Meal Kit Delivery – Blue Apron Vegetarian Review

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Have you heard of meal kit deliveries?  If not, let me explain: every week you can have a meal kit delivered to your front door.  The kit is complete with just enough of the fresh ingredients to make the designated amount of food.  Consider it a mix of… grocery shopping, meal planning, and trying out new recipes all in one box!

Today’s review is about Blue Apron.  Oh, by the way, Blue Apron did not pay me to write this post, I just decided to write about it on my own!

Broccolini and goat cheese polenta with red onion jam and soft boiled egg

Let’s continue on, shall we?

How it works: Blue Apron offers once-a-week meal options for either 2 person or 4 person families.  You will get to make 3 meals per week.  You select which day of the week you want to accept your delivery.  You choose your meal type (beef, chicken, or in my case, vegetarian) and then choose which meals you would like.  For me, there are 3 vegetarian options every week.

vegetarian options

As you can see, every meal is planned out for the week.  If you look closely, you can see that some of the weeks I have chosen to Skip a Delivery… either I didn’t like the menu choice OR I already have plans that week and won’t be around to make it.

If you are not a vegetarian, you can see you have more meal options to choose from: however, you can’t do every single possible combination – some combinations are limited and I don’t know why.

What’s in the box? (It’s a 12-16lb box, I forgot to take a picture).

All of your ingredients are individually packaged with a meal card.  As you can see, they give you just enough ingredients for each meal. Example, below you only have 3 leaves of Swiss chard instead of a whole head.

Here is an example of the recipe card they send you.  I like how the recipe card is laid out. It is easy to read with blue fonts for the ingredients. And then as you can see, step-by-step illustrated instructions. It is easy to follow.

And here is the finished product: Fresh beet linguine with Swiss chard, goat cheese, and toasted walnuts

Here is another one of the meals, Shiitake mushroom and cabbage dumplings with garlic roasted tatsoi.  

…and here’s what’s left of the dumpling because we were hungry and ate them before I could take a picture!!

How does it taste?

Actually, surprisingly good!!  I was a little iffy about some of these recipes because they are not meals I would have normally chosen to make for myself.  But they were actually really good. They also seemed to be pretty healthy too.

How much does it cost?

The 2-person plan has one delivery a week with 3 meals portioned for two people.  The price is $60 per six serving delivery, making is $10 per serving.  Shipping is free.

The 4-person family plan comes with either 2 or 4 meals per week, depending on what you choose. This starts at $70 per eight-serving delivery (so two 4-person meals) or $8.74 per serving. 

How does the cost compare to competitors?

Hello Fresh is a bit more expensive but has a few more vegetarian options, with 2 and 4 person subscriptions and 3 meals per week.  The 2 person plan is $69 per week ($11.50 per serving) and family plan is $129 per week ($10.75 per serving)

Plated is even more expensive, but you have a lot more options to choose from.  A 2 person 3-meal order would be $72 per week, or $12 per serving.  This company also has some super gourmet meals too that you can order.

Pros

-Made me try new vegetables that I wouldn’t have otherwise chosen to cook – a feat for a lifelong vegetarian!

-Tried new recipes that I wouldn’t have tried otherwise

-Took out a trip to the store and the hassle of meal planning

-Recipes were easy to follow

-No food waste leftover – a problem for my husband and I we usually have to throw food away because it goes bad faster than we can eat it

-You can choose to skip a week – and you won’t be charged. Perfect for flexible schedules

-Dishes seem to be pretty healthy and well-balanced meals. Oh, did I mention they look pretty?

Cons

-Kind of expensive at $10per person to eat at home, however cheaper than going to a restaurant with gourmet type food 

-Sometimes I felt like it wasn’t a whole meal, for instance, the day of the Shiitake mushroom dumpling I was still hungry after eating.  I felt like sometimes it need a little more – on beet linguine day we added a small side salad.

-There is a lot of recycling with their packaging which takes up a ton of space in the recycle bins, but they do have a program where you can ship back the trash free of charge.

Overall, I am happy with Blue Apron and will continue to use them.  We go through the menus each week and decide if we want to order that week or not.  If we are too busy that week or aren’t interested in the menu, we simply “Skip the Delivery” (and won’t get charged on our card).  If you don’t feel like you’re a “good cook” then I recommend these for you because you will feel like a chic chef afterwards!  If you’re busy and on the run all the time, these could be nice too.

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