May 2016 Hello Fresh Vegetarian Subscription Box Review + Coupon

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 for both casual and dedicated vegetarians.  This review covers the vegetarian box, which featured a recipe by Jamie Oliver! 

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.

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.  Note that the recipes created for Hello Fresh by Jaime Oliver, an English celebrity chef and healthier food advocate, are written slightly differently than the normal Hello Fresh recipes.

 Warm Barley Salad With Great Northern Beans, Avocado, And Burst Tomatoes. 30 minutes, level 1, 620 calories per serving.
I selected tonight’s dinner because I wanted something that would go with corn on the cob.  I’m getting braces tomorrow, at age 56, and I wanted to have corn on the cob because I won’t be able to eat it for a long while.  I love corn but corn on the cob and popcorn are my favorites.  I’ll miss those!

This salad went very well with the corn, a great meal for the spring time. This is a pretty salad with the different colors, purple coloring to the outside of the shallots, red tomatoes and the green and yellow of the avocado.
Now I must admit as soon as I cut into the shallot my eyes started watering, this was a clue I needed to saute’ them.  But, much to my chagrin, I didn’t and I should have because as soon as I bit into one I could tell it was too strong for me.  Funny thing is my husband thought they were just perfect.  Also, the directions called for 5 teaspoons of EVOO, I only used 3 as earlier stated I do watch my weight.  Even without all the oil the vinaigrette was delicious with the Dijon mustard.

This recipe scores an 8.

 Mushroom Ragout With Crispy Polenta Cakes And Tangy Arugula Salad.  30 minutes, level 1, 393 calories per serving.
Ten, 10, 10!  This Mushroom Ragout is fabulous.  And so darn easy.  You could put it on anything, mud even and it would be tasty.  My husband and I couldn’t stop talking about it.

Now on to the other foods, like the crispy polenta cakes.  Mine cooked but I couldn’t get them to turn brown or crispy.  If you look at my pictures, they’re a nice yellow color but no brownish on the edges and I cooked them about 10 minutes…I gave up.  By the way, the recipe said to save 1/2 of the polenta for another time, I just cooked all of it and used some in a salad the next day.  Different but very good.

The arugula salad was tasty because of the balsamic vinegar.  I’m still not quite sure I like the taste of the arugula but I’m eating it.

Again, this dinner was all about the ragout, wonderful.

Jamie’S Smoky Sweet Potato Chili With Crispy Tortillas. 35 minutes, level 2, 833 calories per serving.

 Have you tried Hello Fresh? Currently you get can a $50 Discount on your First two boxes with coupon code HELLOMAY50! If you just want to try one box save $40 off your first box with coupon code 7UT7K8.

Visit Hello Fresh to select your box for next week!