I don't get Gousto

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

Confession: I jumped on the bandwagon and nabbed one of the free boxes. I looked forward to the free food, some interesting recipes and an easy life for a few days.

It was free. That's good! But the rest of it? I don't get it.

About a million tiny plastic sachets in a bag that needed sorting out. Lots more work than I'd anticipated in preparing the food. Something as simple as chicken burger with fries and slaw took a military approach of organising things before I could start cooking.

Sugar being required in recipes that I'd never add sugar to, including a beef dish that we had, that turned out very oddly and the slaw for this evening. It might be the recipes I chose without thinking, other than 'that sounds nice', but our box is all so sweet.

It might just be me, maybe my expectations were wrong but the quality of ingredients did not justify what would be the normal cost of the box. I'd be able to go all 'posh farm shop' for the price.

Just so much plastic and packaging. I guess we live and learn!

Im prepared to be swamped with opposite viewpoints to me as it does seem to be really popular.

I did the free box too and then bought another one with the 30% off - by the end of the second box the novelty had totally worn off. I spent more time cooking than I would have normally and I agree there are too many little plastic packets. I think we would use them again if we were going on a self catering holiday, but for regular week night dinners they are just too time consuming and not great value if you already have basic cooking and shopping skills!

Yeah I found it a headache. It’s prob fine for ppl without kids, but being able to throw some fish fingers, jacket potato in the oven and boil some broccoli is sooo much easier than the faff of those boxes (not to mention a fraction of the price!). It’s marketed as a “convenience” but it really isn’t.

It's definitely not convenient! I'm trying to remove my account and this is what I get. I can't even seem to leave!

I managed to delete my account using the app.

Well I am the opposite - I love it. Such a revelation as I was so useless in the kitchen before (thank God for a husband who loves cooking!). We are now on our 5th box (not full price though as we had some credits from referrals). But honestly, the recipes are varied, delicious and takes 25-45min and I would never in a million years would make them up myself. Also the whole idea of it is no food vastage so I dont mind little packets as every thing is pre measured. We love family meals and more exotic ones too! Our 5 year old is fascinated by home made chicken nuggets and fish fingers, honestly it is much much healther than premade ones you buy in supermarkets. Just my 2 cents I guess.

I didn't like it much either, too much faff. Simply cook is much better. You buy the staple ingredients so it's much more customisable, the pots keep ages and they are simple, quick and tasty recipes.

I did a week free trial a few years ago in a Mumsnet product test.

Tbh like a pp said after about day 3 I just wanted to bung something beige on a tray in the oven.

It's quite pricey unless you buy the higher serving boxes and then you have a load of stuff that you need to eat before it goes out of date even if you don't fancy cooking it.

I also love it .. it's not really a faff to separate toasted sesame oil and rice wine vinegar packets .. cut the corner , it's open . Most can be recycled
I've had lots of credit added so will carry on getting while reduced

Yes have given away a couple of meal ingredients as I don't really want to cook every single night .. have also frozen some chicken and mince so it will all stretch

I think it's great while reduced but won't pay for a full priced box

I like it. I enjoy cooking but I’m being far more adventurous and not having to check I’ve got the ingredients for the meal is great.Some recipes are a bit fiddly, but it’s making us eat more vegetarian and fish dishes. I do think the choice has gone down a bit since I started ordering, there’s no pork belly for example and lots of fish and meat is extra which makes it expensive so I don’t order these!

We've found it really faffy - empty this into that etc. Some really odd ingredients for some things too, and not enough of others things eg breadcrumbs. Still miffed that the box was half open and some of the veg was missing....

We had aioli with it tonight which was supposed to involve mixing various sachets with garlic(which they didn't supply) so I just made normal mayo which took just as long I'd imagine as all the faff of sachets etc

I'm not convinced the price of a box without discounts is worth it

@TheStarsDontShine I found my garlic in the brown spices bag. That was after using some garlic in my fridge.

It does sound like it's a rather marmite type thing. I'd rather not have the packaging at all, rather than filling my recycling and having all that energy waste.
What do people do with the boxes? My veg box picks up my old box each week.

I'm ambivalent-to-supportive 😁.

My main concern is the food miles and packaging. Two eggs arrived in individual cardboard boxes. Mad.

It is much better than competitor complete meal boxes though. I think financially it is good value. I got 16 meal portions out of a package that would have cost around £50, so the £ per meal is very acceptable for meat and fish-based meals.

I've just got a simply cook box which when it dropped through the post box I honestly laughed my socks off at. It is a box of spices and recipes ... That's it.

There needs to be a half way house. I'd add eggs, cheese, bread/crumbs, basic pasta shapes, and gravy bases to the list of things you're expected to have in. I think currently the set up is too much geared toward the totally clueless who have maybe a pot noodle and pack of basmati rice in the cupboard.

We love it - no shopping to do. Interesting meals which are more involved than I would usually bother with. Lots of extra ingredients which I don’t stock so makes life easier

What Id really like to see is supermarkets adding shopping buttons to their recipes, so that you can click the ingredients you don't have. Things like rice having a pop down menu with different options so you don't have to buy the expensive option and then the recipe coming attached with the receipt. Similar idea, less faff with packaging.

I have recently done 4 weeks of Hello Fresh. I thought it was great and encouraged me to try new things. I did learn to only choose the quick meals!!!
I agree about the packaging but as a result ha e bought normal sized bottled of ingredients to use in the future.

I've cancelled it now because it got expensive but will definitely try guosto as well in a few weeks.

It well and truly got us out of the rut of eating the same meals.

Meals that you are unfamiliar at cooking always seem to take a long time/take a lot of washing up. As you get better you realise there are shortcuts and make it suit you!!!

I agree OP.

All that plastic bits of packaging for a measly a sprig of parsley or for two peppercorns do my head in. DH ordered it once or twice back in the dark pandemic times, but he's come to his senses now.

Parker don't you have to shop for other meals though? That's another thing that has me flummoxed, is that we ended up with no bread or a few other bits in as I hadn't done a weekly shop.

I also jumped on the free box bandwagon and totally agree. Lots of faff, loads of dishes created and not as nice as food as I normally make. I am a confident cook and have most ingredients they send in, so maybe that's why I haven't been wowed - its not anything exciting for us?

I have £100 credit so I'll use that but will probably adapt the recipes and take advantage of some free ingredients. I think I had the same burger as you OP. The curried slaw just tasted of slaw with curry powder - no depth of flavour it was just odd tbh. I ended up putting loads of mayo in to save it.

Definitely sticking with simply cook, genuinely quick and easy meals.

Tesco’s delivery for the basics (bread, fruit, cheese etc) but thanks to Gousto I don’t have to think about meals. A win every time as I’d never cook meals with so many different ingredients.

I must admit, I am very bored about thinking about meals.
Does anyone have a free live in chef code?

I have done Gousto a few times and really enjoyed most of the meals. I thought the quality was good and it inspired me to make things I haven't tried before. It took the work out of meal planning and list writing.

However.

A lot of the tiny little sachets are things that I have in the cupboards anyway. Soy sauce, vinegar, herbs, spices. Things like that.

On the days that we had Gousto meals I was stumped for what to cook for the kids. They are fussy buggers and don't eat what me and DH eat. Normally when I cook, say a tofu curry, or a lentil pasta, I will do enough rice/pasta for all of us and then do some bolognese, chicken breasts or sausages for the kids. This isn't possible with Gousto.

Also the plant based options are limited. And I don't really like much fake meat.

I think its great if your family all eat the same meal, if you need some inspiration, or if you don't cook from scratch much and don't have the basics in your cupboards. I would certainly use it if I get an offer, but I don't think I'd pay full price very often.

Agree op! I tried a special offer from hello fresh, and I couldn’t believe the amount of wasteful packaging, the cost if you did it regularly, and the food was meh, I mean not horrible but not that amazing. We’re supposed to be reducing packaging and it was just a load of plastic, a massive box and a huge insulation thing. Just appalling. I suppose it could be handy if you’re not used to cooking and need help (and are loaded) but I realised I am pretty good at cobbling a meal together and it just took extra time and faff.

I've had a very tiresome week with Gousto. Signed up for a free box, it was cancelled. Decided to cancel my subscription and it took about 45 minutes and 10 steps to do it. What a palaver.

I've never seen the appeal and never tried them.

Surely loads of wee plastic packets outweighs the environmental "saving" on food waste?

I would urge any mners wanting to address food waste and learn simple, tasty and healthy recipes to check out the "frugal foodies" threads that ran during lockdown if they're still available.

Also www.bbcgoodfood.com

Is fantastic for simple cheap recipes I use it a lot for new ideas and reminders of proportions for baking

I think this thread/the success of companies like this proves how much we really need proper home economics classes back in schools!

@IceCreamTime19 home made chicken nuggets and fish fingers are SUPER easy to do yourself from scratch and the cost if you buy the base ingredients yourself "in bulk" will be pennies! With the cost of living crisis I think most need to cut back don't we?

All you need is diced chicken, or fish fillets, eggs, flour and breadcrumbs (or you could even make these yourself at home and use up stale bread!)

When my dd was little she used to help make them too and that made her more likely to eat (very poor appetite for health reasons)

Gradually build up a stock of herbs and spices for cooking and you can make pretty much anything. Buy them in the world foods aisle where possible and they're MUCH cheaper!

Oh there was one unexpected bonus! I wrapped the giant frozen packs up and laid them in my bed. It was lovely and cool to get into bed that night