As you may have seen on my Instagram a week or so ago, I’ve been giving Gousto’s healthy food delivery service* a go. I was kindly sent a surprisingly large box full of fresh produce, as well as a wool cool cool bag with cheese in, to whip up three satisfying vegetarian meals and give it an overall review. Well, here it is – along with a discount code for those of you that would also like to try it out!
In essence, the food delivery service from Gousto provides ingredients for weekly recipes, from which you can choose three meals, paying per week or on a subscription basis, that is then delivered for free. The produce is gathered seasonally and from specifically chosen suppliers, the most part being British, making it a great step in supporting local agriculture as well as it being quite the culinary journey!
From the get go, I’ve been impressed by the service offered and how well thought-out everything is. Upon receiving my box of goodies, I found inside all that delicious produce you can see pictured, as well as two types of cheese and the three recipe sheets (which are perforated, hinting that you could slot these into a recipe folder if you’re that way inclined).
The meals that were sent all catered for two, although there is an option to increase that to four (upon order as well as within the recipes), and I found the portions to be generous, yet weighted more in favour of the vegetables rather than carbohydrates (I am a big fan of that!). The three sets of ingredients I received made up Aubergine Millet, Beetroot & Feta Salad, and Lemony Lentils dishes – all of which catered to my vegetarianism, although they do offer recipes including meat too.
As a bit of a foodie, I was impressed to see how the meals slotted together, offering new techniques and flavours throughout, thus making the service a bit of a culinary journey. I personally think that if you have no experience in cooking, that these may be a little advanced for you, but anyone with an interest in cooking and the usual pieces of equipment (I think the most exotic tool I used was a grater, so there’s no need for a food processor etc.) will really enjoy trying out these meals each week.
On the quality of the food – I really enjoyed all the meals (even the green lentils – I was a little afraid about it at first!) and I was impressed with the freshness and effort made to provide organic produce too. All the ingredients required came within the box (except seasoning and olive oil) and there was easily enough to satisfy the dishes (I came away with half a block of feta too – result!). With everything being pre-weighed and sealed, I enjoyed the ease of putting the meals together, although on reflection, there was a lot of plastic packaging. I know that there’s a strange cultural taboo on packaging here – having lived in France, barely any fresh produce is packaged, so you would buy food with flies and all – but I am striving to live in a more sustainable manner, so not being able to recycle everything was a little downside to the service. On the other hand, the wool cool bag was a stroke of genius, keeping the cheese cold even after it had sat waiting to be picked up in reception all day, and I’ve kept the ice packs and cool bag for future use.
Overall, I’m a big fan of Gousto – I even have the friendly face of Chef Gusteau from Ratatouille in my head every time I think of them! Their service is incredibly convenient for anyone with a passion for cooking and eating well, while also being reasonably priced – around £4 per meal – which is cheap, considering the restaurant quality of the meals it provides and the range of organic, fresh produce. It’s also great that you can customise it to your dietary requirements and number of portions, although for someone who most of the week lives alone, I’d say that this service would be better catered to couples or families at the moment (Gousto only caters to 2 or 4 persons at a time). Better yet – if you’re vegetarian, the boxes are slightly cheaper too!
On that note – if you like sound of Gousto and would like to save a rather substantial amount of money on the service, I’m offering a special £20 discount code for all UK-based readers of Curiously Conscious. Thank you to the Gousto team for this opportunity – considering a box of three vegetarian meals for two people will cost £13.99 once the code is applied, it’s basically daylight robbery!
To get your discount, simply enter the code: BESMA20 when you get to the checkout on www.gousto.co.uk to get £20 off. For everyone that does give it a try, I hope you enjoy the service as thoroughly as I did – I’m hungry just looking back at those photos!
