HelloFresh

I recently completed a 10 KM run and in the goody bag I received at the end, along with my medal, t-shirt and the all-important malt loaf was a £25 voucher redeemable against my first order with HelloFresh. Having caught their television adverts and been quite intrigued by the concept, and always keen to try something new, I thought I’d investigate. 

A box arrives, weekly if you wish (a subscription is required) full of all of the ingredients and recipes for, in the case of the £39 Classic box I ordered, 3 meals for 2 people. That works out at £6.50 per meal which doesn’t sound that much I suppose but it does equate to £90 per week just on dinners for 2 people so it’s quite a bit more than we’d usually spend here at SHCHQ. As I only had to pay £14 though I really wasn’t complaining. That’s only is £2.33 per person,  per meal, or 18p more than Surrey County Council charge for secondary school pupils to have a two course lunch.

The website’s reasonably easy to navigate which is always a good start. I would have liked a little more choice about the meal options, which change from week to week, but was happy with what was on offer so I bashed in my voucher code, coughed up my £14 and waited for delivery day.

The box arrived on the expected day and, eager with anticipation, I delved in to see what treats were inside. I was pretty impressed. The chilled items were still cold, having been well-insulated en-route:

The veg all looked like high-quality produce, although  none of the box contents are organic which may make a difference for some.

And in a little paper bag came all of the important bits, the flavour! I’ll be honest,  I’m reasonably at home in the kitchen. There was nothing in the bag that wasn’t already on my shelves, (you can take your pick of smoked paprika at SHCHQ!) but that’s obviously not the case with everybody so these little sachets of ketchup, vinegar and soy, although they made me think of airports and service stations, are actually a great of way encouraging less experienced cooks to try new flavours.

I sat down with a cup of Yorkshire Gold and had a read of the recipe cards:

The writing style is very Jamie-esque, which I suspect is entirely intentional, although they’re not quite as polished as Mr Oliver’s offerings.

There were a couple of points where it seemed to me they hadn’t got it quite right. For example, I have never been able to cook potato wedges, from raw potatoes (i.e. not par-boiled) in 25 minutes. I also was a bit concerned for the well-being of sea bream fillets up and down the country as although the recipe was very specific in instructing that it be cooked for 2 minutes on the skin side before being turned over, no guidance was given as to how long it should then be cooked for. As the fish turned out to be the best tasting prepared sea bream I think one ever had, to overcook out would be a real shame.

Personally I also had a bit of an issue with the instructions for cooking brown rice which I adore. I love its fabulous nuttiness and I swear that when I eat it, I can actually feel it doing me good, : but only if it’s cooked properly and it took a while to get it right. I’m a soaker. I’ve tried the cook for 40 minutes way, I’ve tried the cook rapidly for 25 minutes and leave it for 10 way. But, I find them hit-and-miss. For me, soaking never fails so, as far as I’m concerned, the instructions given (cook rapidly for 25 minutes) did not tell me how to cook brown rice so that it’s edible. They told me how to make the kinds of brown rice that makes 99% of people say “I hate brown rice, it’s inedible”. So I ignored them and did it my way.

We had the sea bream dish first. The recipe was easy to follow and the meal was delicious. The produce is clearly very high quality and truly, the fish was exceptional. I was also surprised at how tasty the concasse was,  being initially sceptical about the Asian twist (ginger, fish sauce and coriander). As a general rule,  I’m not really a fusion cook, or diner but I’ll definitely make this dish again.

I did add huge portions of broccoli as we were having this for dinner and at only 370 odd calories it simply wouldn’t have been enough for either of us to have as our main meal. There was a real difference in the calorie count for each of the dishes. This was the lowest, the chicken dish was less than 600 calories and the pork burgers just over 900.

The five-spice chicken was also yummy, as well as quick to prepare and super easy. The chicken itself, as with the fish, was superb. We haven’t got to the pork burgers yet but I suspect that we have another super tasty meal ahead.

Because I’m just a little bit sad, I did sit down with the Ocado app and calculate the cost of the ingredients I received. It came to around £19 so, having used my voucher it was a bargain. At full price, quality notwithstanding, bargain isn’t the word I’d use.

So would I order again? I don’t think so (although keep reading on this point): I’m really not their target customer as far as I can see and it is quite expensive, particularly if you already have large bottles of soy sauce and a tub of muscovado ready to be used. I like the idea though and if it gets more people in the kitchen mastering one of the most important life-skills without being thoroughly overwhelmed by meal planning, grocery shopping and sourcing harder to find ingredients that you only need a tiny amount of, then I’m all for it.

It did strike that it’s a scheme that could be rolled out locally, on a much smaller economy of scale, as a way to get people into the kitchen preparing fresh, healthy meals. Sort of a stepping-stone to star chef status if you will. Maybe this has been done. If it has, I guess Mr Oliver was behind it?

If you are interested in the idea, if not to polish off your own culinary skills then perhaps for delivery to a youngster just starting out on their own, you may want to check out the Original Supper Box Company who are based in Dorking. They source local ingredients and offer more of a choice of menu than HelloFresh do (the price is pretty much the same by the way). Interestingly,  and, this is something I may well try, they also offer a dinner party box.  Check the menus out – I’d be happy in a restaurant with that offering that’s for sure. I haven’t tried their boxes so can’t comment on the quality of the produce or the recipes but the local ethos works for me (no surprises there!) and I was quite impressed by the detail they give regarding their suppliers on the website. Watch this space for that one – Party at SHCQC coming up!

Stay chilled x