I just signed up from Quidco. They have a 30% off voucher, plus 40% cashback, so it comes to 58% off, £25.09 for a family meal box (usual price £64), which is 4 meals, for 4-5 people
Here's what I received, with bb dates and the price you'd pay in Sainsburys for something similar:
600g goose skirt steak bbe 4/10/2013 (er, £6 in the supermarket?)
(The Guardian says:
The thrifty but knowledgeable cook's steak. From the other end of the inner flank, just above the liver and kidney, this is a flat sheet of meat, well marbled, with a rope-like texture and a delicate flavour. Try marinating in it soy sauce for two days, then cooking for one or two minutes, resting and serving sliced across the grain.)
2 x 250ml semi-skimmed milk, Robert Wiseman brand, bbe 28/9 (most families buy large bottles of milk: 28p worth here)
6 chicken thighs, boneless, skinless, bbe 30th September (£4?), Tom Hixson of Smithfield
4 chicken breasts, bbe 30/9 (£6?)
2 x 250g Tom Hixson meat pork sausages, minimum 75% meat, bbe 1/10/13 www.tomhixson.co.uk/productdetails.cfm?id=260 Not as good as the sausages we usually buy, also quite an ungenerous quantity of sausages (we normally buy 2x400g) (£2.50?)
250g baby spinach (£1)
630g broccoli (£1.60, maybe a little more, this is florets rather than big hunks)
65g fresh coriander (2 bags) (£1.20)
12g rosemary (80p)
50g spring onions (2) (85p for a bunch)
570g red pepper (2 rather large ones) (£2.40 - for 3 normal sized ones)
1600g Maris Piper Potatoes (£1.88 for part of a 2.5kg bag)
3 lemons (96p)
1 bulb garlic (35p)
280g carrots (2) (28p)
700g courgettes (2) (£1.26)
485g red onions (3) (49p)
45g flaked almonds (59p at £1.30 for a 100g bag)
45g breadcrumbs (15p @ 230g for 75p)
1 x150g indeciphereable korean kimchi pouch (£2???)
2 tsp ras-el-hanout (£2.50 for a tub in sainsburys - maybe 40p worth?)
300g couscous (41p @£1.35/kg)
250g dried (Chinese) rice noodles (£1.69)
2 tsp cornflour (2p)
2 x chicken stock gel (50p?)
4 x soy sauce sachets like you get in sushi boxes in supermarkets (15p?)
Total value, based on slightly inflated supermarket prices (you could get the stuff for less in the market, cheaper noodles in an ethnic store, etc.): just under £40
So it's a good deal at half price, but at full price you are obviously paying a good-sized premium.
The recipes:
Moroccan Skirt Steak with Spinach & Lemon Couscous
Uses 1 lemon and only 300g of steak (the amount supplied was 600g), the spring onions, the couscous, the ras el hanout, 2 cloves garlic, '1 cup carrot', whatever that means, 'handful spinach', 'handful coriander'. Basically the steak is flash fried and served on the couscous, spinach + red pepper.
Artisan sausages with roasted garlic mash + red onion gravy
Uses the sausages + 800g potatoes (the amount supplied was 1600g), butter (not supplied), one of the milks, 4 cloves garlic, 2 of the onions, 1 of the stock pots, the rosemary, and 1.5 tbsp cornflour (2 tsp supplied, slightly oddly). The onions are caramelised and the stock pot + cornflour added to make gravy.
Chicken milanese with toasted almonds + broccoli - uses the chicken, '2 cups' breadcrumbs (not sure if they supplied enough as cups are not a UK measurement), 1 cup creme fraiche (again), 1 lemon, 4 cups broccoli florets (not sure again), 4 tbsp flaked onions.
Chicken is bashed, and coated in bread crumbs & creme fraiche, almonds browned, broccoli served on the side.
Dreamweaving Korean Stir Fry with Chicken + Vermicelli
Uses 6 cloves garlic, the chicken thighs, the noodles, 1 cup red onion (what is a cup)? 4 tbsp kimchi, 1 1/2 cups courgette, 1 chicken stock pot, 1 lemon, 2/3 cup coriander, soy sauce
Noodles cooked in the stock, chicken marinaded in the soy sauce + garlic, everything then stir-fried.
My thoughts:
- I would buy better sausages, and more of them, 500g is not enough.
- The meat is 'regular', not organic or free-range
- Everything was included, which was nice, double the stated quantity of steak (not sure if the recipe is in error, though I would say 150g per person for steak cooked this way is about right - 75g would be pretty mean) + potatoes.
- The chicken milanese needs some carbs, breadcrumbed chicken breasts with broccoli is not a meal by itself. New potatoes???
- Bonus middle class ponce points for including kimchi.
- Extra bonus points for including an unusual cut of meat (goose skirt, which is not normally sold in the supermarket)
- Sausages + mash uninspired, though the gravy recipe is solid and might teach people how to make gravy. The other three recipes are better though.
- Nice recipe cards, step-by-step with photos, with easy/safer steps marked for the kids to help.
- You can keep the recipe cards + do the shopping yourself in the supermarket
- The recipes don't seem to repeat that often, and appear solid, I checked back 10 weeks and they were all different. (www.hellofresh.co.uk/box-week-40/?t=family_box is the latest, change the week number to view past weeks) You can check what's up next week and order only occasionally, if you balk at the high prices, waiting on some recipe that seems particularly inspiring.
- Nice to receive a box full of goodies, but you need to order by Wednesday for the following Tuesday/Thursday, so it's not that convenient.
- I don't do online groceries, but the supermarkets could easily offer the same service (and undercut it, by a lot), by 'click here to add recipe' (I'm not sure if they do this already), and then adding in all the required ingredients for a given recipe card. Delivery times + windows would be better too, and you could upsell/downsell the quality of produce according to your budget, plus delete things like teeny pot of cornflour, when you've got a big box in the cupboard.
- You still have to do the prep. There are no pre-sliced courgettes or carrots.
- The recipes all take around 30 minutes. I don't think they are going to send any lamb shanks or anything like that.
So yeah it's quite nice. But I normally buy free range chicken + outdoor pork, so it's slightly disappointing to get regular meat.
And, as I mentioned, you could get the same thing from an online supermarket quicker + for less. The box contains 4 meals and there are nice long bb/e days, but you still have to come up with 3 more meals before the next week's delivery arrives.