One place where a lot of food subscription services slip up is that they don’t offer specialized eating plans; some of them include one or two vegetarian options or a token gluten-free meal.
For the most part, though, the meals are based around what works for everyone, which means that if you’re trying to follow a Keto or gluten-free lifestyle, you’re out of luck.
Green Chef offers a range of different meal programs that cater to those with special dietary requirements—and all the ingredients are organic.
On the downside, this service can be one of the more expensive options. Is it worth paying the extra money?
In this review, we’ll go over precisely what you’ll be getting.
Table of Contents
How Does Green Chef Work?
You pick the meal plan that works best for you, and then you select how many servings you’d like; you can choose two or four servings.
Finally, pick the delivery date that suits you; deliveries are made on Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday.
You’ll then get all the ingredients for two to three meals as well as the recipes.
The plan is quite flexible. You can check the menu options for the upcoming week and adjust as required.
If you don’t see anything that you like, you can skip that week; you can also opt for weekly deliveries, or deliveries every second week.
You are also able to veto certain foods. So, if you don’t eat shellfish, for example, you can take it off your menu.
That said, if you do have a severe allergy, we’d have to advise against using a food subscription service.
The food is prepped according to health and safety regulations, which means that you won’t have raw chicken being prepped with the veggies.
That said, there could be cross-contamination with allergens.
The company delivers to almost anywhere in the United States.
If you’re in Alaska, some areas in Louisiana, or Hawaii, you’ll have to find an alternate delivery service.
When you get your box, you’ll notice that the ingredients are packed with as little waste as possible.
The bags are color-coded so that you can easily split out all the ingredients for each particular recipe. This bonus is quite helpful when you’re unpacking everything.
Green Chef preps the food as much as possible so that you won’t have to worry about endlessly chopping carrots and onions.
Where possible, sauces are already made up for you.
From a convenience standpoint, we have to say that this service scores big points.
Types of Meals Available
You’ll get a blend of comfort food and some exotic ingredients, which should suit you perfectly if you’re more adventurous in the kitchen.
There are six different meal plans to try out:
- Paleo: These are the kinds of foods cave dwellers might have eaten, which means more whole foods and no dairy, soy, gluten, or grain.
- Gluten-free: A gluten-sensitivity can make your life difficult. Every meal in this line is packed with flavor, without the gluten.
- Plant-Powered: These meals may contain no meat, but they are packed with balanced sources of plant protein, though.
- Keto: Your meals are prepared in accordance following keto principles. That means low-carb and gluten-free.
- Omnivore: Contains a good balance between meat and vegetables.
- Carnivore: Also contains veggies, but the meat is the real star here.
As you can see, there are a lot of options. Unfortunately, at this stage, the only family plans are the Omnivore and Carnivore.
That’s a bit of a nuisance, but we can understand their reasoning; younger kids should probably not be looking into ultra-low carb eating, anyway.
All meals are available in boxes for two people.
Pricing
The amount that you pay depends on how many servings you order; here is what each serving costs:
- Keto: One portion is $12.99
- Paleo: One portion is $12.99
- Omnivore: One portion is $11.99, but this drops to $10.99 for the family boxes
- Carnivore: One portion is $11.99, but this drops to $10.99 for the family boxes
- Plant-Powered: One portion starts at $9.99. The price can vary depending on what’s in the box
- Gluten-free: One portion is $11.99
There is also a $6.99 fee per box for shipping.
The two-person boxes contain enough food for three meals for two people or a total of six portions. So, plan on one of these boxes starting at $66.93.
The family boxes contain two meals for four people or a total of eight portions for $94.91.
Company History
Green Chef is based in the United States and was started in 2014.
It’s a small company on a mission to provide healthy, organic meals.
Alternatives
- Freshly: Don’t feel like cooking? Freshly cooks and delivers the meals. Just open and reheat.
- Gobble: All the meal prep is done for you. All you need is a pan and fifteen minutes.
- Purple Carrot: This site is for plant-based eating only – you’re not getting any meat here.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- One of the few to cater to special dietary needs
- Flexible subscription service
- You may opt out of two proteins with the two-person boxes
- You can opt out of more protein options with the family boxes
- It’s easy to change to a different menu
- You can check each week’s menus and opt out if you prefer
- You get your recipe and all the ingredients
- It can save you money – you don’t have to go to the store or face temptation while there
- Food is tasty
- Organic, non-GMO ingredients
- The bags are color-coded by recipe
Cons
- It’s pricey
- You can’t change the number of meals received per box
- Servings are for two or four people only
- You can’t choose your dinners
Green Chef Review Final Thoughts
It seems that there are more and more newcomers joining the meal kit market daily.
By and large, the most popular meal services function the same; they send you all the ingredients to make a tasty meal.
Green Chef makes things convenient for the home cook because everything is delivered to your door—and they set themselves apart by providing recipes and ingredients that make it easy to follow a paleo, gluten-free, or vegetarian lifestyle.
