EveryPlate is a good meal kit subscription service that can help you learn more in the kitchen while taking away the painful task of deciding what the heck to make for dinner. It’s one of the several services owned by HelloFresh, a company I’ve also tested and liked.
EveryPlate offers a few different plans. You can spend as little as $45 per week for three meals with two servings each ($7 per serving), or fully stock your fridge with six meals for six people per week, which costs $150 (or $5 per serving).
Like many other meal kit subscription services, EveryPlate has filters for things like “Calorie Smart,” “Quick and Easy,” and ingredient preferences for vegetarians. Each week you’ll choose your meals from a rotating menu with at least 20 different options. You can skip, pause, or cancel your plan at any time in your account settings.
What Makes EveryPlate Different?
There are some key differences that could make EveryPlate better—or worse—for you and your family.
Unlike most meal kit subscription services, there aren’t any plans for special diets like keto, vegan, or paleo. EveryPlate says that this is to keep prices low. Another difference is in what the company provides for you. Most meal kits require you to provide butter, oil, salt, and pepper. EveryPlate might also require you to have aluminum foil, baking paper, or flour—things most kitchens will still have in stock, but this is an important distinction since other meal kit services typically don’t require you to provide those types of “extras.” Again, this helps lower the cost of EveryPlate compared to other meal kits. And, unlike some other services that group recipe ingredients together ahead of time, EveryPlate sends your ingredients shipped together in one big box or bag. I separated out the dry goods and threw everything else into one big freezer bag in a refrigerator drawer. But you’ll have to corral the items yourself, which can be a little cumbersome in a shared fridge space with other ingredients. This helps keep the prices down and reduces packaging. Generally, EveryPlate is more affordable than most other meal kit services. (And like other services, usually there’s a promotion for new users to cut prices even more.)
Photograph: Louryn Strampe
But How Did It Taste?
During my testing period, I chose to make Pork Chops & Apricot Sauce, Garlicky Tuscan Tomato & Mushroom Penne, and Herb Butter Steak. When I test meal kits, I follow the instructions exactly, using only the ingredients provided (unless explicitly noted otherwise due to extenuating circumstances). I’m an experienced cook with an arsenal of All-Clad cookware, a trusty Kiwi cleaver, and a gas-powered stovetop. I test one service at a time and taste-test recipes with the help of my partner. I note down our initial impressions and opinions before discussing a dish any further.
All of the recipes turned out great. The pork chops with couscous and roasted carrots struck the perfect balance of sweet and savory, creamy and chewy. And the penne dish let mushrooms shine, an ingredient I think is often overpowered by strong sauces and flavors. The end results of the dishes I made were quite delicious.
