Special Delivery

The Best Meal Delivery Services to Try in 2022

You’ve seen the targeted social media ads by now – you know the ones. The rise of meal kit delivery services in recent years has, for those of us who like to cook from scratch, gone from a guilty secret to a routine occurrence.

During the pandemic, meal kit delivery services thrived. While we were all stuck at home, unable to dine out and trying to avoid crowded supermarkets, as a nation we gave into curiosity and ordered that first meal kit box. And we were hooked.

And it’s not just the convenience of an introductory discount code and having a week’s worth of meals delivered to your door that’s making it hard to wean yourself off these services, it’s the promise of injecting that spark of inspiration back into the dinner routine rut, taking the stress out of food shopping and prep – all the while knowing that you’re doing your bit to reduce waste.

All of the meal kit delivery services provide the exact ingredients required for zero food waste, reduce unnecessary packaging, and many are B Corp businesses – a global community of companies that think about their impact on the environment, people, customers, suppliers and the wider community.

So whether you’re after an entirely plant-based food service, tailor-made meal plans, gourmet dinners with paired wines, a solution that helps you maintain your chosen lifestyle, or you want to attempt a lavish meal, there are an abundance of meal delivery services available. Looking to break the routine? We’ve rounded up a few of the most popular options that are helping to overhaul dinner-time whilst fighting food waste.

Gousto

It’s one of the most well-known for a reason, offering everything from calorie controlled meals, healthy choices, everyday favourites, 10 minute meals, ‘prepped in five’ options, as well as vegetarian, plant-based, gluten free and dairy free choices to help you whip up wholesome, impressive meals no matter your skill level.

They send you step-by-step recipes and all the fresh ingredients you need, delivered weekly, fortnightly or monthly, and due to the insulated packaging to keep food fresh, you don’t even need to be home to accept your delivery.

Gousto is big on sustainability, claiming that a weekly box reduces your carbon emissions by 23% compared to buying the same food at a supermarket, and the company aims for its Gousto-branded packaging to be reusable, recyclable or compostable by this year.

www.gousto.co.uk

HelloFresh

HelloFresh keeps it simple with three plans: Classic, Vegetarian, and Family-Friendly – each of which includes complete nutritional information. They also deliver step-by-step recipes and all the fresh preportioned ingredients you need straight to your door, and claim to be the first global carbon-neutral meal kit company out there.

If you’re vegan, you can easily set your meal preferences to cut out meat and seafood, instead getting options for some tasty plant-based meal kits that feed between two and four people.

According to HelloFresh’s research, UK households waste a whopping 4.5 million tonnes of food every year. However, it’s easy being green with HelloFresh’s pre-measured ingredients and recyclable materials, helping reduce food waste by purchasing ingredients based on your order – pre-portioned to the gram.

www.hellofresh.co.uk

The Pure Package

Created by award-winning chefs and nutritionists, The Pure Package tailors the box you receive to your eating habits and health goals following a phone consultation or online survey. Using a science-based approach, your meals will arrive customised to your protein, carbohydrate and fat requirements – an ideal plan for anyone seeking to transform their health.

Once you’ve chosen what your goal is and have picked your plan – whether it’s to lose weight, eat more healthily or fit nutritious food into a busy lifestyle – The Pure Package takes some personal details such as height, weight and lifestyle habits, plus food preferences, and tailors the programme to you.

Once the plan has been confirmed, your quota of healthy food is delivered daily, so there’s no need to plan meals, go food shopping or worry about portion control; every meal and snack is already prepared to be eaten and enjoyed by you.

It’s worth noting that The Pure Package prices include delivery to all over London. This includes all postcodes falling within the M25 motorway plus a select few around it including GU25, SL4, SL5 and KT16.

www.purepackage.com Exclusive Member Benefit

The Pure Package is offering Home House members a complimentary nutrition consultation. Email info@purepackage.com and use the code HOME22 to redeem this offer.

Wild Radish

Co-founded by Anthea Marie Stephenson, a former chef at the Michelin starred River Cafe in London, Wild Radish promises to ‘Michelin-Star your night’, and distinguishes itself from the majority of the other meal kit services by swerving away from the ‘flat pack’ food concept, containing all the fresh, unprepared, seasonal ingredients you need to cook a main meal for two from scratch.

While many of the meal kit services appeal to those short on time, Wild Radish is for people who love cooking almost as much as eating. Quick meals have their place, but this offering encourages you to slow it down and appreciate the art of creating a fine meal experience from scratch.

Wild Radish’s award-winning wine experts will also suggest a paired bottle of wine to complement your meals – complete with tasting notes for the full ‘sommelier at your table’ experience.

Everything is portioned and weighed, using the least amount of packaging possible, and all packaging is recyclable, biodegradable, and returnable.

www.wild-radish.co.uk

Allplants

As the name suggests, Allplants is an entirely plant-based food service catering to vegan diets with its chef-made frozen meals – meaning no food prep is required. This service offers plant-based dishes delivered to your freezer, ready to heat and eat.

As well as locking in flavours using the freezing process, this method also has an impact on food waste: no more throwing away wilted, furry veg from the back of your fridge!

Allplants reports that eating just three plant-based meals every week for one year saves 600kg of CO2 (the equivalent of driving from London to Egypt – 5,000 km), 370,000 litres of water (the equivalent of leaving the shower on for 33 days!), and almost 1 acre of land – which could be used to plant over 1,000 trees.

The company’s food is 100% palm oil-free, they don’t use any soya products grown in South America (where soya production is linked to deforestation), and they are working towards climate positivity (aka Net Zero) by 2030.

www.allplants.com

Mindful Chef

While most of the meal kit services offer healthy options alongside ‘family favourites’ or comfort food dinners, Mindful Chef is 100% focused on healthy options, whilst zeroing in on packaging, food waste, farming and animal welfare.

Mindful Chef’s recipes are gluten-free and dairy-free, never contain refined carbs, refined sugars or cheap fillers, and are always 450 to 650 calories a serving. There are also vegan options available, and unlike many of the other providers, there are one-person options available.

Mindful Chef is also carbon neutral, and the company is on a mission to be Net Zero by 2030.

www.mindfulchef.com

There’s plenty of choice out there, and other options include The Good Prep (tailor made meal plans), Abel & Cole (organic food), Fresh Fitness Food (helping maintain your fitness-led lifestyle), and Detox Kitchen (dairy and wheat free), so have a look around online and see what suits your lifestyle. And may god have mercy on your targeted ads.

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