I Cooked All of Blue Apron’s Holiday Feast Meal Kits. Here’s What I Loved (and Didn’t)

Meal kits are nice for cooking year-round, saving you hours of procuring, prep and cooking within the course of. The solely time you wouldn’t be capable of use these kits is once you wish to make particular recipes that aren’t on the corporate’s weekly menu, equivalent to in the course of the holidays. However, Blue Apron and different meal package corporations have stuffed that hole by providing meal kits particularly tailor-made for the winter season. 

Blue Apron’s vacation menu does have overlap with the meal kits Blue Apron supplied for Thanksgiving, which I additionally cooked. Those embrace creamy mac and cheese, roasted Brussels sprouts, roasted grape and goat cheese salad, challah dinner rolls and apple crumb pie. Two new additions for December are crispy roasted potatoes and roast beef tenderloin. 

From now till Jan. 4, these meal kits can be found — minus the roast beef tenderloin, which is presently bought out. This is what occurred once I tried to make all of them for a vacation feast. 

Roast beef tenderloin: a high quality reduce of meat

As a vegetarian, I handed this one over to my accomplice to make, and he discovered this 60-minute recipe flavorful and straightforward to arrange. The directions had been clear, and a number of the flavour got here from the sherry-Dijon pan sauce, which was merely made by combining the substances. 

“The cut of the meat was nice, and I like that I didn’t have to trim anything,” he stated. My accomplice’s solely critique is that he needs the meat had been a bit extra tender. 

Rating: 8/10
Cost: $110
Servings: 6
Total time: 60 minutes

Crispy roasted potatoes: tasty, however powerful to make

While I believed these roasted potatoes had been scrumptious, I struggled to make them and ended up with mushy potatoes fairly than crispy ones. The directions ask that after you boil your potatoes, you pressure them and toss them to tough up the sides. This wasn’t working in my strainer, so I transferred the potatoes again to the pot, put the lid on and shook them. However, I believe this roughed them up an excessive amount of, as they didn’t find yourself brown or crispy after half-hour within the oven. I left them in for 10 minutes longer, however nonetheless no luck.

The lack of crispiness might need been brought on by person error, and the dish nonetheless tasted nice with the rosemary, Parmesan and garlic and herb butter. Nonetheless, I do want the directions had been extra particular to assist customers obtain the specified crispy texture.

Rating: 7/10
Cost: $8
Servings: 4
Total time: 55 minutes

Creamy mac and cheese: full of taste

I already made this mac and cheese as a part of Blue Apron’s Thanksgiving choices, and I loved it as a lot as I did the primary time. Although as soon as once more, I altered the recipe by combining the cream combination and totally different cheeses within the pan to create a cheese sauce, fairly than layering the cheeses and cream combination within the dish itself.

I loved the mix of cheeses: cheddar, fontina and Monterey Jack, with Parmesan on high. I additionally beloved the flavour that got here from the garlic béchamel sauce and truffle seasoning that I blended with the breadcrumb topping.

Rating: 9/10
Cost: $20
Servings: 6
Total time: 45 minutes

Challah dinner rolls: take no time to make

Unlike the final time I made these rolls for Thanksgiving, they didn’t come squished, which added to my expertise, bumping up my ranking by one level to a 9/10. They get topped with a maple and salted butter combination proper out of the oven, and solely require quarter-hour of your time — if that.

Rating: 9/10
Cost: $7
Servings: 12 
Total time: quarter-hour

Roasted Brussels sprouts: a game-changing recipe

This has change into certainly one of my favourite methods to arrange Brussels sprouts, that includes honey, lemon and roasted pistachios. It solely takes half-hour, cooking included, and is extremely scrumptious. My solely criticism is that I want there have been extra pistachios included.

Rating: 10/10
Cost: $10
Servings: 4 
Total time: half-hour

Roasted grape and goat cheese salad: lacking substances

This is one other recipe I made for Thanksgiving, however this time, the meal package arrived and not using a few key substances: kale, arugula and crimson grapes. I ended up utilizing my very own kale, however didn’t have arugula or grapes. The latter is particularly key to the salad, because the grapes are roasted to provide a jammy taste that rounds out the salad, so I used to be unhappy they weren’t included.

Similar to the pistachios within the Brussels sprouts above, I want that extra walnuts had been included to completely fill out the dish. I additionally ended up barely burning them, regardless of following the directions.

Regardless, the salad was nonetheless tasty. I simply want it wasn’t lacking substances, so I’m decreasing my earlier ranking to 7/10. 

Rating: 7/10
Cost: 12
Servings: 4 
Total time: 35 minutes

Apple crumb pie with almonds

I additionally made this recipe for Thanksgiving, and it was simply pretty much as good because it was final time. It requires a complete of 80 minutes, however solely 20 minutes of preparation time. I particularly loved the addition of quatre épices (white pepper, nutmeg, ginger and cloves) within the crumb topping, and appreciated that the crust got here premade and able to go.

Rating: 8/10
Cost: $15
Servings: 6-8  
Total time: 80 minutes

How a lot do Blue Apron’s vacation meal kits price?

Here’s the value breakdown for Blue Apron’s vacation meal kits:

• Roast beef tenderloin (6 servings): $110
• Crispy roasted potatoes (4 servings): $8
• Creamy mac and cheese (6 servings): $20
• Roasted Brussels sprouts (4 servings): $10
• Goat cheese salad (4 servings): $12
• Challah dinner rolls (12 servings): $7
• Apple crumb pie (6-8 servings): $15

The whole price: $182

Depending on the place you store, you could possibly make these recipes extra affordably by yourself (particularly with grocery retailer inflation). Yet, you do save on effort and time once you select the meal package route, which is particularly helpful once you’re cooking for a crowd in the course of the vacation season. Blue Apron’s new à la carte mannequin additionally lets you decide and select which meals you’d like with out having to lock your self right into a subscription.

My ultimate ideas 

Overall, I loved the vacation meal kits from Blue Apron and located every thing scrumptious; but, I believe there’s room for enchancment when it comes to lacking substances and extra detailed directions (particularly for the crispy potatoes). As somebody who additionally tried the corporate’s Thanksgiving meal kits, I want they switched it up with new meal kits and fewer overlap between the 2 holidays. 

As a vegetarian, I additionally favored that I might eat all of those meal kits, aside from the roast beef, which my accomplice nonetheless loved. In the longer term, it will be cool if a unique protein choice had been supplied for vegetarians or vegans.