I am a vegetarian who loves to explore new foods and recipes. And sometimes as a college student, I don't have the proper cooking skills or the time to create a 5-star healthy meal. Hello Fresh is advertised to people who don't have much time to cook for themselves and don't know much about cooking. So I wanted to check it out for myself and do a Hello Fresh review.
One of my roommates who is not a vegetarian is an inexperienced cook, then she started using Hello Fresh and she said: "...I've always struggled choosing out my own meals and finding a recipe online and sticking to it. With Hello Fresh it's literally so easy because I can just scroll on the app and look for little meals, and then they show up every week and the instructions are so easy and they have so many options and it's so delicious."
Since her Hello Fresh review was so positive, she then put it on to my vegetarian roommate who loves using it too. She explained: "The instructions are very easy to understand and straightforward, and I have made all the meals up to this point exactly how they were meant to be and they've been delicious. But tonight I'm trying to adapt the recipe to my own taste." So I decided to join her!
My roommate picked the recipe "Vegan Maple Carrot Power Bowls" with turmeric-toasted couscous and lemony hummus (which sounded very fancy to me). The instructions were very detailed and included the amount of calories every ingredient was, along with the steps. The prep time said only 15 minutes, while the cooking time said 30 minutes.
I wanted to make sure the prep time and cooking time was accurate, so I timed how long it took us to prep the meal. It took about 25 minutes because we wanted to get everything right, and since we adapted the recipe it took a bit longer. The instructions are a guideline, but that doesn't mean you can't do your own thing with it! We decided to make more of a stew than a power bowl, so we put all the vegetables in the pot at once to cook, instead of doing what the instructions said which was to put them in the oven.
Below is everything the Hello Fresh meal order came with:
To make it, we first washed and cut up the carrots and kale (we added our own celery). You can always modify the recipe in your own way by adding different vegetables and spices. My roommate and I go crazy for adobo seasoning (which we used a lot of for this meal). We also decided not to use the walnuts or cranberries for the meal. We squeezed the lemon in the pot while the couscous was cooking, and waited 10 minutes.
Note that if you add extra vegetables it takes longer to cook. It smelled so delicious when it was finished and made both our mouths water. We just needed to add some salt to taste! My roommate rated the meal an 8 out of 10, and I rated it a 9. This meal is not very high in protein, so in the future, I would add some tofu in place of the walnuts.
My final Hello Fresh review is that this was definitely a perfect fall dish with an even blend of sweet and salty, and soft and crispy. I highly recommend Hello Fresh for any college student no matter the dietary needs or restrictions. Each box even comes with coupon codes for more boxes. Just make sure to plan ahead for the week because they send out a certain amount of meals per week. Also, prepare to have leftovers! They really have it all and at an affordable price!
Here is the final meal in all its glory: