My first ever meal from one of these companies was a meal from HelloFresh called "Thai Pad' Krapow Moo." It came in my "surprise" meal kit (see my original article Meal Delivery Challenge! Which One Is Superior?! to understand my meaning).
After I'd gotten home from a long day and got over my frustration and irritation from having not one, but two meal kits on my kitchen counter, I decided to take it in stride. I looked through both companies and chose the one meal I didn't think my family would love and set to start. I poured myself a glass of wine, lit a candles, put on some smooth jazz and started slicing and dicing.
All the ingredients came in a brown bag and each ingredient was individually packed in plastic bags. I didn't love that there was so much waste (the plastic bags), but at least it came in a brown bag, right?
I was pretty excited (I'm not ashamed to say) to begin pulling out all the fresh ingredients I would need to make this dish. Seeing as how I'd never made Thai food before, I wasn't quite sure what to expect. Every ingredient I took out looked and smelled fresh and we oh so colorful!
I've always wanted to cook Thai food at home, but I've found the ingredients to be too much - a lot of Thai recipes call for ingredients I don't have readily available like coconut milk, fresh ginger, fish sauce, sesame oil/sauce, and so on, and since I would be the only one to eat a meal like this, I have never ventured out to buy the ingredients needed. So I was pretty excited to finally be making an "exotic" 'food I'd never been adventurous enough to prepare (although, I was not very hopeful as to the outcome). I think the most exciting part was the tiny stalk of ginger they gave me. I have never purchased ginger because it comes in such a large stalk, so I've always used ginger powder, which I think, in hindsight, is why any meal calling for ginger has felt so lacking.
When it called for it, I grabbed the little baby ginger and, following the directions, started peeling it with my peeler. I peeled it just like I would a potato, but I was not expecting how much juicier it was than a potato, which led to a giant glob of ginger juice shooting directly into my eye. If this has never happened to you, I wouldn't advise it. At first, I thought I could just close my one eye and it would eventually eat at the juice but nope! I ended up having to wash my eye out to get the stinging to stop, so that put about a ten-minute pause on the cooking session. It was only after all this had happened that I notices a small note at the top of the card that explained how to peel it - with a spoon! Oh well - lesson learned!
One of the things I did like about the recipe was that it gave not only the cook time but also the prep time. So if I had read it in the morning, I would know how long I would need, in total, to prepare the meal, which is always nice when you have such a busy family.
One con, however, was that the company assumed I would have olive oil and salt and pepper on hand - I did, of course, but I have only recently begun to purchase olive oil instead of canola oil, and I know a lot of people who don't. Another thing I noticed as well was they used a lot of "Chef Lingo": dice, zest, wedge...I knew what zesting was but I'd never done it and thankfully I had a cheese grater that had that mechanism built in.
In the end, I found the recipe very easy to follow - the steps made sense, they were in an order that would ensure I would use as few dishes as possible and have the meal ready as quickly as possible. I did, however, change it up just a bit: The recipe called for sprinkling "roughly cut Thai basil" onto the prepared meal, but knowing I would just remove it instead of eat it, I chopped it up really small and added it to the meat while cooking. I do not regret doing that!
When everything was all said and done (about 20 minutes later) my meal looked pretty much the same as the picture on the meal card:
I will say - it's one of the best home-cooked meals I have had in a long time. I saved some and put it in the fridge for the next day's lunch and thought about it all morning. When I got home, I popped it in the microwave for a minute and indulged in deliciousness!
MY VERDICT:
Meal Selection: 1/2
Since I didn't get to choose my meals, I got a Thai meal and a Moroccan meal. For two boys who are extremely unadventurous in their eating, these wouldn't fly. But, to be fair, I checked out the website to see if, had I had the opportunity to choose my meals, they would have anything our whole family could enjoy.
There are three plans with HelloFresh: Pronto, Family and Veggie. The Pronto plan had things like Turkish Spiced Beef, Pesto Chicken with Lemon Couscous and Zucchini salad - none of those things would even be attempted by my picky eaters - couscous is a no-no in this house (except for me - I happen to love couscous).
The family plan had things like: Cheesy Chicken Enchiladas with sour cream and cilantro as well as British Pork Pie with Green Peas and Apple Chutney. Those were the only two meals I could imagine my family trying, but the buck would probably stop at Apple Chutney. That said, for a single person who likes exotic food, HelloFresh wouldn't be so bad.
Family Friendly: 1/2
It was only after I cooked this meal and my husband walked into the aromas and the look of the food did he say: "I would have eaten that!" So, I will say that this could have probably been served to my picky eaters - my husband may have liked it, but I have no idea about my son. That said, it was quick and super easy to make so I would say it was fair well for busy families.
Quality of Ingredients: 2/2
The quality of the ingredients were great! Everything looked and smelled fresh, everything was ripe, and it was cool to be able to use real ginger in a recipe without having to buy a pound of it and have most of it go to waste.
Packaging: 1/2
I didn't love that everything was packaged in a plastic bag (even things that could have been left loose or packaged in a small container), but the brown bag approach allows me to give them an A for effort!
Taste: 2/2
I LOVED this meal! I have thought about it ever since and it gave me a good starting off point, as well as some optimism, for future meals!
Nutrition: 1/2
Although there was only one spice I needed to use, I wasn't able to find the information on how much sodium was included. However, I needed 4 packets of soy sauce (which I am thinking is about 1 tbsp each), and every time I started cooking a new ingredient, it told me to add salt for taste. I don't salt a lot of my foods so I skipped that step for everything except the meat (it even wanted me to add salt to the rice!)
Pricing: 1/2:
HelloFresh only has 3 plans - Pronto, Family, and Vegetarian. Each plan only has a select few servings and recipes that they offer. The Pronto Plan offer 2 or 4 servings with 2 or 4 recipes. For our family, we would order 2 servings of 3 meals (since my son doesn't eat a full-sized meal) and the cost for that would be $13.33 per serving which translates to $65 a week.
The Family Plan has 3 or 4 recipes but only 4 servings - which is way too much food for our little family, so it's not an option. The total per week for this option would be a little over $68.
From the research I have done for all the companies, this is one of the highest prices per week.
Overall thoughts - I think it was an amazing introduction to this new industry and gave me some optimism for future meals. I was worried they would all be bland and boring meals, but this one cut the cake! I loved it and, except for the few shortcomings, the meal and the company impressed me (even though they essentially tricked me into getting those meals in the first place! haha). If all the meals are as fantastic as this, I would definitely say that this company is a contender!
TOTAL SCORE: 8/12
TOMORROW NIGHT: Pork Souvlaki Pitas from #Goodfood!
Missing something? Check the first article in this series: The Meal Delivery Challenge! Which One Is Superior!?
Had an experience yourself with HelloFood? Comment below with your opinion and experience!
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