Plated Subscription Box Review + Coupon – June 2016

Plated is a weekly dinner kit subscription box with high quality ingredients and chef-created recipes. Each week you’ll choose from a variety of quick gourmet meals that range from meats, chicken, seafood, and purely vegetarian options.

There’s enough selection to please all palates, and the recipes are seasonally focused.  Plated seems to have made a concerted effort to offer some familiar comfort food type options each week.  You can swap out your recipes and skip any week you don’t want.

Your selections arrived on your doorstep in a large cardboard box, each recipe bagged neatly and accompanied by ice packs.  Each recipe has its own detailed instruction card.

Plated uses recyclable/compostable jute for its insulation.  It is made from reclaimed coffee and cocoa bean bags.  I couldn’t stand throwing it out, so I’ve used some as a mulch substitute around the trees and plantings in my yard.

Cardboard creates a separate ice chest for the meat at the bottom of the box, keeping it colder than the produce.

Plated sends a weekly email — it doesn’t tell you much about your meals, other than what you need from home. There’s now no reminder of the ease of preparation and all the other subscriptions provide some version of that.

On-card information is now streamlined and includes only prep-time, number of servings, and calorie count. Traditionally, all of Plated’s meals serve two people, but recently we’ve seen a few with 3 person serving sizes.  Unless stated otherwise, the pics of finished dishes show a single serving.

Plated’s recipes rely on mise en place and then cook – we often mix up the steps from how the recipe is written, but we’re both experienced cooks and know what can be accomplished while something else cooks. So, read your cards if you need the step by steps.

Everything in our box! All the food comes bagged up and separated (mostly) into the recipes — except that the meat and some large or delicate items are bagged separately.

Seared Ribeye With Crispy Potatoes, Asparagus, And Horseradish-Mustard Sauce. 30 – 40 minutes, medium, 810 calories per serving.

This meal was a “Chef’s Table” selection due to the incredible ribeye steak — we thought it was definitely worth paying the market pricing for the dish.  Plated always has great quality, no anti-biotic meat, but this thick slab of bone-in ribeye was exceptionally well marbled and very tender.  It was accompanied by roasted asparagus with oven-caramelized lemon, crispy fried russet potato cubes, and an all-in-one sauce that combined cream, shallot, thyme, mustard, and horseradish.  Though the steak needed no sauce, this decadent accompaniment certainly put the dish over the top.  Both portions are shown in the pic above, as I didn’t dare tear apart that beautiful steak until I was ready to put it in my mouth.

Cheesy Beef Burritos With Black Beans, Guacamole, And Pico De Gallo. 35 – 45 minutes, easy, 850 calories per serving.

This was one of our all-time favorites because each item has so much going on, and we also love using leftovers on nachos!  The recipe provided for one large burrito per diner, plus a pile of extra filling, guacamole, and pico de gallo on the side (only one of two servings is pictured above!).  The burrito was very satisfying, as it hit all the needed bases — it had lots of meat, creamy black beans, rich guacamole, kernels of corn for texture, and just enough cheese.  And nothing beats homemade pico de gallo!  Despite the number of elements, the prep work moved fairly quickly. Brandy would not stop talking about this burrito for days!

Nutella Brioche Bread Pudding. 30 – 40 minutes, easy, 570 calories per serving.

We had to enjoy this as a family dessert, and the kids went crazy for it!  You begin by creating a Nutella sandwich with the brioche (though the Nutella layer is comically thick), then cubing and soaking in an egg and cream mixture for baking.  The result is a rich and gooey bread pudding with a gently crisp crust.  This dessert takes about half an hour to make, as it soaks and then bakes, but it is incredibly simple and well worth the wait.  Both portions are shown.  The desserts are always portioned to be satisfying but not crazy big, and they cost $4 a serving.
We enjoy Plated and order it frequently.  Of the three meal kits we regularly order, Plated shoots for the most upscale image, echoing popular trends in food culture.  Up until recently, they would typically employ a French sauce with most dishes.  Lately, however, we have noticed more simplified and mainstream offerings, and they seem to be dialing back the pretentiousness and trendiness to appealing to a broader audience while still offering top notch fare.

What do you think of Plated? Currently you can get 2 free plates when you buy 4 when you sign up with this link (no coupon code required).

Visit Plated to find or more or to subscribe.