As a busy travel writer, I need to save time in the kitchen. As a trained chef, I prefer quality food. I've found it difficult to find both when it comes to meal kits or meal delivery services. Until now.
HelloFresh, America's best-selling meal kit subscription, kicked off the new year with a set of new offerings that promise nearly-homemade meals with an extra side of me time. Weekly selections for subscribers now include time-saving options like Ready Made Meals, Prep & Bake Meals and 15-Minute Meals -- offering different ways to cut down on dinner prep time.
Even as a culinary school-trained cook, I have regularly dabbled in HelloFresh. Nothing beats a lack of cooking inspiration -- or the urge to order takeout that often follows -- better than "look, here's a precise set of pre-portioned ingredients to make this recipe!" Plus, as a traveling writer, having only the needed ingredients on hand to make a few servings of something wholesome means that I eat better and waste less when I'm at home. What's more, I find HelloFresh's chef-created recipes to be invariably tasty. So, naturally, I was eager to see what these speedy new options had to offer.
Admittedly, I have been burned by frozen dinners in the past. 1990s-era Lean Cuisine doesn't exactly inspire confidence, but neither do newer chef-inspired meal delivery brands, which I've found to be a bit of a snooze. So I approached HelloFresh's Ready Made Meals with a healthy degree of skepticism.
Options for ready-made meals lean into incorporated dishes such as pastas and grain bowls, rather than those with individual components such as a protein and sides. (Already, that's a better start than a lot of meal delivery services, in my experience.) Examples include beef Bolognese with rotini, udon stir-fry with pulled pork and vegetables, and Indian-inspired chicken with turmeric rice. Vegetarian options are also available, such as spiced sweet potato curry with roasted peppers and Alfredo truffle cavatappi.
One thing that stands out here is that HelloFresh doubles down on the freshness factor of these options, indicating on the package that they should be consumed within a week of delivery. They aren't meant to stock your freezer indefinitely. The ingredient lists on the back of the packages, at least the two that I tried, don't indicate any preservatives beyond what might have already existed within specific components, like pasta. Xanthan gum is used as a sauce thickener, but I have no issue with that.
I found my two dishes to be flavorful, texturally sound and, in the case of the udon stir-fry with pulled pork and vegetables, pleasantly loaded with veggies. With just a 2.5-minute cook time, this was definitely a time-saver. I also liked that each serving was individually packaged -- a bonus for subscribers in single-person households. My only concern is the value -- while it may be a matter of perception, it feels like you're paying a premium for pre-packaged meals, even if the quality is high. Takeout would likely be more expensive, and if you're just adding these to your HelloFresh box occasionally for convenience -- while still relying mostly on its traditional DIY recipes -- that makes some sense.
What I liked: Quality, freshness, flavor, individual portions
What I didn't like: Value
Unlike Ready Made Meals and 15-Minute Meals, Prep & Bake Meals require a bit more time, though most of it is hands-off. You'll spend about five minutes on assembly, then let the oven handle the rest.
Options for Prep & Bake Meals are similar to the Ready-Made Meals, with pastas and rice bowls such as spinach ricotta ravioli and white bean chicken chili, but also include some sheet-pan dinner style selections with individual components. Veggies are pre-cut, instructions are simple and the aluminum baking tray is even included for minimal fuss and cleanup.
I tried the spinach and ricotta ravioli. It comes with a few liquid ingredients and seasoning packets for a quick sauce that mixes right in the pan. The ravioli are then added and topped with a bagful of baby spinach, which steams on top when covered with foil. At the end, it's ready to be stirred in for a complete dish. The garlic bread, which is included, can be roasted in the oven as well, alongside the ravioli bake.
Typically, I'm a fan of HelloFresh's pasta dishes, but this one fell a little flat for me. In its commitment to simplicity, the result felt basic. Plus, the ravioli tend to congeal into a lasagna-like texture when baked -- though this was less interesting than actual lasagna. I'd rather have spent the extra minutes on a more dynamic active-prep, stovetop meal. That was just one dish, however, and I'm still curious to try other options here.
What I liked: Pan included, simplicity of assembly, ease of cleanup
What I didn't like: Simplicity of dish, value
For 10-minutes more active cooking time than the Prep & Bake Meals, HelloFresh now offers selections that go from box to plate in 15 minutes. HelloFresh's traditional recipes have a wide range of time commitments, but in my personal experience, 30-40 minutes is average, so the promise of 15 minutes is an appealing one.
First off, this category offers much more variety. Pastas and grain bowls are still included, but there are also one-pot or one-skillet meals like soups and stir-fries, as well as multi-component, assembled dishes like tacos, wraps and salads. Given the selection of dishes here, it's possible to choose 15 quickie meals off the HelloFresh weekly menu without even realizing they're the fast ones: one-pan Mexican beef and cheddar skillet, honey-sesame shrimp and wonton salad, and sweet ponzu pork and bok choy wraps, for example.
The creamy chicken sausage and tortelloni soup that I tried felt very true to the HelloFresh brand in terms of flavor, ease and value, just sped up. (It even included the requisite lemon squeeze and scallion garnish that I've come to expect.) The directions are also laid out in a simpler way, requiring less reading of small print and fewer steps. In fairness to the form, I set a timer and invited over a friend to try to distract me; we were still sitting down to a craveable, homemade-ish soup and garlic bread in 15 minutes, with just one pot to wash at the end.