hey jsyk while hellofresh is dummy expensive and i wouldn’t reccomend it if you already know how to cook (if you’re a beginner like i was when i had it for 3 months, then it’s worth it), you should know that ALL OF THEIR RECIPES are free on their website and they all fuck hard
i will say that all the cooking instructions for veggies are pretty much the same (season with salt + pepper and roast on the top oven rack at 425F), but if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.
that being said, it also introduced me to methods i wasn’t at all expecting. i would have never thought to use cream cheese in my meat sauce, and now all my friends are constantly asking me to make my special rigatoni.
happy cheffin! :)
I am a person who uses Hello Fresh for realsies because it is a bit cheaper than groceries here and definitely cheaper than takeout, but we also remake the recipes when we want a specific one and don’t want to wait for it to come around in the rotation again, and therefore I know The Secret Translations of Proprietary Ingredients:
- “Cream sauce base” = make a roux, add milk according to how much cream sauce base you’re supposed to have (ex: 4 oz cream sauce base = 4 oz milk)
- “1 packet stock concentrate” = either one tablespoon Better than Bullion or, if you want to be really accurate, Savory Choice Broth Concentrate packets are available on Amazon and allegedly that’s what they use
- “Italian Heat Spice”/“Blackening Spice”/“Fry Seasoning”/etc.: I promise you someone on Reddit has figured out what spices they use and in what proportions for each mix, if it’s not just a straight up branded mix (like McCormick Grill Mates Brown Sugar Bourbon spice mix)
- “Roasted Garlic Herb Butter” (and other compound butters, like truffle butter) = they’re literally Epicurean branded butters, they do not hide this, you can buy them online
- “Sweet Soy Glaze”/“Ponzu sauce”/“Hoisin sauce” = literally Kikkoman brand condiments: they don’t hide that, either
- “Sweet Thai chili sauce” = any sweet Thai chili sauce from the grocery store will do. We use Blue Dragon or Taste of Thai because that’s what we can get in our grocery store.