Hello Fresh or the like

[Hiccupiscal]

A friend gave me 2 bags of food from hello fresh to try, I must say -.I was quite impressed. Zero waste, and much smaller portion size than I would have done for myself -.portion size and feeling like I have to clear my plate is such a big issue for me!

I went on the website but its not great IMO, they want you to sign up and pay for the box before you can see what menu choices there are?

I'm not a great cook but would like this to change, and i would love to adopt a more veggie/vegan lifestyle, i think this could be the way to go forward with it.

Do you use Hello Fresh? Are they any good?
Fresh ingredients? Healthy? Good choice?

Or can anyone recommend me a company similar, that have veggie/vegan options?

I love the thought of having meals prepped and sorted for me.
If i could hire someone to cook it all too, I would, but i guess I better start to learn some recipes myself

We use HelloFresh but have just swapped from
3 people to 2 people box, to save money, and as we found the portions quite large.
It’s got my husband cooking, which is a real win!
If you PM me I can get a £20 off code sent to you.

Having read recently about some of the working conditions of the warehouse/factory I personally wouldn't want to use them.
Lack of PPE, lack of social distancing, lack of proper training due to high staff turnover.

We have used both HelloFresh and Gousto, as a family we definitely prefer Gousto and use it a lot in phases. Then we go through a phase where we just reuse the recipe cards and buy the food ourselves (which is massively cheaper) before returning to them again for new inspiration.

For us we get to try new recipes and I enjoy the convenience after work. I love cooking and consider it a bit of a treat to have everything portioned up ready for me. I've always been impressed with the quality and think Gousto have a better choice of recipes.

The only issue I would say is that they use Yodel as their courier (in our area at least) which a lot of people don't like. Having said that, we've never had an issue with it.

And regarding payment, my card is debited 3 days (I think) before delivery. The menu opens on a Tuesday lunchtime for delivery in 2 weeks.

I've used hello fresh and gousto and much prefer gousto.
In my opinion they have a better variety of meals, especially when it comes to plant based meals. The portion sizes are better, I order a box for 4 people and that easily does 3 adults and a 4 year old with some left overs.
The ingredients come in individual bags which is handy and they've recently changed some packaging so it's almost all recyclable now.
My only issue I've had with gousto is delivery as the use yodel which can be a bit rubbish but depends on area and when we had an issue they refunded my delivery and credited half the cost of the box to my account. I find it really easy to skip weeks on the app and generally get a box once a month to every other month.
Oh another bonus point for gousto is they have the Charlie Bighams ready meals which you can have as one of your meal choices which I absolutely love!

Used Hello Fresh a lot. It has pros and cons.

Pros: convenience, interesting meals, no waste

Cons: I don't think it's great for weight loss, if you only go for the 600 calories or less meals that are veggie / vegan then that limits your choices quite a lot. The really delicious recipes are huge portions - one curry from there was 1,200 calories per serving.

We use hello fresh a few times a week. I've got a lot on at the moment and I like not havingto think and plan.

Pros
Easy, no shopping needed
Can control calories
I actually think the portions are huge we always have spare for lunch next day
Good choice
Let's you learn new meals

Cons
A lot of washing up! Seem to use so many pans etc
It always takes longer than it says for me
Sometimes the nice options cost more
Lots of the same ingredients. Can get repetitive

We use HelloFresh on and off and have done for a few years.
Pros:
Cost: for me it’s cheaper as it’s four meals, I can buy a few bits at Aldi to top us up and I never seem to spend as much as if I’m buying a week’s worth from scratch.
Waste: yes, there are more tiny plastic pots to throw away - but that’s still better than the large plastic veg trays etc from the supermarket.
Choice: they’ve improved over the years and most weeks I find lots of meals we like, and it makes us eat different foods
Convenience: our box is delivered on Monday and it’s so nice driving home from work and knowing I don’t have to spend time thinking of what to cook (I know I could get the same effect from meal planning and doing an online shop but this is easier and quicker!). I’ve always found it easy to skip weeks too.

Cons:
Quality of ingredients has definitely declined. When they started, it was free-range chicken and pork, now it’s battery. Used to be Parmesan, now it’s ‘Italian-style hard cheese’. They used to send branded ingredients whereas now it’s HelloFresh own brand and not as good, I imagine. They rely a lot on stock powder and soy sauce for flavour. But then, so do I when I’m cooking for myself!
Missing ingredients: happens fairly regularly. That being said, when this happens I do the instant chat online and they always knock a tenner off or something, so that’s fair, but it’s a PITA when you want to cook the meal that night and haven’t got something.
The premium range: this rankles a bit. As well as the standard box, you can have some more luxurious meals which they charge a supplement for. Given that you’re already paying a premium, this makes me feel the same way I feel about fast-track at theme parks. I deliberately don’t buy them for that reason!

For me, the gains outweigh the negatives so I use them pretty regularly; best thing is just to try and see what you think.

We did mindful chef which had lots of vegan options. The food was tasty with a healthy focus and easy to cancel. Is more expensive than just doing weekly shop though.

I just wanted to point out this.

When the woman complained, they tried to fob her off and refused to even report the theft of her data at her request.

Amazed that you described them as "zero waste". You might not waste food, but OMG, all that packaging! I could not believe my eyes when I was gifted a box by a neighbour who forgot to cancel it when she went on holiday.

Used Hello Fresh and Gousto and Gousto is loads better

I use both, depending on what recipes each have. I skip frequently if the meals are too repetitive/don’t interest me. I think the packaging is an issue but cost wise I think it’s decent. The additional costs for some meals annoy me though!

We rarely have a duff meal. Occasionally get an underwhelming one but have also had some absolute corkers that we’ve used the recipe cards again and again with our own ingredients.

HF annoys me a little as they don’t list the amount of each ingredient required on the card, just ‘sachet’ ‘pot’ etc - I imagine so you’ll keep ordering - so you need to check each individually and note it down for future reference. G lists the amounts on the card though.

@ParisCactus

Amazed that you described them as "zero waste". You might not waste food, but OMG, all that packaging! I could not believe my eyes when I was gifted a box by a neighbour who forgot to cancel it when she went on holiday.

I meant zero waste as in we didn't waste any food as portion size was great, prehaps it was just the meals I was given from a friend, but i only thew away a packet from rice, chicken and beef - which I would have with supermarket shop anyway. Everything else had no packaging. I'm very aware of using less plastic etc and thought this might be a good way to go about it - prehaps not!