Sometimes the hardest part about cooking during the week is deciding what to make and then finding time to get to the supermarket. To give you an idea of how time poor I am, I still have a dress waiting to be collected at my dressmakers and its been ready for 5 days!
If you are a lover tasty fresh food like me, then frozen and ready to cook meals are probably not your thing. So what do you do if love to cook and eat fresh, but are time poor?
For those of us living in Australia, that’s where HelloFresh comes in. It’s like fast food for foodies.
Every week, HelloFresh decides what you are going to eat, creates recipes for you, goes to the shops for you and then delivers all the ingredients to your doorstep. Sounds like a dream? It is.
All you do is head to the website and purchase a 3 or 5 day weekly subscription box (classic or vegetarian) for the number of people you need to feed. Then, on Monday the next week, you will get home from work and sitting on your doorstep will be a box full or fresh ingredients and a list of your recipes.
I was lucky enough to try a three day classic box for two recently (valued at $64.00 – that’s an extremely affordable $10.60 per person, per meal) with thanks to HelloFresh and Dani Lombard PR.
The week I received my HelloFresh package, I arrived home on Monday afternoon to find a box full of fresh produce sitting on my doorstep. I was delighted to open the box and find ingredients perfectly portioned for the three meals inside. It took a little while to get my head around how the recipe cards and instructions worked (bearing in mind they have to cater for a 3 or 5 day box with either 2, 4 or 6 people) but once I figured it out it was pretty straight forward from then.
The three sets of ingredients and recipes I received were for the following dishes:
1. Moroccan Fish Tagine (ingredients below left)
2. Mushroom Gnocchi (ingredients below middle)
3. Pork with Beetroot and Cabbage (ingredients below right)
What struck me immediately was the quality of all the ingredients included. The vegetables and herbs were snap fresh and the dry ingredients were all brands I would usually buy for myself. Perhaps most impressive was the quality of the proteins.
As an Italian I was dubious of the Gnocchi dish given I make it from scratch, but I was heartened by the inclusion of pre-made gnocchi sourced from Italy. Also, cabbage is possibly my least favourite ingredient ever so I knew I would be modifying the pork dish significantly – but I wasn’t fussed, the quality of the pork far outweighed the cabbage!
After cooking all three dishes (including the modified pork chop dish) I would seriously recommend HelloFresh to busy folk who still love to cook and eat fresh. All dishes were full of flavour and were quick and easy to cook (30 minutes tops). Even the gnocchi recipe was great (though personally I’ll stick to making my own).
For those of you who are considering the service (or don’t live in Australia), HelloFresh have kindly let me share one of their great recipes with you.
Moroccan Fish Tagine
Serves 2
2 teaspoons chermoula spice blend
1/4 cup continental parsley
2 tablespoons fresh coriander
2 garlic cloves
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar (or white vinegar)
3 tablespoons olive oil
350g firm white fish
150g couscous
300g water
1 red onion, cut into 8ths
2 carrots, sliced
1 vegetable stock cube
1 tin diced tomatoes
200g sweet potato, in 2cm cubes
Into the body of a food processor place chermoula spice blend, parsley, coriander (leave a little for the garnish), garlic, vinegar and 2 tablespoons of the olive oil and blend until smooth. Cut the fish into bite sized pieces and place in a bowl. Add the chermoula to the fish and coat well. Set aside to mainate.
Place the couscous in a bowl. Boil the water, pour over the couscous, stir with a fork and then cover the bowl with glad wrap and leave to sit for 5 minutes.
Divide the couscous between bowls and spoon the tagine over the top. Garnish with coriander and enjoy.
I love fish dishes that are a little out of the ordinary – this looks fabulous!! A great combination of flavours!
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HelloFresh sounds like a great service! I would have loved to have had something like this back in the days when I commuted to work and never had any time when I got home to do anything. Nice tagine recipe – I've been thinking of tagine lately (I've been contemplating Moroccan dishes – haven't made any in quite some time). Chermoula is such good stuff, isn't it? Good post – thanks.
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This looks amazing, and it's so great to see a dish looking this good can be easily made at home in your own kitchen. thank you for sharing x
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Ohhh!! I was just reading Muppy's blogpost on Hello Fresh and immediately hopped on to the site because that fish tagine looked too good I wanna try! Am seriously considering getting a box soon. Very keen!
You created a gorgeous looking tagine.
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