WOWZERS! This meal DID NOT disappoint.
I need to preface this review with some background information about me. I have cooking experience. I love to cook. I cook good food on a regular basis. (I'm not just tooting my own horn. I could get positive reviews of my food from non-family members to share. Seriously. It's a thing I do.) I'm not afraid to try out new dishes or techniques (like making a mac & cheese with a roux for the first time last year). I used to work in a restaurant kitchen, on the line, but also as a prep cook. There are many things for me to learn still about culinary arts, BUT I am not a newbie. I know my way around a kitchen. My knife skills are good. I have tips and tricks I like to share with people. In short, I know what I'm doing.
That being said, I went into this following the steps EXACTLY how the recipe card said, as if I didn't know what I was doing. While I saw potential for places to add more spices or ingredients or change a step, I made sure I didn't, because I wanted to give this an honest review.
I forgot to put together my little recipe card holder to help the recipe stand up and be
easy to see during the cooking process. I was live-streaming as well and a little pressed for space, but here's what the handy little recipe card holder looks like.
I find the recipe card itself to be well-organized and super easy to read. I did have to search for the "cook temp" which was included in the Step 1 Prep instructions.
This recipe card includes a tip at the beginning for how to easily pull apart the thyme. It was a great tip!
Then it gives you a "BUST OUT" section that includes items you will need such as baking pans and bowls and the ingredients from the pantry that you have to provide (i.e. salt, pepper, butter, oils). I did have to retrieve other items throughout the process though. The "BUST OUT" list is not all-inclusive. I needed to also "bust out" a cutting board, an appropriate knife (which may be something inexperienced cooks need guidance with), a colander to wash and drain my salad in, a few forks and spoons for mixing ingredients, and a basting brush that I used for distributing oil on my potatoes. The basting brush is definitely not required, but I'd say the other items I added are necessary. Even inexperienced chefs should have a cutting board and colander. Who hasn't made mac and cheese? Gotta drain those shells somehow.
The recipe card also offered a little deviation. It said I could "HEAT IT UP" by adding some chili flakes to my potatoes for a kick. Spoiler alert: I used ground cayenne.
The recipe itself was extremely easy to follow and set up in such a way that theoretically everything would be finished and ready to eat at the same time. The potatoes go into the oven first, before you add the fish. Then, after you add the fish to the oven, you mix together the salad while you wait for the timer to go off. After 25 minutes of baking time, your dinner is ready!
I can't speak to whether the total time estimate of this recipe was correct or not because I was live-streaming. The stream only lasted about an hour and a half though, which was pretty quick. If I had been entirely focused on cooking this meal and not talking and showing off the cats, etc., then I think it would have been easy to make this from start to finish in the proposed 35 minutes. Tearing the thyme leaves off might take up most of the prep time they allot in the recipe, though. But even if it took 45 minutes, that's a fairly short amount of time for getting dinner on the table from start to finish.
ESPECIALLY if you're busy with work or homework or have kids.
PLUS, it's a quality dinner. Not a frozen Stouffer's Lasagna (which might take longer than 45 minutes??) or Hamburger Helper or whatever. (Not that I'm dissing either of those things, I'm just saying Hamburger Helper versus Pecan-Crusted Trout...no competition).
I don't have kids, but I imagine that older kids (10ish+) might enjoy helping make this dinner. The instructions are easy to follow. I can see how this could be turned into a family affair. I'm pretty sure an older teen (15 or so) who has some knife skills and knows how to safely use the oven, could pull off this entire recipe.
I wanted to upload a short video clip showing the prep work but I can't seem to get that to work, so here are some video stills instead.
A comparison of the finished product versus the picture. I think it looks pretty similar! Even this one potato is happy about the results.
Granted, my potatoes are more brown, which probably has something to do with the olive oil spray I used to coat the pan and perhaps my oven's temperature runs hot. The potatoes were super tasty regardless. I was a slight bit heavy-handed on the cayenne, and they definitely had a kick. But I'm not really complaining.
I was going to do an itemized breakdown of the price of this whole week, but maybe I'll get to that with the review for Thursday's meal. I need to do some more price research first. I will say that since it is food for two people, and I got two days of meals out of it, that makes it worth it for me. The meal was just as good leftover, as it was yesterday fresh out of the oven.
First impressions? I'm impressed overall with HelloFresh.
Delivery was fast and actually earlier than I expected. I was not appalled by the packaging (see the Unboxing Video for more info on that). The food was fresh. The recipe was easy to follow. And, most importantly, the meal itself was FREAKING DELICIOUS. As I stated earlier, I cook a lot of good food, but I felt like a damn gourmet chef eating this meal!
The best part about it?
I didn't have to go to the store.
Tomorrow night we'll be cooking Figgy Balsamic Pork. I'll be cooking a little something extra with it though! I will probably stream this one to Facebook Live, but I'll be sure to take plenty of pictures to post here.
Feel free to drop any comments about your HelloFresh experience below. If you have promo codes to other delivery services you'd be willing to share, I will gladly take them! I haven't decided which one I'll do next. I have a couple more weeks of promo meals with HelloFresh, but I am open to promo donations.
I hope you're enjoying my cooking blog adventure as much as I am!
For now,
IndigoSol
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