This January I Blame The Wine goes beyond our regular wine reviews, occasional food matching and health tips. Recognising food as our main nutritional concern, we cannot stay away from the topics of provenance and quality of our ingredients.
Why food boxes?
What we’ve done is searched high and low for amazing organic or natural, carefully handpicked food boxes that will add enough quality nutrients to your table and make your life easier.
We love recipe boxes too because they not only save you time in preparing your weekly meals, but they also eliminate waste almost entirely. Everything is measured for exact amount of portions, so you literally need to have some basic staples like oil or seasoning and you are going to make something delicious.
If you are after something more flexible – choose veggie boxes, they are delivered from companies who work with your local farms, so your produce is seasonal, local and you are also supporting local businesses.
Over the last few months we have noticed that a large chunk of our visitors came from the United States, so we were researching both UK and US markets for this review. Hope you find it helpful!
UK food boxes
Hello fresh – company originates in Germany, but now effectively working in different markets and offering great welcome packs, so you can test their quality and recipes for less. There is no catch, you can cancel or modify at any time, so why not spice up your cooking with their help?
Approved Food – not a food box offer as such, but you can easily construct your own food box from a veggie / vegan category that is really generous on their site. The concept is though quite unique, they are working with producers who still got some stock of products that are reaching expiration date. You can get those reduced products for much less (my usual discount was around 20-25%) and they will still be OK and not expired.
Body Kind – offers a selection of foodstuffs, gifts, supplements and other kind to your body products. We loved their food gifts section for some thoughtful ideas like tea boxes or packs of gluten free and dairy free chocolates.
Mock – you can get already from their name that it is all about meat free, fish-free food boxes. We love that they completely specialise on the vegan market and develop recipes that are so similar to traditional ones, you won’t even notice! They are small, passionate and each meal is priced at £6.25 – very easy to select the ones you like and order!
The Vegan Kind – another dedicated food and cosmetic box company that recently ventured also in a fully fledged online retail market. They have started with their monthly subscription boxes which featured snacks and cosmetic products, all vegan and cruelty-free. Recently you can also find a link to their shop which offers a supermarket-alike selection, all vegan friendly and most of it from artisan producers. Very well worth checking the range if you are keen on trying a new specialist online retailer.
Abel and Cole – we have featured these guys before simply because a few years back there wasn’t such an abundance of choices in terms of veggie boxes. Their boxes are ethically made and the veggies grown locally. We find it just a tad expensive, but they work ecologically hence a slightly more expensive price tag. Their large veg box that you can tailor is of a better value.
Gousto – a quick generic food box that is very popular though. We applaud their proactive marketing and a quirky TV campaign. They did launch a few veggie recipes recently but it is still not a big thing for them as they cater for a more general audience. If you want to check which recipes are most popular, visit them today.
Holland and Barrett – if you are a Do It Yourself kinda person, you can simply shop at Holland and Barrett, they sell vegan, gluten-free and other niche food products at very affordable prices as it is a rather big chain.
Mindful Chef – great selection of weekly recipes to choose from and construct your own food box. The guys are focusing on dairy-free, gluten-free, low carb dishes. You can find veggie or meat options and sometimes find truly inspiring recipes. Backed by Victoria Pendleton and Andy Murray, this food box has been very popular in the last few years. Your weekly box may come at a price, but everything is carefully measured, the recipes are exquisite and single meals will cost you around £4.25. Not a bad deal afterall!
Planet Organic – this retailer is popular with their brick-and-mortar shops in Central London as they also offer juicing bar and a very healthy salad lunch boxes.
Riverford – we would compare these guys to Abel and Cole, they provide the same service, quirky updates on Facebook with recipes and news from the fields. They are long established veg box company that also grown to offer complimentary products yet stayed true to their values of focusing on plant-based produce.
Coombe Farm Organic – offers meat, poultry, fish and veg boxes. One of our business friends, who is a vegan, once told us that if one should eat some meat, he wishes it is at least organic and humanely grown. Coombe Farm does exactly that, their careful service is tyruly excellent too.
Simply Cook – offers an interesting concept of delivering you a selection of spice mixes and recipe cards how to use them. You will still need to buy fresh ingredients but spice mixes are going to be supplied to you. 4 different recipes and 3 packs of spices per each will cost you under £10, which is a good value considering some of the spice jars you have probably been in your cupboard for years!
We also have found nice selection of ethical subscription boxes here and a few useful reviews to help you make up your mind.
USA food boxes
$15 off for Farm Fresh To You – save on your first box with code EATFRESH. Great concept from these guys who deliver from food from the farms they work with. Pretty straightforward, simple and that’s how we think things should be anyway! Click here to bag the savings from Farm Fresh To You!
A very special offer from natural and organic retailer Thrive Market – try them out today and receive 20% off your first three orders! Great stuff, you pay less for gorgeous natural and organic produce that they handpicked from hundreds of producers.
Home Chef – you can activate your $30 off discount now by clicking here. HomeChef provides food boxes with at least 12 weekly recipes to choose from and claims that the customer satisfaction beats Nationwide leaders like Hello Fresh. Price-wise is it very affordable with your weekly boxes string at below $50.
Green Chef – your gluten-free go-to option food box. You have 2 meat, 2 seafood and 1 vegetarian recipe per week and the meals are prices at just over $13. It is an obvious choice for people who are suffering from gluten intolerance or feel bloated after eating regular pasta and other products that are high in gluten.
Shop Bulletproof Coffee and Drinks – you do not need to go all-in for their Bulletproof Diet (we mentioned it before!), but their coffee is truly upgraded and you can also get invaluable advice in terms of supplements and other health related questions on their blog). A teaspoon of coconut oil or butter (they claim it is even better but we just don’t do it as it is non vegan) in your coffee will make miracles. Read why on their site.
Get 50% your first Degustabox – degustation + lots of fun – this is what Degustabox all about. It is also very simple – get 9 full-size foodstuffs to your door each month for $9.99. Surprise your palate with new flavour sensations. From chopped tomatoes to artisan chips, vinaigrette dressings and more.
It is our first attempt to review US retailers so the list is smaller, however we are on our way to add more wine retailers and offers to bring even more value to everyone of you.
Stay tuned, get back in touch with your questions and suggestions. Thank you and be healthy!
