This year, at the ripe old age of 28, I decided I was finally going to start cooking for myself – and I’ve fast become a meal box devotee. Taking the hassle out of dinner times, these subscription boxes deliver fresh vegetables, pre-portioned ingredients and recipe cards to your door. Livening up mid-week meals, meal boxes such as Gousto are perfect for culinary-illiterate home cooks like myself.
As a student, I was a Pot Noodle and toast cliché – in my mid-twenties, I graduated to pesto pasta, the occasional M&S ready meal and microwavable soup. Between commuting, work, events and socialising, rustling up dinner was my the lowest priority. But recipe boxes have eliminated both the planning and shopping involved in meal times: all I’ve got to do is cook.
Thankfully, it’s less Master Chef and more Junior Bake Off. The recipe cards are essentially paint-by-numbers for cooking, with easy-to follow instructions and pictures to help you on your way. Since the start of the year, I’ve tried three companies: Hello Fresh, Grubby and, most recently, Gousto.
Grubby is vegan and inventively uses plant-based ingredients, while beginner-friendly Hello Fresh is widely thought of as the king of meal boxes. Both I got along with, but I found Hello Fresh began to get a little repetitive. Gousto is often regarded as a step up, with slightly harder and more varied recipes, more niche ingredients and a lauded algorithm that begins to learn your favourite cuisines, skill level and cooking time.
Sampling everything from Thai and Vietnamese inspired recipes to pasta, burgers and fish dishes, I’ve been cooking with Gousto for more than a month. The subscription service is slightly cheaper than Hello Fresh, costing around £29.99 for three meals, for two people each week (this is roughly £3.20 a serving). With this maths, it can work out more affordable than doing a weekly shop – or buying ready meals and sauce tins (guilty as charged). Like many others, Gousto also has an introductory offer that gives you up to 50 per cent off.
But, will I be staying loyal to Gousto, or returning to a previously tested meal box service? Here’s how I got on.
Read more: Here’s what happened when I tried Hello Fresh meal kits
Gousto meal box
Serves: 1-5 people
Delivery frequency: Weekly, fortnightly, monthly
Dietary: Vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free
Why we love it
- Inventive recipes
- More than 170 to choose from
- Introductory offer
- Most dishes are tasty with tonnes of flavour
- Sustainability-led packaging
Take note
- Recipes can be complicated
- Risk of bland recipes
Gousto delivers boxes weekly, fortnightly or monthly to your door, with more than 170 weekly recipes to choose from (Hello Fresh has around 100, in comparison). You can choose between 2-5 recipes for 1-5 people, with a vast range of vegetarian, plant-based and family-friendly dishes available.
Just like other platforms, you can adapt your order, whether it’s cancelling, pausing or skipping while you’re on holiday. Unlike Hello Fresh or Grubby, you can order for one on Gousto, making it a great choice for solo households. It also allows for boxes of three and five, rather than just round numbers.
You’ll need to choose and lock in your order three days prior to delivery – if you miss this deadline, Gousto will choose the recipes for you. Over time, it begins to understand your preferences and long-time users have told me it’s algorithmic selections are perfect.
The box itself impressed me. Everything is neatly packaged with sustainability in mind: think cardboard, paper sachets and ‘eco chill’ liners made from recyclable low-density polyethylene. The ingredients feel fresh and high quality, with produce lasting up to a week, so you can be flexible when you cook. All meat provided is farm-assured – this means it’s traceable from farm to fork – and its vegan products hail from the likes of Meatless Farm or Fable Food Co.
You can categorise the skill level and length of cooking time via the app, which can range from 10 to 40 minutes. I tried a spectrum of recipes, and on average found the meals to be slightly more complicated and time-consuming than Hello Fresh. For more seasoned cooks, this is a fun challenge – but if you’re culinary challenged, it’s something to consider. Some of the recipes are particularly laborious and often require extra equipment like blenders. While you can filter this out via the app, the algorthimically chosen recipes might involve extra appliances. As an inexperienced home cook, I’d never even heard of some of the ingredients – but the recipes feel thought-out and inventive.
From coconut chicken meatballs and courgette curry with rice, warming chicken thigh ramen and sticky teriyaki mushroom domburi bowl, to basa with sesame greens and vegetable gnocchi, each dish I tried – no matter how indulgent it looked – felt nutritious and balanced. The portions often don’t appear generous, but you’re left full and satisfied after each meal.
Of course, sometimes you crave something a little heavier on a Friday night or weekend – and there are plenty of recipes to suit. I tried a ponzu chicken burger which easily rivalled burger joints, while a king prawn thai-style green pesto pasta was another highlight. The great thing is you can save your favourite recipe cards for future use – and step by step instructions are also available on the app. It’s definitely a more protracted process than other meal kits I’ve sampled, but the proof is in the pudding. With the exception of a couple of duds (the couscous dishes don’t really land), I found Gousto to be hearty, healthy and rewarding at the end of a working day.
To really seal the deal, you can get 50 per cent off your first box and 40 per cent off your second when you sign up.
Buy now £29.99, Gousto.co.uk
Is Gousto worth it?
If you’re after variety and an enjoyable – but challenging – cooking experience, Gousto is the meal box for you. While other services like Hello Fresh are easier and more repetitive, Gousto allows you to choose from more than 170 weekly recipes, various categories and more niche ingredients. The meals are (mostly) delicious with tonnes of flavour, though you do have to be selective – and the algorithm choices aren’t great at first. The portions are pitch-perfect and the price is excellent compared to the rising cost of supermarket groceries – particularly as a first time user using the introductory offer. Personally, I prefer the monotony and mindfulness of more simple recipe boxes, but Gousto certainly added the most variety to my meal times.
How I tested Gousto
I cooked with the meal kit delivery service Gousto for more than a month. Sampling three meals a week, my partner and I considered the portion size for two, as well as the taste, range of flavours, cooking experience, packaging and delivery. I also noted how user-friendly Gousto’s app is and how easy it is to customise your subscription. Above all, does the meal kit service take the hassle out of mealtimes?
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