*Review by invite*
Have you ever been too busy to cook? You may be heartened to know that you’re not the only one. Millions of Brits are too busy to be healthy, with a whopping 75% skipping meals because of time constraints, and 60% struggling to find nutritious recipes*.
Cooking at home has its merits. I cook as I find it therapeutic. From the gentle sizzle of garlic, to the rhythmic whir of my KitchenAid, I love being in my kitchen. It’s also cheaper cooking at home, in comparison to eating out. If you’re trying to eat more healthily (there’s no better way to monitor your food intake than cooking at home), then you may have heard of recipe boxes.
HelloFresh is a recipe box that fits in with your lifestyle. You’re in control as you order – by specifying how many people you’d be cooking for, how many times a week, any dietary requirements, time for delivery, then opt for one of three options. I chose the Classic Box (there’s a Family Box and Rapid Box too), which works out at a pocket-friendly £5.83 a meal.
The HelloFresh Classic Box consisted of three meals. I have heard of HelloFresh before (friends have tried it and waxed lyrical about its ease of use and delivery). I was looking forward to receiving my HelloFresh box, because I was interested to see if their ingredients and recipes would be in “season”.
My delivery was due the following week, and on the day, I received tracker updates from my courier. It was all very efficient and impressive.
Everything came nicely packaged in a big box (including chiller-bags to keep dairy food cold). Three recipes and their respective ingredients I received were SuperQuick Mexican Chilli, Lemon and Rosemary Turkey, and Chicken Laksa. What I loved was that all the ingredients are bagged up according to recipe, so there was zero chance of getting things mixed up. Even herbs were clearly labelled, which is why HelloFresh is a boon for newbie cooks, those who are too busy, under-confident cooks who want to up-skill in a safe way, and those with a sense of adventure who want to try new recipes.
I cooked all three recipes in the space of one week. The recipes were easy to follow and idiot-proof. As I cook often, I thought the instructions were simple to follow, and there was no measuring-out needed. My favourite was the SuperQuick Mexican Chilli. I was in a veggie kind of mood, so I substituted the beef mince with soya mince, which took mere minutes to hydrate.
Instead of browning the mince, I simply waited for the hydration to finish, in Step 1, then continued onto Step 2, which was preparing the vegetables.
I am cooking more with soya mince, I’m really finding this ingredient exciting to work with, and versatile to boot. It’s a blank canvas and like myriad vegetables especially an aubergine, I find the soya mince really absorbs flavours well. In this recipe. I loved the fragrance of the fajita seasoning as I fried off the herbs with the soya mince.
I love colourful dishes, and this chilli dish didn’t disappoint. The final result was delicious and one recipe I will continue to use. From the use of red wine stock, to finely chopped tomatoes with onion and garlic (never again am I using plain canned chunky tomatoes), this HelloFresh chilli dish was beautiful, moreish, hearty, healthy and easy, so easy to cook.
The other recipes were just as simple, and equally as tasty. Here is the Lemon and Rosemary Turkey bubbling away on the stove.
The Chicken Laksa was wonderfully spicy. If you like it spicier, feel free to throw in a green chilli.
Cooking with a HelloFresh recipe box was a great experience. I am generally quite organised with my time – I write weekly meal-plans every Friday night (how very rock ‘n’ roll, get me). Should the need ever arise when I know I’m going to have a busy month, I will undoubtedly refer to HelloFresh and get signed on.
Would I recommend HelloFresh? Yes, definitely. The recipes are delicious and I defy you to find a recipe tastier than the HelloFresh SuperQuick Mexican Chilli. For more information about HelloFresh, hop on over to their website now.
*Source: Independent: 020318