Find out what Mumsnetters think about Gousto recipes boxes NOW CLOSED

[JustineBMumsnet]

This is the feedback thread for the 100 Mumsnetters who have been testing a Gousto recipe box, including recipes from their new range in partnership with Annabel Karmel.

Here’s what Timo Boldt, CEO and Founder of Gousto says: “For people who want to cook and enjoy good food together but don’t always have the time, ingredients or know-how to do it well, Gousto delivers simple ways to (re) discover the joys of cooking, so you can choose what you want, cook it with confidence and enjoy sharing it with others.

Taking the hassle out of planning, shopping and cooking, Gousto delivers up to 4 meals for the week with the ingredients and recipe ready to make, so there’s no more ‘what’s for dinner’ panic.

This month, we’ve launched a 3-month partnership with family cooking expert, Annabel Karmel to introduce 20 additional family-friendly recipes to our menu. Supporting busy families with tried-and-tested, nutritionally balanced meals, proven to suit fussy eaters, including Heavenly Hidden Veg Bolognese and Mouthwatering Veggie Mac & Cheese – the new recipes will allow you to enjoy cooking dishes which suit everyone around the dinner table.

Each recipe uses Gousto’s fresh, quality ingredients – including 100% British meat, sustainable fish and free-range eggs from trusted suppliers – allowing you to know what’s in every meal and feel confident you’re feeding your family well.”^

Testers, once you’ve tested the recipe box by cooking all recipes, please give your feedback by answering the below questions:
1. How easy did you find Gousto to use? How easy was selecting recipes and placing an order? How easy was it to follow the recipes and create the meals?
2. Thinking about the ingredients and recipes, how confident does Gousto make you feel that you're feeding your family well?
3. What did you think about the number of recipes you could choose from? What did you and your family think about the taste of the Gousto meals you tried?
4. What did you think about the option to order Annabel Karmel's recipes? Is this something you'd like to see continue in the future?
5. How did using Gousto differ to how you usually plan, shop for and cook your weekly meals?
6. Would you purchase Gousto meals again for your family?

All selected testers who give the required feedback will be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £300 voucher.

Thanks and good luck!

MNHQ

Standard Insight T&Cs apply

Do you really need recipe boxes for mac and cheese and spag Bol? They're two such basic recipes (and yes, mine have a tonne of veg in them).

Are all the recipes so basic?

Do they give proper portion sizes yet, or is it still for borrowers?

Portions are massive we've got half left tonight

Mine arrived on Friday and I've cooked all 4 recipes now.

How easy did you find Gousto to use? How easy was selecting recipes and placing an order? How easy was it to follow the recipes and create the meals?

It was very easy to use, surprisingly so actually. It was simple to select 4 recipes and ordering was straightforward. The recipe cards couldn't be easier to follow.

2. Thinking about the ingredients and recipes, how confident does Gousto make you feel that you're feeding your family well?

I felt very confident that we were all eating well. The ingredients were very fresh.

3. What did you think about the number of recipes you could choose from? What did you and your family think about the taste of the Gousto meals you tried?

I thought there would be a bigger choice. I did find things we wanted to eat but would have liked 3 or 4 more options. We all loved the taste though especially the pork and pineapple tacos.

4. What did you think about the option to order Annabel Karmel's recipes? Is this something you'd like to see continue in the future?

I wasn't any more or less impressed by Annabel Karmel's recipes and wouldn't choose one in future just because it's recommended by her.

How did using Gousto differ to how you usually plan, shop for and cook your weekly meals?

It was so simple, from choosing what to eat and then not having any measuring to do when it arrived. Usually I wander aimlessly around Waitrose throwing stuff in to my trolley and then still not knowing what we are having for tea. It was actually a very enjoyable experience, whereas it's usually an utter chore.

6. Would you purchase Gousto meals again for your family?

Yes I would although the cost might be a bit prohibitive every week

Thanks for picking me

just marking my place for later. Only had one meal so far, but it was delicious and the portion sizes were fine (and I have 2 quite big children plus a hungry DP!). We didn't have leftovers because we are greedy

1.How easy did you find Gousto to use? How easy was selecting recipes and placing an order? How easy was it to follow the recipes and create the meals?

I found ordering the meals easy and they change weekly.

2.Thinking about the ingredients and recipes, how confident does Gousto make you feel that you're feeding your family well?

I was quite impressed with the quality of the ingredients. Lots of veg and complex carbs. However, some recipes had far too much salt imo in the shape of things like soy sauce.

3.What did you think about the number of recipes you could choose from? What did you and your family think about the taste of the Gousto meals you tried?

I thought the range quite limited especially for vegetarians like my ds2.
We enjoyed the taste of each meal. The glazed salmon and Chinese rice was delicious. The chicken schnitzel also went down well!

4.What did you think about the option to order Annabel Karmel's recipes? Is this something you'd like to see continue in the future?

Again, i was surprised by how much sugar and salt were in them. I would imagine they will be a popular range.

5.How did using Gousto differ to how you usually plan, shop for and cook your weekly meals?

It's been a god send this week tbh!! Both dc have been ill and it's meant I havent had to raid the freezer or send dh out on emergency food shops 😁👍 I find meal planning tedious so having it all just there was great!

6.Would you purchase Gousto meals again for your family?

Yes I think I would, especially when we have a busy time coming up.

Here are pics of 2 of the meals we have cooked;

Marking place before full feedback.
2nd dish tonight. Annabel Katmels crispy oriental fish. This went down well with us all. I marketed it a a healthier version of a Chinese take away. It had a lot of the flavour without the greasiness, guilt or price tag.
Quite a lot of preparation but cooking time really quite short. The fresh ginger made the sauce and brightened up the quite bland fish. The amount of oil I used it rather didn't use meant the fillets weren't uber (deep fried) crispy but we're ok.

Oh! And dh gives the sausages a big 👍

Place marking for later...have done two of the recipes so far and loved them both.

Place marking. I ordered my box to arrive today and I’ve just unpacked it. Everything still lovely and cool and packed in ice and the ingredients look fab. Can’t wait to get started.

Feedback so far...

Website is great and simple to use. I let DD (14) choose the recipes and she found it really hard to pick between this week and next week as the recipes looked amazing for both! The instructions look very clear and easy to follow, so much so that I'm letting DP cook one night (his cooking is awful to the point where I flatly refuse to eat it unless he has stuck rigidly to a recipe). We werent able to try an AK meal as they both involved meat or fish and we are veggie! So it might be worth there could be a vegetarian AK choice every week However I think all the meals look family friendly so it's not a big gripe.

We've chosen Honey Kissed Couscous, Aubergine Parmigiana, Palak Paneer, and Thai Green Curry. They all look absolutely lush and my 14 year old DD practically drooled on my screen as she helped choose! DS (7) said "oh no not aubergines you always buy them " but has agreed to try at least one bite of everything.

The box arrived at 6pm yesterday but we eat at 5.30 so we'd already eaten - tonight is the first meal! I'm actually very excited about it.

Oh and we really liked the freebie wooden spoon!

Also the dates on our box are really long - 3 out of the 4 meals have a date of 21st October and 1 has a date of the 18th October. They won't last that long though

We ate the last of the boxes meals last night. Here is my feedback:

1. How easy did you find Gousto to use? How easy was selecting recipes and placing an order? How easy was it to follow the recipes and create the meals?

I found the website very easy to use. All the dishes looked tempting, it was easy to navigate around and for me the voucher code worked perfectly.

2. Thinking about the ingredients and recipes, how confident does Gousto make you feel that you're feeding your family well?

I was rather shocked when the boxes arrived and I saw the calorie content on the recipes. We followed the first recipe exactly but it did feel very oily. For the 2nd recipe I made, I cut down the amount of oil required in the sauces by 75% and it tasted okay. I didn't think the food was the healhiest. Lots of sugary additons (e.g ketchup and relish and sugar). I normally avoid using such things and if sweetner is needed, I'll put in maple syrup or honey.

3. What did you think about the number of recipes you could choose from? What did you and your family think about the taste of the Gousto meals you tried?

We thought there was a great choice. We did think though that the food was a bit greasy and didn't taste as healthy as the food I normally cook from scratch.

4. What did you think about the option to order Annabel Karmel's recipes? Is this something you'd like to see continue in the future?

I thought the addition of the Annabel Karmel recipe's is a great idea, but I think the range needs to be extended. Neither of my daughters like fish so we didn't choose one of those.

5. How did using Gousto differ to how you usually plan, shop for and cook your weekly meals?

I do my weekly shop from Ocado and the night before the order is due I'm surrounded by cookery books working out what to cook on what night and what ingredients we already have in. I loved the fact that I didn't need to worry about what the specific ingredients, all I had to do was choose what I thought the family would enjoy to eat. It certainly gave me an extra hour in the evening which was much appreciated.

6. Would you purchase Gousto meals again for your family?

I'm not sure. I did get a bit upset by all the packaging that came with it, I got a bit frustrated squeezing out ketchup from 6 small packets. i would prefer just to squeeze from a big bottle. And, I wasn't impressed with the chicken they provided. BUT, it saved me time at the planning stage which I appreciated and made me try different recipes. I'm not sure I'll use them as part of our everyday weekly menu, but I'll definitely be buying some over the Christmas break when we'll be staying in a holiday let. It will be great not to have to take all the additional bits needed to cook a flavoursome meal.

In addition to the above, we had one ingredient missing (corriander) and one extra lot of mange-tout. We also had a burst sesame oil which soaked the ginger, garlic and lime leaves :( On a positve, note, the ingredients stayed fresh on a mild day in our porch whilst waiting for me to come home from work.

On a negative note...still waiting for my refund :(

Anyone made the pork chilli? As it says cook for 15 mins that seems very short cooking time.
The annabel fish wasn't great, 2 tablespoons of added sugar and the vietnamese farmed fish was tasteless and had the texture of cotton wool. I made a duff choice there! Will leave proper feedback when have made all the meals.

Freebie wooden spoon? Gutted.

Only prepared two of the meals so far so will do reviews once have done them all.

I was disappointed that the meals arrived on Friday and all have to be eaten by today - am hoping I can stretch the date on one of them! I know that gives 5 days for 4 meals but if you have weekend plans or don't have time to cook on one of those days it could be a problem...

My 14 yr old DD has just cooked the Palak Paneer with Cardamom Rice! All by herself with DP supervising!

Smells amazing and I can't wait to tuck in.

She says the recipe was very clear and easy to follow and loved the portioning out of ingredients.

1. How easy did you find Gousto to use? How easy was selecting recipes and placing an order? How easy was it to follow the recipes and create the meals?
Placing the order and selecting the recipes was extremely simple. Following the recipes - the first one we made (lamb biriani) was incredibly simple. The other ones we chose seemed to involve rather more pans, and use of the word "meanwhile" - lots of things to do at once; you definitely had to read everything through properly before starting. My children were able to help by following parts of the recipes, but they definitely needed me to oversee the whole thing.

1. Thinking about the ingredients and recipes, how confident does Gousto make you feel that you're feeding your family well?

I liked the ingredients, they all seemed good quality, so I would be confident. The amount in 2 portions was a bit too much for 2 adults and 2 primary aged children (which was actually quite handy, as we ended up with an extra portion of most things for someone to take for lunch to work the next day)

1. What did you think about the number of recipes you could choose from? What did you and your family think about the taste of the Gousto meals you tried?

I think after a bit it could seem a bit restrictive, but I am not sure how often they change. We loved the taste of two of the meals we chose (halloumi with black beans and lamb biriani) The other two were maybe a bit too strong tasting for the children (though DH and I enjoyed them all).

1. What did you think about the option to order Annabel Karmel's recipes? Is this something you'd like to see continue in the future?

Annabel Karmel's recipe was actually the one that the children enjoyed least (salmon and chinese rice) - they thought it was too strong-tasting. I wouldn't go out of my way to order an Annabel Karmel recipe particularly

1. How did using Gousto differ to how you usually plan, shop for and cook your weekly meals?

It was great to have the meal planning taken out of my hands and for it to all arrive on the doorstep. Usually I have a vague idea of what to cook in my head, and then might change a bit depending on what was at the supermarket. I enjoyed having that responsibility taken away for a week! I really liked having the more exotic ingredients like toasted sesame oil, rice vinegar etc that I probably wouldn't normally bother buying, but would just improvise with what I already had in the cupboard. It's a good way to try some new flavours without having a huge packet/bottle taking up loads of space in the cupboard.

1. Would you purchase Gousto meals again for your family?

I probably wouldn't buy them regularly, but as a one off I might well. I will certainly think of them next time we stay in self-catering acommodation, as I think they would be perfect for that. And I might consider getting the odd one for the DC to cook themselves - I would have to carefully pick non-complicated ones.

Refund sorted 😁
Thanks mnhq for sorting so quickly 👍

...id not thought of the self catering side of things!
That's a really good idea! 👍

What wooden spoon?

Have you emptied out the box? Mine was wedged right at the bottom.

Just cooking the second recipe, the lamb biryani. The meatballs took longer than expected last night so thought I’d get a head start but actually it’s pretty quick. But OMG it looks lush. Sorely tempted to get that wooden spoon and eat the lot before anyone sees it! I have high hopes for this one.

I only just got the email so place making for now. :)

I just received an email today, so will get ordering. Thank you .