Hello Fresh Veggie Meal Subscription Box Review + Coupon – February 2016

Hello Fresh is a meal kit subscription box with complete recipes and ingredients to make 3 meals every week, with each meal feeding either two or four people, depending on the plan you choose.  Though it is a subscription, you can pause your deliveries when needed — whether you are out of town, have other dinner plans, or just aren’t in love with that week’s selections.  The standard subscription provides high-quality meats (free-range chicken, anti-biotic meats, etc.) to use in the recipes.  Though we do eat meat, we cook vegetarian three times a week.  Thankfully, Hello Fresh has a vegetarian subscription option to satisfy both casual and dedicated vegetarians.  This review covers the vegetarian box, which featured a recipe by Jamie Oliver! 

Hello Fresh has great instructions, and they are easy to follow even if you are an inexperienced cook.  Each recipe includes several pictures so you maintain a sense of how the dish should look as you go along.  There is also information provided on everything you need to know about the dish — nutrition info, prep time, and even which recipes are best to make first.  The above photo shows the instructions for the recipe created for Hello Fresh by Jaime Oliver, an English celebrity chef and healthier food advocate — it’s written slightly differently (read my notes below on this!).

The boxes used by Hello Fresh keep all the ingredients for the recipes in order, and they stack nicely in the fridge.   Within each box, everything but the largest vegetables is separately packaged.  Condiments and canned goods are provided in high-end, commercial packaging.  Hello Fresh usually provides spices in their own, pre-measured branded packaging.

Jamie’s Aloo Gobhi with Fluffy Rice and Yogurt. Level 2, 576 cal. Thanks Hello Fresh for letting me know that it is American Heart Month with tips for keeping our hearts healthy.  Just learned about the 10:1 rule:  for every 10 grams of carbs, balance yourself with 1 gram of fiber.  Didn’t know that and I need to…high cholesterol.  Jamie’s recipe tonight is a great example of that rule, 108 grams of carbs and 11 grams of fiber, way to go Jamie!  I am so on his team.

I love my curry and this was no exception to that rule.  Hot from the peppers or at least hot to me but spicy from the delicious blend of ginger, cilantro, mustard seeds, turmeric, and cumin.  And then just a touch of coconut for sweetness. I wanted another helping but was too full already, so I’m claiming the leftovers tomorrow at lunch!

My husband’s favorite was the potatoes, not too mushy and the basmati rice was a very long grain and flavorful.

Thank you Jamie for another great recipe, this rates a 10.

Crispy Noodle and Veggie Stir Fry with Ginger-Garlic Sauce. Level 2, 35 mins, 634 cal.This week Hello Fresh tried something new, fresh Japanese Chuka Soba noodles.  We boiled them for 2-3 minutes and then used them in the recipe.  In the recipe you cook the veggies and then put the noodles on top, add a large drizzle of oil, don’t stir and the noodles are supposed to crisp on the bottom of the pan.  Notice I said “supposed to.”  Ours didn’t but we left it in the pan for at least 5 minutes and the noodles had absorbed most of the sauce and we didn’t want to lose an more sauce that way, so we ate it!  It wasn’t crisp, either I didn’t leave it in the pan long enough or the heat wasn’t as high as it should have been.  I’m thinking, both.  I’ve had crisp noodles at restaurants before so I know what it should have been like.  Oh well!  I’ll have to try this again.  Maybe try crisping the noodles in a separate pan and then adding them to the vegetables.  Remember, I’m NO chef (I’ve even cooked Helper meals) so sometimes I have to cheat! 

With all that said about our noodles, it was still a delicious recipe.  We particularly liked the soy sauce.  1/2 soy sauce, 1/2 sugar, a real nice sweet tangy sauce and that little itty bitty pepper…gave it a real bang.  On the recipe card picture it looks like the cashew pieces are roasted, I wish I’d have noticed that sooner.  I think roasting brings out more of the wonderful nutty flavor. Another oh well.

This recipe deserves an 8.5. Forbidden Rice Salad with Roasted Butternut Squash, Pistachios, and Arugula. 45 mins, level 1, 507 cal.

This was a wonderful salad with Forbidden Rice, Arugula and butternut squash as the main ingredients but the other ingredients help to make a hearty, delicious and nutritious meal.

We’ve never had this black rice and really it’s not black, it’s a beautiful deep purple color with a good taste. Normally, we find the arugula is a little too strong on the bitter side but in this meal it’s not at all.  The dressing of vinegar, honey, salad and olive oil help to tone down that taste.  And then you get to add scallions and parsley to the salad and the taste was scrumptious.  But to top it off…pistachios, what a treat.

The roasted squash helped to push this salad to 9.5.  We certainly enjoyed this one.

Two notes:  the recipe called for keeping the white and greens of the scallions separate but then you just put all of the scallions into the salad and mix it up, so the scallions didn’t really need to be separated.  Second note:  I need specific directions for cooking rice.  The recipe didn’t tell me how much water to boil and whether to cover the pot or not.  People!  I’m not a chef.  I still read the directions on an oatmeal box after all these years!!!  

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