Rating: 8/10

Gobble distinguishes itself from other meal kit companies by offering meal kits that can be put together in just 15 minutes.  They do this by including some pre-prepared ingredients and having simpler meals than their competitors.

This meal kit for Seared Flat Iron Steak with Baby Carrots & Harissa Green Lentils consisted of just four ingredients: beef, carrots, pre-cooked lentils and their version of harissa sauce.  The beef was supposed to be flat iron steaks.  Instead, I got a bunch of beef slices labeled flatiron.  The quality of the meat was quite good and the beef was very tasty, however.  The small, multi-color carrots were very cute but ultimately they just tasted like carrots.  The lentils just needed to be warmed up in the microwave and then mixed with the harissa sauce.  They were very good.  The meal was a bit unbalanced, however.  There were plenty of lentils and carrots but not enough beef – perhaps this was because I was sent the wrong package.

Preparation seemed a little over complicated.  The beef had to be seared on both sides, then the carrots had to be added to the pan and the beef transferred on top of them, then the whole pan had to be put in the oven for 2-3 minutes, then the beef removed and the carrots cooked for some more time on the stove top with some water.  But having to use the oven meant pre-heating it, which to me added needless time and made it a waste of gas.  Now, this probably would have been a simpler process if I had two steaks rather than a bunch of slices – which cooled down quickly while I was finishing the carrots.

Still, the whole process was fairly quick – though probably longer than 15 minutes, but I’m a slow cook.

I sent Gobble’s customer service a picture of the meat and they apologized and gave me a $15 credit, which I got to use as I forgot to cancel/suspend the service for the following weeks.

All in all, I was very pleased with this meal, in particular the quality of the beef.