Food may be one of life's greatest pleasures, but preparing homemade meals can be anything but.
We've all been there: the monotonous carousel of simple meals you eat week in and week out just won't do anymore, so you find yourself in the kitchen with high hopes of concocting something a little different.
But an hour or so later, the kitchen looks like a bombsite and you're still toiling away. Measuring out everything meticulously seems to take an age, and the pile of washing up just keeps mounting. Fiddly bits of unused ingredients litter your countertop and will probably end up being thrown away. Next time, you think, I'll just stick to my boring, but fool-proof, pasta bake.
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This is where, in theory, recipe kits come to the rescue. The premise is simple: you subscribe to receive recipe boxes automatically every week, and you choose from a variety of meals in advance. The fresh, preportioned ingredients are delivered straight to your door, along with simple instructions.
They're designed to save you time, money, and effort, as well as reduce food wastage. And, best of all, they're supposed to be really tasty. But do they actually do what they say on the tin? We tested recipes from three of the biggest players in the industry - HelloFresh, Gousto and Mindful Chef - to find out.
HelloFresh
Arguably the most popular recipe kit of all, I began my HelloFresh journey with high expectations and spent a Monday morning signing up on their website, for delivery on Saturday (the earliest date I could pick).
Annoyingly, there wasn't an option for singletons - the smallest order was three recipes for two people a week, which amounted to six meals altogether. This was the plan I chose.
The menu had around 40 options, something to suit everyone - from cauliflower nuggets to chicken korma - along with the ingredients. Each recipe also had the estimated preparation time next to it.
Some meals were customizable - for example, you could swap chicken thigh for chicken breast, add meat to a vegetarian dish, or even double up on protein. You could add sides to others, such as a ciabatta loaf.
The website highlighted recipes that were family-friendly, under 600 calories or in partnership with Weight Watchers. There were some premium options, too, which you could pay a bit more for, such as sirloin steak.
I opted for their yellow Thai style veggie curry, chicken and plum stir-fry, and 'super quick' beef ragu. When I signed up, there seemed to be discounts galore: 50% was knocked off the price of my box and shipping (usually £4) was free. Altogether, I spent just £13.49 (for a box worth £26.99), which equated to £2.25 per serving. It turns out the more meals you add, the cheaper each serving becomes (Gousto and Mindful Chef had the same principle).
I had until midnight on Monday to cancel my order - you can cancel, pause, skip weeks, or change your meals up to five days before your scheduled delivery date.
When the box finally arrived on Saturday, everything was neat and in order: a welcome pack, recipe cards, and the ingredients for each meal, grouped together in separate paper bags. Anything that needed to be chilled was put with ice packs in insulation padding, with instructions to put them in the fridge on the day of delivery.
My only gripe with the contents of the box is that I curiously got four plums for the stir-fry, when I should have got two; similarly, I got a full sachet of ginger puree when I only needed to use half. It should also be noted that you aren't provided with some basics, like oil, salt and pepper.
Then came the most difficult bit - the cooking. It was freeing to have everything measured out; even the chicken had been diced for the stir-fry. The instructions were pretty simple, too, with just six steps for each meal. However, I struggled to make the meals in the estimated time-frames - even though I tried to be speedy - so they felt a bit misleading.
The 'super quick' beef ragu and stir-fry were only supposed to take 20 minutes, but ended up taking me about twice as long. Chopping up the fruit and vegetables took a fair bit of time for the curry and stir-fry, and I struggled to multitask the different steps (which is key to getting the recipes done in time). Perhaps a more experienced cook would fare better. That being said, they took far less time than if I made the recipes from scratch myself.
Portion-wise, the servings were huge and far more than I expected - especially the stir-fry and pasta, which would easily have satisfied three people.
And as for the taste? Delicious - I couldn't fault them and they were definitely better than any versions of those meals I've made on my own. They also gave me ideas of flavour-enhancing and texture-enhancing techniques to try for myself in the future - such as roasting cauliflower for smokiness in a veggie curry, using mushrooms to bulk up a beef ragu, and adding plums and peanuts to add some sweetness and crunch to a stir-fry.
Speed and ease of cooking: 7/10
Quality and taste of meals: 10/10
Value for money: 10/10
Overall: 9/10
Gousto
The smallest option available at Gousto was better than HelloFresh - a regular box for two, with two recipes inside it, amounting to four servings altogether. There were 61 recipes on offer, abundant in variety and dietary needs - from crowd-pleasers, like bangers and mash, to more sophisticated offerings, like a lamb and pistachio tagine. Just as with HelloFresh, some recipes were customizable, and there was all the information for timings, ingredients and allergens.
The delivery seemed to be quicker than HelloFresh, as I ordered on a Sunday and my box arrived on Thursday. You were also given longer to make changes to your box - now a minimum of three days before the scheduled delivery date. I'd chosen a baked butternut squash biryani with coconut yoghurt, as well as a limited edition Vietnamese meatball Christmas sarnie. They were offering a 50% discount off your first box at the time, so in total I paid £12.50 - roughly £3.13 per serving.
The packaging and recipe cards were very similar to HelloFresh. However, Gousto's recipe cards also had QR codes for Spotify playlists to listen along to as you cooked, which I thought was a nice touch.
As for the cooking, the veggie biryani was incredibly easy to make - and true to the recommended time of 25 minutes, too. There seemed to be very little effort involved, with everything bunged into one pot, and at first I was sceptical about how the taste and texture would turn out. The butternut squash was already chopped and the only real work I had to do was chop the tomatoes into wedges, crush some garlic and halve the ginger (without even peeling it).
But I needn't have worried: the resulting biryani was packed with flavour, moist and perfectly tender. The only disappointment was that sliced green chillies at the end were far too hot for my liking - however, you could easily leave them out and the creamy coconut yoghurt balanced out the spiciness.
The meatball sandwich was an interesting concept blending Asian and Christmas flavours, and this worked surprisingly well. But I felt it required too much effort for the result, which, while very tasty, ultimately didn't blow me away.
The recipe was supposed to take 30 minutes, but it involved chopping two sweet potatoes into chips, turning beef mince into meatballs, finely chopping salad and herbs, and creating pickled parsnip and carrot ribbons. On top of actually cooking everything, it took me more than double the time to get through all these steps.
Again, Gousto's portions were great value for money - I had lots of sweet potato chips leftover, as well as a bowlful of biryani.
Speed and ease of cooking: 7/10
Quality and taste of meals: 8/10
Value for money: 10/10
Overall: 8/10
Mindful Chef
Apparently the most nutritious of the lot, Mindful Chef prides itself on its healthy recipes. It even has a comparison table on its website with HelloFresh and Gousto, which reveals that, unlike the other two, it uses 100% free-range chicken and no refined carbs. Furthermore, all its recipes are gluten-free and dairy-free, and only 450 to 650 calories per serving. It is also the only one to offer one-serving recipes, which is attractive for anyone who lives on their own and doesn't particularly like eating leftovers.
When I ordered, it also had the fewest recipes on offer (only around 20) and you also couldn't customise your meals. However, it was definitely the most adventurous.
I stumbled across curious inventions like tiger prawn and sweet persimmon noodles, date and chestnut sweet potato pie, pecan stuffed mushrooms, and cauliflower and cashew mole tacos (which is one of their recipes in partnership with Wahaca).
I had to pick three recipes minimum, and I ended up playing it fairly safe, going for Korean smoky beef meatballs with rice and pak choi, spicy Goan-style chickpea and coconut curry, and rump steak with mustard mash and roasted root veg.
When I ordered, they were offering new customers £10 off their first two boxes. Delivery is free, too. So altogether I paid £23 instead of £33, which amounted to almost £8 per meal - considerably more than the other two.
On its website, the company explains this expense: "Fresh vegetables and generous protein portions cost more than cheap fillers like pasta, white rice or bread. Our award-winning suppliers are stocked in the likes of Fortnum & Mason and Harrods".
The speed of delivery was in between HelloFresh and Gousto - I ordered on a Monday and received it on a Friday. Similarly, the deadline for changing the contents or cancelling the order was also in between the other two - up to four days before the delivery date.
Though packaging was virtually the same as the others, it seems Mindful Chef's approach is not as robust. Three of my containers (a tub of edamame beans, a pot of cornflour and a pot of spice mix) were broken upon arrival and the ingredients had spilled out.
The recipe cards were again virtually the same as the others - however, Mindful Chef had QR codes in its book of recipes, which linked you to useful videos with chef's tips, such as how to peel, chop and grate ginger.
When it came to cooking, once again I had the same problem with the preparation taking considerably longer than the estimated timings - so it seems this is a problem universal to the recipe kits (or maybe I need to brush up on my cooking skills). Removing the rosemary leaves from their stalks for the steak meal was especially tedious, as I'd never done it before - and alone this probably took up a good portion of the 30-minute time frame.
But the effort must have been worth it, as the steak meal was one of the best I had out of all eight recipes I tried. I usually accidentally over-cook and dry out my steak, but Mindful Chef's steak was superb quality and beautifully tender - even more so with the homemade gravy. Fried cavolo nero was also mixed into the mash potato, which added a deeper texture and a delicious saltiness to it. Meanwhile, the addition of roasted beetroot to the dish was a little different and added a nice sweetness.
Unfortunately, I can't sing the same praises for the other two meals. The chickpea curry itself was quite good, however the quinoa it came with ruined the dish for me. It didn't seem to cook properly within the recommended time and the vegetable stock you had to cook it in was quite salty.
As for the Korean meatball dish, the taste of the sauce was okay, if a little sharp, but the texture of the meatballs was far too fine and crumbly for my liking. I'm not sure if this is down to the recipe, or is an issue with the quality of the mince I was given.
There also seemed to be more food wastage with Mindful Chef than the others, as often I only needed half of what I was provided with. For instance, for the chickpea curry, I only needed half of the tin of chickpeas and half of the tin of coconut milk; for the curry and the rump steak, I only needed half a stock cube - so these random items were left floating around in my fridge. Granted, it's probably difficult to find a single portion of certain foods.
When it comes to price, while their portions were good, Mindful Chef seems to be the least value for money. I can see the steak meal costing £8, and possibly the meatballs at a push, but I struggle see how the curry I got would have amounted to £8 per portion - even if they were the best quality ingredients around.
Speed and ease of cooking: 7/10
Quality and taste of meals: 6/10
Value for money: 5/10
Overall: 6/10
Final thoughts
Would I use recipe kits again? Most definitely - the majority of the recipes were delicious, filling and good value for money. Better still, the process of receiving the boxes, unpacking the goods and following the instructions felt novel, fun and exciting.
But, next time, while I think there is definitely a market for Mindful Chef, I'd probably stick to HelloFresh or Gousto. I'd also make sure to only order a box when I know I have a fair bit of time and energy to spare one week - because the biggest drawback for me was the inaccurate time estimates for most recipes.
While the instructions were simple to follow and it was convenient to have pre-portioned ingredients, the speed and ease of the recipes suggested by all three companies do not seem realistic for the average amateur cook, like me, who might struggle to prepare veg quickly or multitask the instructions of the recipe. They were probably based on how quickly a professional chef could prepare the meal.
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