Blue Apron Vegetarian Subscription Box Review – August 2016

Blue Apron is a subscription meal delivery service. Every week, they send seasonal recipes created by their culinary team and all of the pre-measured ingredients you need to make them at home. This is a review of the vegetarian 2-person plan.

(Check out the weekly Blue Apron Menu to see what's coming up!)

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In addition to their 2-Person Subscription Plan, which features seasonally-inspired meals for two, Blue Apron also offers a Family Plan that features kid-friendly recipes and family-style meals for four. (Note that this is a review of the 2-Person Subscription Plan.)

Blue Apron also offers a monthly add-on wine subscription. You can find a review of that subscription here.

It’s easy to skip deliveries and cancel your subscription through the Blue Apron website.

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

The Subscription Box: Blue Apron

The Cost: $59.94 for 3 recipes on the 2-Person Plan, $69.92 for 2 recipes on the Family Plan, $139.84 for 4 recipes on the Family Plan.

The Products: Fresh ingredients and recipes to make healthy meals at home.

Ships to: US

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Recipe #1- Spicy Sweet & Sour Tofu

Calories: about 775 per serving

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 25-35 minutes

Cooking tofu at home brings back memories of my 2nd apartment, which I adored. I lived in a small one-bedroom apartment in a converted old mansion while attending college and working and still made sure to make healthy meals for myself. I had a go-to sesame tofu recipe and this reminded me of that and the satisfaction of cooking meals for one.

Blue Apron sends all the ingredients in exactly the amount you need. Not pictured here is fresh garlic which was used in all 3 recipes. I really love not having to measure!

Here are all the ingredients prepped by Liz who acted as my sous chef for this review (thanks, Liz!) The recipe said to drain and pat the tofu dry with paper towels. I recommend pressing tofu to squeeze out as much water as possible. Freezing tofu before use also does nice things to the texture!

Here's the tofu stir-fried and dressed in the tangy sauce. I like spicy food so I added all of the Sambal Oelek to the sauce. It was a perfect amount of spicy and not too spicy for Liz, who isn't too into spicy food.

The tofu was coated lightly in corn starch which gave the tofu a little bit of crisp. The green beans were fresh and delicious with the tomatoes, sesame oil, and garlic. The tofu was my favorite part and Liz loved it too. Eric isn't a huge fan of tofu but he said this recipe was "decent" :).

Recipe #2- Pan Bagnat-Style Sandwiches

Calories: about 780 per serving

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 35-45 minutes

Good sandwiches are a lot of work! There were a lot of tasty components to these squash sandwiches. It was also paired with a light salad with radishes and a honey dijon vinaigrette.

Here are all the fresh ingredients laid out!

Liz mixed up the caper mayo, hard boiled the eggs, marinated the cucumbers and prepped the veggies.

Yum! The sautéed squash was an expectedly delicious sandwich filler and worked so well with the marinated cucumber. I'm not usually a fan of cucumber but the vinegar marinade worked some magic and made it tasty.

Going into this, Eric declared that he hates squash but that he would try this sandwich for the good of the team. One bite in, he said this was one of the best sandwiches he'd ever had! I made myself a vegan version by skipping the egg and mayo on the sandwich and the cheese on the salad. It was so delicious! The bread was top-notch and everything was so flavorful. The salad was light and balanced well with a very filling sandwich.

Recipe #3- Summer Vegetable Gnocchi

Calories: about 700 per serving

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 20-30 minutes

I only recently cooked gnocchi at home for the first time, it's so good with pesto sauce and I was excited to try it with fresh corn, kale, basil, and bell pepper.

There's just something fun about receiving a single ear of corn in the mail.

Here's all the produce chopped and ready to cook up in the pan before adding the gnocchi.

While cooking this, I was pretty sure it wasn't going to be very flavorful. I was so wrong! Even without the parmesan slivers on my portion, this was so delicious and satisfying! I love this twist on they typical pasta night and I think even my kale-adverse husband would like this. Eric made his portion with tons of cheese and absolutely loved it. The red pepper flakes added the perfect light spice paired with the corn and kale.

Verdict: This was my first time cooking and tasting Blue Apron meals. I was very impressed with the recipes, everything was so flavorful and tasty even without the dairy additions. My husband and I love to cook but we've been so busy lately that we've been eating the same things over and over. This is a great service for busy people who still want to cook but don't have time to make a weekly menu, shop, and measure.

What did you cook this month from Blue Apron?