Plated.com Dinner Kit Subscription Box Review & Coupon – September 2, 2015 (Vegetarian)

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Plated sends a weekly box of fresh and seasonal ingredients, pre-portioned for the recipes you choose from a weekly pre-set menu. I have been anxious to try out some of the meal boxes and have really been enjoying them. She sent me the photos from the week’s menu from both Plated and Hello Fresh, and for this week I chose Plated. Generally we do fish one day a week, vegetarian 3 days, and I cook for my kids and grandkids on the other days. Although I didn’t pick out vegetarian meals, I am hoping to find and stick with a vegetarian meal box to help expand our non-meat meal repertoire. I’m a busy grandma! If I didn’t review my boxes I would probably just subscribe to one or the other!

When your box is sent out you’ll get an email indicating the pantry items you’ll need (this week:+ 1.5 tablespoons olive oil, black pepper canola oil kosher salt water) , plus a reminder of what meals are coming, preparation ease, cook time, and calorie count.

plated jute

The box has Jute insulation. The outer plastic bag is recyclable and the jute is compostable.

plated food in bags

All the food comes in bags separated by recipe. If there is meat in your box, all the meat is at the bottom of the box underneath the ice bags.

hilled Soba Noodles with Eggplant, Mango, and Thai Basil plated

Chilled Soba Noodles with Eggplant, Mango, and Thai Basil. 35-45 minutes, 690 cal, medium.

The other night I saw a rerun of “Beyond the Tank” which featured Plated.  It was nice to see where the food is made in test kitchens and how it is boxed.  It’s so wonderful to know dinner has been put together for you in a clean environment and all you have to do is cook it!  My husband and I really like the soba noodles as we’ve never tried them before.  This dish also had mango in it and we really liked the fruit in our main dish which is something that we aren’t used to. At my house, fruit is served on the side at dinner time.  We found the flavors very different yet wonderfully delicious.  The recipe calls for Thai chile, I used the whole chile, minus the seeds, and it wasn’t hot at all.

chilled Soba Noodles with Eggplant, Mango, and Thai Basil

What’s really wonderful about these meals is that you can deviate from the directions if you want/need to.  I get heart burn from raw red onion so with this recipe after I took out the eggplant, I sauteed the onion for about 3 minutes, perfect.  They still had the red coloring and some crunch.  And the food was still very scrumptious.

chilled Soba Noodles with Eggplant, Mango, and Thai Basil close

We rated this dish a 9.  My favorite was the dressing, very distinct flavors over perfectly prepared food.  Voila!

Smoked Tofu Tacos with Spicy Avocado Dressing plated

Smoked Tofu Tacos with Spicy Avocado Dressing. 25-35 minutes, 730 cal, easy.

There was nothing bland or mild about this dish.  My husband and I agreed that this had powerful flavors all fighting to get to your taste buds!  You’ve got limes, Sriracha hot sauce, sesame oil, rice wine vinegar and smoked tofu, that’s a lot of taste.  This was a new way to make tacos in our home which gives me a lot of ideas for future dinners.Smoked Tofu Tacos with Spicy Avocado Dressing

We had never eaten smoked tofu before and really liked the taste and firmness. When I make this again, I intend to use a julienne cut rather than the planks.  Just our preference.

 Smoked Tofu Tacos with Spicy Avocado Dressing tortillas

Two things I did differently, first,  I didn’t add the 2 tablespoons of warm water to the avocado dressing, it would have been way to runny.  We liked the thicker paste.  Second, I didn’t warm my tortillas up in the oven, I used the smooth cooktop instead (see picture).  I just didn’t want to heat up my oven for a few tortillas.  If this were winter, I’d have no problem with heating up the oven.

Smoked Tofu Tacos with Spicy Avocado Dressing closeup

Because of the flavors bursting in our mouths we rated this a 9.5.  And what really topped it off for my husband was the chopped nuts, that was his first comment.  This recipe is a keeper.

Charred Homemade Flatbread with Fava Bean Ful Medames plated

Charred Homemade Flatbread with Fava Bean Ful Medames. 35-45 minutes, 820 cal, medium.

Wow!  Can a meal be any more fun to make with your husband and turn out so delicious, too!

My husband asked if he could help and boy did he.  He jumped right into the part where I was about to make the pickled vegetables.  I do want to add that we decided to saute the sliced red onion just a little before pouring the red wine vinegar over them.  Still had the crunch and taste.  We find this helps tone down the very strong flavor of red onion.  Charred Homemade Flatbread with Fava Bean Ful Medames

I can’t believe I’ve never made flatbread before.  So quick, easy and good. The flatbread, and yogurt sauce both had a mild flavor which went well with the strong flavoring of the pickled vegetables and the Ful Medames.  Eating cooked fava beans was a first also for us and we really like them.

This overall was an 8.5 on our scale of 1-10.  Normally, we have some leftovers but not this meal!  Nope, ate every bite.

Visit Plated to find or more or to subscribe, or check out all our . Currently you can get 2 free plates when you buy 4 when you sign up with this link (no code required). Find more meal subscription services & dinner kits in the directory.

The Subscription: Plated
The Description: Ingredients for chef-designed meals delivered to your door. You select the chef-created recipes on the Plated.com website and Plated sends you a box of food and recipes.
The Price: $12 per plate – must order in multiples of 2 and your box ships free with $50 in product. If you want only 2 meals, go for a Chef’s Table + a regular, or 2 regular plates plus a dessert!
See Plated in the Hello Subscription Box Directory!
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The Reviews: See all our Plated Reviews.
The Spoilers: Check out Previews and ordering of future weeks are available on the Plated site!.

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