Green Chef Review: Full-Flavored Meal Kits Crafted With Organic Ingredients

Tackling the workload of meal planning, shopping, prepping, and cooking is a daunting task on its own — to say nothing of how much more challenging it can be if you’re trying to eat organic foods. This is where meal delivery services like Green Chef come into play. This certified organic meal kit company offers up the very tempting option of tackling mealtime management with minimal fuss. 

As a dietitian, professional cook, and meal delivery expert, I’ve tried nearly every major meal kit in the game, including those that promise an organic experience. I took Green Chef for a full test drive, ordering and cooking the meals and even contacting customer service, to help you determine if this organic chef-assist is worth the green.

How I Tested the Service

Over the course of a week, I was able to test out three different meals from Green Chef, doing the bulk of the cooking at dinnertime and enjoying the leftovers for lunch. I ordered a combination of dishes to try out different proteins, meal compositions, diet types, and culinary skill levels to get a feel for the full cooking and eating experience. 

I started off with a blackened salmon with dijonnaise, couscous, corn, roasted peppers, and apricot-glazed green beans, as well as an organic chicken dish with goat cheese, pesto, sautéed mushrooms, kale, cabbage, tomatoes, and almonds. Finally, I chose the beef cavatappi skillet with roasted red peppers, peas, Parmesan, and mozzarella. Overall, I really enjoyed all three of the meals from Green Chef, finding the ordering and sign-up simple to navigate and the recipes tasty (though sometimes requiring a bit of finesse).

Cost

Due to its organic ingredients, Green Chef does have a bit of a higher starting price point than some meal kits, which may be a disqualifying factor for some. Per-serving pricing starts at $11.99 for the largest plan of three or four recipes per week with six servings each. That price reaches as high as $13.49 per serving for the minimum two-serving plan with three meals per week. Promotional discount offers are generally available for newcomers, as well as a current “hero” discount that’s available to certain medical professionals and members of the military.

Packaging

Packaging from Green Chef mirrors a lot of what you see from other meal kit services. The cardboard box that the meals arrive in is curbside recyclable, as are the insulated liner and other cardboard and paper-based pieces that keep the ingredients organized. However, if you’re concerned about plastic packaging, the majority of the ingredients as well as the cooling gel packs are wrapped in films and other plastics that are only recyclable at specialty facilities. While this doesn’t really set Green Chef apart from other services, it’s worth noting as a general part of the experience if single-use plastics are an area of concern for you.

Options

In addition to serving up organic produce, Green Chef’s menu is largely gluten-free and also includes other dietary accommodations like keto, vegetarian, vegan, Mediterranean, and company-specific designations like “Protein Packed” and “Fast & Fit.” The menu offers over 30 different recipes each week, including protein-centric meals that are usually balanced with a source of starch and often plenty of vegetable-heavy dishes to boot. 

In terms of flavor concepts, the menu ranges from cozy comforts like pork chops, Monterey Jack smothered chicken, and pasta dishes to lighter fare like the Southwest summer squash boats or a roasted rainbow carrot and fennel rice bowl with basil pistou. You’ll also find quite a lot of dishes like sandwiches or tacos, along with an abundant add-on section with breakfasts, quick lunches, and a wide range of prepared proteins to help round out your weekly deliveries.

Ease of Use

Green Chef is incredibly easy to use, though not necessarily any more than other meal kits I’ve tried. As Green Chef is a member of the HelloFresh family, I would expect to see that, at least operationally, using it would be smooth and efficient — and that’s exactly what the experience was like. The sign-up process is simple and takes only a few minutes, and while you will need an account to actually place an order, you can view the entire menu prior to becoming a customer. The website is intuitive enough to navigate, and I really had no issues in this area that required me to engage with customer service.

Pros and Cons

Pros: 

• Accommodates a variety of diets
• CCOF-certified organic 
• Large weekly menu 
• Broad range of serving sizes

Cons:

• Higher starting price point
• Culinary experience varies among recipes

Flavor

I appreciate the range of flavors that Green Chef creates in its menus and meals. Whether I was eating the cozy and comforting baked pasta dish with tomato cream sauce or the lighter and more vegetable-forward chicken and goat cheese with kale, everything had a distinct and enjoyable flavor that felt balanced across spice and seasoning. My only gripe might be that, although solid on taste, some prepared sauces felt a bit heavy. In the future, I would keep that in mind when cooking and simply add less sauce than recommended in the recipe. 

The flavors compare pretty closely with that of HelloFresh, and if you look at the two services, you’ll see that the menus are similar — although Green Chef does offer some lighter, more plant-rich fare. In the interest of full disclosure, I will also say that I have tried Green Chef previously, and it does seem that over time the meals have become more HelloFresh-like, which has benefited its flavors but also brings some of the not-so-desirable “gloopy sauce” factor.

Final Thoughts

Green Chef combines the best elements of the meal kit experience — convenience, flavor, and fun — with the ability to eat organic on autopilot. This service is set up to serve singles and couples just as well as larger families, and has a menu that’s more accessible diet and preference-wise than a lot of other top-tier kits. We love Green Chef as an option for anyone with the budget and the drive to eat organic.