{"id":1931687,"date":"2023-11-17T16:06:50","date_gmt":"2023-11-17T22:06:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tasteofhome.com\/?p=1931687"},"modified":"2024-12-19T13:40:00","modified_gmt":"2024-12-19T19:40:00","slug":"blue-apron-reviews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tasteofhome.com\/article\/blue-apron-reviews\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Apron Review: This One’s For You, Lazy Gourmets"},"content":{"rendered":"Both at Taste Recipes<\/em> and at a local cooking school, I've worked with and around professional chefs for more than five years now. Their knowledge and expertise have been absolutely integral to my culinary journey. They've unwittingly turned me from a fresh college grad who had to Google how to fry an egg into a competent home cook who feels empowered to try new techniques, customize recipes and be all-around bold behind the stove.\r\n\r\nI am so grateful for this opportunity and wish every food lover had it. And subscribing to a service that offers home-delivered meals<\/a>\u00a0is about as close as one can get without applying for a second job. Blue Apron<\/a> is just one of the many meal kit services, and all of its recipes are developed by chefs with a combined 50-plus years of restaurant experience and with home cooks like you in mind. You feel like you have a trained professional peeking over your shoulder and offering guidance with step-by-step instructions.\r\n\r\nI'm always craving restaurant-level meals that I can count on at home, so I gave the meal kit service a spin in my own kitchen.\r\n

What is Blue Apron?<\/h2>\r\n\"Blue\r\n\r\nBlue Apron<\/a> is a meal kit delivery service similar to EveryPlate<\/a>, Dinnerly<\/a> and Gobble<\/a>. It was founded over 10 years ago and touts itself as the \"meal kit that puts quality first.\" Not only are there chef-approved recipes from which to choose each week, but there's also the Blue Apron Market that has seasonal offerings, such as a complete Thanksgiving dinner<\/a>, and multipacks of Heat and Eat meals, like four-cheese enchiladas and lemon chicken.\r\n\r\nYou also might have heard of the Blue Apron wine subscription service<\/a>, which allowed customers to purchase wines that paired well with Blue Apron meals. However, Blue Apron discontinued it in October 2023. They're sticking to food for right now! This includes dinners in a number of categories, yes, but also breakfasts and desserts, too.\r\n\r\n[SINGLE_AFFILIATE_PRODUCT superlative=\"We Tried It\" product_name=\"Blue Apron\" short_description=\"Blue Apron makes every mealtime feel special with its craft recipes that focus equally on nutrition, ease and flavor.\" image=\"2083842\" image_credit=\"TASTE OF HOME\" pr_name=\"Blue Apron\" pr_url=\"https:\/\/go.skimresources.com?id=131817X1598243&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.blueapron.com%2F\" pr_display_text=\"Shop on Blue Apron\" \/]\r\n

Blue Apron Features<\/h2>\r\nBlue Apron offers various plans that allow you to select your preferences (i.e., Chef Favorites, Wellness, Family Friendly, Fast and Easy) and then choose how many meals and servings per meal to receive each week. You can receive as few as two meals for two people or as many as five meals for four people. There's also the option to add on additional meals for an added cost.\r\n\r\nThen, on the menu, you\u2019ll find <\/span><\/span>80<\/span><\/span>-plus items to choose from, including recipes that are carb-conscious, highlight fall produce, contain a certain number of calories and more. <\/span><\/span>In the Add-Ons tab, you'll find rotating extra items. For example, there are brunch items, like breakfast casseroles and crepes, desserts, standalone proteins and the aforementioned Heat and Eat meals.\r\n\r\nOnce you have handpicked your box, it will arrive on your doorstep Monday through Saturday, depending on your preference. Some of the ingredients, like the produce and proteins, are placed in the insulated box loose, whereas smaller items are divided into Knick Knack bags by recipe. For example, in the Ramen Knick Knacks bag, I found items like furikake, sauces, vinegar, broth and more.\r\n\r\nAdditionally, the box contains recipe cards. These are a bit sparser than other recipe cards I've encountered. They list the included ingredients, prep and cook time, yield and step-by-step instructions with photographs. However, they exclude nutritional facts and lists of needed tools and at-home ingredients.\r\n

How We Tested It<\/h2>\r\nThe box arrived on Thursday, and I stored the two meal kits in my refrigerator until I cooked them on Monday. I chose one of the service's Ready to Cook meals\u2014miso-maple chicken thighs and rice with mushrooms and spinach\u2014as well as a Craft recipe\u2014hoisin pork belly and miso ramen with bok choy and soft-boiled eggs.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>\r\n

Miso-Maple Chicken Thighs and Rice<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\r\n\"Miso-Maple\r\n\r\nI'll admit: I was wary of this recipe as soon as I unwrapped the ingredients. First off, I was sent chicken breasts instead of chicken thighs, which, frankly, makes a big difference. I'm not sure I would've ordered the recipe had I known I would receive chicken breasts. Also, I always get a bit nervous about cooking rice entirely in the oven.\r\n\r\nBut, for the most part, I was pleasantly surprised. This ready-to-cook recipe was as advertised. It took less than 15 minutes to get into the oven, where it baked for 40 minutes. All I had to do beforehand was rinse the rice, add the base ingredients to the provided aluminum tray, season the chicken and place it on top of the base, then bake. While the dish was in the oven, I prepared the glaze that went on top of the chicken partway through cooking. And voila!\r\n\r\nWhen I pulled the pan from the oven, I was still a little dubious about the rice. There was a fair amount of liquid in the pan, but after resting for about 15 minutes, the excess water was absorbed and the meal was ready to enjoy. And enjoy it we did.\r\n\r\nMy boyfriend said it was his favorite meal-kit recipe he'd tried. The maple and miso, a somewhat unexpected duo, complemented each other nicely, and I cooked the spinach and mushrooms to perfection. Although I thought the rice was slightly underdone and the chicken was a bit dry, cooking everything all at once in the oven made things so breezy, this didn't matter. In all, this recipe felt quite elevated, especially for how easy it was to make.\r\n

Hoisin Pork Belly and Miso Ramen<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/h3>\r\n\"Hoisin\r\n\r\nThis recipe was significantly more tedious than the miso-maple chicken, but that's to be expected if you want homemade, decked-out ramen like I do. Preparation entailed soft-boiling the eggs, roasting the pre-cooked pork belly, chopping the vegetables, quick-pickling the radish, stirring together the sauce, cooking the noodles, saut\u00e9ing the vegetables and making the base.\r\n\r\nThis sounds like a lot, and it was, but the recipe developers designed this recipe to be as streamlined as possible. It took me 44 minutes to make\u2014just barely within the quoted time of 35-45 minutes. I was able to pull this off because the eggs, noodles and base were all cooked in the same saucepan at different times. Plus, the pork belly baked concurrently. The two-ingredient sauce took seconds to combine, and I could set and forget the radishes.\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\nI was pleased with the quality of all the produce, the ramen noodles and the pork belly, especially considering they sat in the fridge for four days. Unfortunately, one of my eggs was cracked upon arrival, so I opted to use one already in my refrigerator. Furthermore, there was an unidentified leak within the Knick Knacks bag that soaked through the furikake packaging. Because I wanted some garnish, I used my own sea moss seasoning and sesame seeds.\r\n\r\nThis is the fanciest ramen I've ever made at home, and I felt like I could find it on a restaurant menu. The miso lent a richness and sweetness, and it made the dish that much more interesting. The perfectly soft-boiled egg that peeled easily, the acidic pickled radishes, and the glazed pork belly\u2014albeit slightly overcooked\u2014really took things over the top. I was thrilled to have leftovers for lunch the next day.\r\n

2024 Update<\/h3>\r\n\"Blue\r\n\r\nWe originally wrote and published this piece in 2022. Since then, we\u2019ve tested this service again to ensure our opinion remains current. In terms of offerings, Blue Apron still retains a vast library of meals. We counted 20 meal-kit meals and 50 prepped and ready options, which is on par with our first test.\r\n\r\nSecondary tester and Editorial Coordinator Sydney Manning notes that her ingredients arrived in individual bags corresponding to each meal. The produce and meat were separated with a piece of cardboard and additional ice packs, so the meat wasn't touching the produce at all.\r\n\r\n[quote-card quote=\"This service definitely felt gourmet. I enjoyed all of the meals and loved how everything was well balanced\u2014you have a main entree and then sides to accompany it every time.\" name=\"sydney Manning\" title=\"editorial coordinator\" \/]\r\n\r\n\"Blue\r\n\r\nShe tried a range of meals, including pork chops and maple-glazed pears with roasted vegetables, sheet pan Italian meatloaf with lemon-caper roasted vegetables, smothered veggie burritos with rice and pinto beans and tomatillo sauce, steaks and black bean-butter sauce with miso broccoli and sesame roasted potatoes, balsamic chicken and mashed potatoes with roasted brussels sprouts. The steak with miso broccoli was undeniably her favorite.\r\n\r\n\"The sauce on the steak was delicious, and the cut of the steak was great and not very fatty,\" she says. \"I really loved the broccoli because of the miso paste, which had great flavor and a slight kick to it. I haven't used white miso paste before, so this was fun to discover how much I enjoyed it. \"\r\n

Pros<\/h3>\r\n