I first reviewed a Hello Fresh recipe box in 2013. A lot has changed since then, my photography skills (!), their range and packaging through to the way their recipe cards are designed. One thing that hasn’t changed though is what they do and how they do it. Hello Fresh deliver fresh ingredients to cook tasty recipes from, with the recipe cards, to your door. And people clearly love it as they’ve been going strong since 2011 and have operations all over the world.
Back then I really liked the recipe box they sent me to try. The recipes were tasty and the ingredients felt high quality. In fact, from that point, I went on to work with them on a Christmas and a Valentines campaign. That was a few years ago now so when I saw a discount voucher, I thought I’d order a box and see how things have changed since that time.
This time around, first impressions were strong. The box arrived well packed with ice and each meal was individually packaged. At first glance, I was really happy to see that there was very little plastic. Unfortunately though, once I opened the paper bags for each dish, there was plenty of it to be found.
Plastic aside, everything looked great. Prior to this teriyaki sea bass dish, we had crispy chicken with garlic mash and pork & apple burgers and they were both easy to make and very tasty.
The recipe cards are pretty packed with information meaning you need to read them properly through before you begin. The ingredients and measurements section looks like the extra nutritional info that no one reads on the back of a packet so keep your eyes peeled. Compared with our favourite recipe box service Simply Cook, I think the recipe instructions could be simplified to make them easier to follow.
Teriyaki sea bass with rainbow vegetable & noodle stir fry
Ingredients (serves 2)
Note – Hello Fresh package and weigh these ingredients for you. They come in sachets so the measurements below are my own guesstimates.
- x2 sea bass fillets
- 1 punnet shiitake mushrooms
- Juice of 1/2 a lime
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp honey
- x2 egg noodle nests
- 1 tbsp ketcap manis
- Mixed sliced vegetables (Hello Fresh include broccoli, carrots, beans, corn and red onion)
Method:
- Bring a large pan of water to the boil with 0.25 tsp salt. Preheat your grill to high. Zest and halve the lime. Halve the shiitake mushrooms. In a small bowl, mix together the soy sauce, honey and ketjap manis. Line a baking tray with foil and drizzle with oil.
- Pop the sea bass (skin side down) on the foil and pour a tablespoon of the sauce over each fillet. Spread with the back of the spoon to coat the fish. When the water is boiling, add the noodles and cook for 4 mins. Pop the fish under the grill and cook until the sauce is caramelising and the fish is cooked, 4-5 mins. IMPORTANT: The fish is cooked when opaque in the middle. Meanwhile, heat a drizzle of oil in a large frying pan over high heat. Once hot, add the rainbow vegetable mix and shiitake mushrooms. Stir fry until just tender, 2 mins.
- Add the remaining soy mixture with the lime zest, a squeeze of lime juice and a splash of water. Drain the noodles, then add to the pan of vegetables and mix together. Continue to cook until everything is piping hot. Add any remaining sauce to the noodles. Divide the noodles between plates and top with the sea bass. Serve with lime wedges alongside. Enjoy!
The Verdict
This was the weakest of the three dishes we tried. The bag of rainbow veg had those slightly hard edges you find in supermarket stir fry veg packs – you know what I mean? On the edges of the red cabbage and green bean ends? The sauce was nice but a little lacking in flavour – I’d have liked to see some garlic in there for example and a crack of salt and pepper. The star of the show was the shitake mushrooms, silky and earth and a nice addition to the plate.
My only other criticism is a niggle about not knowing the origin and provenance of the produce. Saying it’s ‘fresh from the source‘ doesn’t directly tell you whether your meal includes high welfare chicken or locally grown potatoes for example. Their website does mentions a beef farm, herb grower and tomato supplier but that’s it. This is one of the reasons why I really like Simply Cook – because they provide the recipe and spice mixes but you use your own, preferred ingredients which for me, is organic meat, eggs and dairy at a minimum.
Look, I don’t want to dwell on that as everyone has their own standard and preference. So, as I said earlier, the pork and apple burgers were great and the crispy chicken and garlic mash was delicious so I’m still on balance, a fan of Hello Fresh. I don’t know that I’d sign up for a full rolling weekly subscription but as a treat every now and again, or to help a nervous cook get more adventurous in the kitchen, why not? It has it’s place for sure.
If you want to try a Hello Fresh recipe box for yourself, this link will get you £20 off your first box, bringing it down to as little as £9.99 for three meals for two people. Give it try!
I paid £9.99 for this recipe box as part of a new subscriber deal (as per above). All opinions are my own and Hello Fresh did not know that I was planning to write this review.