THERE'S a smorgasbord of meal delivery services around these days.
That means that to stand out, it's handy to have a unique selling point.
Green Chef, which was founded in 2014 and bought by Hello Fresh in 2018, is officially certified as organic, all of its chefs are registered nutritionists, and it provides Keto, calorie-conscious and high-protein meal plans.
But do the meals taste any good? I've done a Green Chef review to find out.
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Pros:
- The recipes are both healthy and tasty — I enjoyed every meal and felt good after
- The array of recipes and cuisines makes it hard to get bored
- Great for vegetarians, with around 15 plant-based recipes per week
- Eight specialised meal plans, including Keto, calorie-conscious and high-protein
- Generous portion sizes
Cons:
- Recipes require slightly more prep and washing up than, say, Hello Fresh
- More expensive than many competitors
- Some of the recipe instructions were a bit questionable
- Only does boxes for two or four people
Rating: 8/10
How I tested Green Chef
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These days I'm something of a connoisseur when it comes to meal delivery services. I'm a keen home chef and spend almost all of my free time either cooking, researching or thinking about food, so I'm well-positioned to test whether or not recipe boxes actually name y
I've tested out a few now — most recently, I updated our , Green Chef's sister brand, and decided that it's still one of the best around.
I tested Green Chef in the same way we test all meal delivery services at Sun Shopping — I tested three different meals, rating each on how easy they were to prepare and how tasty they were.
The recipes I tested were:
- Hoisin Duck-Less Wraps
- Duck Breast with Garlic-Herb Butter Sauce with a Cheesy Chorizo and Cauliflower Bake
- Yellow Thai-Inspired TofooCurry
More generally, I focused on the array of recipes available and if they offer value for money.
Green Chef review: Quickfire Q&A
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What is Green Chef? It's a recipe box, but its unique selling point is that it's “nutritionist-approved” — all of its chefs are registered nutritionists, and it provides specific meal plans for people following Keto, low-calorie or high-protein diets.
How much is Green Chef? It's a little more expensive than some meal delivery services — boxes start at £31.96 (two meals for two people) and go up to £95.84 (four meals for four people). However, it runs an introductory deal that gets you 40% off your first box and 25% off the following month.
Who's it best for? People looking for a recipe box that can fit around a restrictive diet, whether that's Keto or just old-fashioned vegetarian. More generally, it's good for people who want a meal delivery service that puts nutrition front and centre.
What we loved:I'm an enthusiastic carnivore, but I was really won over by Green Chef's selection of veggie options. The portion sizes were also nice and generous, which isn't a given with many recipe boxes.
What we didn't:This didn't bother me personally, but recipes are slightly more labour-intensive than the ones you get from Hello Fresh or Gousto, and it's a bit pricey.
Green Chef review: The Nitty Gritty
First impressions
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The first thing you have to do with Green Chef — obviously — is order your meals.
Firstly, you'll be given the option to choose your “preferences”, which enables Green Chef to prioritise the recipes most relevant to your needs.
There are currently eight options:
- High Protein
- Calorie Conscious
- Keto
- Vegetarian
- Vegan
- Lower Carb
- Pescatarian
- Flexitarian (i.e. none of the above)
You then need to choose the number of people you're feeding, and the number of meals you want per week.
The choice of meals is excellent: at the time of writing, there are 37 meals available. Over a third of those are vegetarian, and another five are pescatarian.
There's an excellent choice of meaty options too, including two duck recipes as well as options for pork, steak, turkey and lamb; it's a welcome change from the chicken-dominated options you get on some menus.
The delivery and unboxing process is pretty similar to most other meal delivery services: the ingredients for each recipe are put into separate paper bags to make things more organised, with another bag for fresh food that needs refrigerating.
Does it Deliver?
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As previously mentioned, I tested three meals from Green Chef: Hoisin Duck-Less Wraps, Duck Breast with Garlic-Herb Butter Sauce and a Cheesy Chorizo and Cauliflower Bake, and Yellow Thai-Inspired TofooCurry.
I cooked the meals on consecutive nights, and was really impressed by all of them: the only one that could have used a little more punch was the Tofu Curry, which was slightly bland.
The real standout was the Hoisin Duck-Less Wraps. I'd been a bit put off by the name (why not just call them Hoisin Mushroom Wraps?), but they were easy to prepare — the only real prep involved chopping cucumber and spring onion — and really delicious.
I know it's an overused sentiment, but thanks to the inclusion of Fable Mushrooms — a product I've not encountered before, but will certainly get again — I genuinely could have been eating shredded meat.
The impression I get from Green Chef is that it's good at making vegetarian meals creative and exciting. And having been vegetarian for a couple of years (don't judge me, I was at uni), I can testify that's no mean feat.
The meat-based meals were creative too. the one I went for — Duck Breast with Garlic-Herb Butter Sauce and a Cheesy Chorizo and Cauliflower Bake — was one of the most interesting meals I've made in a while.
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The duck breasts were from Gressingham, meaning they were good quality and a good size, and the cauliflower and chorizo bake on the side was really tasty (although it might not be the healthiest thing on the menu).
If I were nitpicking, I’d say that some of the cooking instructions are a bit off-base.
For example, the recipe card for my duck with garlic and herb butter told me to cook the duck breasts for a total of almost 30 minutes, and that it would be cooked when it was “no longer pink in the middle”;.
I think almost any chef would agree that duck that is no longer pink in the middle is, well, overcooked. And it feels a shame to ruin a nice meal, made using nice ingredients, with bad cooking instructions.
It’s also worth bearing in mind that Green Chef will make some assumptions about ingredients that you already have stocked in your kitchen.
This isn’t unusual — most recipe boxes will assume you have staples like salt, pepper and olive oil — but my duck with garlic and herb butter dish required me to have the butter.
It might just be me, but if you’re supplying the ingredients for a dish called “duck with garlic and herb butter”;, you should probably be including duck, garlic, herbs and butter.
How much is Green Chef?
For a meal delivery service, it's at the moderately expensive end of the spectrum.
If you're paying full price, at its most expensive (a box of two meals for two people) it's £7.99 per serving, and at its cheapest (four meals for four), it's £5.99 per serving.
Like any recipe box, there are premium meals and extras that can take that price up slightly, and like any recipe box, there are also introductory deals that save money on your first few deliveries — in Green Chef's case, it's 40% of your first box then 25% off four further boxes.
Green Chef alternatives
If you're looking for a recipe box that puts nutrition and health at its centre, I'd say the closest competitor is Mindful Chef.
I've tried it and frankly, it's the best meal delivery service I've encountered: generous portions, great ingredients and a focus on the quality of its recipes rather than an extensive menu.
Frankly, I think it's slightly better than Green Chef for the average person — however, its introductory offers aren't as good and it doesn't allow you to filter recipes by diet plan.
