special occasion.
There was quite a bit of prep involved, and once the figurative plates started spinning, there was almost no stopping them. Because I forgot to bring the honey to room temperature, I kept it in my pocket while I worked through the other steps. To start, I filled a medium-sized pot with water and salt, then covered it to boil. After washing and drying the produce, I diced the potatoes, grated the apple on the large side of a box grater, and removed the kale from the stems. The kale then received a rough chop. In a separate bowl, I mixed the creamy mustard sauce with a drizzle of olive oil, one honey packet, salt, and pepper.
I tossed the chopped kale with the mustard and honey marinade, at first with a miniature spatula, but then with my hands to soften the leaves and really work the dressing in there. This sat to marinate until the rest of the meal was completed, to further soften the leaves. I snuck a taste, and the dressing was delicious.
The diced potatoes went into the boiling, salted water to cook for 15 minutes, until fork tender.
In another separate bowl, I combined the rice vinegar with the remaining packet of honey, salt, pepper, and the shredded apple. After a good toss, this mixture sat until the rest of the meal was completed, just like the kale.
With the potatoes boiling and a large non-stick skillet heating on another burner, I assembled the dredging station: one dinner plate for bread crumbs, another dinner plate for flour, and a small mixing bowl for the egg, which I whipped into submission. All of these components were seasoned with salt and pepper.
I dried both sides of each chicken thigh with paper towels, but not before failing to open the packaging properly, spilling chicken juice all over my counter, cabinets, and feet. I definitely tacked on some extra time trying to clean up that awful mess. Don’t be like me—open your chicken packaging carefully! Anyway, once each side was patted dry, I hit the pieces of chicken with salt and pepper.
After 15 minutes, the boiled potatoes were drained into the colander, then returned them to their original pot.
Here I am covering each piece of chicken in the seasoned flour, then dipping them in the egg, and finishing them with breadcrumbs, pressing to adhere.
As the large non-stick pan continued to heat, I set the prepped chicken aside.
I drizzled the boiled potatoes with a tablespoon of olive oil, then seasoned them with salt and pepper. They received a light mash to my desired consistency, which is generally smooth, with a little bit of character.
In the melted ghee, I cooked the chicken for 7 minutes on each side. This was the perfect time to do some cleaning up and to prevent me from fussing with the chicken so it got nice and golden brown.
And voila, the finished dish. I really, really enjoyed it! The kale was nice and soft after marinating in the dressing, which was stellar in itself. The mashed potatoes were simple enough to throw together, and the bright flavor and light sweetness of the apple topping took the schnitzel to the next level. It honestly felt like having a restaurant-quality meal at home, so color me impressed. The portions were also on the generous side. This recipe kept me incredibly busy from start to finish, and though it took a little while to whip together, it was certainly worth it.
Verdict: My experience with Blue Apron this month was excellent. Both dishes were a win for me, and I’m excited to recreate them sometime in the future. Although the cook time expectation versus the reality was still skewed, it didn’t detract much from the general experience. Overall, I wouldn’t substitute Blue Apron for a weekly grocery trip, but I will continue to use it to explore different dishes, and to shake up my meal rotation here and there.
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.
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?
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