Why is it that eating a nutritious meal every day feels like such a chore? Between all the planning, searching for recipes, finding quality ingredients, and prepping, cooking every night can be daunting for the average person.
Thankfully, there are tons of meal kit companies out there to help busy individuals achieve a more balanced diet, even during their most hectic weeks. But which is truly worth it?
Our Food and Beverage editors did some research and found that Home Chef and HelloFresh are the top two contenders. We tried both subscription based services to decide which was the best of the best.
Here’s what we found:
Key Similarities:
- Both deliver pre-portioned ingredients to your door
- Both services offer recipes developed by chefs
- Both services are environmentally conscious
Key Differences:
- Home Chef allows you to customize your protein with their Customize It tool*
- Home Chef also offers Oven-Ready meals
- Home Chef has the highest rate of customer satisfaction among leading meal kit companies**
Home Chef Overview
With Home Chef, you can either choose a plan that sends you recipes and pre-portioned ingredients to prep with some Oven-Ready options, or a plan with meals that involve no prep at all. The great thing about Home Chef is you can add meals individually as opposed to having multiple servings, so no food goes to waste.
We love how customizable Home Chef’s plans are. You can choose which ingredients you want to avoid completely – think certain meats, shellfish, nuts, etc. – and you can also edit each meal individually to upgrade, swap, or double up on your favorite protein.
Their menu is mouth-watering, with options such as Pasta with Sausage Ragu and Cheesy Tortilla Chicken. They even offer more gourmet meals from the Culinary Collection, like Salmon and Pickled Ginger-Scallion Sauce, which you can also customize to your liking with options of Sirloin Steaks, USDA Choice New York Strip Steak, Salmon Fillets, or Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts. They offer everything from breakfast, lunch, and dinner to snacks, smoothies, and chocolate cold brew lattes.
Being able to prep nutritious meals such as Prosciutto Carbonara Spaghetti in just 10 minutes is fantastic for busy people. They have 7 Oven-Ready meals on their menu every week which is a huge differentiator of their service. Not to mention, the portion size for all Home Chef meals are perfect and will keep you satisfied for hours.
HelloFresh Overview
HelloFresh is a meal kit that offers many plan options and a wide variety of meals on their weekly menu. You can choose up to 4 meals a week between 2-person or 4-person recipes, however, HelloFresh does not offer individual options.
HelloFresh sends you ingredients and recipes, so all of HelloFresh’s meals need to be cooked from scratch with an average prep time of 30 minutes. Our box arrived with no issues, but we’ve seen some negative customer reviews regarding receiving less-than-fresh ingredients.
Their menu includes recipes such as Meatloaf à la Mom, Sweet Corn, Bacon & Green Pepper Chowder and One-Pan Beef Enchiladas Verdes.
We found that while our meals from HelloFresh were delicious, the portion sizes were slightly lacking and we weren’t as satisfied as we were with our Home Chef meals.
Final Verdict
Overall, we are most impressed with Home Chef. While HelloFresh is great for families with a basic diet, Home Chef caters to everyone.
Whether you’re a single, busy professional who only has a few minutes to prep your meals, or a big family with different individual dietary preferences, Home Chef has the ability to meet your specific needs.
HelloFresh has many options on their menu, but Home Chef’s customization is what gives them the competitive edge. You can add each meal and edit them individually, which gives you so much more flexibility. It also means it’s great for single people or big families alike, while all HelloFresh plans are only suitable for either 2 or 4 people.
We enjoyed meals from both companies equally, but when it comes down to it, we were more satisfied with the portion size of our Home Chef meals. It’s no surprise that Home Chef is #1 in Customer Satisfaction among meal kit companies!**
With their customizable meals starting at just $9.99, Home Chef is by far the easiest way to eat more nutritious meals.
FOR OUR READERS: Our friends at Home Chef are giving 18 MEALS FREE to new customers! Follow this link to get 18 MEALS FREE!!
*Source: https://www.homechef.com/customize-it
**Source: US Grocery Benchmark Study, April 2020, Market Force Information, Inc.