I took a break from HelloFresh for quite a while because of our move, travels, and general pace of summer life. Last week we got our third veggie box from HelloFresh, and it was a hit! Our latest vegetarian box included ingredients and recipe cards for these tasty meals:

Peach & Tomato Tartine with Almond and Arugula Salad

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Tex-Mex Risotto with Sweet Corn, Blackened Bell Pepper, and Monterey Jack

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Summer Ratatouille with Fresh Tortellini and Basil Chiffonade

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The first dish I made was the Peach and Tomato Tartine. The recipe card touted it as “almost no-cook” which is a bit of an exaggeration considering you’re instructed to  broil the peaches and tomatoes at 500°F, toast the almonds, and toast the bread, but it was indeed less time spent slaving over a hot stove than the others (risotto, I’m looking at you). Overall, this was a very easy dish to make and it turned out very well. I should have sliced the peaches more thinly, but otherwise I did a good job with this recipe. I’m not the best at plating, but here was my attempt at making the meal look pretty:

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Yum! The salad dressing was SO, SO GOOD. So good that I’m going to share the recipe here: in a medium bowl, whisk together 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar, 2 tablespoons olive oil, 1 teaspoon honey, and a squeeze of lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper. Yes, it’s that simple.

Next up was the Tex-Mex risotto, which the recipe card said would take about 50 minutes to make. It took me probably about an hour and a half from washing and chopping ingredients until the risotto was ready. I didn’t mind, though, because the finished product was super tasty! I actually made it a day ahead so I don’t have a pretty plated picture to share, but here’s the end result in its tupperware:

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The recipe card had failed to mention what to do with the cumin that came in the box, but HelloFresh pretty quickly emailed the correction around to subscribers. I probably could have roasted the bell pepper a bit more—it still had a bit of bite to it—but it wasn’t a big deal. Even though this dish took a fair amount of time to cook, I’d make it again because it was delicious. So. Much. Flavor!

Last but not least was the Summer Ratatouille. As I read through the recipe card before beginning to cook I realized that while it said how to prep the enclosed tomato and thyme, there was no further mention of what to do with those ingredients. I didn’t want to email HelloFresh and have to wait for them to get back to me before cooking, so I winged it by cooking the tomato in the pan with the bell pepper and tossing the thyme in near the end with the cooked vegetables. This dish turned out pretty well too—the sightly charred eggplant, zucchini, and squash tasted great with the cheesy tortellini. The tortellini itself wasn’t the best, but it wasn’t nearly bad enough to mar the whole dish. My chiffonading skills need some work; as you can see in the below pic I basically just bruised the basil instead of slicing it into thin ribbons. It still tasted good, though, which is what *really* counts.  😛

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After I cooked the ratatouille I emailed HelloFresh to let them know about the recipe error, and they wrote back and apologized for the mistake. I will say that all of my customer service interactions with HelloFresh thus far have been good, which is important.

So I’d call last week’s box a win! Both my husband and I enjoyed all three veggie dishes, which is no small feat with one meat eater in the house. Each meal was easy to cook; even though the risotto took a long time it’s not like it took mad kitchen skills to do properly. It’s hard to say which dish was my favorite this week, but if I was forced to choose I think I’d say the risotto. It was creamy, cheesy, and had serious flavor—and the time I put into making it was well worth it.

Read my first HelloFresh review

Read my second HelloFresh review

How does HelloFresh work? You sign up for a subscription and select either the Classic Box or the Veggie Box. Each box contains ingredients and recipe cards for three meals that serve two or four people apiece. The price for each box varies based on the meals—which change from week to week—and the number of people you need to serve. The Veggie box starts at $9.08 per meal per person, while the Classic box starts at $10.75 per meal per person. You pick a delivery date, and voilà—a box appears on your doorstep between 8am and 8pm that day! HelloFresh is currently running a special offer for 30% off your first week for a two or four person Classic or Veggie box, so now’s a great time to give it a try yourself!

Are you a HelloFresh subscriber? What’s the best meal you’ve cooked from the service so far?

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