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Tag: Hello Fresh (Page 2 of 3)

Review: Hello Fresh’ Tex-Mex Cheese-Stuffed Burgers with Tomato Salsa and Potato Wedges

May 7, 2019 / / 0 Comments

Rating: 8/10

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I decided to get this kit after really enjoying the last Hello Fresh burgers I got. They were definitely better than the ones I made myself. It occurred to me after I order this kit, however, that my burgers may not be as good because I usually use low fat ground beef. I tried making them with 27% fat ground beef and it was a completely different story – they were delicious!

And t

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his is a good thing because I ended up using my own ground beef to make this recipe – I had used the one from the kit earlier in the week to make plain burgers, and yes, the meat was great. Really, I couldn’t tell the difference between the two.

These burgers were also very tasty – though the tex-mex spice sort of overwhelmed the meat. I particularly liked the tomato-cilantro salsa. It gave the right counter of freshness to the spiciness of the “crema,” but it was hard to keep on the burger, it just kept sliding off!

I also ended up using my potatoes – having made the ones from the kit previously – and the addition of the tex-mex spice worked very well on these.

All in all, it was a very satisfying lunch, but really, one you don’t need a kit to make it. Still, I paid a tad over $11 for this kit with a “welcome back promo”, so I’m not complaining. I would if I’d paid the $20 standard price.

Meal Kit Review: Hello Fresh’ Hoisin-Glazed Meatballs with Jasmine Rice and Green Beans

April 25, 2019 / / 0 Comments

Rating 7/10

I made this kit of Hoisin-Glazed Meatballs with Green Beans tonight for my husband and I, as my non-vegan daughter wasn’t even willing to try it. As you can see, I didn’t make the rice. I had spent the day making a rice dish for my vegan daughter, so I figured if we wanted rice, we could have some of that.

The meatballs were pretty good, they were sweet but not overwhelmingly so. I enjoyed them. The green beans were pedestrian. The whole meal was quick to put together – though it did necessitate using the oven, something which I’m trying to avoid now that the spring heat has hit us.

The one failure is that the lime that Hello Fresh sent was, seemingly, pretty old because it had no juice whatsoever. Let me repeat that, no juice at all. It was as dry as Death Valley.

I paid a tad over $11 for this kit ($5.65 pp), with a “welcome back” promo I got in the mail. For that price, I was happy.

Review: Hello Fresh’ Crispy Pork Milanese with Cheesy Potatoes and Blistered Tomatoes

April 11, 2019 / / 0 Comments

Rating: 7/10

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This meal kit was a mixed bag. The pork milanese was sort of bland and it really needed acidity. The blistered tomatoes just didn’t provide enough of it. It was good with lemon juice, but not extraordinary.

I did like the cheesy mashed potatoes a lot – but what’s not to like about cheesy mashed potatoes?

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I think my favorite thing about the kit was getting the eggs in their little container. Plus they were cool eggs. I only had to use one, and it had the darkest yolk I’ve ever seen.



Review: Hello Fresh’ Melty Monterey Jack Burgers with Red Onion Jam, Garlic Mayo, and Crispy Breaded Zucchini

April 11, 2019 / / 0 Comments

Rating: 9/10

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I made this kit for my husband and daughter, and they were both very pleased with it. A burger may seem like a trivial thing to make, but making a new and exciting burger and getting the right amount of fat in the meat – and the right quality meat – is not always easy. Given how expensive burgers have become, even at the regular price of $21 per kit this would have been a good meal, but I got the whole kit for $11 with a promo (make sure to always check on the right hand menu for referral links with promo), which was a super bargain.

BTW, keeping the buns in the oven and then toasting them seems to work very well.

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Meal Kit Hack: HelloFresh’ Singapore-Style Hakka Noodles with Summer Veggies

March 20, 2019 / / 0 Comments

Rating 8/10

For the first time, I got to cook a recipe that fit within two of my cooking projects. As a Hakka recipe, this meal of Singapore-Style Hakka Noodles with Summer Veggies fits into my International cuisines project. As a recipe from a meal kit, it fits into my meal kit hacks. Plus, it’s a vegan recipe, which I’m guessing will soon become a project of its own.

What’s even better, is that my daughter liked it! It’s one of the very few vegan meals she’s said she’d like me to make again.

It was, I must admit, more complicated than most of the stir fries that she eats so often now – and it used more pans – but hey, it’s all about the results. I tasted the noodles, and they were delicious – very much like the garlic noodles that you get at a variety of Asian restaurants. I’m definitely going to make them again just for me 🙂

Talking about noodles, I waited to make this dish until I could send my husband to the Asian supermarket to pick up some Hakka noodles. We usually shop at 88 Manor Market, where they have a zillion varieties of noodles, maybe more. But I also wanted him to pick up some pork belly for a different recipe and I wasn’t sure they’d have it there – so I asked him to go to Foodnet instead. I hadn’t been there before, however, and apparently Foodnet is the one noodle-free Chinese supermarket. Go figure. They did have a 4 lb box of Imperial Taste Dried Noodle, which turned out to be vermicelli-like noodles. According to the box, they had a “chewing taste!,” and they did prove to be nicely chewy. They worked great in this recipe even if they weren’t what Hakkas in Singapore would use.

I spent $10 to make this recipe, which resulted in two large bowls. That’s half of what the HelloFresh meal kit would cost (though this kit is from England, so you can’t get it anyway :-). As usual, I count the total cost of the ingredients I had to buy to make this meal, but not of the ones I already had at home.

Plated IngredientsMy IngredientsCost
200 g Hakka Noodles4 lbs Taiwanese dried noodle$5
10 g chives1 pckg fresh chives
(used less)		$2.3
30 g ginger1 lb ginger$2.3
1 Tbsp chili garlic sauce2 garlic cloves + 1/8 tsp chili saucepantry
1 Tbsp soy sauce1 Tbsp soy saucepantry
1 tsp mild curry powder1 tsp mild curry powderpantry
113 g julienned carrots1 carrot$0.2
1 zucchini1/2 zucchinipantry
113 g Green Peas1 cup grozen green peaspantry
200 g extra-firm tofu8 oz extra-firm tofupantry

I will link to my version of the recipe once I post it on my International Cuisines site.

Meal Kit Review: HelloFresh’ Sirloin and Horseradish Cream Sauce with Garlic Bread and Roasted Carrots

February 28, 2019 / / 0 Comments

Rating 5/10

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This meal kit for Sirloin and Horseradish Cream Sauce with Garlic Bread and Roasted Carrots may be the first HelloFresh kit that really failed to impress me. It was acceptable dinner fare, but very pedestrian. There were no new flavors here, no tricks, no recipes I’d care to copy and repeat. It was ultimately what it looks like: meat with carrots and garlic bread, with some onions and sour cream. I’ve had it all before (indeed, I had pretty much the same dish concept from EveryPlate – HelloFresh’ cheaper meal kit brand). Moreover, it seems to me that HelloFresh is trying to cut corners and send out cheaper ingredients and ask cooks to include more and more staples of their own to the meals.

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The main ingredient of this meal was the sirloin and I was unimpressed with the quality. The meat was tough and wasn’t particularly flavorful. The two steaks sent had very different shapes from each other and, as you can see above, they were partly discolored, which took from their visual appeal (at least before cooking).

The steak was stopped with sliced onions cooked with beef stock which were fine, but unremarkable. I wondered if HelloFresh was cutting corners by not including demi-glace instead of the stock concentrate.

The accompanying horseradish sauce was also disappointing. It was basically sour cream with a few green onions and horseradish powder. I think it might have been better with some prepared horseradish.

The carrots were just carrots – not my thing but my husband happily ate them just like he has every other time a kit has included carrots.

Finally, the garlic bread included the same “semi-baguette” buns that were included in the EveryPlate meal I referenced above. Once again, I really liked the consistency of the buns. I didn’t like that I had to provide my own butter – I understand that from EveryPlate, but I expect more from HelloFresh -, and I specially didn’t like that the kit included garlic powder instead of fresh garlic.

At the end of the day, however, I am likely to blame for choosing this kit. But I’ve noticed that I’m not particularly excited by many of HelloFresh’ kits – I’ll be suspending for several weeks now as I can’t find much in their upcoming menu I actually want to eat.

Update: I have 3 referrals for 1-week free of HelloFresh. E-mail me if you’d like one.

Meal Kit Review: HelloFresh’ Crispy Parmesan Chicken with Garlic Herb Couscous and Lemony Roasted Carrots + Recipe

February 27, 2019 / / 1 Comment

Rating: 7/10

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Believe it or not, in my half century in this earth, I’d never had Parmessan chicken. Indeed, I’ve never though of cheese and chicken as two ingredients that belonged together. Still, this recipe for Crispy Parmesan Chicken with Garlic Herb Couscous and Lemony Roasted Carrots sounded like something my picky younger daughter would eat – after all, the chicken looks like a chicken milanesa, and she loves milanesas.

Once again, this was a pretty simple recipe to put together and it didn’t really have any exotic ingredients (Israeli couscous was exotic once upon a time, but it’s now easily available). You can make it with ingredients easily found at the supermarket. Still, the chicken was moist and tasty – the smokiness of the paprika really came through. I quite enjoyed it.

The couscous, however, lacked flavor. It would have been better if some of the Parmessan for the chicken (there was more than enough) was used for the couscous.

I don’t like carrots, but my husband – who ate mine – thought the lemony carrots were good. All you do is roast carrot sticks for 20 minutes, with a little olive oil and salt, and then sprinkle grated lemon zest and lemon juice on them. My daughter, who also tried them, wasn’t fond of them, however.

For some reason, the recipe for the chicken called to only bread it on one side. It didn’t say why, so I breaded it on both. It was a good call.

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I cooked this kit the day after I got it, and all the ingredients were fresh and I felt of good quality.

I paid $14 for this meal after a discount or $7 per serving. I think that was an appropriate price for a home cooked meal, though obviously I could put it together for less than that if I bought the ingredients myself.

The recipe for the chicken is below. While it calls for 2 chicken breasts, there was enough breading for a third one. It serves two.

Crispy Parmesan Chicken

  • 1/4 cup panko breadcrumbs
  • 1/4 cup fresh shredded Parmesan cheese
  • 1 tsp smoked paprika
  • 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (~6 oz each)
  • salt & pepper to taste
  • 2 Tbsp sour cream

Preheat oven to 425F Line a baking sheet.

In a medium to large bowl mix together the breadcrumbs, Parmesan cheese and paprika.

Dry chicken breasts with a paper towel. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Brush sour cream over both sides of the breasts. Transfer them one by one to the breadcrumbs bowl and press breading onto the chicken surface. Transfer them to the baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes.

Meal Kit Review: Breaded Pork Cutlets with Garlic Bread and an Apple and Sunflower Seed Salad + Recipes

February 24, 2019 / / 0 Comments

Rating: 8/10

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Some times the best meals are the simplest. There is nothing complicated about this HelloFresh meal of Breaded Pork Cutlets with Garlic Bread and an Apple and Sunflower Seed Salad. Nothing exotic. It can be simply put together with supermarket staples that won’t have you searching around up and down the aisles and things you already have in your pantry. And it’s very tasty and very satisfying.

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All the ingredients came fresh and stayed that way, even though I cooked the meal four days after it arrived. The pork wasn’t dry and the seasoning was spot on. However, they listed the amount of kosher salt to add, but they neither included it in the kit or listed kosher salt as a needed ingredient. I didn’t have kosher salt around, so I used a smaller amount of table salt. The original recipe called for breading the pork in a plastic bag, but I used a bowl as I didn’t have a gallon ziplock bag around and I’m already using too much plastic by getting these meal kits. A bowl worked just as well.

I very much enjoyed the salad. Mine came with mixed greens – though I see HelloFresh also offers it with just arugula – and a yellow apple (golden delicious?). The dressing was olive oil and lemon juice – I’ve not been fond of this combination in other salads, but it worked here. The star of the show were the sunflower seeds, however, which added crunch and a faint sweetness to the whole thing.

I’m not giving this kit a perfect 10, however, because Hello Fresh did not include the butter needed to make the garlic bread and I didn’t have any at home. I suppose I could have looked at the list of ingredients that I needed to have at hand for this recipe before I chose it, but the whole point of meal kits is to not have to go shopping for the ingredients. Particularly in the case of this meal, where all the ingredients are so easily available, if I’m going shopping for butter, I might as well pick up the rest and cook the meal for a fraction of the cost. I understand that Hello Fresh is trying to save money by not providing the butter, but it’s still not cool.

In any case, I think oven-baked garlic bread is not a good choice for this meal. Both the pork and the salad can be put together rather quickly, but making the garlic bread requires preheating the oven, which is both a waste of energy for such a small meal, and a waste of time. Instead, they could have suggested toasting the bread in the same pan where the pork was cooked.

I’m also dinging the recipe because I was still hungry when I finished – even though I ate a lot of salad (there was plenty of it). Perhaps that’s due to not being able to make & eat the garlic bread.

After the discount, I paid $14 for this kit or $7 per serving (regular price would have been $20/kit or $10/serving).

BREADED PORK CUTLETS

  • 1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs
  • 3/4 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 1 tsp onion powder
  • 1 tsp paprika
  • 4 pork cutlets
  • 2 Tbsp sour cream
  • vegetable oil for frying
  • 1/2 lemon, cut into 2 wedges

In a medium bowl, combine breadcrumbs, salt and spices. In a different bowl or plate, coat pork cutlets with sour cream (you may need to use your fingers to spread it). Transfer the cutlets to the bowl with the breadcrumbs and coat well.

Heat a 1/4″ layer of oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Once hot, transfer cutlets into the skillet and fry on each side, about 2-3 minutes per side. Transfer to paper towels to absorb extra oil. Serve with lemon wedges on the side to squeeze on the cutlets.

APPLE AND SUNFLOWER SEED SALAD

  • 1 apple
  • 1 celery stalk
  • 2 oz spring mix
  • 1 Tbsp olive oil
  • 1/2 lemon
  • 1 oz sunflower seeds

Core the apple and slice into thin slices. Thinly slice the celery.

Put apple, celery and spring mix into a medium bowl. Dress with olive oil. Squeeze the lemon half on it and mix. Add the sunflower seeds and mix again.

Meal Kit Review: Hello Fresh’ Creamy Dill Chicken with Roasted Potatoes and Green Beans + Recipe

February 21, 2019 / / 0 Comments

Rating: 7/10

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This week I went back to Hello Fresh, as I didn’t like the offerings of any of the services I hadn’t yet tried – and I was given a good deal ($20 off each of 4 boxes) for re-activating my account. I got just two meals (which frankly, works better for us, as I’m always rushing to cook all kits before they go bad) and tonight I made the first one for my daughter and I. It was pretty good.

This meal of Creamy Dill Chicken with Roasted Potatoes and Green Beans was extremely simple: you cut and bake some potatoes, baked some green beans, sauteed some chicken and then made a quick sour cream-mustard-dill sauce. Still, it was a tasty and satisfying meal and I very much enjoyed the sauce (recipe below). My daughter didn’t have any sauce, but she liked the other elements.

There were some problems, however. The main one is that there wasn’t enough sauce. What they sent was barely enough for one serving (so it was fortunate my daughter didn’t want to try it). They need to double the ingredients for it. Secondly, the chicken breasts were too thin and they cooked in less than the 4-6 minutes per side that they recommended. Also, the portion size was a bit on the small size (or I was particularly hungry).

This is a very easy meal to put together on your own, however. I think I will add dill to the herbs I grow on my window to be able to easily make it again.

After the discount, I paid $14 for this kit or $7 per serving (regular price would have been $20/kit or $10/serving).

Update: it’s spring and this kit now comes with asparagus instead of green beans. I ordered it again – forgetting I’d already had it – and served it to my husband this time. He loved the dill sauce. Once again, there wasn’t enough of it.

Creamy Dill Chicken

  • 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (12 oz)
  • salt & pepper to taste
  • 1 Tbsp olive oil
  • 2 Tbsp sour cream
  • 2 tsp chicken stock concentrate
  • 1 tsp fresh chopped dill
  • 1 tsp mustard
  • 2 Tbsp water

Pat dry chicken breasts and season with salt & pepper. Heat oil in a saute pan over medium heat. Add chicken breaths and cook until cooked through and golden, 3-6 minutes per side. Turn off heat, remove chicken and keep warm.

Add the sour cream, chicken stock concentrate, dill, mustard and water to the saute pan and mix well, scraping up the brown bits on the pan. Serve chicken with sauce.

Review: HelloFresh Is Worth a Try

October 28, 2018 / / 0 Comments

(October, 2021 Revision. This review is updated periodically.).

HelloFresh is one of the largest meal kit delivery companies and one of the most ubiquitous as far as coupons are concerned.  Indeed, it was the first company I subscribed to and one I revisit every year or so, usually with very attractive “come back” offers.   The company is based in Germany and it delivers meals to several international markets as well as the US.

They are a mid-priced meal kit company, with kits selling at around $20/kit or $10/serving (plus $10 shipping). The food is tasty but not overly creative. Once upon a time, Hello Fresh introduced consumers to somewhat exotic ingredients (demi glace!), but lately they seem to have been using cheaper ingredients in their meals and requiring you to have more things at hand.

On the other hand, their kits seem to have been getting simpler – or I’ve just gotten a hang of making them. The meals are consistently tasty, though not mind blowing. In general, we rate them 7-8 points out of 10.

So far, I’ve only subscribed to HelloFresh with a discount, though how much these are have varied each time. While I originally felt HelloFresh was too expensive for me, I now feel it’s very reasonably priced even at full price. The price of groceries, restaurant meals and delivery has gone up astronomically during the pandemic, and HelloFresh has mostly kept its prices, though adding $10 in shipping (which works out to about $11.7 per serving)

While I’ve liked most of the meals I’ve had, I’m seldom excited by the offerings. On the other hand, I’ve had almost no problems with this service – except once when they didn’t deliver my box until after 11 PM.

These are the kits I’ve made so far:

Chicken in Dijon Sauce with Balsamic Greens, Walnuts & Grapes plus Garlic Bread

7/10


Mozzarella & Herb Chicken with Roasted Carrots & Buttery Couscous

8/10

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is IMG-1850-scaled-e1634486161761.jpgItalian Beef Melts with Onion, Green Pep per, Mozarella & Roasted Potato Wedges

8/10



Hoisin-Glazed Meatballs with Jasmine Rice and Green Beans

Tasty meatballs



Crispy Pork Milanese with Cheesy Potatoes and Blistered Tomatoes

Loved the potatoes, the pork needed lemon juice.



Melty Monterey Jack Burgers with Red Onion Jam, Garlic Mayo, and Crispy Breaded Zucchini

This was a great burger.



Sirloin and Horseradish Cream Sauce with Garlic Bread and Roasted Carrots

Uneven meat and pedestrian flavors



Crispy Parmesan Chicken with Garlic Herb Couscous and Lemony Roasted Carrots



Sweet ‘N’ Smoky Pork Chops with Apple Carrot Slaw, Mashed Potatoes, and Cherry Sauce ReviewThis dish had no right being this good.


Very tasty and the kiwi salsa is a killer.



My vegan daughter thought it was “just OK”.



Where I discovered just how amazing demi-glace is



Breaded Pork Cutlets with Garlic Bread and an Apple and Sunflower Seed SaladSometimes simple is best.


Creamy Dill Chicken with Roasted Potatoes and Green Beans + RecipeLoved the dill sauce, but there wasn’t enough of it.


And I cooked several different HelloFresh meal kit recipes using my own ingredients. This allowed me to get a broader idea of what HelloFresh offers, without having to spend too much money doing so.

Singapore-Style Hakka Noodles with Summer Veggies

Good vegan recipe from HelloFresh UK


Oven-Baked Apricot Chicken Legs with Roasted Potato Wedges and Lemony Broccoli

Very satisfactory family fare.


Sesame-Crusted Tofu with Spicy Peanut Butter Sauce & Garlic Bok Choy + PB Sauce Recipe

A vegan choice with an awesome peanut sauce and coconut rice.


A restaurant-quality dinner at home. Yum!


These are my general observations.

HelloFresh’s kits taste better than I expected

I subscribed to HelloFresh before taking a look at the actual meals they offered – I had a coupon and I figured, for $15 for two kits, I don’t need to be too picky.  However, I was disappointed by the choices once I saw them. All the kits sounded boring and the photos weren’t too enticing.  Moreover, most of the kits included either pork or chicken breasts, not my favorite proteins.

But so far, almost every Hello Fresh recipe I made was very tasty – far more than I thought it would be.  The one exception was the vegan sweet potato & black bean tacos I made. This continues to be my impression in 2021.

HelloFresh’s offerings are not very adventurous

HelloFresh mostly offers updated American food. This can be a plus or minus depending on what sort of food you like to eat.  Living in California, we rarely eat American food at home or in restaurants, but exploring it is not necessarily a bad thing.  Still, I recommend looking at the offerings before subscribing. This continues to be my impression in 2021.

They are mid-priced for a meal delivery service

HelloFresh prices their meals from $8 to $12 per person/per week, depending on what plan you choose.  Their classic plan of 3 meal kits for 2 per week costs $61 after shipping costs, or $10.25 per person-per week.  In 2021 the cost of shipping has gone up, so the typical subscription comes down to $11.67 per person per week.

You have to pay more for fancier meals.

HelloFresh’s basic plan costs $20 per 2-portion kit.  But if you want something fancier, featuring steak rather than pork or chicken or special ingredients such as balsamic vinegar, you need to pay a $12 premium per kit – making each portion cost $16.  That’s pricier than other services. Costs have gone up here as well. The typical premium right now is of $9-10 extra per serving, making a premium kit cost about $20 per serving/$40 per kit.

Portions are just the right size

So far, the portions we tried were the right size for us for dinner.  We weren’t left full or hungry and there weren’t leftovers. This continues to be my impression in 2021.

It’s not environmentally friendly

Like other meal kit subscription services, HelloFresh sends their kits in a large box with freezer gel packs to keep the proteins cold.  While the boxes are recyclable, neither the packing material nor the gel packs are (they claim the bag around the gel packs are, but there is no longer any plastic recycling going on).  Similarly, some of the veggies are in plastic bags that are not recyclable. This continues to be my impression in 2021.

The meals take about an hour to make

Maybe it’s just me, but whether cooking from a kit or a recipe, I always need about an hour to make a full meal. Some of the meals HelloFresh now offers take less time to make.

While I’ve been lucky with HelloFresh not everyone has been

I have never had any serious problems with HelloFresh. All but once the deliveries came in time and they’ve always included all the ingredients, usually with nothing spoiled. YMMV, however. 

HelloFresh is a subscription service

Many of the negative reviews of HelloFresh come because people sign up for free or discounted meal boxes and don’t realize this enrolls them in a subscription service.  So if you subscribe, make sure you cancel at least five days before your next order is due.  Better yet, skip the following weeks of meals so you have time to cancel after you actually try the kits. This continues to be my impression in 2021.

Suspending and cancelling is a breeze

I was able to easily suspend shipments and then cancel my account. I got offers to resubscribe at a discount after I cancelled, thrice so far. This continues to be my impression in 2021.

If you want to subscribe to HelloFresh

You can use this link and get $40 off your first box plus free shipping. 

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