Plated Subscription Box Review – June 2, 2015

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 make, how many plates of each dish you’d like to serve, 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!

My Subscription Addiction pays for this subscription. (Check out the review process post to learn more about how we review boxes.)

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.)

Check out all of our Plated Reviews!

Each week, Plated offers a different menu with 7 dishes to choose from. I opted for a Tuesday delivery (06/02) and selected Caribbean Banana Leaf-Steamed Fish with Pineapple Ginger Salsa, Cuttlefish Ink Pasta with Jonah Crab Claws and Garlic Cream Sauce, and Turkish Bulgur and Red Lentil Soup. I also decided to try one of their desserts, Bruleed Apricots with Ginger Whipped Cream.

When my box shipped, I received an email letting me know that I would need to have the following “pantry items” on hand: canola oil, black pepper, kosher salt, and olive oil. The email also clearly listed the difficulty level, cooking time, and calorie information of my selected dishes. 

As always, the box was packed with extreme care. Ingredients were bundled by recipe, and each item was in its own container.

The fish and crab claws were sealed and packed at the bottom of the box, safely away from the produce and surrounded by cool packs.

Recipe #1- Cuttlefish Ink Pasta with Jonah Crab Claws and Garlic Cream Sauce (Calories Per Serving: 660)

 Each meal from Plated comes with its own recipe card. I’ve found the recipes to be well-written, and I like that they provide pictures for each step.

I began by separating, cleaning, and chopping my ingredients.

  Then, I blanched the crab claws in boiling water until they were bright red.

I removed them from the pot and brought the water back up to a boil. I then added the pasta and cooked it until it was al dente.

While the pasta boiled, I picked the meat from the crab claws. This was my first time cooking with Jonah crab, and I was surprised to find that their shells are much thicker than those of the snow crabs I’m used to eating. To get to the meat, I had to smack the shells with a small rolling pin. This ended up being quite a lot of fun, actually, and my dogs were very happy to sit and my feet and clean up any bits of crab that flew onto the floor.

After the pasta was cooked and the crab meat was collected, I made the cream sauce my combining garlic, thai chile, white wine, heavy cream, salt, and pepper. I stirred everything together, divided it evenly between two bowls, and garnished with fresh chopped parsley.

This is one of my favorite Plated meals of all time! The crab was sweet and succulent, the sauce was rich and spicy, and the pasta was subtly earthy. This is a dish I would expect to get in a restaurant, and I’m so impressed that Plated was able to send such a generous portion of crab for $12 per person.

Meal #2- Turkish Bulgur and Red Lentil Soup (Calories per Seving: 700)

 The following day, I made the soup. I began by prepping my ingredients.

I sautéed onion and garlic with the Plated spice mix and crushed red pepper, until the onion was translucent. I then stirred in the bulgur, lentils, tomato paste, and Turkish hot pepper paste (which I found to be pretty mild).

When the lentils were evenly coated with the pastes, I stirred in vegetable broth and diced tomatoes.

This mixture boiled until the lentils softened. (Plated suggested this would take about 10 minutes, but my lentils took quite a bit longer.) When the soup was almost ready, I toasted the naan bread in a skillet.

To plate, I evenly divided the soup between two bowls and garnished each with feta and fresh mint.

This dish was another knockout! It was comforting, filling, and hearty, and I loved the addition of feta and fresh mint. They really elevated the soup into something special. My husband was a little worried that the mint was an odd choice, but we both thought it added a much-needed freshness to the soup and paired well with the Middle Eastern flavors. The naan was fantastic, too.

Meal #3- Caribbean Banana Leaf-Steamed Fish with Pineapple and Ginger Salsa (Calories per Serving: 510)

I have to admit that I selected this dish primarily because I thought it would be fun to cook with banana leaves!

As always, I prepped my ingredients before I began cooking.

When everything was ready, I assembled the fish packets by seasoning the tilapia, stacking the fillets between slices of lime, and folding up the leaves to make sealed parcels.

These packets steamed in my 400 degree oven for about 12 minutes.

While the fish cooked, I sautéed the pineapples and ginger over high heat (until they started to caramelize).

I also made a side salad by tossing avocado and radish slices in a dressing of honey, lime, olive oil, salt, and pepper.

When the tilapia was done cooking, I untucked the parcels and trimmed the leaves a little. (I wanted to serve the fish on top of the banana leaves, but they were too big to fit on the plates.) I topped the fish with the pineapple salsa and divided the salad between the two plates.

This was a really nice, light meal. Cooking the fish in the banana leaves was a lot of fun, and they certainly made dinner feel like an event. The radish and avocado salad wasn’t my favorite, but I thought it was an appropriate accompaniment to the fish.

Dessert- Bruleed Apricots with Ginger Whipped Cream (Calories per Serving: 230)

Since the banana leaf fish was the lightest meal I received from Plated this week, I decided to follow it with the dessert.

I prepared the ingredients and preheated my broiler to high. First, I made the ginger whipped cream by whipping heavy cream with minced ginger and powdered sugar. When it thickened, I set it aside.

I prepared the apricots by halving them, removing the pits, and topping them with brown sugar and butter.

They cooked under the broiler until the sugar started to caramelize and the fruit began to char.

I plated them while they were still warm and topped them with the ginger whipped cream.

This dessert was heavenly. I can’t resist a fruit-based dessert in the summertime, and I loved the crisp sugar brulee and tangy whipped cream. I’ll be making this again VERY soon!

Verdict: This might be my favorite Plated box yet! The crab pasta was incredible, and I want to eat bruleed apricots every day for the rest of my life. I love the convenience that Plated offers, and I’m consistently impressed with the quality of the ingredients they send. If you enjoy cooking at home, I would definitely recommend giving Plated a try!

Do you subscribe to Plated? If so, which meals did you pick?