You know what the number one question I hear as a Dietitian is? What meal delivery service do I recommend? For many years, I got questions from clients and readers asking which meal kit delivery service I recommended. I couldn’t really make a solid recommendation because I didn’t use any of them. So, I set out in 2020 to start reviewing some of the most popular services, including Sun Basket, HelloFresh, Daily Harvest, EveryPlate, Home Chef, Blue Apron, Smoothiebox, and Hungryroot (my favorite.) Today I’m reviewing a healthy living blogger favorite: Green Chef!
Keep in mind I’m slightly biased when reviewing these companies because, in a way, they do compete with my What to Eat? Weekly Meal Prep Guide & Meal Plans. Transparency is always important to me at Hungry Hobby, and if you came to read this post from a source such as Google or Pinterest, you might not know that. And I think it’s important that you do.
Green Chef is a USDA certified organic meal kit delivery service, surprisingly owned by the well-known meal kit delivery service company HelloFresh.
Note at the time of writing this post it was not sponsored, I’ve since joined their affiliate program and links included are affiliate links.
TOP 3 PROS OF USING GREEN CHEF MEAL DELIVERY SERVICE
- Healthy Meals & Meal Plans
- Clean, Organic, Ingredients
- Price Goes Down Per Serving The More You Order
TOP 3 CONS OF USING GREEN CHEF MEAL DELIVERY SERVICE
- Can’t Mix And Match Recipes From Various Meal Plans
- Too Small Portions If You Aren’t Trying To Lose Weight
- Some Ingredients Are An Upcharge
Use this link to get $80 off PLUS free shipping!
Full Review of Green Chef Meal Delivery Kit Pros & Cons
CUSTOMIZABLE VARIETY & DIETARY PREFERENCES
Green Chef has five meal plans available to choose from:
- Balanced Living ($11.99)
- Plant-Powered (vegetarian and vegan; $11.99)
- Paleo ($12.99)
- Keto ($12.99)
- Family Plan (servings for 4 in one box; $10.99) – available in all above meal plans
Pros: Lots of variety and every meal I checked out in the meal plans were composed of well-balanced meals.
Cons: You can’t choose recipes from other meal plans. For example, if I’m part of the balanced living meal plan, I can’t also pick recipes from the plant-powered, or paleo meal plan. For that reason, I went with the Paleo Meal Plan when ordering. I don’t actively avoid grains or dairy, but I don’t like beans, so there is that.
NUTRITION
Pros: High-quality ingredients that are all certified organic and non-GMO. I saw a strong emphasis on macronutrient balance, and within the paleo meal plan, I had zero problems finding balanced meals.
Cons: This is my complaint with most meal kit delivery services, smaller than we are used to portioning sizes. Neither my husband or I are trying to lose weight. In fact, kind of the opposite we are trying to fuel for muscle recovery and growth. So, I guess we eat more than your typical healthy living blogger whose review says the portion sizes are generous? I don’t know. One meal was just enough for me, but not for Mr. Hungry.
DELIVERY
The boxes come insulated with two layers. Layer one is produce and pantry items.
Layer two is meat and seafood.
Pros: The meals come in a full-insulated box, wasting little space, and everything was ice-cold. The bags are neatly packed, and everything is easy to find. One of my biggest pet peeves of meal kit delivery services is that they come at inconsistent days, but Green Chef came on precisely the day it said it would. So, I was 100% happy about that!
Cons: I didn’t have any drawbacks with the delivery portion, other than like all meal kit delivery services you have to dispose of a giant box afterward. I mean, we are an Amazon Prime house, so this isn’t anything we care about! Oh, and I guess they didn’t explicitly tell me to take my pantry staples out of the bags before refrigerating the rest. I just knew this from the instructions on the Sun Basket kit.
COOKING
Pros: The step by step recipe instructions were a HUGE plus compared to other services! You never have to be unsure about a recipe step because it’s there in a photo for you! Even as a food blogger, I find some of these kits recipe instructions unclear sometimes, so it’s helpful to have the picture!
Con: Personal preference, but I love “set it and forget it” type recipes – like sheet pan, slow cooker, or instant pot meals because then you can clean up while it cooks. Although the meals were faster, all under 30 minutes, they did require hands-on cooking time that whole time.
CLEAN-UP
Pros: Pre-packaged ingredients does away with a lot of measuring and therefore measuring cups. Clean up was infinitely easier for that reason. I love this about meal kit delivery services!
Cons: Lots of extra plastic trash holding the ingredients.
GREEN CHEF COOKING
Pros: For some recipes, I learned new cooking techniques and skills. I think the more you learn, the more you’ll be able to wing things with success. They include a special box with suggestions on how kids can help out in the kitchen.
Con: Personal preference, but I love “set it and forget it” type recipes – like sheet pan, slow cooker, or instant pot meals. Most of the recipes I ordered were very hands-on and required me to be actively cooking the whole time.
GREEN CHEF CLEAN-UP
Pros: For the most part (I only had one exception), they send you exactly what you need, you don’t have leftover ingredients to put away. I was surprised by how much this expedited the cleanup process. I LOVED THIS. I would order again based on this fact alone.
Cons: Lot’s of extra plastic trash because everything is in individual containers.
GREEN CHEF INGREDIENTS
Pros: 100% organic produce, and they feature the majority of ingredients organic.
Cons: Some of the sauces didn’t have full ingredients listed in them. I would have liked to know what was in them. There are also upcharges for more expensive meats or other options that aren’t included in the base price.
MEAL PLANNING & GROCERY SHOPPING
Pros: While you still have to go to the store for breakfast and lunch, I think it’s easier to get staple items for that then having to plan full meals.
Cons: Green Chef only has dinner available to order right now, which means you still have to go to the store.
GREEN CHEF COST
Green Chef is $11.99 per serving and $10.99 per serving on the family plan. For three recipes a week serving two people, the cost would be $71.94.
Pros: You save money on the family plan since you’ll need to order more.
Cons: You are paying for convenience, it will be more expensive than grocery shopping for the ingredients yourself.
Use this link to get $80 off PLUS free shipping!
1 WEEK OF GREEN CHEF MEALS
Now that you’ve got all the information, it’s time to show you what we made! For Sun Basket, I did three weeks, and I felt like that was more than necessary, so from now on, I’m just going to do one w.
Meal 1: Roasted Harissa Chicken
Loved this meal! 100% the kind of recipe I would make for the blog, although I thought some of the steps in the cooking process could have been condensed. Either way though, it was still done quickly and tasted delicious!
Meal 2: Shaved Steak Fajita Salad
Other than the baby eating all my sweet potatoes, I loved everything about this meal! One note is that the beef is not 100% grass-fed, and as someone committed to buying sustainable meat (I use Butcher Box), I didn’t love that. The meal itself was delicious, though! Loved the dairy-free verde sauce, yum!
Meal 3: Cajun Blackened Chicken
This was Mr. Hungry’s favorite meal and my least favorite, but it was still delicious. I just don’t love warm tomatoes, but I knew that when I ordered it! The green beans were so crunchy and so good topped with toasted pecans, seriously my mouth is watering thinking about that cajun sauce right now too!
SUN BASKET VS. GREEN CHEF: Which is Better?
I wasn’t aware of it before, but it’s recently come to my attention that Green Chef and Sun Basket are the most prominent players in the organic meal kit delivery space. So which one is better? We liked the meals better with Green Chef, but the portions were smaller. I also liked that you can pick any meal from any plan with Sun Basket, which allows more flexibility. However, I wouldn’t order Sun Basket again because of the inconsistent delivery dates, that drove me nuts, so for that reason, I think Green Chef would be my winner between the two.
Use this link to get $80 off PLUS free shipping!
I’ll be doing more reviews in the upcoming months so stay tuned, and let me know if you have a request for which one to do next!
Best plant based delivery service?
Hi Debi! The only one I’ve reviewed is Daily Harvest, here is the link: https://hungryhobby.net/daily-harvest-review/
I wanted to let you know that you should stop advertising Green Chef as an organic company. They have confirmed to me in writing that only their veggies/fruit and eggs are actually organic, and there is minimal of these in each meal. Most importantly, their meat is not organic, neither are the majority of the ingredients (sour cream, pasta, rice, sauces, butters, cheese etc. etc.). Most meals contain only one or at most two vegetables, and the vast majority do not include eggs.
They make this very hard to understand from their website, with long waffly answers on the topic to promote misunderstanding. Incredibly cynical false advertising. It makes me sick that I fell for this.
Websites like yours are what pushed me to sign up to Green Chef in the first place. I would never have signed up if it had been made clear that only the (minimal) veggies and eggs are organic, but nothing else.
Please remove the organic labelling from your reviews of this company.
Hi Lisa,
In my review I wrote that Green Chef provides 100% organic produce, I did not mention meat or eggs. I did notice they provided a variety of meat options (organic, grassfed, etc) when I ordered from them. Thank you!
This is also in incorrect. If you look at their recipes most of them only contain one organic item. Most of the vegetables are NOT organic. Do some research on the actual ingredients before posting a misleading review like this one. I even asked them point blank and they admitted that most of their vegetables are not organic. I have pictures of vegetables from them that say “conventional”. This company is a scam and should not be misleading people. If they want to be a company with some organic and some locally sourced ingredients then great state that and dont mislead people looking for mostly organic!
This review is almost two years old, I was planning to update it this year. At the time I did the review most of the produce I received was organic, they may have changed since then.