Skip to main content

The Manual may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site.

Healthy meals, less stress: My HelloFresh experience

Are the meals delicious and are the recipes easy to follow? Are there any leftovers?

Hello Fresh Pork Mango Salsa Tacos meal
Steph Green / The Manual

As someone with an autoimmune disease, it’s important to me to eat healthier, which in turn helps keep my pain and inflammation lower and makes me feel better in general. The less processed, junky, and sugary, and the more natural and healthier, the better. There’s also the waistline to think about.

As my schedule got busier, I had less time to cook my usual favorite healthy meals, and the holidays came around, and I found myself eating more and more, shall we say, “not so healthy” meals. Our habits and routines can shift over time, so I wanted to try meal kits like HelloFresh to see if they could help me eat more wholesome, natural foods despite my limited time.

Recommended Videos

What is HelloFresh?

HelloFresh delivers boxes of groceries to your door. The fresh ingredients come with recipe cards that tell you how to make home-cooked meals in your own kitchen. You can choose from over 2,500 dinner recipes and different plans, like quick meals ready in less than 30 minutes and kid-friendly recipes for picky eaters.

The delivery

The ingredients and recipe cards were delivered together in a neat little package and a HelloFresh box. The step-by-step recipe cards come with nutritional information. The ingredients come sandwiched between big ice blocks, so the food arrived nice and cold with everything intact. Overall, the groceries were pretty fresh on arrival. The meat comes packaged separately, like ground beef packets and chicken cutlets.

There isn’t excessive packaging, and HelloFresh encourages you to fold your box and place it with your curbside recyclables. 

Following the recipes

The first step is the prep. I washed and dried the produce before doing the chopping, which was pretty quick and straightforward. In my experience, the timing of the recipes overall is fairly accurate, though there were some steps that took a few minutes longer, but that depends on your stove, appliances, and other factors. I used an electric cooktop for the mango pork salsa, for example.

I didn’t have any sugar because I’d run out, and I don’t usually have much sugar at home anyway. HelloFresh expects you to have certain ingredients on hand, like salt, pepper, and sugar. It isn’t a big deal because, in this case, I made do with some maple syrup instead of sugar, and my caramelized onions turned out perfect. 

Are the dishes delicious?

Honestly, the pork mango salsa really did make me want to dance like the song because it was rewarding and delicious. The garlic aioli Swiss cheeseburger really did taste like I had visited a gourmet restaurant or gastro bar with quality ingredients.

More sour cream, anyone?

The sour cream packet was a little small for the two-person dinner, and having two packets would have been preferable, especially if you like to go heavy on the sour cream. Some dishes could use a little more herbs, depending on your preference. For example, there were only a few small sprigs of cilantro for the two-person mango pork salsa dish. The cheeseburger aioli dinner had one slice of cheese per burger.

Are there leftovers?

I didn’t have any leftovers, which would have been nice for my efforts and making a mess in the kitchen. That being said, the recipes did aim to include limited pots, pans, and cutting boards. I like to cook bigger portions and have leftovers, but with the “two-person box,” we were out of luck. While the portion sizes are reasonable, it might not be enough if you or your family member is a big eater.

In summary

HelloFresh might not be ideal for the big eaters, those who want lots of meat or lots of leftovers, and those trying to avoid the chopping and much of the prepping. Some people say it’s more affordable to shop for groceries yourself; we have to keep in mind that we’re also paying for the convenience, the delivery, and the chef-created recipes (which are especially palatable, and I’m still thinking about that garlic aioli Swiss cheeseburger). In addition, it’s a learning experience, where you get to learn how to make tasty new dishes.

In my experience, here are the many positives of the HelloFresh meal kits:

  • You don’t have to scour recipes and pick out all the groceries. If you want to choose specific recipes, you can easily do so online, where you have access to a menu of over 60 weekly recipes. 
  • The chef-created recipe cards are user-friendly and fairly easy to follow. 
  • The meal kits are delicious.
  • Most portion sizes are reasonable.
  • HelloFresh allows you to cancel, change meals, or skip a week at any time, as long as you do so by your cutoff of 11:59 p.m. PST five days before your delivery. You can also manage everything on the mobile app if you’d like.
  • Delivery times are from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on the day of your choice, and you have a good few days to cook the food, so you’re not in a major rush to cook everything the night it arrives.
  • At the time of writing, HelloFresh accommodates specific allergies, dietary preferences, and restrictions, including gluten-free, low-carb, and vegetarian. You can also choose from two to six people and options for teams and employees.

Concluding thoughts

HelloFresh provides convenience, and for many people, it’s probably easier than choosing a recipe and hoping it’s a good one, going to the store, picking out all of the ingredients, and measuring them. You still have to chop, do some prepping, and cook the food, but the final result is a tasty meal that feels like you went to a snazzy restaurant, which gives you a sense of pride and satisfies your palate.

Steph Green
Steph Green is a content writer specializing in healthcare, wellness, and nutrition. With over ten years of experience, she…
I tried Brodo bone broth and it completely changed my mind about bone broth
Rethinking bone broth flavor
Brodo Bone Broth

Since I switched to a low-carb diet in 2017, I've tried bone broth several times with the hopes of falling in love. I've heard about the health benefits of bone broth for quite some time, but I could never seem to overcome the taste. As a big foodie, I need to enjoy the flavor of something if I consume it regularly. Bone broth is a liquid made of boiled animal bones; I don't blame you if it isn't exactly appealing. I'm glad I was open-minded enough to try Brodo Bone Broth, as it has completely changed my mind about what bone broth can taste like.
Tagged "the best bone broth on the planet" by the brand itself; I wholeheartedly agree. If you've failed to incorporate bone broth into your diet, here's why you should reconsider trying bone broth again again.

About Brodo Bone Broth

Read more
A new study says you can increase life expectancy by up to 10 years by following this healthy diet
Spoiler alert: Fruits and veggies are important
Handsome happy bearded man is preparing wonderful fresh vegan salad in the kitchen at home

Consider how great it would be if you could add a decade to your life. Sounds too good to be true, right? Well, a recent study suggests that by making simple, healthy changes to your diet, you could indeed enhance your life expectancy by up to 10 years. This article will delve into the intricacies of how the food you consume impacts your health and longevity and which dietary patterns could help you live a longer, healthier life.

How does your diet affect your health?
Your diet plays an essential role in maintaining your overall health and preventing non-communicable diseases. Researchers have found that unhealthy diets are responsible for more than 75,000 premature deaths each year in the United Kingdom, including almost 17,000 deaths in the age group of 15-70 years. 

Read more
Study: 25% of people cancel out healthy eating with snacks (but you can fix that by doing this one thing)
You ate all those salads for nothing, apparently
Blackberries, blueberries, and strawberries in the same container

Healthy snacks are critical to maintaining a balanced diet and reaching your health goals. Surprisingly, a recent study found that a quarter of people undermine their otherwise healthy eating habits by snacking on the wrong things.

Changing what you choose to snack on could be the difference between seeing progress in your waistline and not. This article will explain why high-quality snacks are so important to overall health and provide you with examples of healthy snack options.

Read more