We all need a change of pace sometimes otherwise it’s easy to fall into a rut over what to have for dinner each night. Restaurants get expensive, though, and they aren’t always healthy. Frozen meals are convenient but we pay the price with additives, sugar, and sodium. Hello Fresh aims to set you on the right track with healthy, home-cooked meals that focus on high-quality ingredients.

With HelloFresh you can select a Vegetarian, Family, or Classic Plan. The Vegetarian Plan consists of three meals per week in servings of two or four, chosen by HelloFresh based on the amazing ingredients that are available that week, with meals such as butternut squash agnolotti with kale in a sage brown butter sauce and za’atar-crusted grilling cheese with sumac-roasted vegetables.

The Family Plan consists of meals for four people, and you may select two or three meals per week out of six recipes, some of which overlap with the Vegetarian and Classic Plans.

The Classic Plan offers the most options. You may select two or four meals per week in servings of two each, or three meals per week in servings of three or four. Select from a menu of 15 meals, including all three vegetarian options and some of the Family Plan options.

Each week the Classic Plan features at least one 20-Minute meal such as cheesy beef tostadas with green pepper, tomato salsa, and hot sauce crema. It also includes Dinner 2 Lunch meals like the Italian mozzarella burgers for dinner with a beef ragu pasta bake for lunch, which have extra ingredients you can cook at dinnertime to create an easy meal to reheat the next day.

The Classic Plan also features Gourmet meals, such as 20-ounce rib-eye steaks over risotto with tomato onion jam and freshly cracked peppercorns. A meal like lobster ravioli lasagna gratin with heirloom grape tomatoes and asparagus is listed as a Gourmet meal under the Classic Plan, with the option for two or four servings, and as a four-serving Family Feast meal under the Family Plan.

What Sets HelloFresh Apart from the Others?

HelloFresh sources food from all over the United States with a focus on sustainability, from Southern California avocados to fresh fish caught off the coast of New England. Alongside their regular weekly menu, they also offer seasonal meal kit boxes, such as a full Thanksgiving dinner.

Each recipe makes note of the perfect wine pairing, and those wines can be purchased through the HelloFresh wine club. They send a box of six bottles per month and you may select whichever bottles you’d like, based on your personal preferences or on their suggestions.

Part of HelloFresh’s commitment to environmentally friendly practices includes making most of their packaging is recyclable. All of the cardboard and paper may be placed in your curbside recycling bin. They use different liners in the summer and in the winter to reduce waste while making sure your food stays cold all day. The gel packs can be reused or discarded in the trash.

HelloFresh has an extensive blog that features alternate recipes for the ingredients you receive and how to spruce up leftovers. They have suggestions for side dishes and drinks that complement your main course, how-to tutorials for cooking techniques, information on seasonal meal kits that are on offer, and even creative ways to recycle the packaging materials into a robot costume.

Pricing

• Meals range from $6.99 to $9.99 per serving.
• Each weekly box costs $5.99 for shipping.
• Students get a 15% discount off of every box.
• Gourmet, Gourmet Plus, and Family Feast meals have additional surcharges.
• Seasonal holiday meal kits cost more and have a $9.99 shipping charge.

Pros and Cons

Some of the meals are on the inexpensive end of the scale compared to other meal kit delivery services, which makes HelloFresh a great deal if you’re choosing carefully. They don’t have as many 30-minutes-or-less meals to choose from as other services and some of the meals have surcharges that are not noted on the recipes when you’re selecting them.

HelloFresh takes more care to protect against cross-contamination from allergens than most meal kit delivery services. There are few vegan options, however, since most vegetarian dishes are not vegan without omitting the eggs or dairy.

Bottom Line

HelloFresh is one of the most popular meal kit delivery service in the United States. Its versatility and low prices combined with high-quality ingredients make it easy for home cooks to create delicious meals with little fuss.