This review is for the vegetarian offerings of Blue Apron and I will say it's my 2nd favorite delivery meal kit option after Purple Carrot. Blue Apron has a fancy grilled cheese sandwich once a month which is the main reason I keep the box. I don't buy bread because I wouldn't be responsible with it and eat it way too fast. lol So it's very rare I eat a grilled cheese sandwich. Blue Apron's grilled cheese are always made with some kind of white cheese and then another ingredient inside the sandwich (like mango chutney, mushrooms or caramelized onion) and served with a side salad of lettuce (something else I never buy). Normally I would still be hungry after a grilled cheese so having that side salad is perfect.
I got tired of Marley Spoon since the vegetarian menu had very little variation and many meals just missed the mark. I'm still getting 3 Purple Carrot meals a week, but additionally signed up for 3 Blue Apron Meals a week. Purple Carrot is a vegan meal kit so I also wanted some basic pasta and cheese recipes. Marley Spoon never sent eggs with their boxes so I assumed you couldn't ship eggs. But Blue Apron has this special container to ship eggs in. This is the Potato & Kale Hash with baked eggs which I've gotten a couple times and really enjoyed. Blue Apron also tends to randomly add a boiled egg to lots of dishes.
What I don't like about Blue Apron is that their boxes ship with lose ingredients in lots of plastic bags. Marley Spoon and Purple Carrot put all the ingredients for one meal in one bag so its easy to grab the one bag that contains all the ingredients for a meal. When it's not in one bag, and there's duplicates of ingredients for different recipes it's easy to accidently use all of it for one recipe. I'm also not a fan of the type of tofu they use, even when I squeeze the water out of it, it still stays a bit too soft for my liking.
The non-vegetarian recipes on Blue Apron's site you can customize to swap out ingredients but not the vegetarian. You can also order wine with your boxes that are smaller than standard size bottles. All their ingredients are from non-GMO sources. The meat they use is not fed antibiotics or hormones and the seafood is sustainable. The weekly cost is $60 for 3 meals which are 2-3 servings each. It's very easy to skip a week if you want which I do occasionally. Their ice packs can be recycled and are a100% drain-safe water-based solution, unlike Daily Harvest which ships with Dry Ice in the wintertime.
Some of my favorite recipes, which have already repeated are these Udon Noodles because of the thick noodles. This Couscous-Stuffed Poblano Peppers is something you'd see on a Mexican menu but never vegetarian. Then lots of delicious pasta recipes. To me these boxes have been a great way to banish recipe fatigue! I love the delicious and interesting recipes they offer.
For a few months I only got 2 meals a week instead of 3. That to me was the strangest thing. I will say that customer service is poor and doesn't respond to emails. They will postpone your scheduled delivery date then days later cancel your delivery. So if you plan your groceries around an expected meal box, that will be an unexpected inconvenience. Officially they say each meal has 2 servings but they only list the Weight Watchers points on the menu card. You have to go to their website to see that one serving is typically 700-800 calories. It would be more handy to know that while cooking so I can divide into 3 servings.
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