October 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, antibiotic 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, and is packed at the bottom. 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.
  

Spicy Shakshuka With Chickpeas, Feta Cheese, And Chili Flakes. 30 minutes, level 2, 598 calories per serving.

“Shakshuka is the ultimate eggs-for-dinner meal. In this Israeli staple…” I’ve never had of shakshuka before and I’m liking this eggs-for-dinner. The most I’ve ever done with eggs is serve them beside toast or made some kind of egg salad. Hello Fresh is introducing me to all kinds of different meals.

So once again I messed up!  I invited my older daughter to dinner and began prepping and cooking and remembered she doesn’t eat anything with onion in it which makes it difficult because I like onions. So I divided the ingredients into 2/3 and 1/3 except the onion. I also chopped some green onion which she will eat. Her Shakshuka had green onion and ours got all of the wonderful yellow onion. I also didn’t poach the eggs due to health reasons for hubby. We all  loved the spicy sauce with the egg.  I have found Hello Fresh recipes so easy to adapt to all our needs.

My daughter had previously been to culinary college for a year so when she says something’s good, wow, that’s a compliment. I’m certainly not a fancy cook by any stretch of the imagination so I don’t hear that often from her. This got compliments from her and my husband.

This dish was spicy, flavorful, filling and easy to make. Wonderful!

Crispy Sunchoke And Quinoa Salad With Tuscan Kale And Mint. 30 minutes, level 1, 515 calories per serving.

According to my husband, the old wise one, the cranberries are what really makes this salad so delicious.  Me, I just liked all of it, the flavors blended so well.

Let me digress, while we were cooking this salad, I ran next door to my mom’s and got a small serving bowl so you wouldn’t have to see the same old plates in my pictures.  I don’t know if you can see the pretty rose on the china (my dad bought these for my mom while he was stationed in Vietnam during the war). Anyway, I’ve eaten many a holiday meal on these china dishes and it made me reminisce during my meal, very happy thoughts. I swear it made the food taste just that much better. There is nothing like a good meal on china with a glass of wine and your spouse.

Ok, now that I’ve digressed let me get back to this wonderful salad. My husband liked the cranberries, I guess my favorite item was the sunchokes – small, tasty and crispy -can’t eat just one! Note, as usual, I substituted basil for mint.

I really liked that there were 10g of fiber in this. I also did cut back on the salt and oil so my fat and sodium intakes weren’t as high as the nutritional guide. Love Hello Fresh, you can adapt any way you want!

Jamie’s Aloo Gobhi With Fluffy Rice And Yogurt. 45 minutes, level 2, 588 calories per serving.

Thank goodness for Google or else I would have to go really old school and buy a new set of encyclopedias. I looked up Aloo Gobhi and interestingly Google corrected it to Aloo Gobi, no “h.” However, it’s spelled as an Indian, Bangladeshi, Pakistani and Nepali dry dish. Dry meaning there was no sauce. If you look at the pictures, you will see it is a very fetching yellow coming from the turmeric which is high in iron.

Enough with all the facts! This was really mouthwatering and the tiny fresh green chili gave a nice little punch. The dish itself is dry but you add dollops of yogurt and a squeeze of lemon which adds even more flavor. I enjoyed this so much I went back 2 more times for a little bit more, thinking that would appease my appetite. I call dibs on the leftovers!

Thanks Jamie for the delicious dinner.

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!