I am a little late to the party with this one considering HelloFresh first launched back in 2012, but I recently tried the food delivery service for the first time.

Since moving out from my parents’ house a few months ago, I’ve found shopping and cooking for one person quite hard.

Fresh food and other perishable items are hard to consume by the recommended ‘best before’ date when you are only cooking for one person.

Also my recent trips to the supermarket have made me incredibly nervous as people seem to be forgetting social distancing more and more, with people getting too close in busy aisles.

Fortunately a friend of mine had a free HelloFresh box to give away as part of her subscription, so I snapped up the chance to finally see what all the fuss was about.

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HelloFresh is a recipe box delivery service, which allows you to select from a menu of dishes, and they send you the recipe card and all the ingredients you need to create it.

You can select how many recipes you want in your weekly box, and how many servings you want each meal to create.

The box will arrive on the designated day, with each meal coming in its own bag making clear which ingredients are for which recipe, and all the ingredients are measured out to exact the amount you need.

When you’re cooking for one person this is great as you can ensure there’s no waste or left overs.

The meals

I chose three meals from their menu of recipes


I selected three vegetarian meals: Warm winter butternut and spring green salad with bulgur and feta, roasted courgette and aubergine linguine with walnuts and chives, and the chermoula spiced halloumi with bulgur wheat and chickpea tabbouleh.

All three meals were something I had never made before, nor would I have ever thought to, and included ingredients that were completely new to me.

Each meal was advertised as having two servings, but I found they could all easily make three portions.

The meals all come with detailed nutritional descriptions, as someone who counts calories, this makes it a lot easier to track your food intake.

You get all the ingredients you need to create the meals

The recipes

The instructions were easy to follow, the ingredients were fresh, and the meals created were incredible.

I would describe myself as a very average chef. I can cook, and make something quite nice when I bother to try, but overall I’m pretty lazy with it.

With the HelloFresh delivery box it took out all the little things that sometimes put me off cooking – having to think of something to make, having to buy the ingredients, and having to measure everything out.

As someone who works ten and a half hour shifts, this made life so much easier and completely streamlined the process of cooking.

The recipes were all broken down into six easy steps, and everything was very clear to follow.

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The value

I had often seen recipe delivery boxes such as these advertised but had always been put off, thinking that they were an expensive way of shopping.

However, for the week that I had the box I didn’t need to visit Sainsbury’s, where I normally overspend and overindulge with items that I really don’t need.

It’s a good way to streamline the food you have and the whole food shopping process.

The company also offers lots of discounts when you first sign up, and you are able to send free trial boxes to your friends and family.

After my first free box, I was then given two boxes at 30 percent off, which is too good to turn down.

While it may seem like a luxury way of shopping for your meals, in the long run, as someone who shops and cooks for one, it’s definitely the best value option.

Overall

I don’t think I can go back to normal supermarket shopping, and having to think of new meals to make every day ever again.

HelloFresh allows me to spend less time worrying about meal times, and ensures there’s less food and money wasted.

I have already recommended it to all my friends and my parents, and will definitely continue with the service for the foreseeable.