Hello Fresh or made with Gousto?!

So one of the latest trends in the food arena is freshly prepared ingredients, delivered straight to your door and ready to cook. This is the next step on from veg boxes that would deliver fresh fruit and veg each week with recipes suggestions for those food that you might be unfamiliar with.

I’ve never done either of these before, but I’ve had friends use the veg boxes before. The recipe boxes go one step further in that they include the meat, fish or cheese for the recipe and all the other ingredients you may need in the right proportions, so no waste.

Given that a couple have just launched with some introductory offers I decided to try them out – Hello Fresh with £25 off your first order and Gousto with a half price first box.

My experience with Hello Fresh didn’t start off on the best foot – they didn’t deliver my parcel until the next evening due to traffic issues near the depot. So I was 2 days behind on expected food – luckily I had some emergency pasta and pizza in the kitchen.

I was due to receive the box on Monday between 5 and 9pm, (actually received Tuesday at 8.30!) you can choose different days for delivery and they have different time slots depending on where you live (in/outside London). But you don’t have to be in when they deliver – they leave the box with all cool stuff insulated and with ice packs, somewhere safe ready for when you get home. Or in my case with Gousto, the morning after a night out :s

The Hello Fresh box with logo

Recipe number one – Salmon –  use the fish first!!

The recipe cards have detailed instructions and tell you which of your prepared ingredients you need.

Salmon pan frying before being finished in the oven

The final dish – very tasty and the lowest calorie in the box at 382kcal – healthy & gluten free and easy to replicate, so I might just do that! The addition of the capers lifted the flavours as well as lemon zest. 

The only thing I would change in the recipe card is to zest before you juice the lemon – much easier!

Mexican salad with plenty of spinach (too much!) and surprising little tortilla chips….

The final result – enough to feed 3 and I didn’t use all the spinach! Might be good for a packed lunch as long as you use it quickly.

All the ingredients for chicken Laksa

The final result, a spicey peanutty noodle soup with the leftover spinach – I will definitely be doing this again, comfort food for a cold winter and it was perfect for my hangover!!

The way it works with Hello Fresh is that you sign up for a classic, veg or family box and the recipes are pre-selected for you. If you are organised enough you can swap out up to two recipes, but you need to do it before the midnight Wednesday cut off!

This was delivered on a Friday after 5pm (i.e. after I had left for work). I discovered the box the following morning when the ice had melted and the herbs were a little squashed (it had been left on its side in the cupboard).

A similar sized box with Gousto branding!

My Gousto file for the recipe cards, carefully wrapped cold goods (meat, cheese & fish), and the vegetables, herbs and dry goods in the other side with the recipe cards & cook by dates.

Mediterranean baked eggs – a lot of chopping when hungover!

Eggies cooking in the tomato sauce with millet.

The final product using all the parsley…. More on that later

My flatmate Laura appreciated the baked eggs as a hangover dish, but I didn’t think they were too tasty – I much prefer baked eggs with cheesy creamed spinach and – bonus! – there is less chopping with that!

Ingredients for the Smoked Trout & Root Slaw

The finished meal – done in 15 mins with help from my friend on the grating 🙂

The meals take between 20-40 minutes to prepare depending on the methods – this is true for both the boxes and the timings are broadly correct – obviously faster if you have help preparing!

Ingredients for Pork Steaks & Salsa Verde

The only issue was that I didn’t have any parsely for the salsa verde. It wasn’t clear that I if I should have used some of the parsely from the baked eggs – but I had coriander left – which wasn’t an ingredient in any of my recipes – so I consulted Delia, she uses lots of different herbs – and just used coriander instead & some basil from the window plant.

The final dish – you couldn’t taste the coriander what with the amount of garlic in the sauce!

Well Gousto feels smaller and less commercial – for example there were freebies in the Hello Fresh box from Tea Pigs (soggy by the time I got the box) and some of the recipes seem to be sponsored by the ingredient companies. 

Gousto also has a wider choice of dishes each week to choose from. You can select meat, fish, veggie dishes for 2 or 4 people.

In general they come out about the same cost – however it depends which dishes you choose with Gousto. Delivery costs are included for both, both use outside delivery companies that let the side down with delays or inappropriate storage (on its side or not where the instructions said!)

I like the 5-a-day indication on the Gousto recipes but otherwise there isn’t much between the recipes and information.

A word of caution if you sign up – these companies are subscription ones, so unless you are on top of the orders & choices you’ll keep getting sent food & being charged!!

For me these boxes don’t suit. I don’t know when I’m going to have 3 straight days in to be able to cook the food before the herbs and fish start going off! Also as a single girl I need to have someone coming over to share the food or experiment on my flatmate (not that she’s complaining!) Not all the dishes are good to use as leftovers & reheat etc. 

However for adding variety and reducing wastage the boxes are good. My friend is trying the Hello Fresh family one out and she likes the concept – it’s just that her toddler is fussy over what he eats, luckily her husband isn’t!

I think if you were a couple who didn’t go out mid week much, liked to cook from scratch and also liked convenience, then this would suit.

For me, time rich and just plain poor at the moment, they are too expensive for full price regular subscription – but if anyone wants a discount code either message me or sign up on their websites or follow on twitter as they have discounts available currently.