Sluttery by Post: Hello Fresh Recipe Service

Having been lurking around in a grey-weather fug for the last few weeks, my cooking had gone out of the window. At a push, I might eat an apple at work, but at home, it was a stream of carbs on toast, soup and whatever cereal I hadn't eaten the previous evening.

So when Hello Fresh asked me if I would review their London home delivery service, my body shot my hand up for me. "Eat a bloody vegetable, Katherine," it snapped.

The idea is simple. Each Tuesday they deliver pre-measured ingredients and recipe cards to make a selection of meals that take 30 minutes or less. You do the cooking and complain about the washing up. 

Ingredients song: "All kinds of everything remind me of food"

I was childishly tickled by the nice hand-written card and bonus pack of salted caramels that the Hello Fresh team  had sent me (this is for everyone, not just hungry bloggers), and really enjoyed unpacking my delivery box to see what I had.

Box fresh (sorry)

HOMG. If anything is going to make me keel over a bit, it's the sight of steak from a British farm. That, and each Hello Fresh recipe card had pictures of exactly what to use, and how to cook the dish.

What did I want to cook first? Red peppers stuffed with pork mince and served with cous cous? A healthy take on a caesar salad? Or beef steak with pak choi, chillis, a lovely five star spice sauce and noodles?

The beef won out.

My serving was utterly appalling and the photo I took of the finished article was at the absolute opposite end of the scale from any of Hazel's amazing food photography, so just imagine a really delicious meal that tasted like it had been made in a restaurant, rather than in my boyfriend's kitchen.

The next day, we made the Caesar salad, which used low-fat creme fraiche and lime to make the dressing. Regardez-vous the hands of my industrious sous-chef.

I narrowly avoided eating the entire cutely-packed stick of parmesan, and instead shaved off bits when the sous chef wasn't looking. YOU CANNOT STOP ME JAMES, I AM TOO FOND OF CHEESE!

The finished article. Nom-tastic.

The finished salad was marginally better presented and thus photographable. It was also spectacularly delicious. For the croutons, we were given a bread roll to rip up into bits, gently rub in a bit of olive oil and then quickly roast for 10 minutes. They were cracking. What a good tip.

The only tragedy was that the next day (Pork Day!) I succumbed to flu and didn't manage to cook the last recipe due to being asleep and violently infectious for most of the weekend. I've kept the recipe card, and look forward to trying it at some point. The beef and the caesar salad are definite keepers, and have inspired me to expand my cooking, even when I really, really can't be bothered.

Hello Fresh deliver recipes and ingredients for meals for two, four or six people, every Tuesday. Three meals a week for two costs £39, and five meals a week for two costs £49. Full pricing details here and delivery is included. At the moment they only deliver to London, so prod them to expand.