Until recently, I didn’t understand the point of meal kits. Do these delivery services actually save time in the kitchen? Are they intended to teach novice cooks how to be more culinarily creative? Why am I being made to mince so many shallots and dirty every one of my sheet pans? After trying HelloFresh, I can finally say I get it.
Compared to the other kits I’ve experimented with, HelloFresh—the most popular meal delivery kit service in America, which claims a whopping 74% of the category’s market share—puts the customer (slash cook) in the driver’s seat thanks to its flexible and extensive menu options. Whether you rarely set foot into the kitchen or a professional chef, you’ll find that the range of recipes and ingredients offered by HelloFresh will minimize mealtime stress, decision fatigue, and time spent in the kitchen.
The HelloFresh ordering experience
New users can subscribe to HelloFresh’s meal delivery kit program via the brand’s website or by downloading its app. First, you’ll be prompted to personalize your plan: How many people (up to six) will you be serving and what number of meals do you want each week? Next, choose from six dietary plans, selecting as many as you wish: Meat and Veggies, Veggies, Family-Friendly, Fit and Wholesome, Under 20 Minutes, and Pescatarian. I opted for the two-person serving size and the three-meal-per-week plan for my husband and me, indicating that we’d like to avoid pork and red meat. Prices start at $96.95 for two meals for two people per week; dietary preferences won’t impact your subscription fee.
You’ll then be guided to make more specific meal selections from HelloFresh’s extensive menu page, which populates based on the dietary preferences and restrictions you previously selected. I was dazzled by the amount of detail the service provides about each meal upon completing this step: every ingredient needed and the amount you’ll need (with reference photos of each item), what kitchen utensils are required, the dish’s full nutritional information per serving, a list of included allergens, plus cook time and the recipe itself.
Also worth noting is the sheer number of delicious-sounding dinners to choose from. There are over 100, with dishes like coconut shrimp and cabbage curry, smashed black bean tostadas, and bavette steak with creamy truffle polenta. Nutrition- and prep-related callouts like Fiber Smart, Easy Prep and Clean, or Vegan are marked under each meal to speed up your selection process. FYI, HelloFresh lets you browse what menu options will be offered for up to five weeks in advance (as they rotate weekly).
Because I wanted to sample a range of HelloFresh’s meal options (e.g., a seafood and a meat-based dish, each of varying amounts of prep time required), I added the sweet and spicy shrimp lo mein, chicken and spinach couscous salad, plus the shrimp and pesto rotini from the Ready Made Meals line to my order. Indeed, for the folks most pressed for time,
