I am teaming up with Gousto Recipe Box this season as an ambassador to share the delights of their food subscription boxes. So what you are about to read is sponsored but please be assured that I want to be as honest with you as possible. If you are to become a regular subscriber to a food box you want to make sure you know what you’re spending your money and whether you think it’s worth it. Today, i’m here to give you a bit of insight to help you on your way!
The TL;DR version of this is – yummy food, fun to make and fresh ingredients which I would recommend for taste and value for money.
But first, let’s get into what Gousto is all about.
Gousto is a food and recipe subscription box. This means you pay your money and they deliver your chosen meals as exactly measured out ingredients ready for you to make at home. The idea is that it takes out the faff of trying to come up with new ideas for meal time, if you’re short on time you can still enjoy tasty fresh food as it’s all measured out. You don’t have to go out food shopping. And you get to pick something exciting from the recipe selections each week, which are always changing with over 20 recipes a week.
Choosing Your Food
The first step is to head over to the website or download the app. There you can use your postcode to check they deliver to your area and what your proposed delivery date will be. Next you decide how many meals you want to pick – either 2, 3, or 4 meals for the following week. Each of these meals is to serve either 2 or 4 people, it’s up to you.
Of course, due to economy of scale the more meal and portions you pick the lower the cost per portion. But either way it’s pretty affordable and it’s nice to see how much you’re paying per meal.
Next, you pick your meals. Now what I liked about the website is the ease-of-use. Each recipe has a big bright photo of the finished meal (all of which look ridiculously appetising) along with a star rating from previous reviews, how long it takes to cook and how long the ingredients will last once you receive them (ideal for meal-planning for the following week).
On the recipe page you can narrow down your search by a number of suggested categories such as most popular, quick and easy, vegetarian, gluten free, dairy free, lighter and family friendly. I think is that such a great tool for picking your meals.
I also like the small suggestion on each recipe photo that indicate if the recipe is ‘one pot’ or ‘ideal for lunch’ or ‘whole grain’ or ‘2 of your 5 a day’. All of these are perfect for selecting the meals that will work best for you.
Delivery
When your Gousto Recipe Box is delivered it arrives in a well insulated box. This means your food is well chilled. The insulation is made of wool which you can re-use (love being able to reuse and recycle) and the chilled food has extra freezer packs (again these can be popped into your freezer and reused, plus 93% of their packaging is recyclable and bio degradable).
All of the food is delivered in exact portion sizes for the recipes. The meat is vacuum-sealed, the spices and oils measured out, and the vegetables the correct size.
I unpack all of my chilled food straight into the fridge. I then use a plastic container box to store my dried food such as the spices, sauces, oils, so they are easy to find. Plus, all the vegetables such as onions, rice, noodles, I put in a large bowl/container on my pantry shelf. I like to keep them all together so they’re easy to find.
Making The Food
The great thing about the Gousto recipe box is the convenience of having a delicious well-thought out recipe with the exact quantities ready to go. I find it takes the stress out of making dinner choices, plus you get to try new recipes as each week there is something new to pick.
Raj and I quite liked making the Gousto recipes together. Because there is a recipe card we could place it in the middle of the kitchen and work together on peeling, chopping, and cooking. We found this quite a sociable way to cook rather just me in the kitchen making something up like I usually do.
The recipe cards have clear instructions and accompanying photos for 8 stage of cooking the meal. I recommend reading the recipe through first before cooking so you know what’s coming up. I personally prefer to prep all the food first before cooking whereas some recipes prompted ingredient prep during cooking time. That’s my preference though.
Every recipe we cooked from the Gousto Recipe Box turned out great. It was tasty, a good portion and great for variety. If you are particular hungry or have a big appetite bear in mind they are modest portions. I also found that, for myself and Raj, the flavouring was too mild. For instance, when a recipe called for 2 garlic cloves I couldn’t really taste it, and that is because we use big strong flavours in our everyday cooking. But that isn’t a problem for me, I just know to up the flavours if my instinct tells me to and that is mostly when it comes to garlic, salt and chilli.
The recipes we cooked were:
- Pork Pibil and Smashed Black Bean Tacos
- Chinese Roast Pork Egg Fried Rice
- Pulled Hoisin Chicken with Sesame Noodles
- Minty Lamb Koftas
As you can see this was a nice variety of food from different cuisines around the world. As travel and food enthusiasts this definitely helps satiate our need for exciting mealtimes. And honestly, it was so difficult to choose just 4 from the weekly selection of 22 meals. I keep checking back on the website each week and get super-excited by the recipes on offer.
Final Thoughts
Overall, I think the Gousto recipe box is fantastic. They offer the opportunity to try new recipes with all the stress of sourcing ingredients taken out of it. The quality of the food is great, the recipes are easy to follow, and the cooking process was actually quite fun.
If you’re a strong flavour lover like me you might want to up the seasoning (such as salt or chilli) to suit your taste. Otherwise, the sheer variety of recipes to choose from on the Gousto website or app should keep you satisfied.
Video Review
Watch an unboxing of my Gousto Recipe Box here as I talk through the entire contents of the box. Plus, I filmed cooking up one of the Gousto Box recipes. Watch the video below of over on YouTube.
SPECIAL OFFER!
Gousto have kindly offered my readers the chance to try out the Gousto Recipe Box at a discount. Hoorah!
You can enjoy two Gousto Boxes from £14.99 each. Simply click on the link in this post or use the code INF17C.
This is such a fab deal and a great way to sample the food and service. Hope you get a chance to give it a try and let me know how you get on.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE: Review of Gousto Festive Get Together Box
Enjoy!
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This post is in collaboration with Gousto. As always, words, thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you for supporting Rosalilium.