Home Chef is a subscription meal delivery service that delivers you a weekly box of the pre-portioned ingredients you need to make two to six meals that feed two, four, or six people. Home Chef advertises easy recipes that can be made in about 30 minutes. They say their ingredients are fresh (though they don't provide a lot of information about their sourcing practices), and they offer vegetarian, gluten-free, and calorie/carb-conscious recipes.
This is a review of the vegetarian plan (starting at $9.95 per serving) for two people, twice a week ($39.80 per week + shipping). Delivery is free with orders over $45. Shipping is $10 for orders less than $45.
Check out all of our reviews of Meal Delivery Services to see every meal kit subscription box option!
My Subscription Addiction paid for this box. (Check out the review process post to learn more about how we review boxes.)
About Home Chef Vegetarian Meal Kit Subscription Box
The Subscription Box: Home Chef
The Cost: Meals start at $9.95 per serving, and delivery is free for orders over $40.
The Products: Fresh ingredients and chef-designed recipes— everything you need to make restaurant-quality meals at home.
Ships to: 90% of the U.S. (You can check to see if Home Chef delivers to your zip code here.)
Home Chef Vegetarian Menu May 2018 Review
When I first signed up for Home Chef, I took a short quiz about meal preferences and dietary restrictions. They asked me what I like to eat, as well as what I like to avoid. Based on my answers, Home Chef recommends recipes each week. As is the case with most meal kit services, you can also log in and hand-select the recipes you'd like to receive. Note though, that the more particular you are with your diet, the fewer options you'll have.
Home Chef offers "Add On" items like fruit or breakfast picks that you can choose to include in your box, too!
All of the ingredients you need arrive snugly inside insulating packaging made of cotton fiber. The fiber does go in the trash, but the idea is that it, unlike other materials, will eventually decompose. The plastic covering goes into the recycling.
Each meal's ingredients are packaged in a handy zip-shut bag. Bigger items that might not fit in the bag arrive loose in the box. Inside those bags, most ingredients are pre-portioned and only individually wrapped as necessary to minimize waste.
Home Chef Mexicali Cheesy Penne with Corn and Poblano
Calories per Serving: 681
Prep and Cook Time, According to Home Chef: 20-30 minutes
Actual Time to Table: About 30 minutes
Difficulty Level: Easy
This week, I forgot to check in and see what recipes were coming my way before my box shipped. These were two dishes that were picked for me based on my preferences. This pasta recipe had me feeling kind of skeptical right out of the gate—pasta and southwestern flavors? But I was willing to give it a shot!
The process for this recipe involves cooking up some pasta while you sautee peppers, corn, and other tasty veggies in a pan. That mix of veggies becomes the sauce for the pasta with the addition of cream and cheese.
For the longest time, I've been scared to cook with poblanos or any kind of peppers above the standard red and green. I kind of assumed the heat would be hard to control. But these green poblanos were easy to cook up in the pan, and I liked how cooking them reduced their natural zip just enough.
Once the pasta is ready, you mix it with your other ingredients until every inch is coated with ooey gooey goodness.
On one hand, I find this dish to be just a tad too overwhelming for me. Tortilla strips and corn and chain restaurant style spicy, cheesy sauce all in one big bowl of pasta? Whew, it's hearty, y'all. But at the same time, it's a ton of fun to eat. It seems like a quirky, mix-everything-you-love-into-one-dish recipe that would be awesome for kids!
Home Chef Avocado and Tofu Sushi Bowl with Carrots, Cucumber, and Spicy Mayo
Calories per Serving: 850
Prep and Cook Time, According to Home Chef: 35-45 minutes
Actual Time to Table: About 40 minutes
Difficulty Level: Intermediate
Now this recipe? I was 100% bought in the second I saw it in the box. I love Asian-inspired flavors, and I'm a big fan of anything with avocado involved!
Cooking the tofu was a breeze. After frying it up in the pan, you give it a coating of teriyaki glaze for good measure. Yum!
If you've read my food reviews before, you know that cooking rice is the bane of my existence. For some reason, it just never seems to work out on my electric stove. I think the temperature just can't be controlled precisely enough for the rice to cook and not burn on the bottom. This time around, the rice ended up being a tad overdone in my efforts to cook it on slightly lower heat for a bit longer. It wasn't so far gone that it wasn't tasty, though, especially when mixed with the other ingredients in the dish!
Look at this beautiful bowl! I could eat this every day. The tofu is slightly sweet, the spicy mayo is zippy and creamy, and the cucumber salad, which is doused in rice vinegar, adds a refreshing note that cuts through the mild rice and avocado. It's a wonderfully balanced bunch of textures and flavors, and it was shockingly easy to make. I could see making the components ahead of time and keep them in the fridge until I was ready to bowl it up. I'm definitely saving this recipe!
The Verdict: I was really pleased with the second dish in this month's box. Even though the pasta dish was a little too heavy for me (it seemed like something you'd find at Cheesecake Factory, y'know?) the recipe was undoubtedly a fun one to try. I'll probably hand-curate my box next month, just to make sure I get two recipes I really love. $10.00 is about what I'd pay for this kind of food from a takeout lunch place, so I think the price point per serving is okay this month.
To Wrap Up:
Can you still get this box if you sign up today? Each week, Home Chef introduces new recipes to choose from, though there are favorite dishes that repeat now and then.
Value Breakdown: Price-wise, Home Chef meals start at $9.95 per serving, which is cheaper than Plated ($12 per serving) and on par with Blue Apron ($9.99 per serving) and Hello Fresh ($9.99 per serving).
Check out all of our Home Chef reviews and find other meal boxes in the Meal Subscription Box Directory!
Keep Track of Your Subscriptions: Add this box to your subscription list or wishlist!
Would you want to try either of these Home Chef recipes? And if you have tried them, what did you think?
Please do not enter your email address in the Name field or in the comment content. Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *. Remember to post with kindness and respect. Comments with offensive language, cruelness to others, etc will not be approved. See our full comment policy here.