Recipe box subscriptions

So in theory I'm a good cook, but living alone (with mental health issues) has led to a big tendency to cook the same old boring stuff every week, and I thought I'd try out a recipe box subscription - for those who don't know, they provide the right quantity of ingredients and a recipe for a meal.

I've been using Gousto, and after the first month getting I think 10 or 20% off, the price now works out at £35 (including delivery) for 4 meals of 2 portions each, working out at £4.37 / portion, which is not bad - certainly more than if I'm buying the ingredients from the supermarket or local shops, but then again, there's some wastage possible with that option, and much less with this option. It's also far cheaper than eating out, of course, you don't need to be a good cook for any of the recipes, as far as I can tell, and so far I've enjoyed everything, the scrambled tofu stir-fry in particular standing out. I'm considering some other options such as Abel & Cole or Morrisons and wondering if anyone else has tried them.

Another benefit of course is that it means going to the supermarket a lot less often and therefore not having to deal with increased risk of covid.

We've been doing hello fresh on a similar deal. Seems like they are worth doing when you have offers on. Wouldn't run it for long at full price. But have kept the recipe cards and will definitely do some again

We've had kits from https://www.thespicery.com/ before (actually visited them as we're local as well, seem like a nice bunch). You only get the recipes and the spices, and it's generally something a bit more involved so not an everyday thing, but had done tasty meals from it. Get some things you wouldn't normally try as well which was fun.

Though I am less of a food person than my other half - I had no issues eating the same set of meals in rotation when I was by myself, and generally are the same meals a few days on the trot due to a lack of freezer! Good to experiment though :)

Given the current lock down you might struggle with a supermarket option like Morrisons as the "slots" get taken.

I have not yet tried one of these boxes though I have a friend that use Hello Fresh for a bit and I think their portions might be cheaper than the £4.37. On his own he finds the boxes great as he was freezing the other half of his portion or taking it for tomorrows lunch.

I haven't tried the subscription boxes as there is a small selection available in my local Tesco to purchase individually, but Simply Cook is similar to that in the post above, it comes with the recipe and sauce / stock / spices pots (each recipe comes with 3 pots serving 2-4 portions depending on the recipe you pick). It does unfortunately mean you are required to do a little grocery shop to purchase the main ingredients yourself but the recipes are simple enough to follow and from the ones I have tried they make some great tasting meals!

£3 for a 4 recipe trial seems worth a try if you are happy to purchase the additional ingredients yourself - I'd highly recommend the Vietnamese Pork :)

I really enjoyed the gousto boxes when I got them, the recipe cards have been a great source of easy meals to make which I have used more than any cooker book i own. I did try simply cook but didnt like it as much as the gousto stuff.

Not food, but i get a beer subscription too. All goes in the same way doesn't it ^.^

The wife went on a bit of a kick, where everything had to be 'Free Range Organic'... so we ended up getting some Abel & Cole boxes.
You get some basics, which look to have come from a farm shop, plus some really weird things you may never even have heard of. There are recipe cards, but I've not once used one.
It was expensive, but although you get to try some new stuff it's not the sort of things you can easily find and add to your regular shop.

In theory I'm a good cook too, but I take a different approach - I let her do the shopping most of the time, so end up with an odd mishmash of stuff that needs using. I find a website or two with a recipe that makes use of one or more such ingredients, and then browse the other recipes. This leads to more cool stuff I've never tried cooking so I have her buy those ingredients in. I then get new stuff that needs using and repeat the process.
I become a better cook as a result and create some lovely menus. I also build a repportoire of recipes where I can substitute some ingredients for others and pull off something great.

It's basically like word association games, but with food and recipes.
Eggs Benedict, for example - I'd never made Hollandaise or poached an egg before, but it's pretty easy and the dish itself is cool. However, it results in 3 or 4 leftover egg whites... which leads to a recipe for chocolate macarons and another for brownies... so you then look for what you can make with any bits left from that, and so on.

I've ended up with malfade, mushroom risotto, prosciutto fratatas, klump, herringsalat, carbonara, grape must pudding, barbecue brisket, burritos, stroganoff, vichyssoise, marshmallows, and loads more.
Proper, authentic ragu is an absolute must, at least once in your life!!

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Originally Posted by Ttaskmaster

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Proper, authentic ragu is anabsolute must, atleast oncein your life.

!!

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Agreed.

But then the discussion starts as to which regional variation is "authentic".

One of my favourite questions, until they rumbled me, was to ask a group of my Italian friends (from several different regions) for the "real" or "proper" recipe. Then retire to a discrete distance before it builds into a fist fight.

My favourite, though I often cheat bit, came from a lovely old Nonna I met in a restaurant in Bologna (it is, after all, called Bolognaise .... my favourite ragu, I mean .... for a reason) about 25 years ago who, after I finished complimenting her on the dish and outlined the "English" version took pity on me (out of shock, I think) and took me back to the kitchen for a masterclass in prep .... though I had to go back the next day after the hours and hours it had simmered for.

She pointed out, it is NOT a mince and tomato dish (and looked kind-of horrified and, at the same time, angry at that notion), it's a sauce. Done right, you won't see mince at all, not least, 'cos you didn't use any. And, 'cos it's had enough time for the ingredients to all break down into a sauce.

By God, do I love that old lady for the time she invested in me. So do my mouth, my taste buds and especially my stomach. Yumm. A decent pasta Bolognaise is probably my #1 All-Time fave dish .... though a few other Italian (and some Chinese, and a couple of Indian) dishes run it a close second.

My dad was half-italian, from florence, and called it 'sugo' which literally just means sauce. He never made it himself but his mum passed the recipe onto my mum and she used to cook it overnight. Loads of different ways to make it. I've never set the bolognese sauce amongst the italian pigeons but it sounds like a very entertaining pastime! It does seem to be a thing they get passionate about, but then again italians like to get passionate about a lot of things :-D

I met a second-generation italian recently who was talking about his dad being a proper italian bumpkin, having just moved to the uk and buying a rabbit from a pet shop and being very confused as to why they were making it so comfortable with all the bedding and stuff like that....

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Originally Posted by Saracen999

She pointed out, it is NOT a mince and tomato dish (and looked kind-of horrified and, at the same time, angry at that notion), it's a sauce. Done right, you won't see mince at all, not least, 'cos you didn't use any. And, 'cos it's had enough time for the ingredients to all break down into a sauce.

By God, do I love that old lady for the time she invested in me. .

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this... with golden bells

Meh... Everything has variations. Ragu a la Bolognaise is a variation of Ragu, but even within that it still has many sub-variants.

If you think that's bad, ask 100 South Africans how to make Bobotie... you'll get 700 different answers (one from each parent, one from each grandparent, and one for how they themselves do it) and in 11 different languages. Each and every single one is THE ONLY way to make it, though!!