This week, in my continuing series of home food delivery services, I decided to try out Green Chef.  After the introductory week, the vegan meal plan would have cost over $80, so I only did it for one week.  By contrast Blue Apron was only $60.  Another issue that I had with Green Chef was that I couldn’t recycle any of the packaging, and there was no option to send it back to Green Chef for them to recycle.

Dish 1: Barbecue Tempeh with Maple-Roasted Squash and vegan broccoli gratin

Friday, February 17, 2017 – This week’s food subscription box is from Green Chef. When I signed up, I chose the vegan option. Each dish is about 600 calories, and they are very veggie driven (YAY!). My first meal was ok. It was Barbecue Tempeh with Maple-Roasted Squash and vegan broccoli gratin. There wasn’t quite enough barbecue sauce on the tempeh and too many bread crumbs on the gratin. The butternut squash was a bit uninspired. It was just the squash with a bit of maple syrup, salt, and pepper. It went well with everything else, but it could have been a bit more special. I like tempeh, but the pieces were a bit too big to actually absorb the barbecue sauce. I ended up cutting it more thinly in the hopes that it would absorb more sauce, but that only helped a little. Also, the instructions were a little difficult to read while actively cooking.  I completely missed that I was supposed to finish the gratin in the oven until I had been cooking it on the stove for 10 minutes.  The pictures on the instructions weren’t overly helpful.  I know what it looks like to put cubes of butternut squash in the oven. What would have been helpful is a picture showing me how they wanted me to cut the tempeh.

Dish 2: Black Bean Gorditas with homemade masa cakes and sautéed potatoes & poblano

Saturday, February 18, 2017 My second meal from Green Chef: Black Bean Gorditas with homemade masa cakes and sautéed potatoes & poblano. It was absolutely delicious and only a little scorched.

Still having trouble with the instructions. The steps aren’t very well divided, so it’s hard to follow the steps and get the timing right. I had to spend a good two minutes figuring out what to do with the second half of the onion while trying to keep my stuff from burning.

Dish 3: Red Curry Tofu with Black-Rice Ramen, broccoli & cauliflower, peanuts

Monday, February 20, 2017 – My last meal with Green Chef was decidedly meh. It was Red Curry Tofu with Black-Rice Ramen, broccoli & cauliflower, peanuts. The curry was a little vinegary and didn’t have very robust flavor. The slaw didn’t really go with the curry. The black rice noodles were nice, but I think I would have preferred black rice. There was very little sauce, so my last few bites were unseasoned, gummy noodles. The instructions were much better organized than the first two meals, but the pictures still weren’t particularly helpful.

The other downside to Green Chef was the cancellation process.  I had to cancel the subscription the Wednesday before the next delivery.  Since my first delivery arrived on Wednesday, I pretty much had to cancel the next order before the first had even arrived.  The cancellation was also a multi-step process.  I had to e-mail the company through the website and then click a link in an email to complete the process.  Blue Apron’s cancellation process was much easier.

Green Chef Summary

Ease and clarity of instructions: 6/10
Taste: 6/10
Variety: 9/10
How many recipes would I make again? 1.2/3

Verdict: Two of the dishes were mediocre.  The only dish I would make again is the Gorditas.  I would do the barbecue tempeh again, but I’d use a completely different recipe.

Overall Rating: C-

Later this week, I’m trying Home Chef!  It comes with some great recommendations, so I’m very excited.