I Cooked All of Blue Apron’s Holiday Feast Meal Kits. Here’s What I Loved (and Didn’t)

Meal kits are perfect for cooking all year round, saving you hours of shopping, prepping and cooking. The only time you won’t be able to use these kits is when you want to make specific recipes that aren’t on the company’s weekly menu, for example during the holidays. However, Blue apron And other meal kit companies have filled this gap by offering meal kits specially adapted for the winter season.

Blue Apron’s Holiday Menu has an overlap with the Blue Apron meal kits offered for Thanksgivingwhich I also cooked. These include creamy macaroni and cheese, roasted Brussels sprouts, roasted grape and goat cheese salad, challah rolls, and apple crumb pie. Two new items for December are crispy roast potatoes and roast beef fillet.

Until January 4, these meal kits are available, except for the roast beef filet, which is currently sold out. This is what happened when I tried to prepare them all for a holiday feast.

Roast beef fillet: a quality cut of meat

Inasmuch as vegetarianI gave this one to my partner to make, and he found this 60 minute recipe tasty and easy to prepare. The instructions were clear and much of the flavor came from the sherry-Dijon pan sauce, which was simply made by combining the ingredients.

“The cut of the meat was good and I like that I didn’t have to cut anything,” he said. My partner’s only criticism is that he wishes the meat was a little more tender.

Rating: 8/10
Cost: $110
Servings: 6
Total duration: 60 minutes

Crispy Roasted Potatoes: Tasty, but Difficult to Make

Although I thought these roasted potatoes were delicious, I had a hard time making them and ended up with limp rather than crispy potatoes. The instructions ask that after boiling your potatoes, you drain them and discard them to roughen the edges. It didn’t work in my colander, so I put the potatoes back in the pot, put the lid on and shook them. However, I think this overwrought them, as they didn’t turn golden or crispy after 30 minutes in the oven. I left them for 10 more minutes, but still no luck.

The lack of crispiness might have been caused by user error, and the dish still tasted great with the rosemary, parmesan, and garlic-herb butter. Still, I wish the instructions were more specific to help users achieve the desired crispy texture.

Rating: 7/10
Cost: $8
Servings: 4
Total duration: 55 minutes

Creamy Macaroni and Cheese: Loads of Flavor

I’ve made this mac and cheese before as part of Blue Apron’s Thanksgiving offerings, and I enjoyed it just as much as the first time. Although once again I modified the recipe by combining the cream mixture and different cheeses in the pan to create a cheese sauce, rather than layering the cheese and cream mixture in the dish itself.

I enjoyed the blend of cheeses: cheddar, fontina and Monterey Jack, with parmesan on top. I also loved the flavor of the garlic béchamel sauce and truffle seasoning that I mixed with the bread crumb topping.

Rating: 9/10
Cost: $20
Servings: 6
Total duration: 45 minutes

Challah rolls: don’t take time to prepare them

Unlike the last time I made these rolls for Thanksgiving, they did not arrive crushed, which added to my experience, increasing my rating by one point to 9/10. They’re topped with a maple and salted butter mixture right out of the oven and only require 15 minutes of your time – if that.

Rating: 9/10
Cost: $7
Servings: 12
Total duration: 15 minutes

Roasted Brussels Sprouts: A Game-Changing Recipe

This has become one of my favorite ways to prepare Brussels sprouts, with honey, lemon and toasted pistachios. It only takes 30 minutes, including cooking, and it’s incredibly delicious. My only criticism is that I wish there were more pistachios included.

Rating: 10/10
Cost: $10
Servings: 4
Total duration: 30 minutes

Roasted grape and goat cheese salad: missing ingredients

This is another recipe I made for Thanksgiving, but this time the meal kit arrived without a few key ingredients: kale, arugula, and red grapes. I ended up using my own kale, but I didn’t have any arugula or grapes. The latter is especially essential to the salad, as the grapes are roasted to produce a jammy flavor that complements the salad, so I was sad they weren’t included.

Similar to the pistachios in the Brussels sprouts above, I wish more nuts were included to completely fill out the dish. I also ended up burning them slightly, despite following the instructions.

Regardless, the salad was still tasty. I just wish it wasn’t missing any ingredients, so I’m lowering my previous rating to 7/10.

Rating: 7/10
Cost: 12
Servings: 4
Total duration: 35 minutes

Apple and almond tart

I also made this recipe for Thanksgiving, and it was just as good as last time. This requires a total of 80 minutes, but only 20 minutes of preparation time. I especially liked the addition of four spices (white pepper, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves) in the breadcrumb topping, and I appreciated that the crust was premade and ready to use.

Rating: 8/10
Cost: $15
Servings: 6-8
Total duration: 80 minutes

How much do Blue Apron Christmas meal kits cost?

Here’s the price breakdown for Blue Apron’s Christmas meal kits:

• Roast beef fillet (6 servings): $110
• Crispy Roasted Potatoes (4 servings): $8
• Creamy Mac and Cheese (6 servings): $20
• Roasted Brussels sprouts (4 servings): $10
• Goat salad (4 servings): $12
• Challah Rolls (12 servings): $7
• Apple crumb tart (6-8 servings): $15

Total cost: $182

Depending on where you shop, you may be able to make these recipes yourself at a more affordable price (especially with grocery store inflation). Still, you save time and effort when you go the meal kit route, which is especially beneficial when cooking for a crowd during the holiday season. The new à la carte model from Blue Apron also allows you to choose the meals you want without having to lock yourself into a subscription.

My final thoughts

Overall, I enjoyed Blue Apron’s Christmas meal kits and found everything delicious; Still, I think there is room for improvement in terms of missing ingredients and more detailed instructions (especially for the crispy potatoes). As someone who also tried the company’s Thanksgiving meal kits, I wish they would replace them with new meal kits and less overlap between the two holidays.

As a vegetarian, I also loved being able to eat all of these meal kits, except for the roast beef, which my partner always enjoyed. In the future, it would be cool if a different protein option was offered to vegetarians or vegetarians. vegan.