Mindful Chef is the meal delivery service bringing healthy recipes home. But is it worth the hype? Absolutely London asks a family of 4 to test it out
By Pendle Harte
Mindful Chef Review
With meal deliveries on the up since the Coronavirus pandemic, business is currently booming at Mindful Chef. Their clever delivery model is designed to help us expand our meal repertoire while focusing on healthier dishes – all involving very little effort. Choose from their weekly recipes online if you like, or simply order a random box based on your dietaries (because isn’t it a luxury to be spared deciding what to eat?) and specify how many people you want to cook how many meals for.
Your delivery will include every last ingredient you will need for each meal, all in separate labelled bags and fully idiotproof. Packaging is recyclable – either for your own recycling bin or designed to be returned to Mindful Chef for reuse (Collect Plus labels are included) and plastic is minimal.
Our favourite recipes were: chicken pasanda with red rice and roasted broccoli, which was rich, hearty and coconuty and a lentil and courgette bake; we also enjoyed Cajun chicken and lamb moussaka. Recipes incorporate lots of vegetables and fewer carbohydrates in a drive to be mindful of eating healthily.
In all, the only flaw is the expectation for you to have literally nothing in your kitchen. This means that tiny quantities of spices and liquids are measured out into small plastic containers which are unlikely to be recycled. But the demographic seems a bit questionable – who has enough interest in food to order a Mindful box yet not enough to have any soy sauce in their kitchen?. Tiny sachets of balsamic, soy and single teaspoon measures of spices in mini plastic pots just don’t seem right.
Still, Mindful Chef has a lot going for it and a stint with box deliveries is likely to improve anyone’s cooking skills and creativity. Meals work out at between £4 and £6 per head; full details including nutritional values are specified.
