Green Chef's recipe boxes are developed by nutritionists – here's an honest review. Green Chef stands out for its recipes developed with nutritionists, but how do the dishes actually taste? Juggling a busy schedule while trying to cook healthy meals from scratch is a challenge many of us know all too well – and it's exactly the problem recipe boxes aim to solve. Among the growing competition, Green Chef stands out for its nutritionist-approved recipes, making it a smart choice for anyone sticking to a specific diet or looking to eat more mindfully.
If you're new to the concept, these services let you pick from a curated menu of dishes, delivering pre-portioned ingredients straight to your door, along with easy-to-follow, step-by-step instructions. Green Chef boasts more than 35 meals to choose from every week, each developed by a registered nutritionist to various dietary needs such as keto, vegan, high-protein and flexitarian. As someone looking to boost my protein intake and add more variety to my meals – while also battling regular recipe fatigue in the kitchen – I was keen to see how Green Chef would measure up.
Ordering and delivery
Green Chef delivers Monday through Saturday, offering good flexibility. Boxes can feed two or four people, and you can then choose how many meals you'd like per week, ranging from four to 16. This model caters for almost everyone, from solo cooks with leftovers for lunch to a family of four. Ordering is simple. You choose your dietary preferences: keto, high-protein, lower-carb, calorie-conscious, vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian and flexitarian (which is your best choice if you have no food restrictions) – in practice, this only guides which recipes you're shown first, and you can still view and select recipes from all dietary preferences, adding some variety to a weekly plan. Then select the dishes you like the sound of. If you're following a diet, the macros are clearly listed, and you can make swaps within some dishes, such as cauliflower rice instead of wholegrain rice.
As a pescatarian, I didn't find my choices limited. In fact, it was quite the opposite. I settled on a mushroom pho with carrots, pak choi and sesame seeds, a creamy dill salmon kale bowl, and a king prawn curry.
Ingredients and cooking
I was impressed with the overall quality of the produce. I didn't have to pick out dodgy leaves from the coriander or chop off the ends of the veg, and the ingredients kept well. I didn't use all the kale and green beans from one of the dishes, and they stayed fresh in my fridge for more than a week.
When it comes to cooking, the prep time isn't factored into the overall cooking time. I found the dishes took an additional 10 to 15 minutes longer than stated. But the recipe cards were simple and easy to follow with emboldened ingredients and steps, ensuring you don't miss anything while cooking. My only gripe is that the pictures accompanying each step were small.
Taste-wise, my favourite dish was the salmon paired with a creamy dill sauce and loaded with kale, courgette and green beans – all delicious. The king prawn curry dish had more of a sweet-and-sour taste than I expected, but it was a nice mid-week dinner and easy to put together. The mushroom pho included pulled shiitake mushrooms coated in a sweet soy sauce, which became meaty when cooked. Each meal felt well-rounded while focusing on healthy ingredients, which I appreciated. And the portion sizes were generous, satisfying the hungriest of appetites.
One of my biggest gripes is the packaging. While Green Chef says it's trying to reduce the amount of plastic used to hold the ingredients, almost everything comes individually wrapped in plastic. What's more, I tested a box that served four people, and Green Chef sent two lots of the two-person meals, which felt like an unnecessary amount of packaging.
Cost
Compared to buying ingredients from the supermarket, Green Chef is definitely expensive. While the cost per meal decreases as the order size increases, from two meals for two people per week costing £8.25 per serving (£33 for the box), to four meals for four people per week costing £5.99 (£95.84), it does rack up.
The good news for those wanting to try the subscription is that you can save on your first five boxes. Green Chef offers 40 per cent off the first box and 25 per cent off the next four boxes. This means portions start at £3.89 in the first week, and then £6.49 for regularly priced weeks.
If you wish to cancel, you'll need to give five days' notice, but rest assured, you can pause or cancel at any time with no penalty.
Key specifications
- Cost per serving: From £5.99
- Delivery: Monday to Saturday
- Meals per week: From four to 16
Is Green Chef worth it?
I enjoyed testing Green Chef's recipe box. Each meal felt nutritious, was easy to cook and injected some variety into my diet and cooking inspiration. The nutritionist sign-off is the cherry on top if you are after guidance on healthy and convenient cooking. As with food delivery boxes, convenience comes at a pretty high cost, however.
How Green Chef was tested
I ordered a four-person box, consisting of four different meals. When testing, I considered the following criteria:
- Ordering: I noted how easy it was to order weekly meals and the variety, as someone who follows a pescatarian diet.
- Packaging and delivery: I considered how the box arrived, how fresh the ingredients were and whether the packaging was considered or there was too much plastic.
- Cooking: While cooking each dish, I took note of how long each meal took to bring together, how laborious the prep and cooking were, and how easy the recipe cards were to use.
- Meals: The most important thing was how tasty each meal was. As nutritionist-developed meals, I checked the ingredient quality and flavour to see if the meal felt balanced and wholesome.
- Cost: I compared the portion size, convenience, and overall quality against the price to see if it felt worth it.
