Hello Fresh Review and Coupon – November 3 2015

This week’s Hello Fresh wowed me with creative sauces that transformed classic dishes.  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‘s menu cards have detailed 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.  I like the boldface on specific ingredients — it makes it easier to grab everything you need at each step.  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.  As I suspected, last week’s unique packaging was short-lived, and were are back to reflective-coated bubble wrap.  Each version of the insulating packaging has seemed to work fine, so I am not concerned that they are experimenting (I think its a cost and efficiency thing, not a performance issue).  A while back, they switched from bagging the individual recipes to providing a small box for each recipe, each being nestled atop ice packs within the outer shipping box.  This has been an excellent way to go, and they seem to be sticking with it.

California-Style Griddled Cheeseburgers with Secret Sauce and Crispy Baked Onion Rings. 45 mins, level 3, 866 cal. 

Panko-crusted onion rings always surprise me — it is hard to get complete coverage, but they turn out great anyway.  This burger was nicely decked out.  Smothered in cheddar and accompanied by fresh tomato and lettuce, it had the added bonus of a caramelized onion and dijon pan sauce, plus a smoky paprika aioli.  It was over-the-top delicious (the sesame-seeded bun was great, too), and the aioli paired nicely with the onion rings, as well.

Pan-Seared Garlic Chicken with Crispy Broccoli and Potatoes Huancaina. 40 mins, level 2, 585 cal.

The huancaina sauce made this dish, and I was glad the recipe made enough to dollop it on the chicken, too.  The main items were simply seasoned and prepared — pan-fried chicken with garlic powder, boiled potato, and roasted broccoli.  The creamy huancaina, with its just-right jalapeño kick, zesty lime, and loads of chive made for an infinitely better version of a CheezWhiz-smothered platter.  I loved that, using the same amount of cream cheese that I would use of sour cream, I was able to make a delicious sauce that could be used for the whole dinner.

Crispy Pan-Seared Salmon with Baby Bok Choy, Cilantro-Wasabi Dressing, and Soy-Infused Brown Rice. 40 mins, level 2, 652 cal.

Like I had with previous horseradish-infused dishes, I used the entire amount of pungent root provided, in this case, wasabi.  It lent a wonderful kick, but it was tamed nicely by the mayo.  The rice had a nice firm texture, and the box chop is a fun veggie to roast — it holds up well, and you can eat the whole thing without trimming it.  The salmon was superb — the skin crisped beautifully, and the flesh had a wonderful, mild flavor.

This week’s dishes were delicious!  Clever sauces transformed simple base ingredients into exotic revelations.  The preparation required multiple cooking techniques for each dish (bake/fry, boil/bake/fry, and simmer/bake/fry), but the knife work made balanced the load, and the overall effort required to plate some wonderful dishes was fairly light.

Here are the selections for next week! Meal choices end Wednesdays at midnight.  Also, Hello Fresh seems to have revamped their interface a bit – it’s cleaner and easier to access the upcoming recipes!

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.

Visit Hello Fresh to select your box for next week!  Take $40 off your first box with coupon code 7UT7K8.