HelloFresh Meal Kits: Taste-Tested and Reviewed by 3 CNET Editors

1 month ago 16

three HelloFresh meal cards and brown paper bags sitting on a counter.

Pros

Ample options, including vegetarian and vegan recipes
Straightforward instructions
Great for beginner cooks or those new to meal kits
Affordable
Easy-to-use website and app
Promotions offered for first-time buyers

Cons

Some single-use plastic wrappings
Have to take ice packs to a designated recycling center

HelloFresh Meal Kits: Taste-Tested and Reviewed by 3 CNET Editors
How HelloFresh works
HelloFresh costs and plans
How much is HelloFresh
What are HelloFresh meals like?
How easy are these meal kits to prepare?
How we liked our HelloFresh meals
Our editor's thoughts on HelloFresh
Who HelloFresh meal kits are good for
Who HelloFresh meal kits are not so good for
What are some items on the HelloFresh menu this week? -- May 10-16, 2025
HelloFresh packaging and environmental friendliness
Final verdict: Is HelloFresh worth the money?

Out of the dozens of meal delivery services, HelloFresh consistently ranks as one of the most popular. With its vast menu of weekly recipes -- usually offering as many as 100 options -- and market items, it might be the service to beat. It also has competitive prices, with plans that start at around $9 a serving -- EveryPlate and Dinnerly are the only cheaper meal kit services -- but stats don't mean much if the food isn't tasty.

At CNET, we've been on a mission to test and retest all available food kits to suss out the best cheap meal kits, best meal deliveries for families, best plant-based meal kits, best meals for health nuts and more. Now, we're taking another crack at HelloFresh to see how the original meal kit stands up in 2025. Here's everything you need to know about HelloFresh and our honest review of the service from top to bottom.

How HelloFresh works

As HelloFresh is a meal-kit delivery service, you'll be doing a good amount of the cooking unless you opt for their pre-made meals, but in the kits, all the fresh ingredients you need to execute dinner will arrive in one box, pre-portioned and ready to cook. You won't have to do any shopping or measuring when you tackle a HelloFresh meal kit, which helps save time, but know you will have to do some light prep, chopping, mixing and cooking.

This was ideal for our Flex editor, an amateur cook who is trying to up her cooking game. The kits help save time but don't take all of the skill work out of cooking. Slicing and dicing zucchini, carrots, and onions for the recipes was good practice. Plus, the meals turned out so tasty that she plans to remake them in the future now that she knows the ingredients and steps needed.

HelloFresh has a range of meal plans that vary depending on the type of food you're looking to cook, the number of people you're cooking for and how often you want meal kits delivered. Once you make those decisions, you'll choose one of six HelloFresh meal plans:

Meat & Veggies: The most basic plan featuring a variety of recipes and meals.
Family Friendly: Easy-to-prepare and kid-approved recipes.
Quick and Easy: Meals that take 30 minutes or less.
Veggie: Plant-based meals that are vegetarian but not always vegan.
Fit & Wholesome: Meal kits that are around 650 calories or less per serving.
Pescatarian: Meal kits and recipes featuring seafood and no meat.

There is some crossover in meal kits each week from the various meal plans, but choosing one of these umbrella categories helps HelloFresh filter out the best recipes for you and your dinner goals. The more narrow the meal plan -- such as pescatarian or veggie -- the fewer options you'll have each week. The plans are also priced the same no matter which meals you select, save for a few gourmet options that incur an upcharge.

After selecting your meal plan, choose the number of servings (two or four) you'd like for each meal, and how many weekly meal kits you want to receive (two, three, four, five or six). These options are also easily modified, so don't feel too much pressure and know you can adjust as you go.

As with many similar services, you can pick your own meals or let the meal-kit gods surprise you when you open your box. HelloFresh meals arrive once a week on a day of your choosing (besides Sunday). When ours showed up, the food was packaged neatly in cooler boxes, with meats and fish separated from other ingredients so as not to cross-contaminate. The meat was thawed but still cold, and there was no sign of spoilage among any of the ingredients.

How to change or cancel a HelloFresh order

You can easily add, change or cancel meals through the app or the website, although using the latter feels more limited. Changes or cancellations to any order must be made before midnight PT at least five days before your scheduled delivery day. That date is made apparent when you open your dashboard.

HelloFresh costs and plans

With HelloFresh, you pay by the serving, which is customizable from week to week, but it generally breaks down to about $9 per serving for two people or $9 if you're ordering for four, plus $10 for shipping per box. A family of four receiving three nights' worth of meals would be $124.87 a week.

With most plans clocking in at $9 a serving, HelloFresh lands in the middle of the pack, along with Home Chef and Blue Apron, but skews toward the budget-friendly end of things. Only EveryPlate and Dinnerly are significantly less expensive, but you can certainly find pricier ones, such as Green Chef and Sunbasket with gourmet offerings and organic ingredients for a higher cost per week.

How much is HelloFresh

Number of peopleMeals per weekPrice per serving2 2 3 4 6

2	$10.49
3 to 6	$8.99
2 to 6	$8.99
2 to 6	$8.99
2 to 6	$8.99

What are HelloFresh meals like?

Of all the meal-kit companies competing for your attention, HelloFresh bills itself as one of the easiest and most approachable. While there are some "gourmet" options in each week's menu, most of HelloFresh's recipes are simple to execute, most taking 30 minutes or less from start to finish.

Some HelloFresh meals you'll find are fun twists on a classic, such as meatballs with a spicy, creamy "firecracker" sauce or turkey street cart-style bowls. But most are familiar dishes like spaghetti bolognese, creamy mushroom cavatappi, chicken tacos and meatloaf. HelloFresh has the most meal choices of any service -- as many as 60 to choose from each week -- and that includes plant-based options like vegan bulgogi bowls as well as premium seafood selections such as chimichurri barramundi and roasted trout.

There isn't as much modification to recipes in the way that others like Home Chef permit. That said, some meals without protein allow you to add chicken, beef or shrimp. You can also upgrade most meats, such as ground beef and chicken, to an organic version for an added cost and swap in different proteins for certain recipes.

How easy are these meal kits to prepare?

HelloFresh meal kits are mostly simple, and that's by design. With lots of tossed pasta dishes, sheet-pan meals, tacos and pan-seared meats with easy-to-prepare sides, the most technical skills you'll need to execute regularly are basic chopping, working a frying pan over the stovetop and boiling water.

Our wellness writer, who helped test the meal kit to offer a vegan's perspective, is not a total newbie in the kitchen, but she is new to meal kits. She appreciated that the recipe card for each meal tells you which cookware and kitchen utensils to get out before prepping the meal. It's helpful to have everything ready to go at the start instead of scrambling around, looking for a certain pot or bowl while in the middle of cooking.

Vegan Mushroom Sandwiches HelloFresh Ingredients

It took a moment for her to get a feel for the timing of prepping and cooking multiple components of the meal at once, but she understood the formula HelloFresh uses for the majority of its meals: preheat the oven, wash and cut the produce, cook the meal's base, flavor and heat the veggies, make the dressing and voilà -- meal complete. She found the recipes quick and easy, with little downtime while cooking.

Our Flex Editor was happily surprised at how easy her HelloFresh meals were to execute. She was able to cook the meals, clean as she went and occasionally yap on the phone with her sister during the process -- a success in her book. The pub-style shepherd's pie she made took the longest, but it was well worth it in the end and boasted a hearty flavor that even warmed up nicely the next day.

HelloFresh recipe cards and support materials

While the printed directions that accompanied each recipe were neat, organized and clear, there were times when the directions could have gone an extra step to explain certain things in better detail. Specifying which sort of frying pan to use would be helpful, for instance, or how to tell if the pan is actually hot enough to drop the fish or pork loin in. Novice cooks would likely benefit from a bit more explanation, and I'd suggest reading through the instructions once before turning on the stove.

Aly found HelloFresh's instructions straightforward but agreed that she would have liked additional clarification for some of the more complicated steps. For the first vegan meal she whipped up, there was a pro tip to put aluminum foil on the bottom of the pan before baking to make for an easier cleanup afterward. It worked well, so she used the same advice for the second meal, which did not end as well, as the potatoes got entirely stuck (even with oil drizzled on the foil). While she admits that was a skill issue, having a few more pointers in the instructions for beginners would be nice.

The HelloFresh app is useful, clear and intuitive. You can use it to place or change your weekly orders, look up nutritional information and locate any recipe. This is especially helpful if you tend to misplace important documents, as I do.

How we liked our HelloFresh meals

Spicy bean and beef soup: This simple version of a classic chili couldn't have been easier to put together and had a nice smoky flavor. I added organic ground beef and the stew provided me with a filling lunch for three or four days.

Mushroom, parmesan, and tomato risotto: This is one of the more time-consuming meal kits I made (about 45 minutes), but it came out great. If I were to do it again, I might add a protein into the mix since the recipe, as it stands, has almost none.

Street cart-style turkey bowls: If you live in New York, you know about halal cart meals with white sauce so addictive it should be illegal. This version of the street food staple was easy to make and just as satisfying as the real thing.

Meatloaf a la Mom: I liked this meal kit, but in all honesty, I prefer my own meatloaf recipe. It was a solid result that could have used a dash of Worcestershire sauce or some dried spice to amp up the flavor. The roasted potatoes and carrots were also fairly basic but proved themselves a worthy companion to the meatloaf.

Barramundi with poblano corn and potatoes: A delicious meal that I really loved. The barramundi fish was fresh and the meal was healthy, full of flavor and easy to prepare. I think I caught myself shamelessly spooning the homemade salsa fresca straight into my mouth at one point.

pork chop with sweet potato mash and green beans

Pork chops with honey butter, sweet potatoes and lemony green beans: As someone who doesn't cook a ton of pork, I was excited to try this one, and it came out great. It was super simple to execute and the honey butter drizzled over the pork was addictive. As I've mentioned earlier, some small tips would have been helpful. Though not specified, the step-by-step image shows a nonstick pan, but for something like pork chops, I think stainless steel or cast iron works better to get a good sear.

Vegan maple carrot power bowl: This meal features a fun combination of flavors that packs a punch: turmeric-toasted couscous, lemony hummus, garlic-covered kale and carrots cooked in sweet maple syrup. Aly thought she'd still be hungry after this meal, but she became surprisingly full about halfway through. It took her about 45 minutes to cook.

Vegan Maple Carrot Power Bowl HelloFresh

Vegan mushroom French dip sandwiches: Aly wanted two or three of these sandwiches; they were so delicious. The mushrooms and caramelized onions were a great meat substitute. The aioli and au jus brought it all together, tasting similar to a traditional French dip sandwich. The potatoes were nothing to write home about, but she will definitely make the sandwiches again. Preparing and cooking the meal was quick and easy.

HelloFresh Mushroom French Dip Sandwiches

Vegan shawarma spiced chickpeas: A satisfying blend of warm Shawarma spices with fresh veggies and roasted chickpeas. Aly loved this recipe so much that she went to the store for the ingredients and made it again the following night. The meal had a slight kick but could have afforded more spice. The main downside to this meal was that the included shallot was rotten, so she replaced it with an onion she had instead. That was the only produce, however, that wasn't up to par during her testing.

The chickpeas were already softened as they came pre-soaked in a box, so all you have to do is rinse and dry them before seasoning and popping them in the oven to roast.

Vegan shawarma spiced chickpeas HelloFresh

Crispy Kickin’ Cayenne Chicken Cutlets: Once the produce was cleaned and prepped, this meal was incredibly easy to cook, and it was so very delicious. The panko crust with Frank's seasoning was so tasty mixed with the honey and buffalo-style sauce. My only regret? Not ordering four servings instead of two.

chicken, carrots and mashed potatoes in a shallow bowl on a brown table

Pub-Style Shepherd’s Pie: Another winner. Although this meal took longer to cook than others, it was worth the wait. The beef and cheesy potatoes complemented each other very well, and this meal is perfect for whoever is craving a hearty, home-cooked comfort meal.

a pan with ground beef and potatoes on a brown table

Sesame Zucchini Lo Mein with Edamame: This was by far the easiest meal for me to make out of the bunch, so it's perfect for beginner cooks. You can opt to add a protein, but I was perfectly content having a vegetarian meal after two hearty dinners earlier in the week.

a bowl of noodles with veggies on a brown table

Our editor's thoughts on HelloFresh

Editor David Watsky Corin Cesaric Aly Lopez

Cooking Experience	Food preference	CNET Role	Key Opinions on HelloFresh
Experienced chef and meal kit expert	Gluten-free	CNET’s Kitchen & Home tech Senior Editor	•Overall positive about the taste and ease of the meals •Especially enjoyed the spicy bean and beef soup, mushroom risotto and street cart-style turkey bowls. •Noted the halal cart-style turkey bowls were similar to the authentic version. •Thought some meals could use more flavor. •Specific cookware details for certain recipes would be helpful.
Novice Cook	Meat & veggies, plus plant-based options	CNET’s Health & Home Flex Editor	•Positive about the meals and found them easy to execute. •Liked the variety and the hearty nature of some dishes, especially the Shepherd's Pie. •Found the Sesame Zucchini Lo Mein with Edamame to be the easiest meal to make.
Intermediate cook and new to meal kits	Vegetarian and vegan	CNET’s Sleep, Health & Wellness Writer	•Would have liked slightly less plastic packaging of ingredients •Felt the instructions were mostly straightforward but could have used additional clarification for some complicated steps •Was impressed by the vegan options.

Who HelloFresh meal kits are good for

HelloFresh is one of the best meal-kit options for families, with one of the largest selections of recipes, which could impress even the hardest-to-please eaters. HelloFresh is a solid option for someone looking to cut time and hassle from their weekly meal-planning routine since most of HelloFresh's meals take around 30 minutes or less.

This meal kit is also great for beginners since the instructions are easy to follow and not overly involved. The wide selection of meals allows you to have variety, and if you're new to cooking, you can start with the easier meals, such as the lo mein or spicy beef and bean soup, then move up to more advanced options.

While there are meal-kit companies entirely focused on plant-based meals, like Purple Carrot, HelloFresh offers a large selection of vegetarian recipes and more than 30 vegan ones. Because of that, it's a pretty good meal-kit service if you want to learn to cook plant-based meals or add more vegetarian and vegan recipes to your routine.

Read more: Best Meat Delivery Deals

Who HelloFresh meal kits are not so good for

Because modifications are limited, HelloFresh is not ideal for anyone with strict dietary or allergy requirements. There are also meal-kit companies with more gourmet and technical recipes, so if your goal is to really stretch yourself as a chef, this may not be the service for you. It also might not offer enough variety if you're strictly vegan and looking to use HelloFresh as a longterm meal kit.

What are some items on the HelloFresh menu this week? -- May 10-16, 2025

Meat and Veggies

Crispy Maple Chicken
Beef Flautas Supreme
Pork Sausage & Bell Pepper Pasta
Melty Monterey Jack Burgers
Spicy & Sweet Soy-Glazed Pork
Moo Shu Pork Lettuce Wraps
Shrimp Spaghetti with a Kick
Japanese-Style Pork Katsu

Vegetarian

Mushroom & Herb Shepherd's Pie
One-Pan Rajas Quesadillas
Creamy Mushroom Chowder with Couscous
One-Pot Italiam Vegetable Soup
Mushroom Flatbreads
One-Pan Smashed Black Bean Tacos

Family-Friendly

Crispy Maple Chicken
Old-School BBQ Pork Sloppy Joes
Miso Apricot Chicken
Pork Chipsa

Calorie Smart

Creamy Dill Pork Filet
Miso Apricot Chicken
Creamy Dill Chicken
Crispy Maple Mustard Chicken

Quick & Easy

Moo Shu Pork Lettuce Wraps
One-Pan Smashed Black Bean Tacos
One-Pan Rajas Quesadillas
One-Pan Cheesy Beef Tortilla Melts

HelloFresh packaging and environmental friendliness

HelloFresh does a solid job with the packaging compared with some other companies we tested. The meals arrive packed in paper bags, and all the ingredients are thoughtfully packaged without excessive waste. Though there's always some single-serve plastic involved with meal kits, I found it to be one of the more environmentally friendly companies, complete with recyclable ice packs and cooler bags. Here's a little more about recycling your HelloFresh packaging.

Final verdict: Is HelloFresh worth the money?

For someone who has a hard time making decisions but loves having options, HelloFresh is a double-edged sword. Even if the recipes were sometimes low on imagination, there were so many to choose from, and everything we cooked was solid -- no duds in the bunch.

Of all the meal kits we've tested, HelloFresh meals probably have the widest selection of "crowd-pleasing" recipes, making them an excellent choice for families or picky eaters. You won't find a lot of big heat, spice or unusual ingredients with HelloFresh meals, and with as many as 60 recipes per week to choose from, it's hard to imagine not finding three or four that appeal to you. Plus, given the wide selection of options, it is a great meal kit for new cooks. Starting with the one-pan meals is a great way to dip your toe into the world of cooking without biting off more than you can chew -- no pun intended.

If you're looking to lighten your load and cook for a crew that shies away from lots of spice or bold flavors, this just might be the best meal kit option out there. Recipes don't require a ton of time or technical skill, either. For as little as $9 per serving, you can take the guesswork out of a few meals per week without going broke.

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