2024 Hungryroot Review

1. Ample healthy meals and options 
2. Easy and quick recipes to prepare (4 Ingredients or Less, 30 minutes or less)
3. Ultimate control and flexibility in your shopping experience. 

TOP 3 CONS OF USING HUNGRYROOT MEAL DELIVERY SERVICE

1.  Increased cost compared to cooking from scratch
2.  Minimal-ingredient recipes may not be enjoyed by cooking enthusiasts
3.  You must dispose of large boxes and packaging each week 

Signing Up For Hungryroot

When you sign up for Hungryroot, they ask you a ton about how your lifestyle and preferences.  They even go in-depth for each type of meal for the day (breakfast, lunch, and dinner.)  This way, they can get a feel for how many servings of each recipe to recommend and how many snacks they will recommend you purchase. 

This year, I noticed their questions are getting a bit more specific, so they can really hone in on your needs! Here is what the signup process will look like: 

 

They will also ask:

• What cuisines do you like: Thai, Mexican, Classic American, Japanese, Mediterranean, Fusion, Korean, Chinese, Indian, and Italian
• What flavors do you like: Creamy and Rich, Bright and Zingy, Savory and Umami, Fresh and Herb-y, Cheese and Cheesier, Spiced and Aromatic, Sweet and Balanced
• What kind of meat do you like (if you are an omnivore) 
• What kind of seafood you like (if you consume seafood) 
• What kind of plant-based proteins do you like (I love this because I like rice and beans but not meat alternatives) 
• If you dislike any commonly disliked foods such as potatoes, mushrooms, cilantro, tomatoes, bell peppers, garlic, eggplants, onions
• How much heat you like: none, mild, moderate, hot 
• Specifics about different meals, such as breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, and desserts

 

And of course, you’ll get to select your ongoing weekly freebie!

But don’t worry if you aren’t sure what to choose. They also give you an option when you edit your box to choose several options. 

Selecting The Weekly Menu

 

 

 

The recipe section is set up so you can browse by category, most popular, or dietary filters.

And the groceries section is set up so you can browse by aisle, category, or dietary preference. I’ve recently noticed a ton of new grocery items.  And every time they add new grocery items, they ask you what your preference is on how often you would like the item included in your box.  

So, I had seen advertisements on Instagram for Hungryroot before but wrote it off as “just another meal kit delivery service.” I keep telling anyone who will listen (friends and family) that they should really up their advertising game to emphasize the convenience factor they offer combined with SUPER SUPER clean ingredients.  It’s impressive.

How Much Does Hungryroot Cost?

The amount charged per serving on Hungryroot varies on how many servings you order. The more you order, the less your cost per serving.  This year, it varies between $9.69-$10.29/per serving.  I max out the number of servings at 16. 

 

The setup above brings the total to $155.04/week.  But if you decrease the number of servings of meals or change breakfast, fruit, snacks, or sweets servings, the amount will change. After you approve your meal setup, it takes you to the screen where you can make as many modifications as you want to your plan, recommend/feature meals, add/subtract sweets and snacks, etc.  This changes the number of credits you get and the average cost per serving.  When I played with the servings on average, here is what I roughly calculated the cost per category to be:

• Breakfast $3.6-4.75/breakfast item
• Fruit $2.75/ fruit item
• Snacks $3.81/snack item 
• Sweets $3.81/sweet item
• Kids snacks $3/item 

Here is my final setup: 

It’s a credit-based system, $192.81/week gives me 89 credits, and I can add on credits for 1.79$ per credit.  Each recipe and snack is assigned a credit number.  You can go over your credit number if you wish and pay the difference.  It’s not difficult to get your exact number of credits because many of the grocery items are just one credit. Here is my order for next week (as you can see, I rarely get snacks or breakfast items.) In the order below, the only groceries I got were 3 bags of carrots for one credit each. The rest all came with meals.  

 

 

The french onion meatballs are listed twice because I doubled the recipe I wanted to receive.  

CUSTOMIZABLE VARIETY & DIETARY PREFERENCES

Pros: Within the signup process, Hungryroot asks questions about dietary preferences and likes and dislikes of certain food items.  As shown above, it even asks you what types of meals you like for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks.  So, the system does a great job of getting to know you and making recommendations based on that.  And if you are a current subscriber, you can go update your account like I did while doing this review with even more preferences.  

Also, as they add new items, they constantly ask you to rate how often you’d like to receive them (often, sometimes, never.)  They recently asked me a bunch of questions about kid foods they have to send since I updated my profile to send kid snacks. 

Over the last year, they’ve added a ton of filtering capabilities.  When filtering, you can now filter by your recipes, recent groceries/recipes, dietary needs, protein, nutrition, spicy level, appliance (NEW!), and cooking time.  

 

 

 

 

 

Cons: You can not filter by Paleo, Keto, Mediterranean, or other popular diets.   Obviously, these are popular dietary patterns, so, unfortunately, these aren’t available. If you have a food allergy or intolerance that isn’t one of the major ones listed, hunting down all the ingredients that make up the ingredients in a recipe might be tedious. More on that below. 

NUTRITION & INGREDIENTS

Pros: In the last year, Hungryroot has done a great job at providing clearer nutrition information and ingredient lists for their recipes (which used to be severely lacking.)  When browsing a recipe, just click on it to see what ingredients it uses and what the nutrition facts are. 

Hungryroot uses a ton of prepared items, like ready-made sauces, bean mixtures, etc. It doesn’t list the exact ingredients of each item within the recipe card, but if you need to double-check them or are curious, you can look the item up in the grocery section.  

I searched for the kale pesto in the recipe above in the grocery section, clicked on it, and immediately got information about it! 

And something I’m super excited about that is new! You can swap or remove an ingredient if you don’t like it! So cool!  

One thing you don’t need to check for is a clean ingredient list because they always have that covered. Real, whole food, no hydrogenated oils, artificial sweeteners, high fructose corn syrup, artificial colors, or artificial preservatives. 

 

 Looking through the recipes, most of the recipes have a reasonable calorie level of 400-600. Some are upwards of 850.  Most recipes are balanced with protein, fat, healthy carbs, and veggies.  We found the portion sizes to be ample, even when I was pregnant, and Mr. Hungry, who, as I’ve mentioned in the past, definitely eats HEAFTY portion sizes (6’2″ and very active.)  Typically, meal kit delivery services overload the carbs and provide very little protein and veggies, but I didn’t find this to be the case with Hungryroot.  Every time I review another service, I’m always disappointed with the amount of protein and veggies, especially compared to Hungryroot.  

Cons: As mentioned, it’s not super convenient to access the ingredient list for items with recipes.  It would be nice if you click the item in the ingredient list of the recipe to see what’s in it. 

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PORTION SIZES

We’ve always found Hungryroot portions to be ample, especially when it comes to protein and veggies. Occasionally, I do order an additional protein in the grocery section. For instance, if we are making carnitas, I know that we usually eat more meat than the standard serving, so I order another carnitas package instead of doubling the entire recipe. The reason I can do that is because Hungryroot does not pre-portion their ingredients themselves. They never send just one tiny tablespoon of something; they always send full-size containers. For instance, if the recipe has cheese slices, they send you a cheese slice container of 8-10 slices, even if you only need 4 for the recipe. I love this; I can then use them for grilled cheese, etc. Most things are the right amount for the recipe, so it’s not like I have so much stuff left over that it goes bad. Still, I occasionally have leftover cheese or an additional sauce that I can repurpose because of this, and I love it! That’s why it’s similar to making a low-ingredient recipe from Trader Joe’s; you get everything you pay for, and there is always enough.

DELIVERY & PACKAGING

Pros:  Delivery was previously only available on Tuesdays in my area, but now I have Saturdays too!  In the past two years, I’ve only ever had a box delayed once (and it was not this past year.)  I was sent multiple notices about the delay and given information on what to do should any of the items be out of the temperature range (they weren’t.)   The packaging comes separated with cold items separated from shelf-stable items. This allows them to use smaller boxes and less insulation.  Compared to other meal kit delivery services, there was less plastic packaging of food items to dispose of overall.  

Cons: 

There may be limited delivery day options in your area. Like any meal kit delivery service, there is a ton of packaging to dispose of (compared to going to the grocery store), including ice packs and a big cardboard box.  On occasion, I get an out-of-stock notice, at which point the system automatically changes to substitute for the item out of stock.  I can also go through and change this myself, but I’m adding it as a con because it’s slightly irritating. 

Occasionally, items come that have gone bad or are missing. I’ve mostly seen this issue with a couple of key items that I now steer clear of, such as the bell pepper and onion mix and sometimes the seven veggie stir fry. Inevitably, the pre-cut onions don’t make the journey, making everything else slimy and gross. I’ve noticed they’ve shifted away from even offering these items, likely do to this problem.  However, when it did happen, Hungryroot was happy to issue a credit immediately, with almost no questions asked.  Same thing when items are forgotten or mispacked (meat packed on the top that should have at the bottom covered in ice packs.  I know this drives some people nuts enough to cancel the service, but their quick offer of credits or refunds keeps me happy.  And it only happens in less than 10% of the boxes I’ve received.  

Cooking & Clean Up

Pros:  Easy, uncomplicated directions.  Superfast recipes, all with four ingredients or less.  For example, for the grain bowl, no spending 45 minutes is boiling brown rice.  Instead, they send pre-cooked brown rice and quinoa blend to use.  For the black bean corn salsa, they send that pre-assembled.  So, it’s not like the recipes only use four ingredients total, but you only have four packages to cook with.  Usually, a grain or a healthy carb, a protein, a veggie or veggie blend, and a pre-made sauce.  Recipes usually take 30 minutes or less to make, and because of the minimal ingredients, they require little cleanup.  And for a nice little touch, they have a wonderful Hungryroot playlist on Spotify.  

Cons:  The biggest con with this service would be that this may not be for you if you LOVE to cook.  Since many items are sent pre-assembled, the cooking is minimal.  If you are a person who loves to cook, you may miss the process of cooking or the ability to free-hand substitutions as you see fit.