May-June 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.

There are even some kitchen tips included in the information card. This one tells more about the different kinds of mustards.

Mexican Quinoa Jumble With Pepitas, Charred Corn, And Feta. 30 minutes, level 1, 543 calories per serving.
This dish is just as the title suggests, it’s a jumble, a mixture of unconventional ingredients and it’s really good.  The description on the card says it has so many ingredients but there’s only 10 which I didn’t think was a whole lot.  What there was a whole lot of was flavor, all distinct but blended.

My husband liked and commented several times on the corn in the dish.  I admit I couldn’t get mine to char but it was still delicious.   I also sauteed for about 2 minutes the bell pepper, it’s a personal preference of mine.

There was enough to feed 3 but we ate every bite.  After we ate we went downtown to see a car club showing.  My husband talked about getting dessert but once there he admitted dinner was quite filling and he was happy and once again commented on how tasty dinner was.

We gave this dish a 10.

Note to Hello Fresh, thanks for teaching me how to cook using fresh herbs and less condiments! It’s such a difference in the flavor.

Plantain and Black Bean Tostadas With Pickled Red Onion, Avocado, and Feta. 35 minutes, level 2, 837 calories per serving.
What a very colorful presentation this recipe made.  All the different colors and tastes come together for a delightful meal.  It’s been a long time since I cooked a plantain and I had forgotten that you don’t peel one like a banana you cut off the peel.  But other than that they are easy to work with, we especially liked the drizzle of honey on them.  And normally I don’t like raw red onion but when you pickle them with lime juice, it has a much more mild flavor.  This sounds corny but all I could say about this was how fresh the flavors were.

At dinner we discussed the use of feta cheese and how well it goes with some many different types of meals.  If you had asked me if I thought this was a good combination to put it with before, I would have answered no but after eating it I know that it accompanies the other ingredients very well. I put the 2 tostadas on my plate but couldn’t eat all of it.  I ended up giving about 1/4 of a tostada to my husband.  They look very light but are actually quite filling.

Pretty, tasteful, filling and easy to make, this is a 10.

Summer Ratatouille With Fresh Tortelloni, Parmesan, and Basil. 40 minutes, level 2, 554 calories per serving.

You’ll notice I used a little plate to take pictures with.  That’s not because I was being stingy, I was trying to show off the pretty calla lily on the plate.  So much for my plans.  But this ratatouille more than made up for it in colors.  It had everything but blue, truly a delicious dish to eat and look at.

My husband and I are now big fans of any kind of tortellini.  Taste, texture, color and nutrition, this dish is a 10.

 Have you tried Hello Fresh? Currently you can get a $50 Discount on your First two Boxes with coupon code HF50SUMMER.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!