Meal kits

Meal kits have been popular for a while in other countries such as the US and are starting to gain popularity in Australia. Learn more about how they work, their pros and cons in this article.

What are meal kits?

These are boxes with recipes and corresponding ingredients that are delivered to your home for you to cook.

Meal kit boxes typically contain some or all of the following:

• Recipes (most of the time printed, sometimes online)
• Fresh fruit, vegetables and herbs in quantities needed for each recipe
• Pantry ingredients such as canned vegetables, stock cubes, nuts, seeds and spices
• An insulated bag with ice packs and chilled items, such as meat, fish, poultry, condiments and dairy products

Meal kits in Australia

There are a few companies offering these kits in Australia. The most well-known are HelloFresh and Marley Spoon. Dinnerly, Marley Spoon’s budget meal kit, has recently entered the market.

Pros

• Save time planning and shopping
• No need to search for recipes
• Less food waste as you get only the amounts you need
• Flexibility: you can choose the number of meals you get, which meals you’ll get each week and you can also skip deliveries
• You don’t need to be home to get the delivery
• Step by step recipes that are easy to follow
• Convenience = more home cooking = better health
• You can try dishes from cuisines that are new to you
• You can choose which day you want your box to be delivered

Cons

• Menu options can be limited, especially for those with dietary requirements
• Some condiments and sauces may contain not-so-healthy ingredients
• You need to have some pantry basics such as oils, vinegars, soy sauce, salt, pepper, honey, sugar, etc.
• Lots of packaging, although most is recyclable
• Can be more expensive than cooking from scratch
• You don’t get to choose the provenance and quality of ingredients
• Simplicity = lack of alternative cooking methods, ingredient substitutions, etc. For example, a recipe might indicate you cook something on a grill pan but doesn’t provide alternative cooking methods.

Stay tuned for my upcoming reviews of the most popular meal kits in Australia and let me know if you know of other meal kit providers I should check out!

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