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

1. The whole process was really easy I thought. Some of the cooking times were off, but that may well have been my oven.
2. I felt that the meals were well balanced and simply omitted some of the salt/sugar.
3. Lots of menu choices. We chose meatballs, pork chilli, Chinese fish and Samla chicken curry. All went down well with the family, especially the curry.
4. Meatballs and fish were AK. They were nice but there seemed to be already a lot of family friendly recipes.
5. We cooked and ate together which doesn't happen that much at the moment.
6. Yes I would buy it again, possibly sharing a box with dm. Portions were generous and food fresh, although the food miles wasn't great and a lot of the packaging was wasteful.

Thank you for selecting us to try the box. Overall I would say I was impressed by the quality and price for what you got.

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?

It was tricky finding something that everyone would eat, but then it always is! It was easy to place the order. It was relatively easy to follow the recipes apart from there were some oversights/errors on some. One listed on the front that you needed olive oil, then in the recipe process it mentioned both olive oil and vegetable oil. Another talked about stirring the stew being careful not to break the fish up, but the fish hadn't yet gone in. The lamb meatballs said to cook them on a baking tray, but during cooking all the fat leaked out and off the tray onto the bottom of the oven, so it created quite a lot of mess. DH did the cooking, and found it fiddly with the various tiny packets that you had to open. Felt like this could have been done better, e.g. if it's to serve two, then have 1 double portion rather than 2 individual portions to open. By the time you've opened 4 individual pots of honey or whatever, it's taken a lot of time. It felt like it took longer to cook than usual but that may be in part due to unfamiliar recipe.

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

The calorie count varied wildly between recipes, from 371 to 778. I was quite surprised that the Annabel Karmel recipe was the highest in calories, and also by the amount of sugar included. Pretty much across the board it felt like there weren't enough vegetables. The lamb taboulleh went down well, there was loads and it was filling, but the only vegetable content was 2 tomatoes between 4 people. The tandoori fish and the lamb kebabs both had the same cucumber and tomato salad, felt like there could have been more variation/more vegetables generally.

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?

The number of recipes available were good in that we got to try things we wouldn't otherwise. It felt like there could have been a few more options, to accommodate the fussier eaters. That said, the kids were more interested in trying unfamiliar things that came from the exciting new box rather than from Tesco. The fish stew didn't go down well, I hate the licorice/aniseed taste and the star anise was quite strong. The children didn't like the stew at all, but did like the fish. The lamb kebabs were a hit, but see above - I'd consider that a "now and again" meal rather than a regular feature at 778 calories a portion and the sugar content. The tandoori fish was too spicy for the kids, even leaving out the chilli as indicated on the recipe to make it milder. DH and I really enjoyed it though. The tabouleh was good, but didn't feel like a balanced meal in terms of the vegetable content. The food was a good quality, and the range of recipes to choose from was good without being overwhelming.

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?

I thought Annabel Karmel specialised in kids' recipes, and I would say the kids liked her recipe best of the ones we tried. However the calorie content and sugar content wasn't the best, and that would put me off it. There was only the lamb kebab or her chicken pasta available that I could choose, and the pasta seemed a bit basic and dull.

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

It was easier in some ways, as you didn't have to think what ingredients you needed, what you have in the spice cupboard etc. It was like an easier version of online supermarket shopping with the delivery options etc. We did have 1 bad onion and 1 bad garlic clove in our box, and we collected our delivery at the door so it wasn't hanging around on the doorstep. When we buy from the supermarket we usually get a bag of onions, a few garlic bulbs or whatever, so if there are any bad ones then we have spares. It's more problematic when you have the 1 onion you need for the recipe provided and it's not good. The portion sizes were generous, we had leftovers from the tabbouleh and that was helpful when e.g. the tandoori fish wasn't well received by DC.

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

Possibly. The food was good and we (mostly) enjoyed it. It did take longer than the usual meals we cook, so it didn't save time there. It's probably good if you're not a very confident cook or don't cook from fresh that often. If it was less fiddly to prepare and quicker to get to the table then that would make me more inclined to use them again.

Thank you mumsnet for choosing me to take part in this product test. Although there were positive points to it, I'm afraid the fact that they messed up the orders and unexpectedly charged so many of us the full price has been quite off putting. However, here are my honest answers to the 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?

Easy to use the website and select recipes, I easily found 4 that I knew would be popular in my house. However, I found the recipes a bit of a faff to be honest, they took longer to prepare and cook than I expected and created lots of mess/washing up. I actually altered some of the recipes slightly to avoid the faff and speed things up a bit, e.g. For the cod with lemon caper mayo, I didn't bother blitzing the cooked sugar snap peas with the mint and other ingredients, I just steamed them and served whole, nice and easy and healthy! And enjoyed by us all.

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

To be honest, I was surprised at the amount of salt and oil required for the recipes, and again I altered some of the recipes slightly because of this. For example, for the lemon caper mayo, the recipe told me to add olive oil to the mayo. I felt this was unnecessary extra fat considering mayo is already full of oil, so left it out. I also left out the soy sauce required for the Annabelle karmel pesto pasta recipe as I felt it already had enough salt as it was. I also added extra veg to some of the meals (especially the Annabel karmel one) as I didn't feel the veg content was high enough. Having said that, the meat and fish were both good quality and the vegetables provided were vibrant and fresh which was good.

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?

There was plenty of choice for us, so it was easy to find four that we liked. Luckily there are no fussy eaters in this house so pretty much anything goes. The overall taste of the meals was excellent, and we really enjoyed all 4. I will recreate the recipes again (well, my own, faff free versions of them anyway )

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?

Not really. I've never been much of a fan of her recipes and the one that we tried (chicken pesto pasta) had the highest calorie, fat and salt content of all of the meals so I wouldn't really be interested in ordering her recipes again.

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

To be honest, it didn't really make it much easier. I usually use the Tesco app to order my weekly shop which is quick and easy and I can book a 1 hour slot which I prefer. I also plan quick and easy to prepare meals as I don't have much free time in the evenings after work. There were no real quick and easy recipes on gousto. (Their 'quickety quick roast chicken took me over 2 hours to prepare and cook and about another hour to clean up the mess and all the pots and pans afterwards!)

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

No. The biggest reason being the fact that they took money from me and many other MNers, as well as forgetting to cancel some people's subscriptions properly. It just makes me think that the company must be very disorganised, and I'd worry about being overcharged or then getting my order wrong in future. On top of that, I didn't really find it any easier than usual, although it was nice to try new things and we did enjoy the meals. I also felt that they used far too much packaging so not very environmentally friendly.

All in all, I enjoyed taking part in this test but I'm afraid the negatives outweighed the positives for me.

Here are some photos of the four meals we tried:

Chicken pesto pasta
Nutty goats cheese salad
Cod and chips with lemon mayo
Quickety quick (ha!) roast chicken

Oops that should've been a not !

I got round to cooking all my meals.. we had a few really busy days so had to freeze some of the meat.
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?

Gousto was really easy to use. All the week's recipes are laid out with pictures and descriptions, you just need to select the meals and portion sizes. The recipes were laid out really simply and as everything was pre-measured it was easier still.

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

Most of the ingredients seemed nice and fresh but some of the meat had very short dates on so I had to freeze it - slightly defeats the object when you then have to defrost something in advance of cooking.

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?

There were enough recipes to give plenty of choice. DH and I really enjoyed them all but my kids are pretty fussy. I have issues with DS2 and food anyway and he wasn't too keen on trying things. Had slightly more success with DS2.

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?

Although they were nice they weren't my first choice off the menu. I probably would have chosen at least one different dish if I didn't have to try these specifically.

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

I'm pretty bad at meal planning and often don't have much in so resort to basic meals. DH and I both work full time and have lots of other commitments so meal times often get a bit neglected. I enjoyed making more of an effort to cook and it was nice knowing that whoever got in first could just make a start easily. I usually hate the eternal question of "what's for tea" and this made it easier.

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

Yes, certainly not every week but now and again.

Overall I enjoyed using Gousto. My favourite was the Cambodian Samla Chicken curry, and I was the envy of my colleagues when I took the leftovers to work for lunch. The portions were big and we often had leftovers. I'd be tempted to try the 2 portion meals and see how we get on, instead of 4. The packaging seemed a bit extreme sometimes and I'd feel bad eating all my meals like that. There was such a lot of wrapping, plastic etc. My order contained eggs, that were each individually wrapped in paper towel and their own plastic pot! I wonder if some of the packaging could be somehow made reusable, perhaps with credit towards next order on return.
I wouldn't use Gousto every week but I will be ordering again.

I nearly froze some of the meat to have one of the meals at the weekend but as the fish had been frozen (still partly frozen when arrived) I was concerned that the meat may already have been frozen too.

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 a little tricky to use, but this was all sorted before I placed my order. I was disappointed that some recipes had sold out but there was still plenty to choose from. The recipe's are in an order that I am not used to as they tell you to cook in real time so skip from one job to the next. I still found them easy to follow. I would like the basic recipe though.

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

I was impressed with the tastes and flavours and have enjoyed feeding my whole family. Might take them some time to get used to though.

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 it would be nice to have more recipes to choose from and maybe even more vegetarian choices. My husband loved the flavours, and I enjoyed cooking tasty food. Might take my son a little longer as he likes my normal slightly plain food.

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?

I thought this was a nice addition as the recipies were family friendly and still tasty

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

I don't usually plan meals and it was great knowing I could choose from a recipe and that I had all the ingredients to hand.

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

Yes I think I would especially if I could order a full weeks food or even five weekday meals. Would be good to if you gave recipes and instructions that could be doubled and frozen for an easy meal for another day.

Didn't like the amount of plastic packaging, would be good if I knew it could be recycled, or if more things came in paper bags so I could recycle them.

We were so happy and excited to try Gousto and had a really positive experience, very impressed. Thank you Mumsnet l.

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 Gousto really to use. The app was straight forward and the meals looked appealing and colourful. It was also easy to check the ingredients for each recipe.
The recipes were easy to follow but I did prep all of the chopped ingredients first otherwise I don’t think I’d have been able to keep up and have things ready in time for the next step.
It was quite easy to create the meals, my daughter was really keen to cook the recipes too and she kept commenting on the different smells as they cooked which she loved.

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

Everything is done from scratch with quality ingredients, we did feel refreshed after each meal. The quantities were very generous too .

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?

We tried Brazilian Chicken Curry (which was delicious), Haddock Linguine (has to be one of the best meals I’ve ever had) and Chipotle Burgers (again very nice). We also had the Annabel Karmel Chicken pesto and didn’t like it at all unfortunately (due to the balsamic vinegar and soy sauce which was added as the final step for the recipe) it tasted awful.

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?

Having really not liked the Annabel Karmel recipe I’d probably avoid them to be honest, it didn’t come close to the other Gousto recipes which were delicious.

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

It meant I cooked a lot from scratch which I really enjoyed doing and found the time for. My daughter loved cooking the recipes and said she found it more enjoyable because she didn’t have to weigh everything out (this was already done!

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

Definitely, but most likely for a treat week and maybe during school holidays when my daughter would have the time to be involved (and not snowed under with homework). I’ve already promised her one delivery during the Christmas holidays.

Here are the pictures for our Brazilian Chicken Curry

We love trying new things and have recently been stuck in a bit of a good rut so I couldn’t wait to try this!

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?

The ordering process was really easy. I liked the choices though I have a vegetarian in the family and the Annabel karmel recipes were all meat. Having said that we chose other meat recipes and adapted a portion for dad. Would maybe have been helpful if all the ingredients for 1 dish were together but I can understand why it would have been more difficult and increased packaging.

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

We cook from scratch most days but sometimes variety is a challenge so this certainly helps.

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?

There were a few options sold out when I was choosing but the choice was good and everybody enjoyed the food.

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?

The pesto chicken was something we have anyway and I wouldn’t have chosen it if I hadn’t been asked to.

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

Takes all the stress out of thinking what to cook and we all enjoyed trying new recipes.

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

Yes, we will be back. Something I would order as a bit of a treat every couple of months or so.

Thanks so much for sending the box to try.

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?

The Gousto site is well laid out and easy to navigate. The recipes themselves were really easy to follow and the results were as expected and very tasty. Overall the whole experience was very easy.

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

There was lovely fresh food in the Gousto box which was easy to prepare so I felt I was feeding my family well. I did feel that the portions were huge though - much more than we would usually eat. There was also more salt and oil added to the recipes than normal but this could be adjusted accordingly.

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?

At first I was surprised at the small amount of recipes to choose from but actually I liked the look of a lot of them so there really is a good enough choice. We chose Annabel's Minty Lamb Koftas, Annabel's Ultimate Chicken Pesto Pasta, Pulled Hoisin Chicken & Sesame noodles and Creamy Haddock with Tomatoes and Chilli. All the meals were enjoyed by everyone but my daughter thought the hoisin sauce was too strong. My children are not keen on fish but they both really liked the creamy haddock linguine. The Lamb Koftas were probably the overall winner. My DH did mention that he thought the meals were very carb heavy and I certainly think we could have used less of the pasta.

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?

The Annabel Karmel recipes were very good but as my children are older, and will try most things, it isn't that important to me.

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

I usually cook from scratch anyway but this saved me writing a shopping list and possibly forgetting or not being able to find an important ingredient. I loved that everything came in the correct portion size just ready to cook. Overall saved me a lot of time planning, shopping and cooking.

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

Yes I would be interested in buying it again - it is fairly good value but I a smaller box would probably do. I did feel that there was a lot of packaging used which I think could be reduced. Loved my new wooden spoon that came in the box too - needed a new one!!

Very disappointed I didn't get a spoon :-(

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?

The App was great. Very simple to sign up and select. Placing an order was easy and the confirmation emails arrived promptly.

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

Of the dishes I selected I reduced the salt content in all of them. The soy salmon in particular stands out. We halved the amount used and could have removed it further.

I felt like there was a good selection of vegetables and proteins but the sauces added detracted from the goodness.

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?

We found the choice good with a nice mixture of meat and fish. We all enjoyed the taste of each recipe. My DD will be making a version of the peri-peri chicken and apple slaw again. It was delicious.

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?

We only had 1 AK option to choose from which was the soy salmon. I liked the idea of it but as previously stated it contained far too much soy.

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

I loved the ease of not worrying about shopping for the meals. I’m not sure it would work all the time though as we had to use up the ingredients within 4 days and that meant eating the chosen meals quickly. I’d like to have at least a days grace with dates.

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

Yes. They’ve made it easier to introduce something new. Particularly with my fussy 7yr old DS. He will eat it if it was sent in a box but not if I’ve shopped for it! 😂

Thank you for offering the trial. I will be using Gousto again and despite having some teething issues with payment Gousto really stepped up and sorted them out promptly and with great customer service.

Thank you very much for choosing us for this product trial

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?
Very easy to select an order, I liked I could change an option very easily. I tried to pick things that were different from what we would usually cook. Mine was a yodel delivery I think and so there was no timeslot, it turned up about lunchtime. That would possible put me off if using regularly. One thing that I found confusing was that when the meat / fish arrived it seemed slightly frozen. I wasn't sure if it had been pre frozen or frozen by the ice blocks so I stuck it in the fridge. However on reading the information booklet 2 days later it suggested these items were for your freezer unless eating immediately. I actually e-mailed to confirm as I didn't want to poison anyone! However I then also discovered the e-mail address quoted in the booklet was outdated and I had to retype my question on a contact form. Little thing but a bit frustrating and seemed a bit sloppy admin on their side considering when I rang them they told me it was a newly designed booklet.

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

Veg in our ones seemed ok - mainly tomatoes though! same side salad for two of the meals. A couple of the options (I didn't choose) seemed very high in calories for what I assumed was a healthy way to eat.

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?

Choice of meals was OK - we chose lamb koftas & chicken pesto pasta from AK then the haddock linguini & tandoori fish. All the meals went down well. Probably mine & my husbands least favourite was the lamb koftas as they seemed a little bland. In comparison to many reviewers I actually liked the fact each meal was packaged for two - in some cases we had the meals at different times as the children were out / I was working until late. My husband thought they menu cards could have done with maybe a timeline as he found timings slightly off for the pesto pasta. However we both found the meals really easy to cook.

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 am lucky in that my dd (10+6) are relatively adventurous eaters so I would not feel the need to pick a childrens meal specifically, I associate her more with baby food than the ages of my children.my youngest polished off 2/3 of the tomato / cucumber salad herself ( no reflection on portion sizes (they were fine) she just loved it!

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

It worked well being half term as the dd have school dinners and would usually just have soup / light tea rather than a full meal in the evening. I found it very easy to have everything delivered in the correct quantities - it also made it very easy for children to be involved in the cooking. It was great not to feel like I only had half the ingredients I wanted.

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

Probably not every week as the cost would be too high and also I must admit by the end I did fancy just sticking something on a tray in the oven! However I agree with PP that this would be ideal if you had some busy time coming up with no time to shop or a self catering holiday. I tend to cook the same basics often involving packet sauces and it made me realise that actually it can be simple to cook completely from fresh. We will definitely be keeping the menu cards and making all the meals again I think.

Thank you again for the opportunity - we have all really enjoyed our meals this week.

Thank you MN for choosing me - was very excited.

Like many others despite putting in the free code I noticed when I went in to edit my order that I had been charged. I emailed the standard customer service address and have yet to receive a reply. I then emailed the special email address MN had given us (and copied in Justine) and received a very prompt reply from Hana who refunded my money and changed my account status to suspended to prevent further problems - thank you Hana. Clearly this is an aspect of Gousto which needs refining!

As another winge despite being clearly at home (car in drive) and leaving delivery instructions that if I wasn’t in to leave box by the easily accessible back door the delivery driver didn’t knock and left the box on the front door step.

My children (12 and 14) were VERY excited about the free food!!

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?

The website was easy enough to use - perhaps a bit of style over substance but yes it did the job.

Following the recipes was very easy - I did find the AK one written in a very condescending way “this is your tomato and cucumber salad” said the recipe after telling you to chop tomato and cucumber and put them in a bowl etc.

We chose:
Chipotle Burger
AK Lamb Koftas
Haddock Linguine
Pulled Hoisin Chicken and noodles.

In order of how we liked them and a mean score for each:

Hoisin Chicken 9/10
Chipotle Burger 8/10
Haddock Linguine 7/10
Lamb Kofta 1/10

Burgers were fab - loved the potato wedges - never made these before and they are so simple. Everyone enjoyed these.

AK lamb koftas were not nice - no one liked them- v greasy and I felt over complicated with the panko breadcrumbs and honey. We had only used half the potatoes with the burgers so made more wedges with these.

Haddock Linguine - ds really loved this, dd and I loved the sauce but not sure if the fish went with this, dh didn’t like it (he is fussiest member of family).

Pulled Chicken- everyone loved - dh thought it may be a little too spicy- children disagreed!

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

Ingredients were great but A LOT of packaging which concerned me. Portions were HUGE. We would normally eat more vegetables with our meals. For the product test I cooked exactly as per box / recipe but if we used them again I would add more veg / salad.

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 thought these were great but looking at the next two weeks selections I saw there were a lot of repeats so worry it may become too samey. I always cook from scratch but this is quite a simple fun way of doing it.

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?

I’m not an AK fan I’m afraid. No one enjoyed her recipe and I don’t see how she would enhance the Gousto brand - sorry!

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

I normally either shop in Waitrose or Ocado. I loosely meal plan. This was quite exciting and we tried different things.

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

Possibly- not every week as I think it would become repetitive and the packaging concerned me but it was a good way to bring some variety to our meals.

Thank you for the opportunity- oh and loved the wooden spoon- what sort of wood is it? (It’s very light)

Thank you for choosing us for the trial. The children where very excited when the box arrived, and they enjoyed helping me unpack and put away the food, and choosing which recipes we'd have each evening.

1. How easy did you find Gousto to use? Easy to navigate the website. How easy was selecting recipes and placing an order? Straight forward to select and place order, but there was no email confirmation on order, which meant I wasn't hundred % sure the box would turn up! possibly no confirmation email as I was a tester, but if I was a paying custom I'd like an email confirmation. How easy was it to follow the recipes and create the meals? Very easy to follow recipes and create the meals, but I agree with other testers in that there seemed a lot of washing up!

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

I felt more veggies where needed, the meals tended to be on the carb/ protein heavy side and I felt slightly lacking in fibre, admittedly there were veggie options available and I probably should have ordered a veggie meal.

1. What did you think about the number of recipes you could choose from? there was a good variety of recipes.

What did you and your family think about the taste of the Gousto meals you tried? largely very tasty meals, although too much balsamic vinegar on the Chicken and pasta recipe.

1. What did you think about the option to order Annabel Karmel's recipes? We were asked to choose at least one and preferably two AK meals, there were three options to choose and none of them particularly appealed, however I did order two. The lamb koftas were much tastier than I thought they would be, but the chicken and pasta really wasn't great. Is this something you'd like to see continue in the future? It depends on the recipe!

1. How did using Gousto differ to how you usually plan, shop for and cook your weekly meals? It was a real luxury not having to think, plan or shop for pretty much the majority of this weeks meals!

1. Would you purchase Gousto meals again for your family? Yes but only if
2. less packaging. 2. more veggies and 3. less food needing to be refrigerated (I'd never normally refrigerate pitta bread or brioche rolls).

as an aside the wool insulation has been well used for crafting this week (making ghosts and pumpkins and stuffing them with the wool) so that's been an added bonus to the box

Here’s the last picture of the hoisin chicken

Thank you very much for picking me to test this box. I really enjoyed it.

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 got the message that I had been selected for this while I was working away, so I was trying to place my order on my mobile, which I probably wouldn’t normally do. I chose my recipes and was having some difficulties processing the order. I searched everywhere on the mobile site for a telephone number so I could complete it by phone but couldn’t find one so I sent a message via the contact us page. I finally got a reply to this message yesterday, so a full week later. As it turned out I finally managed to place the order later in the day (and I found out that there was a dedicated email address for Mumsnet tester) but, by then, one of the meals that I had previously selected had sold out which was a shame. If I had been waiting that long for a response I would have been really fed up.

I found the recipes easy to follow and they weren’t too time consuming pretty easy to follow although the quickedy quick roast chicken dinner was a bit vague about exactly how what to do with the chicken. It tasted good though.

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

There was a good range of flavours in the meals, and a reasonable amount of vegetables, which we supplemented for a couple of the recipes, but I was surprised by the levels of salt, particularly in the Annabel Karmel recipe. We had the pasta with chicken, pesto and tomato. My children are older, but I wouldn’t want to serve it regularly to toddlers because of this. They did both enjoy it though.

I was disappointed that the chicken wasn’t free range as I normally only buy this.

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 was disappointed that one of the ones I had originally selected had sold out when I came to check out. Both me and the dcs enjoyed trying out new recipes and it was great to have a range of new, quick meals. I only eat chicken and fish but not red meat and there was a fair number of interesting sounding recipes. I might have been more adventurous if I hadn’t been cooking for the children as well. I particularly loved the Mediterranean fish stew and will definitely make that again soon.

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?

I only tried one AK recipe as the other one was, I think, lamb. As above, I was a little surprised about the salt content of the one that we selected. It wouldn’t sway me to buy in future.

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

I loathe doing the weekly shop! I go through phases of meal-planning really well and at other times I’m completely disorganised and end up resorting to oven chips and fishfingers as a mid week dinner. I loved knowing that I had a fridge full of interesting and varied meals that were reasonably quick to cook and that I didn’t have to think about at all. It was particularly welcome as it was half term and we staying in self catering accommodation and were really busy with trips out. Having all the food portioned out meant that we didn’t produce much waste at all.

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

Whilst I loved having the opportunity to try out these recipes there were a couple of things that put me off – the first one is the lack of free-range meat. If there was an option to upgrade to free range meat and sustainably-sourced fish I might order as an occasional treat. I was also put off by the amount of packaging used. The little sachets of vinegar or tubs of tomato puree really piled up and seemed really wasteful. I think Gousto need to work harder at finding more environmentally friendly packaging.

How come some got a spoon and some didn’t? Is it some kind of spoon conspiracy? I need one.

I go through lots of wooden spoons. DH literally burns through them

Thank you first of all Mumsnet and Gousto for letting me product test for you.

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?
We found the app really easy to use and it was great going through it to chose recipes that we thought we’d like. It was really easy to follow the recipe cards and make some delicious and flavoursome meals.
We had a slight mishap to begin with when despite entering the free box code - the full amount was deducted from my account just before payday which caused me a few issues. However, I spoke with someone at Gousto and they apologised profusely and said they would issue a refund immediately which they duly did. My refund appeared a few days later.
When my first box arrived - the contents looked great apart from 2 mouldy shallots. I contacted Gousto again and they added a £3 credit to my account.
The first box looked really good and there were clear instructions where in your kitchen to put things to keep them fresh.

2. Thinking about the ingredients and recipes, how confident does Gousto make you feel that you're feeding your family well?
The food looked fresh and there were lots of vegetables and protein in each meal.
We chose Roast dinner, Lamb koftas, mozzarella, tomatoes and basil risotto and the chicken and pesto pasta meal.

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 think there were enough meals to chose from. We didn’t have any difficulty choosing and I see that the meals change each week.
The portions were generous and we all loved the flavours of the meals.

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?
For us personally we enjoyed the 2 Annabelle Karmel recipes the most. The lamb koftas were really good and the chicken, pesto pasta was also great. I think Gousto should continue to work with her.

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

We are a busy family and we usually pop out every day to buy an evening meal. The convenience of Gousto delivery was measured ingredients and saved time on thinking up and buying the ingredients with items left over.

6. Would you purchase Gousto meals again for your family?
Yes! We have ordered another box next week. We enjoyed getting a free wooden spoon and the recipe cards. We also got sent an email saying that the 5th and 10th box were free as well. We really enjoyed trialling this and have eaten some lovely meals this week.

The allusive spoon for those who didn’t get one!

Here's my spoon!