Green Chef Review
Mostly Organic, Friendly to Most Diets
Pros:
- Many different dietary options including vegetarian, vegan, paleo, and keto.
- Organic ingredients used whenever possible in recipes.
- Healthy recipes.
Cons:
- Specialty diets are a bit pricier.
- No specific allergies can be catered to.
My Verdict:
Green Chef is a meal kit that really puts an emphasis on organic, fresh ingredients, healthy recipes, and realizes there are many different diets that people adhere to these days. I used to subscribe to Green Chef years ago and was always impressed with how fantastic their meals tasted. This month I gave it a fresh go to find that they are still making some bangin’ recipes with the best quality ingredients available.
This box was sent to us at no cost for review. (Check out our review process post to learn more about how we review boxes.)
About Green Chef
All Green Chef plans offer 3 recipes per week, and you can select between 2 or 4 servings per recipe for any of their dietary options.
Plans & Pricing
The pricing varies slightly depending on the number of servings and dietary needs.
- 2 person plan: 3 meals (each serves 2) per box for $10.99-12.99 per serving (depending on the dietary option) + $7.99 shipping
- Plant-Powered (vegetarian or vegan) – $10.99/serving + $7.99 shipping ($78.93 per box)
- Save $1.00 ($9.99/serving) if you have 2-3 boxes delivered per week (each box will have a $7.99 shipping charge).
- Balanced Living (omnivore or pescatarian) – $10.99/serving + $7.99 shipping ($78.93 per box)
- Keto – $12.99/serving + $7.99 shipping ($84.93 per box)
- Paleo – $12.99/serving + $7.99 shipping ($84.93 per box)
- Plant-Powered (vegetarian or vegan) – $10.99/serving + $7.99 shipping ($78.93 per box)
- 4 person family plan: 2 meals (served family-style for 2 parents and 2 kids) per week for $10.99/serving + $7.99 shipping ($94.91 per box)
*The number of meal options available may change based on the specialized type of meal plan you choose.
Green Chef delivers to all states across the continental US except parts of Louisiana. If they’re not yet in your area, you can begin the sign up process and they’ll send you an email when they become available.
UPS handles the delivery in my area but your carrier may differ. Good to know:
- Deliveries arrive between 8 am and 9 pm local time.
- If you choose to have your package delivered to a commercial address (like work), your delivery driver will make an effort to deliver the package before 5:00 pm local time.
- Boxes are delivered Monday through Saturday. You can choose which weekday you want your boxes delivered, depending on where you live.
- You don’t have to be home to accept the box.
- Food stays cold with insulating liners, gel packs, and cooling material.
Green Chef has a whole page dedicated to how to recycle their packaging (as well as what it’s all made of), but here’s a quick run-down of the most used items:
Their packaging is made from recyclable, reusable, and/or compostable materials – except where they can’t get around it for food safety reasons. For example, their tofu is sent in vacuum-sealed plastic wrapping to ensure you get the freshest experience possible with the outstanding flavor that their chefs intended.
Cardboard Boxes – Made of corrugated cardboard, with a minimum of 40% recycled content. Break down your Green Chef box and recycle it with your regular curbside recycling or at your local recycling facility.
Insulation – ClimaCell is made of a proprietary plant-based insulator that is certified curbside recyclable, with a thin sheet of kraft paper on either side to hold it together. Recycle the ClimaCell with your curbside paper and cardboard recycling, or at your local recycling facility.
Ice Packs – Filled with soluble, non-toxic gel. The outer layer is made of #4 plastic film – low-density polyethylene (LDPE). Save them in your freezer and reuse them, or store them at room temperature for later use. You may also be able to donate them to local charitable organizations. To recycle, simply cut the corner of the pack, drain the non-toxic gel into the garbage, then rinse out the bag and recycle it wherever #4 plastic film is accepted. Make sure the bag is clean and dry before you drop it off. There are easy drop-off programs at most grocery and retail stores you may already visit!
Paper Bags – 100% post-consumer recycled paper. If a bag is clean and dry, reuse it or recycle it with your curbside recycling. If it’s soiled, you can compost it at home or through your local composting facility.
Green Chef Recipes
Green Chef offers quite a few options when it comes to choosing meals, especially if you are an omnivore. Each week I have eight meals to choose from that can be vegetarian, or include fish, pork, chicken, beef, and more. If I decide to change my diet, I can change my preferences at any time. Taking a peek at both the vegan and vegetarian menus for upcoming weeks, it looks like I have seven selections each time, and it’s the same for keto. The paleo option still has six options every week which seems great seeing as though I’d only be getting three meals in each box.
Sadly, it doesn’t look like you can check the upcoming menus for the plans until you sign up so here are some examples of future Green Chef “Balanced Living” (omnivore, including vegetarian) meals:
- CHICKEN WITH BASIL PISTOU and roasted red peppers, artichokes & fennel, rice with chard & dates
- KOREAN BEEF & NOODLE STIR-FRY with broccoli, cabbage, carrots & cashews, ginger relish
- BLACKENED TROUT WITH CREOLE DIJONNAISE and couscous with corn & peppers, apricot-glazed green beans
- GREEN PEA & FETA FALAFEL with lemon-basil yogurt sauce, couscous, kale salad
- VEGGIE PAD THAI with shiitakes, carrots, peas, bell pepper, scrambled eggs & peanuts
Green Chef sends you all of the ingredients like grains, bread, meat, and produce you’ll need to make the meals. They do expect you to have a few basics on hand though.
The ingredients to have on hand:
- Salt
- Pepper
- Olive oil
- High-temperature cooking oil (such as vegetable, safflower, canola, avocado, or coconut) or ghee.
The kitchen tools to have on hand:
- Pots and pans (ideally in a range of sizes and types such as non-stick and oven safe)
- Chef’s knife
- Cooking spoon
- Spatula
- Strainer
- Peeler
- Measuring cups
- Tablespoon measure
- Sheet pan
- Aluminum foil
Occasionally, you may need:
- Grill or grill pan
- Ladle
- Tongs
- Microplane zester
- Box grater
- Teaspoon measure
- Thermometer
Preferences & Allergens
Green Chef provides what I found to be the most robust dietary options for meal plans. The most common option is probably “Balanced Living” which allows you to choose between omnivore, pescatarian, or no preference, which will give you a little of everything, including vegetarian meals. That’s what I chose and will be reviewing in this post. They also offer a “Plant-Powered” option that lets you choose between vegetarian or completely vegan meals. I have several married friends who are vegan, subscribe to this option, and love it! Even further, Green Chef also has catered to popular diets to bring both keto and paleo options. MSA’s own Tiffany reviewed the keto version for quite a while and you can check out her reviews here.
At the moment, Green Chef doesn’t have a place to specify any allergies but you can find out more information here, on their help page if you have more detailed questions.
My Green Chef Review
Why Green Chef?
If you’ve been following along with me since 2017 when I started reviewing for My Subscription Addiction, you know I’ve tried A LOT of meal kits. What you don’t know is that Green Chef was one of my favorites even before that, and one that I paid for out of my very own pocket each week for several months. While I am a fickle pickle and tend to start and stop meal kits all the time based on budget, my review schedule, and my general need to constantly be trying new things, this is one that I truly held quite high. It’s not the cheapest of the meal kit world, indeed, but it has consistently good recipes I love that gently nudge me from my comfort zone. They also have very high-quality ingredients that always arrive fresh and are often organic.
Here, I’ll run through the basics of signing up and navigating the recipes before I get to the cooking and enjoying of the food!
Signing Up
Green Chef makes it easy to sign up:
- Go to their website.
- Click the “Get Started” button.
- Add your email address and zip code.
- Choose a dietary option and number of servings that suits your needs.
- Put in your delivery details (including day of the week and address).
- Then add your credit card info and create a password to finish your account.
- Now go choose some tasty meals!
My Green Chef Menus
Once I signed up, Green Chef auto-selected three meals for me.
There were five other meals I could also choose. Two of my recipes were vegetarian which is nice to have since sometimes I like to take a break from meat.
I just had to click the “Edit Order” dropdown menu to change my recipes, modify my order, or skip the whole week. Green Chef shows you five weeks at a time where you can choose your meals or skip. If you sign up for email notifications, you’ll get emails prompting you to choose upcoming meals as well.
Here are the three meals I ended up going with (2 servings each). The cool thing here, too, is if you know you’re having company or you want extra leftovers, you can change any recipe to have 4 or 6 servings instead of the standard two up at the top lefthand corner.
My Meals
1 of 8 2 of 8 3 of 8 4 of 8 5 of 8 6 of 8 7 of 8 8 of 8 My Green Chef box came with a packet full of offers and coupons from Naked Wines (which Megan can tell you all about here), Minted, and Leesa. I usually don’t take advantage of these, but I have to say- I’m tempted to get holiday cards made with me and my cats. I love all of the colorful meals I get to choose from with Green Chef. There is always a wide variety of meats, fish, pasta, and vegetarian dishes in my Balanced Living plan. This time, I went for a salmon poke bowl, a chicken dish, and a heartier meatloaf with potatoes which hits a lot of my cravings. (Swipe right on each picture to see photos of the cooking process!)
1 of 4 2 of 4 3 of 4 4 of 4 Hawaiian Salmon Poke Bowl with cabbage, bell pepper & orange slaw, sushi rice, ginger relish
1 of 7 2 of 7 3 of 7 4 of 7 5 of 7 6 of 7 7 of 7 I LOVE poke, but I don’t think I’d trust myself to make it with raw fish. This recipe, however, creates the same fresh taste with baked salmon that has a nice glaze on it. The prep work on this meal was really easy since I just had to chop the included fruits and veggies. I’d never normally go for orange in a poke bowl, but it brought a nice citrus flair to the recipe that I ended up really liking! I made this dish for lunch one day since it’s on the lighter side, and it was the perfect amount of food!
1 of 4 2 of 4 3 of 4 4 of 4 Meatloaf with Rosemary Ketchup and roasted fingerling potatoes & garlicky sautéed chard
1 of 6 2 of 6 3 of 6 4 of 6 5 of 6 6 of 6 Mmmm- meatloaf! I very rarely make it, which is why I chose it as one of my recipes. As much as I’ve gotten a lot more comfortable in the kitchen since trying so many different meal kits, it also has made me always want a recipe to work with. I wish I could just toss a bunch of random ingredients together to make a meal, but that’s just not me. So this recipe with all the needed ingredients ensures that I have the right stuff to make the best meal. I did have a little trouble getting the meatloaf to cook all the way through so it required extra time in the oven, but it still tasted great and the potatoes and chard as sides were super yummy.
1 of 4 2 of 4 3 of 4 4 of 4 Maple-Glazed Chicken with mashed potatoes, pear salad with cabbage, walnuts & blue cheese
1 of 7 2 of 7 3 of 7 4 of 7 5 of 7 6 of 7 7 of 7 My final recipe from this box was the maple-glazed chicken. I won’t lie to you- I was worried about this one only because I don’t love sweet sauces on savory meats, BUT my gosh. This really worked. The mashed potatoes were fantastic and that side salad? To die for! I would never make a pear, cabbage, and blue cheese salad on my own but now I think I will! The chicken, I may add, was cooked to perfection and was super juicy and moist. I really liked plating this one too. Superb meal! Probably my favorite. It was also really fast to make. In a word- yes! I loved Green Chef a couple of years ago and I still love it to this day. Spending $78.93 a week on three recipes sounds like a lot to me, but when I break it down to the fact that I can get six meals out of it if I take the leftovers to work for lunch and I know I’m eating way healthier because of it- that makes me feel a bit better. $13.16 is still a little pricy for a meal, I agree, but the ingredients are many times organic, I’m wasting NO FOOD, and I don’t have to buy or make any sauces for just one single meal and never touch them again. For a single gal like me, it’s worth it since I know I’d pay double that to have a single burrito delivered to me at 9 pm when I have no food in the house and I’m hangry. Green Chef has some of my favorite meals, hands down. They’re flavorful, colorful, and the meat and produce are always fresh. Whether it was the heavy meat and potatoes or the light salmon poke bowl- everything was seasoned well, and I did it with my own two hands. The Green Chef recipes were very easy for me to follow and they have all the steps timed out perfectly as well. I’ve gotten so good at knowing when I can put off some prep until something is cooking or how I can make a sauce ahead of time to save a few minutes. There are photos that illustrate everything well and the front of the recipe card shows me how to plate it as well. I also find the bolding of the ingredients helpful so I can really zero in on what to grab next. Meal kits are my go-to for convenience and Green Chef was delivered to my door at a reasonable hour the day I requested. No grocery shopping needed, no wasted produce or spoiled meat that I didn’t get to. The meatloaf took a little longer, but the other two were made in 30 minutes and honestly, the clean up on all three was not too bad. I normally don’t get home until 6:30 pm at the very earliest and sometimes if I have an appt or function after work, it can be closer to 8:30. Knowing I have Green Chef waiting for me at home makes me feel better knowing I can whip it up and eat it 45 minutes after stepping through my front door. I’d recommend Green Chef to anyone who: You can try Green Chef for yourself here: We’ve reviewed all of the major meal kits, plus some programs you may not have heard of! Learn more about our favorite plans and some reader favorites in these helpful articles: Do you have a favorite meal kit? Is it Green Chef, like mine? 5 Comments
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Written by Marne Orenich
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I loved green chef while I was on it. However, one note about the review is that it says they offer vegetarian and vegan options but they don’t do that anymore. The current plan only offers a plant powered option suitable for vegans and vegetarians. This was not exactly my favorite idea since I’m an ovo-lacto veg, but the recipes are delicious anyways so it’s fine.
Does Green Chef have an app for your phone? Many of us were recently dumped by Plated. 💔. I have cooked with them and Hello Fresh for the last 3 years. We tried Green Chef for the first time last night and we’re pleasantly pleased. The only thing I don’t like is the fact the don’t have an app.
It doesn’t look like they have an app. Maybe they’ll introduce one soon! Glad you are liking it though since Plated is dunzo.
I love Green Chef! I have tried many many meal kits and Green Chef is by far my favorite. We have been getting Green Chef for a couple of years now. We love their vegetarian options and their customer service is fantastic. The fact that they are mostly organic is also a big plus to me.
Thanks for chiming in with your experience as well, Donna! Happy to hear how others feel about it too!