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Plated Subscription Box Review + Coupon – December 2016

Lindsey Morse
ByLindsey MorseApr 11, 2017 | 5 comments

plated-december-2016-box

Plated
3.7 overall rating
43 Ratings | 23 Reviews

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. You can skip a week at any time.

At least 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, seasonal produce, and meat that’s free from antibiotics and added hormones. (Check out Plated Menus to see what's coming in future weeks!)

Plated also makes it easy to pick recipes that suit your lifestyle. Each recipe clearly lists calorie content and prep time.

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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).
  • Dessert costs $4 per serving.

ACTIVE DEAL: Get 25% off your first four weeks (up to $159 in savings). No coupon needed - just use this link.

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 and discover more meal boxes in the Meal Subscription Box Directory!

Keep Track of Your Subscriptions: Add this box to your subscription list or wishlist!

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Each week, Plated offers a different menu with 11 dishes to choose from. After your first order, you can also add on dessert at a cost of $4 per serving. There are two different desserts available each week.

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When my box shipped, I received an email letting me know that I would need to have the following “pantry items” on hand: olive oil, black pepper, and kosher salt.

Plated packs every box with meats on the bottom, surrounded by cold packs, and everything else on top, bundled by recipe.

Meal #1-  Baked Eggplant Parmesan with Garlic Pull-Apart Bread

Calories Per Serving: 780

Cook Time: 45-55 minutes

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Eggplant Parmesan is one of my favorite Italian indulgences, so I was excited to see Plated offer a healthier version of the classic dish on this week’s menu. Instead of frying the eggplant, Plated’s recipe calls for baking it, which I’m sure cuts out a whole mess of calories. I was also intrigued by the side dish for this meal: garlic pull-apart bread. Yum!

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Before I started to cook, I collected all of the provided ingredients together and then washed and sliced the veggies, as instructed.

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I made the eggplant parmesan first. After roasting slices of eggplant in the oven, I layered them in a provided aluminum baking dish with sauce, seasoned ricotta, mozzarella, and parmesan cheese.

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Next, I constructed the pull-apart rolls by tossing small balls of pizza dough in a combination of butter, garlic, parmesan, and parsley. I then pressed the balls of dough into a couple of small baking tins. (Plated provided disposable aluminum tins for the bread, too.)

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Both baked in the oven at 450. When they were ready, I divided the eggplant between two plates.

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The eggplant parmesan was super cheesy and really tasty. It wasn’t quite like the real thing (it lacked the rich breadiness of the fried version), but it was still tasty. The pull-apart bread, though, was out of this world good. Each soft, doughy ball was bursting with garlicky flavor— just like Italian garlic knots!

Meal #2- Seared Steak with Italian Street Corn and Basil Pistou

Calories per Serving: 740

Cook Time: 25-35 minutes

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Every week, Plated offers a selection of encore meals, a collection of high-scoring fan favorite recipes. My second meal pick for this week was one of this week’s encore offerings, Seared Steak with Italian Street Corn and Basil Pistou.

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I seasoned the provided steaks and then seared them over medium high heat. While they cooked, I made the basil pistou by combining chopped basil with red wine vinegar, crushed red pepper, and olive oil.

When the steaks were done cooking, I set them aside to rest and made the corn. I wiped out the pan used for the steaks and turned the heat up to high. In a little olive oil, I cooked the corn until it began to char and then removed it from the heat. I mixed in mayo, parmesan, oregano, basil, olive oil, and seasoning and stirred it all together until it got nice and gooey.

I plated the corn alongside slices of steak topped with the basil pistou.

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I liked this dish, and my husband LOVED it. The cheesy, sticky corn was creamy, rich, and delicious, and the addition of the fresh basil and oregano added some great layers of flavor. The steak was good, too, and the pistou was a nice topping. My only complaint with this meal is that both components were a little oily. If I make this dish again, I think I’ll cut out a good portion of the olive oil.

Meal #3- Sweet and Spicy Pan-Roasted Chicken with Carrots and Dates

Calories: 740

Cook Time: 35-45 minutes

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My last meal pick for this week was Sweet and Spicy Pan-Roasted Chicken with Carrots and Dates. I’ll be honest— I took a bit of a gamble picking this recipe because it’s a little out of my comfort zone flavor-wise. I don’t often go for recipes that are sweet and savory like this (except maybe if I’m cooking Chinese or Moroccan food), so I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about a chicken dish made with carrots and dates.

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Before I started cooking, I cleaned and prepped my veggies.

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While the potatoes were in the oven, I seared the chicken and marinated carrots, dates, and onion with honey, mustard, Aleppo pepper, orange juice, olive oil, bay leaf, whole oregano, and fresh thyme. 

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I added the veggies and seared chicken to a pan and put them in the oven to roast.

When everything was ready, I plated the chicken and veggies with the potatoes.

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Despite my initial concerns, I ended up really loving this dish! The flavor of the dates melded really nicely with that of the carrots and onions, and I liked the warm heat from the Aleppo pepper. I will point out that I cooked the potatoes longer than the recommended 15 minutes. I like my potatoes soft on the inside and crunchy on the outside, so I left them in the oven for about 30-35 minutes total.

Verdict: I really loved my Plated meals this week. All of the dishes were tasty, and I greatly enjoyed both the sweet and sour chicken and eggplant parmesan. (I’m still dreaming about that pull-apart garlic bread!) Plated is a little pricier than some of the other subscription meal boxes out there (Home Chef, Hello Fresh, and Blue Apron are all a bit more affordable), but Plated consistently comes up with recipes that really wow me. For that reason, it’s one of the meal boxes I look forward to most every month.

Do you subscribe to Plated? Have you tried any of the meals I picked this week?

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This weekly meal kit delivery subscription lets you select from a diverse, ever-changing menu of 20 recipes per week that feature responsibly sourced meats, sustainable seafood, and seasonal ingredients. They're also the only meal kit box to offer add-on desserts! Choose to receive everything you ne... read more.
Lindsey Morse
Lindsey Morse

Lindsey is a professional baker, cold brew coffee addict, and rosé aficionado who loves writing about food and wine. When she’s not sharing her love of subscription boxes with the world, you’ll find her in the podcasting studio, perfecting her cake decorating techniques, or cursing her way through the New York Times daily crossword puzzle. 


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5 comments

Mona

Really love your reviews ! I received the same dishes and almost word for word agree with you on all! Plated is a great service that I’m glad I learned about here.

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Debbie

I am really enjoying plated and LOVED the chicken dish. Paired great with Pinot noir. Also had a very good teriyaki salmon salad.

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Kristin

Their chicken Marsala is to die for, you must try it Debbie!

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Mona

I wish chicken Marsala was an encore recipe every week! Also that pizza with the honey pistaschio burrata … Mmm

Debbie

Yum! Sounds great! Thanks for the recommendation. 🙂