I recently received my first box from GreenChef.com, the organic meal subscription box service.  The shipment was delayed by two days, but GreenChef’s customer support is awesome.  They’re sending me another box to make up for the problem, which is much appreciated.

Strictly speaking, the replacement box probably wasn’t needed.  When my box arrived Friday afternoon ice packs were frozen and the food still looked fine.  Despite this I still had concerns.  First, I’ve lost two days of cooking, which means I’ll have another box arrive while I’m still dealing with this box.  I’m also concerned the delay could mean the veggies will start to wilt before I get around to cooking the last meal.  (If I were cooking a carnivore box the delay would be more of a concern.)  Since GreenChef is crediting me a box, I don’t have to worry about the shipping snafu costing me money.

So how does the box itself measure up?  GreenChef features USDA Organic ingredients, and all my veggies and other ingredients were very high quality, on par with what I expect from a high-end supermarket.  Because the ingredients are organic, I think GreenChef’s ingredients have higher overall quality than the other services.

I’ve set out the ingredients for one meal (Ramen with Soft Boiled Eggs and Seared Bok Choy) so you can see the packaging.

What makes GreenChef different?

• All foods are USDA Organic.
• All the packaging is recyclable.  It’s also pretty cool packaging!  I can totally re-use the cute box the ramen noodles came in.  The sauces and soup stock are in very nice small, reusable jars.  They’ll be much needed the next time I have to hop a plane.
• They sent eggs!  I’m still in shock over this small thing.  Two USDA organic eggs, nestled in a box in the center of the larger food box, so the eggs had plenty of cushioning.
• Many of the ingredients are pre-cut.  This recipe has pre-cut leeks, and several other recipes this week also have pre-cut veggies.
• The recipe card has a nice series of cookware icons near the bottom to let you know exactly what you’ll need.  It’s nice to see a large pan, obviously a stock pan, instead of the “large pan” description some of the other recipes have.
• GreenChef does not list how much of each ingredient is in a recipe, which makes the recipes hard to recreate.  For example how many cups of leeks are in that small bag? How many tablespoons of sriracha in the jar?  My solution was to weigh the ingredients in the packaging, then later weigh the empty packaging and subtract.
• Like the other services, GreenChef crams a lot of instructions into a tiny space.  They don’t bold the names of the ingredients, which makes it easy to accidentally overlook something.  I’m getting tired of how these services prioritize non-informative photos over readability.  For example, GreenChef could have lost the useless photo of showing how to chop a carrot into bite-size rounds, and instead made the font a little larger.  Ditto the picture of cutting an egg in half lengthwise.  That photo added zilch to my cooking experience.

Later this week I’ll review the individual recipes from this box.