Green Chef is a weekly meal delivery subscription service that designs flavorful, healthy recipes that are built around fresh, sustainable, organic ingredients. Recipes are designed with amateur cooks in mind, and Green Chef offers several different meal plans to suit a variety of lifestyles: Keto, Balanced Living, Plant-Powered, and Carb-Conscious. (Note that the Keto and Carb-Conscious meal plans are certified gluten-free through the Gluten Intolerance Group’s Gluten-Free Food Service program. Visit Green Chef‘s FAQ section to learn more about this certification.) Regardless of which meals you pick, you can rest assured that, whenever possible, everything you receive will be GMO-free, USDA certified organic and sustainably-sourced!
Check out all of our reviews of Meal Delivery Services to see even more meal kit subscription box options!
Green Chef has plan size options for 2 or 4 people. You can choose between Paleo, Keto, Balanced Living, or Plant-Powered.
This is a review of the Green Chef Carb-Conscious Plan that includes three 2-serving dinner options (at $12.99/serving) for two people, plus $6.99 shipping for a total of $85.93.
This box was sent to us at no cost for review. (Check out the review process post to learn more about how we review boxes.)
About Green Chef
The Subscription Box: Green Chef
The Cost:
- Carb-Conscious - $12.99 per serving (gluten & grain-free meals)
- Keto - $12.99 per serving (gluten & grain-free meals designed with keto lifestyles in mind)
- Balanced Living - $11.99 per serving (diverse, balanced meals)
- Plant-Powered - $11.99 per serving (vegetarian-friendly meals)
ACTIVE DEAL: Limited Time Only! Get $250 off + free shipping
CODE: MSA200
The Products: Chef-designed recipes made with organic, sustainable ingredients.
Ships to: The continental U.S. (except for some parts of Louisiana) for $7.99
Good to Know: You can find full nutritional breakdowns under each meal on the site. The calories and net carbs are listed on the recipe card for quick reference.
Green Chef 2-Person Carb-Conscious Meal Plan November 2020 Review
Green Chef makes sourcing sustainable, organic ingredients a top priority. They have a great ingredient list and include allergy warnings on their recipes. The price per meal is higher than some competitors, but as with purchasing organic food from the grocery store, premium ingredients typically cost a bit more.
Many of the packing materials can be recycled, and there's a page on the Green Chef site that shows step-by-step recycling instructions.
Menus are posted in advance, and each meal plan offers around 9 different recipes each week. The website is easy to navigate, making it simple to select your weekly menu, change your delivery day, or skip a week. Here's what was on the Carb-Conscious Meal Plan menu the week I ordered this box:
Menu images via Green Chef.
Want to compare what our favorite meal kit delivery services have on their upcoming menus? Check out our weekly meal kit menu roundup!
As for shipping, you get to choose from weekly (1-3 boxes per week), bi-weekly, or monthly deliveries on Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, or Saturdays. The box is well insulated and you don’t have to be at home when it is delivered.
Now, let's see what recipes I cooked up this week!
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Meal 1: Smoky Barramundi with Salsa, Sautéed Yellow Squash with Toasted Pepitas, Kale and Radish Salad
Calories per serving: 620
Net Carbs Per Serving: 13 grams
Total time, according to Green Chef: 30 minutes
Actual time: 25 minutes
I'm pretty familiar with meal delivery services, but this was my first time trying out Green Chef. My first impression was great. The box was well packed, my ingredients arrived chilled and in good condition, and the menu cards are beautiful. The front side of each menu card features an image of the completed meal, and nutrition information, allergen warnings, and ingredients are clearly listed. Perhaps most impressive is that Green Chef includes their phone number on the bottom of each menu card. Run into trouble mid-way through the cooking process? You can give them a call and ask for help.
On the back, there's a step-by-step guide on how to prepare your meal. I found the instructions easy to follow, and I love that each step has a picture. As a visual learner, I'm a big fan of pictures. The more, the better! Another great thing I noticed is that whenever the recipe calls for adding in a new ingredient, that ingredient is mentioned in bold. This makes it really difficult to miss an important step.
The first step was to clean and prep all of the produce. I removed the thick stems from the kale and chopped it, minced the garlic, and sliced the squash and radishes.
Once my produce was prepped, I toasted some pepitas and made the radish & kale salad. Included in my meal kit was a pre-made Cumin-Oregano Lime Vinaigrette, and I drizzled it over the salad and massaged it into the leaves to soften them. One thing to note is that Green Chef sent a generous portion of dressing for the salad. Personally, I like a light to medium amount of dressing on my salad, and about half of the included packet was plenty. I appreciate that heavy-dressers won't come up short, and I had plenty left over to use again.
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Next, I headed over to the stove to prepare the squash. In a non-stick pan, I combined the sliced summer squash with roasted red peppers, garlic, and paprika and sautéed them over medium-high heat for about 5 minutes. The recipe card recommended about 2-3 minutes, but I prefer my squash a bit more well done than that. When it was ready, I transferred it to a bowl and set it near the stove to keep warm.
For the barramundi, I seasoned the fish with a mix of paprika, salt, and pepper. The recipe indicated that I should get a new pan to cook the fish, but I opted to wipe out and reuse the squash pan. One thing to know about me: I love to cook, but I HATE to do dishes. If I can find a way to minimize how many pans I'm using, I'm gonna do it. The fish went into the pan and took about 4 minutes per side to cook.
With all of the separate menu components all cooked and ready, I plated it up. Onto the plate went the sautéed squash, the barramundi, and the kale salad. I topped the fish with Tomato Salsa with Cilantro, and finished everything off with the toasted pepitas.
This dish was a winner! The seasoned fish would have been tasty on its own, but the addition of the salsa was a flavor bomb. It was smoky, sharp, and perfectly seasoned. The roasted red peppers layered nicely with the squash, and I was happy for the crunch provided by the toasted pepitas. I also enjoyed the kale salad, and I thought the dressing was tangy and rich; it had that special salad dressing juju that made me want to keep going back for "one more bite." As a whole, the dish was fresh and light, but it had enough substance to leave me satisfied.
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Meal 2: Mediterranean Chicken Salads with Kale, Sautéed Yellow Squash, Gremolata & Lemon Aïoli
Calories per serving: 830
Net Carbs Per Serving: 15 grams
Total time, according to Green Chef: 25 minutes
Actual time: 30 minutes
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Okay, before we dive into this next dish, I have a confession to make. I was in a little bit of a hurry when I selected my meals for this week, and I didn't realize until the box arrived that my choices are a little repetitive. What can I say, I must have really been craving a kale salad! Please know that the recipe offerings are far more diverse than this review might indicate; and if you're somehow also craving leafy greens... enjoy the kale-a-palooza!
Anyway, my second recipe pick this week was Chicken Salads with Kale, Sautéed Yellow Squash, Gremolata & Lemon Aïoli. I've never made gremolata before, and when I saw it featured in this recipe I knew I wanted to give it a shot!
Again, the first step was to wash and prep the produce. I medium-diced a shallot, sliced the squash, rough chopped the kale, and broke up some sliced almonds. The recipe called for chopping the capers, but I really enjoy that pop of flavor that comes from biting into them whole, so I left them as-is.
The recipe instructed to make the salad before moving on to the chicken, so I began by sautéeing the squash and shallot in a pan with some olive oil, salt, and pepper. (My sous-chef, Olive, came in to help me with this step.)
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While the squash was cooking, I dressed the kale with Dairy-Free Lemon Aïoli. When the squash was done, I tossed it into the mix and set the bowl aside.
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Next up, I cooked the chicken. I patted the cutlets dry and rubbed them down with a mix of Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper. They cooked over medium-high heat for about 10 minutes, and I transferred them to a cutting board to rest before slicing.
Finally, I made the gremolata by combining roasted red peppers, capers, almonds, white balsamic vinegar, and olive oil in a hot pan. How pretty is that? (And it was so easy!)
With everything now ready, I plated the dish. I divided the kale salad between two bowls, topped each one with chicken, and spooned over the gremolata.
Oh, man, this was tasty. The mix of kale and squash made for a really hearty salad, and the Dairy-Free Lemon Aïoli was bright and creamy. The chicken added some much needed warmth and protein, but the real star of this dish was the gremolata. The ingredients in the gremolata each brought a lot of big flavor to the table, and I wasn't sure how they'd all work together. But I shouldn't have been concerned. Instead of competing, they all came together to create something really special, a burst of tartness and crunch that elevated this dish from "decent mid-week dinner salad" to "creative, restaurant-quality dish." I do feel I have to call out one thing, though. This is definitely not a traditional gremolata; most gremolatas I've seen are green and made from parsley, lemon, and garlic. I don't know enough about gremolata to know if Green Chef's version is a common variation, but I'm not sure I care. It was delicious.
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Meal 3: Chicken with Mushroom & Caper Sauce, Kale & Radish Salad, Lemon-Dijon Vinaigrette
Calories per serving: 510
Net Carbs Per Serving: 7
Total time, according to Green Chef: 35 minutes
Actual time: 30 minutes
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My last meal pick this week was Chicken with Mushroom & Caper Sauce. I love capers, but I usually only reach for them when I'm making lemony chicken or fish topped with tomatoes, onions, and basil. I'm always on the hunt for new ways to use my favorite ingredients, so this recipe was calling my name!
Again, I began by prepping all of the ingredients. I sliced the kale, mushrooms, and radishes, diced the kale stems, and drained the capers.
As with the first recipe, I made a quick salad by combining the kale and radishes with the provided dressing. For this dish, the dressing was Lemon-Dijon Vinaigrette with Olive Oil.
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To make the chicken and sauce, I began by sautéeing the mushroom and kale stems in a little olive oil. When the mushrooms were cooked, I moved the veggies to the side of the pan to make room for the chicken. I seared the chicken on both sides and then added capers and Vegetable Broth with Lemon and Garlic. Everything simmered together for a few minutes while the sauce reduced and thickened. When the chicken was cooked through and the sauce was ready, I transferred the chicken to a cutting board and sliced it.
To plate, I divided the chicken, topped each serving with the mushroom pan sauce, and portioned the salad. I finished the chicken with a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese. (Again, I was pleased to see that there was plenty of cheese! I used about half of the provided packet and tucked away the leftovers to use again.)
This ended up being my favorite of the three dishes. I love, love, loved the mushroom and caper pan sauce, and I think the secret ingredient was the lemon and garlic chicken broth Green Chef sent. When it cooked down, it gave the dish a concentrated kick of flavor that made it sing. I will absolutely be recreating this chicken dish again soon. The kale salad was tasty, and I have to say, even though I ended up picking three meals that had similar salads, I appreciate that each one was served with a different dressing. This helped keep things interesting for sure.
The Verdict: This was my first ever Green Chef box, and I'm very impressed! All three of the meals I received were delicious, and there are a couple of standout things (the chicken with pan sauce! the gremolata!) that I'll be remaking again soon. All of the ingredients I received were fresh and in good condition, and the pre-made sauces (salsa, lemon chicken broth, dressings, etc.) were fantastic. At $12.99 per serving, it's perhaps more than I would spend if I were shopping and cooking at home with my own recipes, but it's certainly less than I would spend dining out at a restaurant. Due to the pandemic, I'm cooking at home now more than ever before, and I like to think of meal boxes as a sort of restaurant substitute. I still try and support my neighborhood restaurants when I can, but I like that meal kits help me keep things interesting when I'm cooking at home. It might not be the cheapest way to get dinner on the table, but, for me, it's definitely worth it.
To Wrap Up:
Can you still get this box if you sign up today? No, this week of meals has passed. But, you can sign up for Green Chef today and receive meals next week!
Check out our weekly meal kit menu roundup of all our favorite meal kit delivery services!
ACTIVE DEAL: Limited Time Only! Get $250 off + free shipping
CODE: MSA200
Value Breakdown: At $12.99 per serving for three meals on the 2-person Carb-Conscious plan plus $7.99 shipping, the total comes to $85.93. This averages out to about $14.32 per meal.
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