Making easy nutritional tasty meals with Hello Fresh

I was approached a while back by a company called Hello Fresh to see if I wanted to try out their service. So I took a look at who they are and what they offer and thought yes please.

The boxes provide exact quantities of everything you need to make a meal and recipe cards are included with easy to follow steps and photographs, enabling customers to create restaurant quality dishes from the comfort of their own kitchen.

How it works

1. We create amazing recipes

Every week our chefs create amazing recipes for you that are easy to prepare. Our meals are interesting yet simple. And we ensure that your diet is balanced and varied. You'll love the food you cook with Hello Fresh! 

2. We go shopping for you

Sit back and relax while we do all the work. We source only the highest-quality and freshest produce. We'll also introduce you to ingredients that you won’t find in your local supermarket. 

3. We deliver to you for free

 We deliver your recipes and ingredients to your door every week on Tuesday or Thursday. It's happiness in a box.

4. You cook amazing meals in your own home

We take easy cooking to a new level. Recipes typically take only 30 minutes or less and don't require fancy equipment. Anyone can cook with Hello Fresh. Our mission is to get more people to cook and our beautiful step-by-step photo instructions will change the way you think about cooking! 

Well as we tend to cook our meals from scratch then this really appealed to us.

So yesterday we got our box delivered. Upon opening the box I noticed all the fresh ingredients were to one side with the fresh fish and meat wrapped in padding complete with ice packs. The ice packs were still partly frozen so I was happy with the freshness of the meat.

We looked at all the ingredients, and then looked at the three menu sheets that came with the meals. With the help of the menu sheets we sorted the ingredients into three piles. The menu sheets are brilliant not only do they tell you what you need they also show you with all the ingredients being pictured so there can be no confusion between a courgette or an aubergine or a leek.

the recipe sheets

 Our box was three meals for two people, and as we had friends over for a meal I cooked up two of them.

the basic ingredients

I decided to make the "Really special chicken fried rice with pistachios and cashews" and the "Under cover Ratatouille with lemon roasted Tilapia"

Having split the ingredients into the three separate piles I heated my oven and followed the instructions. Everything I needed, apart from salt, pepper and sugar, was included, ll the oils came in small bottles, all the herbs in wee tubs and the nuts in bags.

I started off with chopping all the vegetables, and then popping items in the oven. All the timing are on the cards making it so easy to do. You have vegetables of all colours with this package giving a nice balance to feed the eyes as well as the stomach.

the roasted chicken and nuts 

starting the vegetables

all the vegetables ready for the rice

served up

The finished chicken dish offered very good portions, I had worried about this as we only eat one course in our house but our portion size is quite large. I loved the colour and the different textures, I did not cut up the roasted nuts that made it to the plate as they were yummy and I was eating them while I was in the kitchen as suggested I left them whole and enjoyed the crunch they offered.


The ratatouille introduced me to aubergine and courgette which I have to say we don't use in this house, but we are lovers of a variety of vegetable cut small and cooked in the oven in this fashion, and it was nice to have the different veg for a change. I did mix and match the peppers so that both meals had all three colours in.

the ratatouille vegetables 

I am not a fish lover but I did try a small piece as none of us had never heard of tilapia. It did not taste fishy, it had a sort of earthy taste, not unpleasant. Had I been making this dish for myself I would have broken the fish up and added it into the vegetables. It was a totally boneless fish. 

the completed dish

The flavours of this finished dish were very nice and something I would make again.

Lastly we made the "Ali Baba's gammon steaks with roasties and puy lentils"

 Again this introduced a new food to me, I have never used tinned lentils, in this house lentils go in soup so it was nice to be shown a new way to use such a healthy food.

the vegetables half way through the cooking

with the drained lentils added

topped with the gammon steaks

The gammon steaks were good quality, had a very nice flavour and cooked beautifully. We do not have a separate grill from our oven so I just popped them on top of the vegetables in the baking tray to cook.

Our verdicts.

10 out or 10 for the ease and convenience
10 out of 10 for the recipe cards and instructions
10 out of 10 for their customer service, they have replied to my queries very quickly
9 out of 10 for the quality of the ingredients.
10 out of 10 for taste and enjoyability.

We had a very very minor issue with one of the fresh ingredients, nothing that made the product unusable but something I have highlighted to them that they are dealing with. If I had bought the product I probably would not have thought it was an issue but I am always that bit more fussy when doing a review.

These would make a great present for a student away from home at university, knowing that everything they need is provided, delivered fresh and that they will be eating good wholesome healthy food. Can also see it having a place for busy working people who like to cook their own food, at approx £10 a meal for a box of five meals for two people it is a lot cheaper and healthier than using a take away.

There is also a vegetarian option at approx £12 a meal as well as a family box that feeds 4-5 for 4 days and works out at £16 per meal. This is a great way to get your children involved in the kitchen, everything is measured and exact with simple to follow instructions with both pictures and written instructions. I reckon these would be a great item to take away on a self catering holiday if you are planning on self catering.

Disclaimer - We were sent the food pack for the purpose of a review, but the findings are my own and remain honest.