The best food subscription boxes for Summer
It will come as no surprise that if you have vowed to up your protein intake, hit your five-a-day or learn to cook that being short of time is what often derails good intentions. Fortunately, with a plethora of recipe subscription boxes and delivery services on the market, there is one for every person and every goal this summer.
Presentation: Delivered in a cardboard box big enough to fit a family of four’s picnic, The Detox Kitchen cover your entire day of meals. With labels to instruct you on what to eat and when plus edible flowers and spiralized veg, this was a big step up from my usual sad desk lunch.
Taste: The beauty of The Detox Kitchen is the variety of meals, ingredients, and tastes. From the 4 pm snack of BBQ sweet potato to the 10 am snack of cinnamon coated seeds, thought has gone into every single meal, snack and juice with each one providing a nutrient dense dose of deliciousness.
Sustainability: Packaged in plastic my first thoughts weren’t positive. However, the good news is that all plastic is all recyclable once you’ve given it a rinse.
Price: From £35.70 per day for the PROTEIN package
Presentation: Arriving in a FFF cool bag with zip compartments for ice, I wasn’t at all worried about my meals being left on the doorstep during a showery December.
Taste: Despite being out on my doorstep since 3am, FFF tastes remarkably fresh. The Vietnamese chicken salad for one was fiery and the chicken moist while the sweet potato and peanut butter brownie for a 4pm snack was bloody brilliant.
Sustainability: Launching this January is FFF’s new plastic-free packaging, hoorah!
Price: 3 meals plus a snack for 2 weeks is £27 per day.
Presentation: Delivered in an insulated cardboard box, fresh ingredients are kept cool while seasonings and sauces are stored in individually portioned pots making home cooking both sustainable and foolproof.
Taste: At first glance, I was overwhelmed by the complexity of the Gousto recipes but, and I don’t say this lightly, they were much easier than I ever could have imagined and by the third night I had whipped up my own homemade harissa hummus in 10 minutes flat. Combined with a freekeh salad, the taste was exceptional and my partner barely noticed the distinct lack of meat on his plate.
Sustainability: Each recipe box contains exactly what you need to cook up a storm which means absolutely no food waste, hoorah!
Price: £29.99 for 3 recipes for 2 people.
Presentation: Simple and nondescript. The Transformation Chef puts quality nutrition first and foremost over details such as edible flowers.
Taste: The highlight of the menu was the small but mighty breakfast of GF Banana and Hemp Pancakes and main of Turkey + Beef Meatballs with Spaghetti. Unlike other delivery services, the menu offered by The Transformation Chef is designed by nutritionists and food scientist with athletes in mind; the tell-tale sign being the high-protein F45 Challenge Plan that they offer too.
Price: £34.95 for a 6 meal starter box
Presentation: Unlike other delivery boxes, each individual meal comes in a cardboard container which is a welcome change.
Taste: With a Head Chef that has spent years working in Michelin starred restaurants, it’s clear from the outset that Eat First places an emphasis on taste. Fortunately, a history of fine dining experience has had no bearing on Eat First’s portion sizes which are substantial compared to others on the list. Our favourite dish? The Katsu Chicken Curry which makes an excellent alternative to Wagamama.
Sustainability: All meat and fish is ethically sourced and the packaging is eco-friendly and compostable.
Price: From £5.99 per meal.
Presentation: One box, five meals and five paper bags of individually portioned ingredients, it couldn’t have been easier to find the ingredients for each dish. What’s more, it was a pleasant surprise that the meals we made actually looked like the recipe cards too. Now, where’s my Michelin star?
Taste: With 16 healthy recipes free from gluten and refined carbs on rotation each week, we promise you’ll never get bored. Our favourite? The herby polenta fish fingers which was easier than it looked to whip up after an evening at Crossfit.
Sustainability: From the paper bags that the ingredients come in to the cardboard box and recyclable cool bag, Mindful Chef has covered all the bases when it comes to sustainability.
Price: From £5 per person per meal.
