I get quite a few emails requesting me to try out someone’s new restaurant/cookery school/dining concept/food product/[insert random not-always-food-related service here]. For reasons of time and money management, not to mention the potential for obesity, I often have to say no. But something about HelloFresh’s request clearly appealed, because a week later two young men appeared on my doorstep bearing an enormous white paper bag full of food. I can think of worse things to appear on the doorstep…
HelloFresh’s concept is about fresh food that busy people can make from scratch in half an hour: a mission I heartily applaud. In theory, you get everything you need in the bag to make either three meals or five meals (in both cases for two, four or six people – I’m not sure what you’re supposed to do if you’re single). The package I received (three meals for two people) would usually cost €39, and the rest range up to a maximum of €129 for five meals for six people. The bag includes meat, fish, vegetables and various other dry ingredients that you need to get started, plus three recipe cards (currently in Dutch only).
Although HelloFresh already operates in Germany, England, France and Australia, it’s only just launched in Amsterdam so there were a few teething problems the week my bag arrived: namely one of the ingredients was missing, and another that was present didn’t appear in any of the recipes. But the guys realised their mistake and emailed me the next day.
On the first evening of my HelloFresh diet, I made tagliatelle with salmon, mascarpone, lemon, lime and capers. It was rather lacking in greenery, but tasted good enough and certainly ticked the quick and easy box.
The second day I cheated slightly: I was supposed to be stir-frying pak choi and mushrooms with chilli, ginger, garlic and soy sauce, but I can’t stand mushrooms, so I substituted them for the leftover salmon and squeezed half a lime over at the end (which also wasn’t in the recipe).
My third HelloFresh meal was the Dutchest of them all: rookworst (smoked sausage) with stamppot: potatoes mashed with andijvie, bacon cubes, mustard, butter and milk. For various reasons that make no sense to me either, I’d never actually made a classic andijvie-spekjes stamppot, but it was surprisingly good. And very, very Dutch.
From an international point of view, I think the recipes could have been a little more creative, while still fulfilling the speed and simplicity criteria. I also think they could have been more clearly written: with quantities in the ingredients list and better structured steps in the method. To be fair, I gave the guys this feedback, and two days later they responded to say they’d taken my suggestions into the second drafts of their recipe cards. (Note to self: there must be money to be made in recipe consultancy somewhere…)
The food itself was unfailingly fresh and high quality, and the quantities were generous – too generous for three meals, if I’m honest. It’s day five and I’m still only halfway through my andijvie! So, will I be putting in a regular order from HelloFresh? Probably not, but in my case mainly because I enjoy the process of food shopping, deciding what to cook, and spending time doing it. I’m not really their target audience. But I know a lot of people who are, and there’s no harm in giving it a try…
