Green Chef is one of the best recipe box delivery services in the UK, with a fantastic offering for vegans or anyone who wants to learn to cook more plant-based meals.
In this review, I’ll show you what you can expect from a Green Chef vegan recipe box.
Green Chef caters for five dietary options – Vegan, Vegetarian, Lower Carb, Balanced and Keto.
The brand is part of the Hello Fresh Group, but while Hello Fresh isn’t suitable for vegans, Green Chef does vegan boxes that are packed full of healthy ingredients and carefully thought-out menu cards.
Get 50% OFF your first Green Chef box!
+ 25% OFF for the next TWO MONTHS!
When you use discount code ‘GCCHOOSE50’
Green Chef Vegan Recipes
I’ve tried lots of Green Chef’s vegan recipes. In each box, you get fresh ingredients that are measured out ready to use with zero waste plus detailed plant based recipe cards that are easy to follow.
Here are some of the vegan dishes I’ve made…
Salt and Pepper Tofu
✅ Calories: 533 kcal ✅ Fat: 20g ✅ Carbs: 57g ✅ Protein: 30g
Salt and pepper tofu is my favourite Chinese takeaway dish and I’ve always wanted to learn to cook it as well as a restaurant does. Now I can, thanks to Green Chef!
This healthy, protein-packed dish tasted incredible. It’s definitely one that I’ll be making again at home. I had no idea that simply adding rice vinegar, sugar and salt to grated carrot would make it taste so incredible. The whole thing was ready in around 20 minutes.
Smoky Tomato, Rice & Beans
✅ Calories: 507 kcal ✅ Fat: 18g ✅ Carbs: 64g ✅ Protein: 19g
This Mexican-inspired dish was so tasty – every mouthful seemed to have a different flavour with zingy lime, lots of garlic, crunchy peanuts and spicy salsa.
The roasted Tenderstem broccoli tasted so good. It helps, of course, that all of the Green Chef ingredients are super fresh and of the very best quality.
Harissa & Zhoug Cauliflower
✅ Calories: 549 kcal ✅ Fat: 32g ✅ Carbs: 48g ✅ Protein: 14g
The wonderful thing about Green Chef is that it shows you how to make every ingredient taste amazing. I thought that I didn’t like cauliflower or couscous. Actually, I’d just been cooking them wrong!
Boiling the cauliflower in turmeric before roasting made for the perfect texture and flavour. I had never heard of zhoug, but this green hot sauce that originates from Yemen added a fantastic kick to the dish.
Ginger Shiitake Mushrooms and Teriyaki Tofu with Tenderstem Broccoli
✅ Calories: 471 kcal ✅ Fat: 12g ✅ Carbs: 59g ✅ Protein: 28g
I really enjoyed this vegan mushroom and tofu dish – both the cooking and the eating! This dish tasted as good as a takeaway, but it was so much healthier so I could indulge guilt-free.
The Green Chef recipe was really easy to follow. While I would usually make a dish like this one without a recipe kit, I found that following the instructions actually improved my cooking skills straight away.
For example, I would usually boil broccoli, but stir-frying it makes it so much tastier! Also, I would usually fry tofu on the default medium heat, but turning it up to high as in the instructions resulted in much crispier tofu chunks. Winning!
Chana Masala with Gunpowder Potatoes, Tenderstem Broccoli and Cashews
✅ Calories: 618 kcal ✅ Fat: 16g ✅ Carbs: 95g ✅ Protein: 20g
I never believed that I could get my broccoli-phobic husband to enjoy his nightmare veg, but he now enjoys broccoli when it’s cooked the Green Chef way! Oven-roasted and carefully-seasoned Tenderstem is certainly world’s away from the frozen and boiled florets I used to make!
The spicy sweet potatoes in this dish were delicious and I loved the crunch of the cashews alongside the flavoursome chickpeas. So wholesome!
Tomato Arrabiata Fusilli with a Nutty, Basil Crumb Topping
✅ Calories: 322 kcal ✅ Fat: 14g ✅ Carbs: 40g ✅ Protein: 12g
Pasta arrabiata is a simple vegan dish, but this version is extra special with fancy red, orange and yellow tomatoes, fresh spinach, walnuts and panko breadcrumbs.
The pasta in this dish was fresh, not dried, so the recipe was really quick to cook and tasted amazing. I’d be very impressed if I were served this in a restaurant.
As around half of the bowl was veg and the rest was wholewheat pasta, making this is low-calorie way to enjoy pasta, with lots of protein from the nuts and spinach too.
What’s in a Green Chef vegan box?
The picture below shows what the inside of a Green Chef vegan recipe box looked like. The chilled ingredients are separated from the store cupboard ingredients, the vegetables and the herbs and spices to keep everything fresh and undamaged.
Everything that you need to cook the meals is provided in the box, although you’ll need to provide your own cooking oil and salt and pepper, as well as pots and pans and cooking utensils. You don’t need any fancy equipment though, just an oven and a hob.
The picture below shows all of the ingredients that came in a Green Chef vegan box to cook three meals…
All the ingredients in the box are labelled, so it’s easy to see which herbs and spices go with each recipe.
Green Chef Recipe Cards
The box also contains three Green Chef recipe cards that are printed on A4 card and are super easy to follow. They give just the right amount of detail and have photos to make it simple to follow the recipes even if you have no cooking skills at all.
How does Green Chef work?
Green Chef offers three or four different vegan menu options each week. These are all healthy and hearty meals such as stews, curries, risottos, chillies, power bowls and salads. Each meal takes around 30 minutes to cook.
You can choose which meals you would like each week and can see the vegan menus up to three weeks in advance. If you don’t like the look of a weekly menu, you can skip that week entirely by logging in to your online account.
You can also mix and match with non-vegan meals, so if you’re not vegan but enjoy eating plant-based food, you may wish to mix it up by trying a vegetarian meal or one of the other dietary options.
The box is delivered once per week and the communication from the delivery driver is excellent. If you’re not going to be in, you can request for the best to be left outside or with a neighbour. The ice packs will keep it cool all day.
How much does Green Chef cost?
Green Chef costs between £4.70 and £5.95 per serving depending on whether you order a box for two or four people, and depending on whether the box contains three or four meals. Delivery is £3.99 or free with a discount code.
2 people | 4 people | |
---|---|---|
3 meals per week | £5.95 | £5.00 |
4 meals per week | £5.59 | £4.70 |
If you’d like to try Green Chef for yourself, you’re welcome to use my discount code ‘GCCHOOSE50’ which will get you a considerable saving and free delivery.
Get 50% OFF your first Green Chef box
+ 25% OFF for the next TWO MONTHS!
When you use discount code ‘GCCHOOSE50’
How to recycle Green Chef packaging
The majority of Green Chef packaging is recyclable. Here’s what to do with the packaging…
- Box – Your Green Chef delivery comes in a cardboard box with card inserts which can be recycled with your usual paper and card recycling
- Recipe cards – You can recycle the paper recipe cards, or keep them in a folder so that you can make the meals again with your own ingredients
- Insulation – In the UK, Green Chef uses recycled denim wrapped in plastic for insulation. As denim is 100% plant-based cotton, you can compost it. Alternatively, you might reuse it in a number of ways such as cushioning for fragile items, soundproofing, pet bedding, filling cushions or placing underneath plants to reduce watering.
- Ice packs – Green Chef ice packs are great to keep in the freezer and reuse for your next picnic or camping trip
- Plastic trays and sachets – Some plastics can be recycled at recycling centres but some are not currently recyclable
It’s a little sad to see that Green Chef uses plastics in its meal boxes. However, the company offsets 100% of the carbon emissions from operations, distribution and in-box plastics by supporting green energy projects in the UK and around the world.
Green Chef has also stated that the company is ‘continually seeking to reduce the use plastics in our boxes to replace them with more sustainable materials.’
Green Chef FAQs
Green Chef has three or four vegan options. They change every week so you never have to eat the same thing twice.
A Green Chef vegan box for two people costs £35.70 for three meals or £44.72 for four meals.
Green Chef costs around £35 per week for three meals each for two people. The largest boxes contain four meals for four people and cost £66. You can get a reduced price with the discount code ‘GCCHOOSE’.
Green Chef delivers across most of the UK including the Isle of Wight, Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey. You cannot get a Green Chef Delivery in Northern Ireland or the Scottish Highlands.
Green Chef meals take around 30 minutes to cook.
Green Chef is more expensive than other recipe boxes because the company uses certified organic and sustainably sourced ingredients. The meals are of a higher quality than what you would get in cheaper boxes like Gousto.
If weight loss is your goal, Green Chef makes it easy as each dish is portion and calories controlled. Meals are high in protein, yet relatively low in calories with around 500 calories per portion.
Final Thoughts
If you’re looking for a vegan meal kit, you won’t find a better one than Green Chef. I believe that Green Chef makes the best vegan recipe boxes because all of the ingredients are of such high quality.
You won’t find lots of cheap filler ingredients and fake meat, but you will get healthy, wholesome, organic ingredients that you might not usually buy.
Whether you’re feeling uninspired in the kitchen or want to kick-start a healthy eating plan, Green Chef is for you.
Green Chef vegan recipe box review
Summary
I loved my Green Chef recipe box and will be ordering again. The ingredients were high-quality, the recipes were easy to follow and the vegan meals tasted incredible!
Be sure to use discount code GCCHOOSE50 to get your boxes for less.