Plated delivers a weekly box of pre-portioned fresh and seasonal ingredients, everything you need to cook their chef-designed recipes at home in your own kitchen. Each week, they offer a different menu, and you can select which dishes you’d like to receive, how many plates of each dish you’d like to make, and when you’d like to receive your delivery.
Three of the dishes offered on every menu are vegetarian. Plated also regularly rotates in vegan and dairy-free options. They’re committed to using sustainably sourced seafood, seasonally fresh produce, and meat raised without antibiotics or added hormones.
Plated also makes it easy to pick recipes that best suit your culinary skill level and lifestyle. Each recipe is tagged with a difficulty level and clearly lists calorie content and prep time.
Check out all of our reviews of Meal Delivery Services to see every meal kit subscription box option!
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The Subscription Box: Plated
The Cost: Recipes begin at $12 per plate. 2 recipes (4 plates)= $48 per week (+ $6 shipping). 3 recipes (6 plates)= $72 per week (with free shipping). 4 recipes (8 total plates)= $96 per week (with free shipping).
The Products: All of the pre-portioned fresh and seasonal ingredients you need to make chef-designed recipes at home in your own kitchen.
Ships to: 95% of the US. (Currently, Plated does not ship to Hawaii and Alaska, and there are also a few cities in Texas, including San Antonio, Corpus Christi, Laredo, and Midland, where they don’t yet ship.)
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Each week, Plated offers a different menu with 7 dishes to choose from. I opted for a Tuesday delivery (04/14) and selected Green Spring Minestrone Soup, Mustard-Roasted Pork, and Crispy Tilapia Udon Bowls. When my box shipped, I received an email letting me know that I would need to have the following “pantry items” on hand: black pepper, canola oil, kosher salt, and water. The email also clearly listed the difficulty level, cooking time, and calorie information of my selected dishes.
When I unpacked the box, I was immediately impressed by the care with which my items had been separated, wrapped, and packaged. Ingredients were bundled by recipe, and each individual item was in its own container.
The meats were all vacuum-sealed and packed at the bottom of the box, safely away from the produce and surrounded by cool packs.
Meal #1- Green Spring Minestrone Soup with Parmesan Crisps
Each meal comes with a card that provides information about the dish.
On the reverse, Plated provides detailed cooking instructions, recipe tips, and a list of what you’ll need to make the dish.
As per Plated’s recommendation, I prepped my ingredients before I started cooking. I was really impressed by how many vegetables were included for this dish!
I began by sautéing my vegetables. First, I cooked the garlic in oil until it turned golden and then removed it from the pan. I then added pearl onions and leeks, cooked them until they were soft, and then added the broccolini.
When the vegetables had softened slightly, I added the vegetable base, water, and white beans and brought the soup to a boil. I let everything simmer for 10 minutes, then added peas and mustard greens.
While the soup cooked, I prepared the Parmesan crisps by arranging small mounds of Parmesan cheese on a baking tray.
Unfortunately, the Parmesan crisps weren’t as successful as I’d hoped. Instead of melting and crisping, the cheese stayed crumbly and just toasted a little.
When the soup was ready, I finished it with pesto and chopped parsley and chives.
I loved how fresh this soup was. It was packed full of vegetables, and I liked the flavor a lot. Sadly, the crisps didn’t turn out as expected. (I tried to eat them anyway, but I wasn’t really a fan.) This recipe also yielded a ton of soup- we had enough for dinner and for lunch the following day!
Meal #2- Sesame-Soy Udon Bowls with Crispy Tilapia
The following day, I made the Udon Bowls.
After everything was cleaned and chopped, I dredged the fish in seasoned tapioca flour. (There was a TON of fish included for this recipe- a total of 6 small filets.)
I pan fried the fish in sesame oil until it started to brown, cut it into 1” pieces, and continued to fry it until it was crispy and cooked through.
In a separate pan, I cooked the udon and garlic. When the udon was warmed through, I added soy sauce, sriracha, and scallions and cooked for 2 minutes.
I decided to serve this dish family style. I placed the noodles in a serving bowl and then topped them with crispy fish and chopped dark green scallions.
This dish was my favorite of the week. I only wish that Plated had incorporated more vegetables in some way. I think onions and carrots would have been great in this dish! Another minor gripe is that the balance of ingredients felt a little off. The recipe yielded a regular portion of noodles for each person, but there was a ton of fish to eat! I really liked the flavor, though. The soy sriracha sauce was delicious.
Meal #3- Mustard-Roasted Pork with Spring Pea Salad and Crispy Shallots
The last dish for the week was pork with potatoes and pea salad.
For this recipe, I started by preparing the pork and potatoes for roasting on a baking sheet. I topped them with a mixture of olive oil, mustard, and herbes de Provence.
They roasted together in the oven at 425. Plated recommended removing everything after 15 minutes, but I left the potatoes in the oven to roast for an additional 10 minutes.
To make the pea salad, I began by blanching the snap peas in salted water. When they turned bright green, I added the fava beans and peas and allowed them to warm through. I then strained them and set them aside while I sautéed the shallot.
When the shallot was crispy, I mixed it into the pea salad (along with some of the cooking oil).
When everything was ready, I sliced the pork and plated it alongside the roasted potatoes and pea salad.
I thought this dish was good; however, the pea salad was excellent. It was full of flavor and perfect for spring. I’ll definitely be making it again soon!
Verdict: I really enjoy Plated, and I’ve been impressed with my boxes so far. I thought this week’s meals were good, but none of the dishes were outstanding. (A couple of meals I received in previous weeks were restaurant quality.) Still, the meat and produce they send is high quality and fresh, and I love the ease of cooking with pre-portioned ingredients and the Plated recipes. As someone who cooks regularly (and enjoys coming up with new recipes), I wasn’t sure if Plated would be for me. Initially, I was a little worried that it would feel like cooking with training wheels, but I don’t find that to be the case at all. I think the portion sizes are generous, and I think the value is fair. I would compare the quality of the meat and produce to what you can buy at Whole Foods, and I think I would probably spend about as much there for the same number of meals. If you haven’t tried Plated before, I would definitely recommend it!
What do you think of Plated?
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