Hello Fresh Subscription Box Review and Coupon #hellofreshpics – July 17

Inspired selections graced this week’s Hello Fresh, incorporating the flavors of Carolina BBQ, sriracha-infused Thai, and spicy chorizo.  Hello Fresh is a meal kit subscription box where you’ll get the recipes and ingredients to make 3 meals for two (or 4) every week. Hello Fresh is a subscription, but you can pause your deliveries and choose alternate meals (at least for the Classic box). There’s also a vegetarian box available. This is a solid meal subscription box with easy and accessible recipes.  Take $40 off your first box with coupon code 7UT7K8. 

Hello Fresh recently redesigned their menu cards, and the instructions are super easy to follow.  It has nice illustrations, is clearly written, and even lets you know nutrition info, prep time, and which recipes are best to make first to optimize freshness of perishables.  Hello Fresh sends all the sauces, bouillon and such in individual serving packets or in off-the-shelf brand name packaging; although it means a little more packaging, they survive shipping better than the plastic cups used by Plated.

The new packaging has rolled out – it’s more recyclable than the previous bags (you still have to pull the plastic off the cardstock) and keeps the more tender ingredients from sitting on top of the icepacks (which, FYI, you can dump into the sink and recycle the plastic).

Eastern Carolina Pulled Chicken Sliders on Brioche with Tangy Cabbage Slaw. 30 minutes, Level 1.

This dish was simple to put together and had great appeal.  The three-brioche-per-person portion was plenty of food.  Contrary to the laws of potluck, it was actually the slaw that was used up in the initial meal, and the brioche and chicken made it to leftovers.  The BBQ sauce was tangy and spicy, but also nice and light.  The slaw was my favorite — nice and tangy.

Thai Beef with Carrot Noodles and Sriracha Peanut Sauce. 40 minutes, Level 2.

Amazing.  I was extremely skeptical of the carrot “noodles”, as such things normally cook too soft or taste too much like their natural state to pass as a pasta substitute.  To my surprise, the carrots held their form and made great “noodles.”  The spicy sauce melded well with the earthy sweetness of the carrots, preserving the illusion of pasta.  We have had many Thai dishes from meal kits.  Many use fresh lemongrass, ginger, garlic, fish sauce, etc. and are fussy to make.  This kit pulled off great flavor by leveraging the sriracha and adding just the right ground spice.

  Poached Cod in Chorizo-Fennel Broth with Orange, Zucchini, and Purple Sweet Potato Crisps. 45 minutes, Level 3. 

If we’d noticed this was a level 3 dish, we might have swapped it out – it was pretty involved.  There was one point in the recipe where you were instructed to remove the cod from the simmering dish and reduce it to make the sauce.  We determined that the instructions probably should have had us remove the vegetables as well.  It wasn’t clear if the instruction was omitted, or if the intent was to have very soft aromatics to pair with the crisp of the potato and sausage.  The dish was pretty ambitious, and the flavors went really well together.  I think this would make a great dish even without the fish.  The orange reduction was superb.

Here are the selections for next week! Meal choices end Wednesdays at midnight.  The tacos offered as an alternate are also featured as a Chef’s Choice in the vegetarian menu for the week.

You can click on each dish and get the recipe information, including calories, ingredients, and difficulty levels.  We like having this info available beforehand, as it allows us to avoid meals that we think are too involved or require to much time for our schedule that week.  Although the names of the dishes are fairly lengthy and descriptive, it is also nice to have the ingredient list to get a fuller picture of the dish and to get the tastebuds psyched.

Visit Hello Fresh to select your box for next week!  Take $40 off your first box with coupon code 7UT7K8.Check out all our Hello Fresh Reviews and don’t forget to take a look at other Fresh Food Subscription Boxes