You’ve seen them advertised, you know the gist. Over lockdown, I tried Hello Fresh once and for all. Also, scroll to the end of this post for £20 off your first meal.
Truth be told, I’m a curious person
Every so often I find things on the internet that make me both curious and sceptical at the same time. Every so often, I decide to bite the bullet, try them for myself, and evaluate whether they’re truly worth it. The lastest in my journey of impulsive internet tries? Hello Fresh.
What is Hello Fresh?
Hello Fresh is a food delivery service, designed to help you cook fresh, healthy meals day to day. You sign up, select how many meals you want to receive a week, your preferences (veggie, balanced, low calorie, family), and then it designs a weekly menu for you and sends the fresh, pre-portioned ingredients for the week to your house, along with the recipes. The weekly recurring price depends on what you’ve selected (how many meals per week, how many people you want them to serve etc.), but it ranges from £29.99 (£5 per serving) per week at its lowest end, to £54.99 (£3.44 per serving) at its highest end. Essentially, it’s like a personal shopping service but for food.
My thoughts pre Hello Fresh
I have wanted to try Hello Fresh for a really long time. I’ve sent boxes to other people to support them when needed and I’ve watched many a Hello Fresh video. I love to cook, I love fresh food, and whilst I have my tried and tested recipes, I love to try something new. Every so often, when life gets busy and I lose my way, I get into a slump with my meals, and I need reminding of why I love to cook, and incentive to try new things. I always thought Hello Fresh would do just that.
So, in June, when my mum sent me a code for a free week of meals, I decided it was the perfect time to spice up my lockdown and give it a go.
Pricing: Weekly recurring subscription (Card details on file)
Cost: £29.99-£54.99
Receive: 3-5 meals for 2-4 people each week
What did I get in my Hello Fresh box?
As it was free (up to a certain amount), I was able to order the maximum of 5 meals, all with a serving size of 2 people. The menu changes from week to week, however there are always around 5-10 meals on offer. So, even though they choose the meals for you based on your preferences, you are able to go in and change them to others on offer if you so wish. With my first box, and with the options I was given, I received:
- Teriyaki beef mince with Jasmine rice and cucumber salad
- Pan fried chicken breast and creamy lentils
- Hearty chicken laksa
- Prawn thai green curry with Jasmine rice
- Roasted butternut squash curry with rice
It is delivered to your house on a day/time of your choice (With some slots more expensive than others, and some free.) And the ingredients come pre-portioned and packaged. The meat and fish is kept in freezer bags to keep fresh, but the rest of the food is separated into brown bags – 1 for each meal. Each bag is ready to put straight in the fridge, and has a number on it that corresponds with a number on one of the recipe cards. All the ingredients for that recipe can be found in the bag.
What did I think?
Honestly, as a bit of an organisation nerd, the whole pre-packaged and numbered bags had me hooked from the side. It made it ridiculously easy to start the cooking process – just pick the recipe card, get the bag from your fridge, and open it up and find the exact portions of ingredients that you need for your meal.
I’d say I’m a pretty experienced cook at this point – but that aside, the instructions are incredibly easy to follow, and kept to as minimal steps as possible. I’ve heard people complain about portion sizes, but I thought they were pretty greatly sized, sometimes even too generous (And I can eat a lot.) As someone who seasons all of their food (with more than just salt and pepper), I was a bit worried that the meals would be flavourless, but this didn’t prove an issue! They come with seasoning – albeit minimal – and I was able to add my normal seasonings to the meats etc. before cooking anyway. The beauty of this is that, though they give you all the basic ingredients, it’s down to you what you do in the end.
Pros
- Good portion sizes
- Makes cooking so easy
- Get to keep all the easy to follow recipe cards (So can make your favourites again and again)
- Good choice of varied meals
- Great way to discover new recipes
- Access to fantastic database of recipes
- Nutritional information is included
- Can filter to preferences
Cons
- Expensive if bought every week
- Recurring weekly payment (If you forget to skip one week, you get sent the default meals and you are charged)
- All of the ideal order slots cost extra money
Is Hello Fresh worth the money and time?
If I had paid for this week of 5 meals, it would have cost me £41.99. This does seem like a lot at first glance, but for a weeks worth of varied meals – each of which served two people – I’d say that it’s actually not too bad. In fact, I had gone into this convinced I was going to cancel my membership once the free meals were over. However, I have kept it, and even used it again (This time paid for) since my trial in June.
I think this is absolutely perfect for when you’re stuck in a rut foodwise. It has a good variety, does most of the laborious parts of meal planning and cooking for you, and opens your eyes to new things and shows you how easy they are to make. Through Hello Fresh, I discovered one of my absolute favourite go-to lentil dishes. And, as someone who is on a bit of a fitness journey at the moment, their database helped me discover loads of healthy, balanced but low-calorie dinner options. It’s not something I could justify doing every week, and remembering to skip is annoying (You can only skip up to three weeks in advance), but it’s personally worth it for me. And I love it as a one off purchase every couple of months. I just wish there was a way you could set your account to that.
Hello Fresh discount code!
This isn’t an affiliate code and Hello Fresh have nothing to do with this post. However, when you have an account they give you a referral code, so I thought I’d drop mine here… Here’s £20 off on me!
That’s all for today! Feel free to check out more food posts here, and let me know if you’ve tried Hello Fresh or if you plan to at some point in the comments below!
Lots of love,
Jas xx
Ever since you kindly gifted me a free box, I’ve been loving HelloFresh! So much so that I’ve paid for another box since. I love that you don’t have to think about what you’re gonna have for dinner as everything is already there for you and measured out. I agree that it’s a bit expensive to do every week, I think I’m going to do it around once a month. I haven’t disliked a single thing I’ve tried from them so far!
Alice xx
I’ve also paid for boxes since, I’m so glad you liked it!! It honestly makes everything so easy, I’m also aiming for once a month! x