Gousto vs Hello Fresh 2

It's been a few months since I did my compare and contrast of Gousto and Hello fresh. I've been dipping in and out of Gousto but I've been away from both of them for a month or so and they both contacted me to say they've had some changes and offer me a cheap box. I'm a sucker for discounts and good food, so I jumped in with both feet.

I have discount codes for both Hello Fresh: YYBJQH and Gousto: CLAIR30433

Gousto

The Changes: Gusto now allow you to pick two, three or four meals at £29.99, £34.99 and £39.99 respectively. You can now get your box delivered on one of four days, Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. This does mean that you now have to pick by noon on the Friday before, I'm pretty sure last time I wrote a review you had until the Sunday.

I picked four meals: Pork Chilli, Pomegranate Glazed Kofta, Roast Beet Medley and Steak & Creamy Leek Mash. I was able to pick these from a menu of 10 dishes, you have until Friday the week before to pick and if you don't make choices by this point they pick your meals for you, I've been watching the menu's as they come through to me by email each week and I've noticed a few repeats, so I don't know if their system picks up on the meals you've already has and avoids them, it could be a bit hit and miss to leave them to pick for you.

Steak and Creamy Leek Mash: My husband and I really liked this, the gravy came out a bit thin using the technique they gave but it is pretty hard to tell if that was a fault with the recipe or a mark of my husbands impatience. It was reasonably portioned for 2 people but with both oil and honey is pretty high on the sun count for Slimming World, so for slimmers this is one to keep for the flexi days. overall this recipe is a keeper and one we'll dugout and use again.

Roast Beet Medley: I found this quick and simple to make, whilst Boo wasn't all that take with it (it''s quite a grown up taste) she did steal all my carrots, and with a few tweaks I was able to make it quite low in syns. I think this was my favourite meal of the lot, and the ingredients for it are already on my food order so we can make it again. it's veggie friendly so my in-laws have borrowed the card with the intention of making it themselves after our glowing reviews.

Pork Chilli: This was pretty nice, it was not at all how I'd normally make a chilli, so having an new technique is fab, though my husband is not that great with spice, so it was a bit warm for him, and pork is just that bit more fatty than beef. The portion sizing was however very small for Gousto and there was a lot going on at once with the dish, I burnt the kidney beans to a crisp because i totally forgot about them...

Pomegranate Glazed Kofta: This was pretty amazing, I've never made kofta's before and we both loved the dish, but again, lamb mince is quite fatty compared to beef mince, so this is not a diet food by any stretch!

Hello Fresh

Hello fresh have a reward system and with this being our third box we are now Apprentice Chef level, at 10 boxes you become a Sous Chef and at 20 boxes you become Master Chef. Each level includes it's own perks and rewards. But I can't help but focus on the fact that in order to reach that Master Chef level you have to spend £800 with Hello Fresh which is a hell of a lot...

The Changes: Hello fresh have made it a little easier to dip in and out, you can pick how often you want your deliveries using the calendar, so you could even arrange to have one box each month as a treat after pay day. It's also a lot easier to swap out the meals you don't like the look of, it was a serious pain last time I tried them and both weeks I ended up with a dreaded fish dish, which took me down a meal as I just can't stand fish, but I was able to effortlessly switch meals this time to both avoid a fish dish and a dish I already have the recipe for.

The meals I picked for our box this week were Tagliatelli, Garlic Farm Pork Teriyaki and Chorizo Crusted Chicken.

Tagliatelli: My husband made this one, and did so without too much difficulty, we did however find that there was a *lot* of pasta compared to everything else, though he did use the whole packet, whereas the recipe only called for most of the packet. This was a very generous dish and I really enjoyed it.

Chorizo Crusted Chicken: My husband again made this, it was very nice, but he did comment that he'd probably try putting the crust inside the chicken and wrapping the whole lot in bacon if he made it again. I think he struggles a bit not to 'tweak' recipes...

We didn't have the Teriyaki, we actually ended up with the Chillibeany Fajitas with Citrus Soured Cream as a last minute change by my husband, whilst I was pretty sad to have missed out on the Teriyaki, the fajitas were lovely, and you can pick up wholemeal fajitas in the supermarket that count as a slimming world healthy B so you can eat this dish pretty much guilt free just syning the sour cream (which is so so worth it) the portions were generous enough that we were able to feed Boo too and she really enjoyed it much to my surprise!

The Verdict

Whislt we did have some lovely meals from Hello Fresh, and I found their customer service staff to be great, I still feel that Gousto has a lot more choice, and it is just that little bit cheaper and thus maintainable. I'm not sure that Hello Fresh really has anything that Gousto doesn't but I am curious to see what their Sous Chef and Master Chef goodies rewards turn out to be, Their Apprentice Chef reward was a folder for the recipes (which Gousto give you automatically with your first order) and a logo'd shopping bag.

I still feel these are great if you want something a bit different to your usual recipes, and they're great if you're feeling a bit lazy about doing a shop. For the most part I still think that the actual ingredients are much cheeper to buy yourself, so it's not really worth picking up the same recipe twice if it comes up. I'm going to keep my subscription active but paused with both so I can look at the recipes on offer an pick up any weeks that are particularly enticing.

The part of me that loves gadgets and equipment does wonder if they've both missed a trick though. In a previous Gousto box we had soily potatoes and included in the box was a gusto logo'd potato brush (it is a lethal device it takes off thin skins on potatoes and cuts your fingers to shreds if you're not careful, but I love it!) Gousto gives you the opportunity to buy salt and coffee with your order, and I'm surprised they've not optimised their ordering system so that each dish has a piece of equipment that you can chose to add on to fill your draws with stuff, mostly small little things like the potato brush, or a mushroom brush, up to slightly higher priced stuff, I'm a sucker for that kind of thing. Oh and an apron!

#Gousto #HelloFresh #Subscription #Food