Blue Apron Meal Delivery Review 2023

Blue Apron Review At a Glance:
5/5

Get delicious high-quality meal kits, based on the freshest ingredients, including seafood, meats, and farm-fresh vegetables – all delivered straight to your doorstep by Blue Apron.

Blue Apron logo
10/10
5/5
2024 OFFER- Get Blue Apron for $2.8 per meal + free shipping on first box

All You Need To Know About Blue Apron Service

Blue Apron is a meal kits subscription service offering upscale-casual chef-designed dishes to cook at home. The service delivers 2–4 recipes per week, as you desire, directly to your door, along with all the ingredients you need to cook so that you can skip many grocery shopping trips during the week.

Blue Apron has plenty of options, with a menu of two-serving meal kits and pre-made meals that change every week.

In this review, we will take a deeper look at the features, pros and cons of the Blue Apron Service.

Did You Know That Blue Apron Was The First Meal Kit Company In The US?

It all began in 2012, and it was the start of a new and rapidly-growing trend to hit the USA market.

Over time, as the industry expanded, the company has maintained its position as one of the largest meal delivery services and is still one of America’s largest meal kit companies.

You get professional-style meals, including all ingredients pre-arranged in portions, delivered straight to you at home. In addition, you’ll enjoy restaurant-level, quality recipes that can prepare easily in your kitchen. 

When you use Blue Apron, you can stop thinking about planning meals and shopping for groceries. It’s all available in one complete and convenient service, which is excellent value for money.

Zaatar-spiced barramundi by Blue Apron
Zaatar-spiced barramundi by Blue Apron
Blue Apron logo
2024 OFFER- Get Blue Apron for $2.8 per meal + free shipping on first box

Who Do Blue Apron Meal Kits Cater To?

Blue Apron is an excellent meal delivery service for people who love cooking – and eating!

The recipes are exciting and usually have interesting twists, making some indulgent and delicious meals.

There’s a wide range of dishes available; some are quicker and easier to cook, and others take longer. The available recipes all take between 20 minutes and an hour to prepare.

How Does Blue Apron Work?

Blue Apron is a subscription-based service with a few plans on offer. The price varies based on how many meals you take per week.

  • Classic signature Plan for 2-people, with 2-4 dishes each week. You can choose from an ever-changing mix of meat, fish, Beyond Meat, WW Approved, Diabetes-Friendly recipes, and health-conscious meals.
  • Family Plan for 4-people, with 2-4 dishes each week.
  • Vegetarian plan for 2-people with 2 to 3 dishes each week, including meat-free dishes that celebrate seasonal and fresh produce.
  • Wellness plan for 2-people with balanced recipes designed for holistic health, including carb-conscious, WW Approved meals, and low-calorie per serving options.

Blue Apron offers the flexibility to change plans from week to week, skip weeks when needed, or pause your account at any time.

Pros And Cons Of The Service

Main Pros

  • A convenient option for meal time, allowing you to skip meal grocery shopping
  • Available Blue Apron meals for omnivore and vegetarian diets
  • Includes non-GMO ingredients, sustainably sourced protein, and sourced from family-run farms
  • Offers choices for those following a Weight Watchers diet or those needing diabetes-friendly menu items
  • Bigger orders receive the perk of free shipping
  • Wine pairings and market items (like kitchen tools) are available as add-ons for each delivery.

Main Cons

  • This meal kit delivery service does not offer options for all dietary needs, like vegan or Paleo.
  • It requires a subscription for delivery; one-time orders are not available

How to Get Started With Blue Apron?

It is effortless to get started with Blue Apron. First, register your account on the website or app. Blue Apron has some terrific coupons if you’re just starting as a new customer.

Once you’ve signed up for an account, select your plan and recipes from the menu. There are many meal options, including vegetarian, low-carb, low-calorie, ‘quick & easy, and others.

Then, just wait for your delivery to arrive at your door. Your order will arrive in a marked box with all the recipes and ingredients included and step-by-step instructions about preparing the meals. Then, simply follow the recipe, cook your meal, and sit down at the table to enjoy!

Blue Apron has complete flexibility that lets you skip a week if you need to skip a week. You can switch recipes in advance, which gives you more flexibility in planning your meals for the weeks ahead. You can cancel your account with no penalties. Enjoy the Blue Apron service with no expensive long-term commitments.

Yellow curry and lemongrass tilapia blue apron WW
Yellow curry and lemongrass tilapia blue apron WW
Blue Apron logo
2024 OFFER- Get Blue Apron for $2.8 per meal + free shipping on first box

What Kind of Recipes Does Blue Apron Offer?

With Blue Apron, you have a choice of 19 recipes per week.

Professional chefs create all the Blue Apron’s meals so that you can get restaurant-level dishes in the comfort of your home. Blue Apron loves to make the dining experience wonderful, with new tastes and flavors to explore.

Blue Apron also has an impressive range in terms of cuisine, including burgers, tacos, classic European dishes like quiche, pasta, and flatbreads, and Asian dishes, like stir-fries and noodles.

Blue Apron’s menu is original and innovative, with fantastic partnerships with renowned food gurus and chefs who put their style into the recipes.

Also, Blue Apron creates dishes based on famous or popular diet trends, like the Mediterranean diet, low-carb, diabetes-friendly, weight watchers, and more.

There is also a range of pre-made meals for microwave heating – with no cooking required, and some ‘quick & easy’ options – both of which are fantastic options for having amazing recipes on hand that you can serve to the dinner table in no time!

Blue Apron is an excellent meal kit service for more experienced people in the kitchen and those who want to shake up their cooking repertoire.

Blue Apron Recipes Review

Blue Apron offers a range of balanced and healthy meals, with a clear focus on adding fresh veggies to your meal planning.

Over our years of experience, we tried many Blue Apron meals. Usually, the prep work took not more than 5 minutes, and the total cooking time ranged from 20-45 minutes.

What was common to all was the excellent taste!

We Recommend Checking These Blue Apron Meals That We Put To Test:

  • Shawarma-spiced lamb & couscous with harissa-roasted vegetables & tzatziki
  • Yellow curry & lemongrass tilapia with brown rice
  • Heat & Eat pre-cooked meal – Ginger Pork & Beef Meatballs with Rice & Sautéed Vegetables
  • Cavatappi pasta & pork ragù with romano cheese
  • Couscous-Stuffed poblano peppers with spinach, raisins & tahini
  • One-Pan udon noodle & spicy peanut stir-fry with veggies and beef
  • Yuzu & Honey-Glazed Chicken Thighs with Brown Rice, Vegetables & Avocado
  • Cheese Crisp Burgers with Dijonnaise, Arugula & Balsamic Onions
  • Heat & Eat meal – Romesco Chicken Bowl with Quinoa & Kale
  • Seared Steaks & Homemade Steak Sauce with Mashed Potatoes & Sautéed Vegetables
  • Beef Enchiladas Rojas with Sweet Peppers & Cheddar Cheese
blue apron Salmon

We tried Blue Apron’s Sheet Pan Zaatar Chicken Pitas

We love sheet pan meal kits. It’s usually recipes designed with ease of cooking and cleanup in mind, but without sacrificing flavors. Blue Apron offers a few sheet pan and other fast and easy recipes every week.

This classic Mediterranean pita sandwich, filled with sliced chicken thighs coated with za’atar herbs, roasted onion and pepper, and a layer of yogurt tzatziki sauce has some bright and fresh flavor in every bite.

But to be honest, what we enjoyed the most from this dish is the carrot fries – what a great healthy idea! The sweet and tender carrots were a delight, and went well with the harissa mayonnaise. We’ll go as far to say that we can see ourselves swapping the regular go-to fries recipe to these in the future.

Sheet Pan Zaatar Chicken Pitas Blue Apron
Sheet Pan Zaatar Chicken Pitas Blue Apron
Blue Apron logo
2024 OFFER- Get Blue Apron for $2.8 per meal + free shipping on first box

What Do You Get Inside Your Blue Apron Box?

Your Blue Apron delivery includes all the pre-measured ingredients packed and arranged in a clearly labeled box for your chosen recipes.

Items that require refrigeration are packed at the bottom of the box with ice packs to keep them cool and safe. However, since the ingredients are portion-sized, you can expect less food waste.

With Blue Apron, you will find that you’ll need to do some sorting of the delivery when it arrives, as it will not be pre-sorted for you. However, it only takes a few minutes to sort.

Blue Apron does pack the more minor ingredients into separate, individual bags, which is a good advantage.

For each Blue Apron recipe, you can find a detailed recipe card with step-by-step instructions and pictures on cooking the meals at home.

The Quality of Blue Apron Ingredients

When we put Blue Apron’s meal kits to the test, our expert team was pleased with the results – time and time again. The fresh ingredients were of consistently high quality.

The meats included in the meal kits are hormone-free and antibiotic-free. The seafood is sourced sustainably, vegetables and fruits are farm-fresh and locally sourced, and the seasonings and condiments are handcrafted artisan specialties.

blue apron box

How Does Blue Apron Compare?

The meal kit delivery services industry is full of options, each with different price points and characteristics. In the Following reviews, you can find comparisons of Blue Apron with other meal kit services:

Home Chef Vs Blue Apron

Sunbasket Vs Blue Apron

HelloFresh Vs Blue Apron

How is Blue Apron’s Website & App?

Both the Blue Apron app and website are user-friendly with a handy layout. Everything you need to do to register and manage your account can be done online, including choosing your dining preferences, selecting weekly meals, and updating your payment details. In addition, you can alter your weekly recipe choices up to one month in advance.

The website also includes extra nutritional information about the dishes, including ingredients for each recipe, calorie count, total fats, and more.

Add-ons Options – Appetizers, Dessert, Wine, Kitchen Tools, And More

The Blue Apron subscription includes a wide array of add-on options. Besides purchasing meal kits each week, you can opt to get additional appetizers and desserts for a convenient meal time. You can typically expect to see a few options for each category available to select per week.

Blue Apron also features wine pairing options that accentuate the flavors of every meal you receive. The Blue Apron wine bottles are sold in smaller 500mL sizes, making them the perfect serving for two people. You can select between receiving only red wines or white wines or creating a custom wine box for delivery.

Beyond this, there’s a marketplace that has every kitchen tool you could need to prepare meals in your kitchen, from grill pans to chef’s knives. Other market items include pantry staples like spice blends, wine bundles, etc.

Blue Apron logo
2024 OFFER- Get Blue Apron for $2.8 per meal + free shipping on first box

Our Final Verdict For The Blue Apron Review

Is Blue Apron Worth Your Money?

For those who love cooking but want to spice up things up in the kitchen, or if you are looking to save costs on your weekly menu and seriously cut down on time spent in the grocery store – We highly recommend giving Blue Apron meal kits and pre-made meals a try!

It’s great to see that Blue Apron continues to be one of the top meal delivery services around in the test of time!

The Blue Apron recipes contain only 100% high-quality ingredients, based on incredibly fresh fish, meats, and farm vegetables.

Blue Apron makes sure to partner with local suppliers who use sustainable farming methods to create premium, real restaurant-quality meals without the need to do the grocery shopping. It all arrives fresh and pre-portioned at your door once a week.

Bottom line – Every meal we tried from Blue Apron was a winner!

Due to the convenience, taste, and strides toward being an eco-friendly company, we recommend Blue Apron to anyone searching for a new meal delivery service.

blue apron box review
Blue Apron logo
2024 OFFER- Get Blue Apron for $2.8 per meal + free shipping on first box
5/5 (2 Reviews)
5/5 (2 Reviews)

About the author

Amanda (Mandi)
Amanda is a meal kits addict and a blogger who reviews meal delivery services on a daily basis since 2015. Mandi leads the content review team at themealkitcomparison.com since 2018.
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Related FAQ’s

Blue Apron meals arrive at your front door weekly. However, they cannot survive in the box for very long. All the packaging does the job until it reaches your home. We recommend you properly store food items in the fridge as soon as it arrives, or at least when you see notice the delivery.

If you properly store the ingredients, then the food should last for about seven days. Blue Apron encourages customers to contact them if the food turns out to be low-quality within those seven days after arrival.

Blue Apron does an excellent job of packaging its ingredients so that they arrive at customers’ doorsteps safely and carefully. However, the purpose of the packaging is not to store the food, just to deliver it.

Blue Apron meals last in the box through their delivery. Packaging and food safety experts inspect the packaging contents and the packing methods before sending the food. They use thermal liners and healthy storing techniques so that the meals always arrive safely.

Once the meal kit touches your front porch, ideally, it is best to take all the contents inside and refrigerate all that needs to be cooled. Your region’s climate can affect the freshness of the meals. Since a lot of the ingredients are temperature sensitive, the outside environment can ruin the food. For this, you should bring the meal kit inside and properly store as soon as it arrives.

Blue Apron delivers meals to your front door weekly. Therefore, you get one week’s worth of ingredients and recipes in one package. Meals do not come on separate days.

Delivery days largely depend on the region you live in. Technically, Blue Apron can deliver every day, except Sundays, but this does not go for every part of the country.

When you sign up for Blue Apron, you must enter your zip code. From here, you can select the first day of delivery. After this, Blue Apron assumes that you want to continue to receive food on this day of the week. You can, of course, change the delivery day whenever you want.

The amount of meals delivered to your front door depends on what meal plan you select. There are three plans to choose from, and they all have different quantities of meals that arrive weekly.

The Signature Plan consists of two-serving recipes, ideal for couples or singles, with a combination of meat and fish protein sources. For this plan, you can receive two or three recipes per week.

The Signature for Four Plan delivers four-serving meals, ideal for families. Similar to the Signature Plan, there is a combination of meat and fish recipes. Unlike the original plan, you choose to receive between two and four recipes per week.

The Vegetarian Plan is meat-free and focuses on seasonal produce. All the meals are two servings, and you can select between two and three recipes for the week.

Unfortunately, Blue Apron does not offer any plan for one person. However, we think that a Blue Apron membership is still worth it for singles.

Purchase a two-serving plan so that you can use the leftovers for lunch the next day or for dinner the next night. You can also save meals for dinners with friends. You don’t have to waste the extra food. Use it for another meal or share it with friends.

We love both Blue Apron and Hello Fresh for a meal kit delivered to your door. However, when it comes down to it, we have to go with Hello Fresh. It has certain qualities that appeal to a broader audience of cooks.

Don’t get us wrong; Blue Apron is an excellent service. The meals are tasty, and the delivery service is phenomenal. However, Hello Fresh gets you more for your money. Portion sizes tend to come out larger than those in a Blue Apron kit. Plus, meals typically take about 30 minutes to prepare, and the meal selection per week in much larger.

What sealed the deal on our decision is that Hello Fresh offers simpler recipes. Blue Apron is for the home cook who wants a bit of a challenge. Hello Fresh, on the other hand, has easy recipes that anyone in a kitchen can prepare.

Overall, if we need to recommend between Blue apron vs Hello fresh, we have to go with Hello Fresh.

Yes, the steps to cancel Blue Apron are relatively straightforward. You can simply email customer service, and you’ll receive a detailed list of instructions to follow to cancel your account. Follow the step-by-step instructions, and your account cancellation will be accomplished in only a few minutes.

If you’re seeking cancellation due to delivery changes, there are alternative options that allow you to keep your subscription.

Log in via a computer or the phone app, and you can easily skip weeks, change your delivery address, and order add-ons. Blue Apron is pretty customizable for each weekly delivery as far as meal delivery services go.

While getting a delivery from Blue Apron’s service may seem higher, these meal kit deliveries are convenient and offer high-quality ingredients, making them a good value for the price.

You can order a whole week’s worth of meals for approximately the same cost as a few restaurant meals, making it a more affordable price than delivery.

If you typically purchase high-quality products from the grocery store, the Blue Apron cost can often be a more affordable option.

Blue Apron falls in the median of pricing for meal kit delivery services. When considering cost versus value, Blue Apron offers the right amount of bang for your buck.

Whether you’re a professional chef, a new home cook, or something in the middle, you’ll find Blue Apron meals straightforward to prepare. While delicious, the meals feature simple cooking methods enough for chefs of all abilities to create.

Each delivery comes with a recipe card with clear step-by-step instructions. Each card comes with notes on the appropriate cook times for the meal, helping to guide you to a perfectly cooked lunch or dinner every time.

If you have any additional questions, there are also online resources that Blue Apron offers to aid in creating meals at home. Head to the app or website, and you’ll find how-to videos that provide information and advice on recipes and steps.

There’s even a digital cookbook that provides additional recipes that you can make at home to continue practicing your cooking skills.

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