Hello Fresh Review: Including recipes, menus, prices and rewards!

I have always really enjoyed cooking and trying out new recipes but what really puts me off is having to buy ingredients that I know I will probably never use again or having to chuck away.

I also liked the idea of having meals delivered to your door but I wanted to actually make them myself and not just heat them up in the microwave.

So when we stumbled across Hello Fresh from a coupon that was included in one of my wife’s deliveries. I forget who it was now, but it was a £20 off coupon to trial Hello Fresh.

We thought we would try it out for 6 weeks leading up to our holiday to the Maldives in an attempt to eat healthier.

3 types of recipe boxes

  • Classic (2, 3 or 4 adults)
  • Vegetarian (2, 3 or 4 adults)
  • Family (2 adults and 2 children)

We had the classic box and started with 5 meals a week but after a couple of weeks, we dropped down to 4 meals a week as we found we usually had 1 leftover from going out or getting in late from work.

Hello Fresh prices

The cost for 4 meals a week for 2 people is £41.99, which works out a £5.25 per meal per person.

Now I must admit this did sound quite expensive when we first signed up and if it had not of been for the coupon I probably would not of tried it.

However, I have to say the meals are really good value and quite big, sometimes with leftovers for lunch the next day.

Our weekly food shop bill has also dramatically decreased as were only really buying bits for breakfast and no longer buying random stuff that will do not need.

Inside your box

hello fresh box

Our Hello Fresh food box is delivered on a Monday when I usually work from home. However, they will leave it outside your front door or in a safe place if you miss your delivery slot.

You get a text message usually before 11 am with a 2-hour time slot when you can expect your delivery.

Your food arrives bagged up in separate brown paper bags for each meal and the meat and dairy in the cool bag that contains ice packs to keep your food fresh.

Inside the box also contains your recipe cards for each meal.

Hello Fresh recipes

hello fresh recipe card

The recipe cards are really simple to follow with clear step by step instructions with photos to guide you.

They include what utensils you need to cook your recipe, what ingredients you should have had delivered and how long it should roughly take to make.

I haven’t had a recipe card yet that I wasn’t sure what to do.

Hello Fresh rewards

The only thing that I thought would have been great was a folder to put your recipes cards in but I have since found when logging in to my account to choose my meals for the following week I had enough reward points to get a folder from the rewards shop!

The more meals you order the more reward points you get and you can exchange your points for a tea towel, oven gloves, chopping board, cooking spoon set or the big prize that I am saving my reward points for is a pepper mill!

UPDATE ON REWARD POINTS – The Hello Fresh rewards are no longer available. Thankfully I managed to trade in what felt like 3,000,000 reward points I had saved up to get the pepper mill and the oven gloves before they stopped it.

Conclusion

Overall I have been really impressed with Hello Fresh and we intend to keep it going when we get back from holiday.

The meals are excellent packed full of flavour, is great value for money and I would thoroughly recommend Hello Fresh.

Hello Fresh menu

This is what was on our menu from Hello Fresh week 23rd September – 29th September 2017.

MEAL 1

Butterflied chicken with leeks and feta cheese topping with minted potatoes

butterflied chicken with leeks and feta cheese topping with minted potatoes

Probably one of the simpler recipes by Hello Fresh but full of flavour. Simply grilling the butterflied chicken under the grill and adding the topping whilst boiling some new potatoes and finishing with some chopped up mint. Really quick and simple recipe.

MEAL 2

Honey mustard sausages with sweet potato mash and sticky red onion gravy

honey mustard sausages with sweet potatoe mash and sticky red onion gravy

This has been one of my favourite meals so far! The sausages were really nice, if not a quite a bit smaller than the promotional photos used on Instagram by Hello Fresh! Never the less it was really easy to cook and was perfect for a busy night when you are short of time. The real winner here was the sticky red onion gravy that was full of flavour and reminded me of my Nan’s special gravy she used to make.

MEAL 3

Ksar Char-Bagh Burgers With Red Onion Marmalade and Potato Wedges

ksar char-bagh burgers with red onion marmalade and potatoe wedges

Perfect for a Friday night instead of a takeaway! Having been to Marrakech you could taste the inspired flavours from the Ksar Char-Bagh hotel. I didn’t add as much spice as recommended as I am not keen on spices but the yoghurt was a really nice touch that I probably would never have thought of adding to the burger.

MEAL 4

Pork fillet with new potatoes and Tarragon sauce

pork fillet with new potatoes and tarragon sauce

Made a perfect change to a Sunday roast. The sauce was delicious and really made the meal for a classic french combination of Pork and Tarragon sauce.

DISCOUNT CODE

REFER A FRIEND LINK: Get £20 Off Your First Delivery With Hello Fresh (You will receive £20 off your first box, and I will receive £20 off my next box as well! It’s a win-win!)

QUESTIONS

If you have any questions you would like to ask me about Hello Fresh please ask below in the comments.

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The Son Of Thom
The Son Of Thom

Daniel Steptoe-Thompson is a UK food, lifestyle and travel blogger reviewing places he has travelled, whilst writing about his lifestyle choices, combining his love of coffee and tattoos and ticking things off his bucket list.

    28 replies to "Hello Fresh Review"

    • Victoria McDonnell

      We have just started using Hello Fresh after first having an experienced the delicious recipies when we lived with my in-laws. The recipe cards are so easy to follow and I love the fact there is no waste! Thanks for the voucher link as we got a great deal on our first week. A great help for cooking dinner when both working full time and have limited time during the week to decide what we want, shop and cook.

      • The Son Of Thom

        Glad to hear you enjoyed it!

    • Al

      After reading your detailed review – including photos of the meals – this is something I will try out, as it has made the process of cooking sound quick and easy. Plus, keeping the weekly shop costs down is always a bonus. Thank you.

      • The Son Of Thom

        Thanks Al. Let me know how you get on

    • Zayn Ambrose

      I am currently separated from my wife due to work constraints so I will have to start cooking home made foods as it is no longer pocket friendly eating out at restaurants. I like the concept of having both ingredients and recipe for preparation delivered to my doorstep. I will try out the Classic package from Hello Fresh since I do not have a lot of mouths to feed currently

      • The Son Of Thom

        Let us know how you get on Zayn.

    • Maxine

      I am at home on my own on Monday through Thursday evenings & am useless in the kitchen. I see there isn’t a single person option ? Can you also specify any food types you don’t eat? Nice detailed review – thanks Dan??

      • The Son Of Thom

        Hi Max! I cant remember all the categories but yes their are gluten free, vegetarian, takes less than 20 minutes, etc but I a single persons option would be great too.

    • Harriette

      I used hello fresh for around 2 months. I found good points and bad points to it and eventually decided it wasn’t for me. I was single at the time and obviously the meals are made for 2, which is fine as you can just have the other part the next day but I think maybe an option for single people could be an option. I also found the amount of packaging quite excessive, I get it’s all portioned out but as a keen recycler it was almost a full-time job. I found it too expensive which is essentially the main reason for cancelling, you can shop and cook for much less. I get the convenience of it but I actually enjoy food shopping and like to pick what I am going to eat. The idea is good, that is why I signed up in the first place.. I’m sure a lot of people prefer it.

      • The Son Of Thom

        Hi Harriette, I agree about the plastic and it is something that plays with my mind everytime we order but I do believe I have read somewhere HelloFresh have pledged to reducing the amount of packaging that is needed. I actually found we spent less as we no longer just put stuff in the trolley we dont need and only pick the essentials but I can see why it would be expensive if your only buying for yourself. I do believe they have a recipe book coming out soon which might help!

    • Sue

      Your reviews do not sound genuin . They sound too much like they are rehearsed. Great idea but needs much thought on recipes as you claim ingredients are only used occasionally but what I see of your recipes the ingredients are of every day use which are on a typical shopping list , Easy to buy , cheap produce and not much technical cooking involved . Sorry to be negative but great idea if more thought into recipe and ingredients.

      • The Son Of Thom

        Really?! Im not wanting to cook anyting to advanced during the week with limited time. I think the recipes are simple to follow and create and even better taste great

      • Dot

        I thought instructions made cooking difficult. Easier for me to follow cookbook with fewer steps. Also price high because added on costs to meals selected saying were gourmet. Yet I looked on site later and did NOT show were gourmet. I did like portions included for recipes selected. However I have canceled for reason given.

    • James de Beresford

      Any recipe with tarragon sauce in has to be worth consideration. Also, butterflied chicken is always a winner! So quick to cook but really lean and mean. But the one that’s really making my mouth water is the honey mustard sausage option. It’s the kind of dish that breaks vegetarian’s hearts…

    • Matthew

      The variety of choices that hello fresh has to offer looks very interesting. I enjoyed your review and found it very insightful. It definitely shows they have given a great deal of thought into their different plans. I will be more than likely considering hello fresh after the glowing points you have made!

    • Mandy Allen

      I adore Hello Fresh and also like the fact that they send the right amount of ingredients because not only might I not use the item ever again but I live in a rural area and often cannot get the more obscure things!

      Enjoy the journey!

      Mandy

      • The Son Of Thom

        One of the reasons we love HelloFresh too

    • Chris Sanders

      I’m a guy who works long hours. I tend to rely on restaurants and fast food outlets. I’ve been meaning to eat healthier for a long time, so when I discovered Hello Fresh the concept certainly grabbed my attention. I selected their £20 discount option and have been very impressed with the quality of the food. As stated, the ingredients are fresh and extremely tasty. I now feel inspired to give up junk food and eat healthier. Thank you Hello Fresh! I wish you all the best for the future.

      • The Son Of Thom

        Super great to hear Chris

    • Vera

      My housemate and I have been using hello fresh recently. As 2 people who are generally busy in life it has been a great way to make a good tasty dinner, without putting too much thought into what to make. The meals have been generally simple, yet fun to make, either together, or alone and have found they are more than enough to fill us up, even with some left overs. Some of my favourites have included sausage hotpot and pan-fried tilapia. The only downside would be that on weeks we are particularly busy and unable to prepare the set meals, we’ve had to freeze the meat to use at another time, but obviously would need more veg.
      Overall, I have been impressed with the quality of recipes and food, and would be happy to get more meals delivered.

      • The Son Of Thom

        I love the Sausage hotpot too!

    • Teresa Grinter

      The Hello Fresh deliveries are a double edged sword. In principle they’re a fantastic idea. In reality they’ve been a pain in the arse. Every week there’s either recipe cards or ingredients missing! My delivery today is missing soy sauce, parsley, pomegranate seeds & the recipe says chicken breast that you butterfly but instead I’ve got diced chicken thighs!!!! So out of the 4 recipes I have only 1 if them was right! ?

      • The Son Of Thom

        Weve been using Hellofresh for nearly a year now and have only experience this twice.

    • Mary Anderson

      I am not understanding why you can’t put your own food in a crock pot before you go to bed , let it cook slow all night and in the AM turn it to” keep warm” . How hard is that , everything goes in all at once. You can peel or not peel the potatoes, carrots, etc. You don’t even have to cut the veggies up . Throw in some broth or stock you buy in a container on the shelf, or a sauce of your choice. Now you know only your hands have chosen the meat or fish and your clean hands put it all together using your own recipe or from a cookbook. …smdh

    • Rebecca Strang-Dodd

      About to sign up to compare to Gousto. Thanks for the review

      Oh and potato not potatoe.
      Ingredients not ingrediants.
      Just saying!

    • Mr D Postlethwaite

      What is the cost of a 5 meal classic box for 2 people

    • diana davis

      i can not sumit willnot go to check out

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