Plated April 2016 Subscription Box Review + Coupon

This was truly a week of out of the ordinary flora-based flavorings!  Plated is a weekly dinner kit subscription box with high quality ingredients and chef-created recipes. Each week you’ll choose from a variety of quick gourmet meals that range from meats, chicken, seafood, and purely vegetarian options.

There’s enough selection to please all palates, and the recipes are seasonally focused.  Plated seems to have made a concerted effort to offer some familiar comfort food type options each week.  You can swap out your recipes and skip any week you don’t want.

Plated uses recyclable/compostable jute for its insulation.  I have a stack of it in the garage that I’m planning to use to border some trees in our yard and create a weed barrier in some of the plant beds.

Boxes are always packed with the meat on the bottom, underneath a few big ice packs — the rest of the food is set on top with more ice.

Plated sends a weekly email — it doesn’t tell you much about your meals, other than what you need from home. There’s now no reminder of the ease of preparation and all the other subscriptions provide some version of that.

On-card information is now streamlined and includes only prep-time, number of servings, and calorie count. Traditionally, all of Plated’s meals serve two people, but recently we’ve seen a few with 3 person serving sizes.

Plated’s recipes rely on mise en place and then cook – we often mix up the steps from how the recipe is written, but we’re both experienced cooks and know what can be accomplished while something else cooks. So, read your cards if you need the step by steps.

Everything in our box! All the food comes bagged up and separated (mostly) into the recipes — meat and some large or delicate items are bagged separately, with the meat nestled at the bottom of the box among the ice packs.

Steak and Green Garlic Stir-Fry With Flowering Chives.  30-40 mins, easy, 740 cal per serving.

This recipe came with green onions substituted for the green garlic.  Plated will occasionally send a substitute ingredient when the original isn’t up to standard.  Though it can be a bummer when they can’t send the ingredient upon which you based your recipe choice, I think its admirable that they refuse to ship sub-par produce.  The recipe still came out fine, and we did receive the flowering chives, the other unique ingredient. The stir-fry was saucy and flavorful, and the chives adding an interesting dimension to the dish — they were much thicker than ordinary chives, much closer to scallion size, and their flavor was like a very mild scallion, as well.

Turkey Ragù over Nettle Pasta. 25-35 mins, easy, 760 cal per serving.

This meaty  sauce is thick with vegetables, yet it retains a certain lightness of texture due to the turkey.  I thought the nettle pasta was a wonderful touch.  It added layer of flavor to the dish in much the same manner substituting whole wheat flour for white would.  Having turkey as the meat also helped keep the sauce mellow enough that the nettle could shine through.  The radiator shape really grabs the chunky sauce.  This is a really easy dish that really satisfies.  The pic above is both servings plated family style.

Chicken Meatballs With Curry Tomato Sauce and Greens. 25-35 mins, easy, 540 cal per serving.

The meatballs were yummy, though the chicken made them very light in both texture and flavor.  The curry was very approachable, and I liked the use of pea leaves to add another dimension to the spinach side.  The sauce was so delicious that I would have liked something to sop it up with — either naan or rice (we served this dish with noodles).  Though tasty and very easy to prepare, this dish lacked bulk and seemed a little light without another side.

Greek Yogurt Pound Cakes With Lavender Glaze. 30-40 mins, easy, 440 cal per serving.

Super fast to make, these had a nice pound cake flavor and texture, particularly when warm.  Once cooled, they become more like a cornbread in texture.  The use of lavender in the sauce was a fun idea, and it added a nice floral undertone, taking the place of vanilla.
Our Plated selections had some cool innovations.  Though beef is my ground meat of choice, the use of poultry in the pasta a curry dishes did create a lightness that allowed the other flavors to shine.  I liked the effort to incorporate unusual greens and plant flavorings, as well.

What do you think of Plated?

Visit Plated to find or more or to subscribe. Currently you can get 2 free plates when you buy 4 when you sign up with this link (no coupon code required).