Gousto Box Review

I'm not usually a fan of anything that requires a subscription other than Netflix; I've tried Birchbox before and I totally agree that they're nice as a luxury but it's not something I feel I could sustain or justify for a long period of time. So when some of my work friends mentioned that they were using (and loving) the Gousto Recipe Box, naturally I was a bit sceptical. After digging a little further I found out exactly how it works (because I don't know about you, but I like to know all the facts before I commit my money!)

So, firstly you can choose whether you're catering for 2 or 4 people, you can order 2, 3 or 4 meals per box and you can also set the frequency of deliveries to either weekly, fortnightly or monthly. Then there's the fun part... choosing from over 40 different recipes!

They have 40 different recipes to choose from with new ones every week so if you're a longer term subscriber, you're not going to get bored quickly. You can also filter according to dietary requirements, speed of cooking or healthy choices which makes selecting appropriate recipes so easy if you do have specific needs where food is concerned - they do vegetarian, gluten free and dairy free options and there's plenty of choice in each category.

This week I chose our menu so I went for creamy haddock linguine with tomatoes and chilli, cheesy pepperoni pasta bake, extra special bangers 'n' mash and creamy chicken potato topped pie... next week it'll be Kev's turn so we'll see what he goes for!

You can arrange delivery for a day that suits you which is free if you agree to have it delivered anytime (you can pick a time but you pay extra) they are willing to leave it in a safe place which is ideal and there's no need to worry because the food is well packed and all the chilled food is kept cool with a huge ice pack.

I'll be honest and say that I was worried that the food would come and it'd be battered and just at its best because let's face it that's one of the drawbacks of ordering your groceries online; it's picked out by someone else and ultimately it's not always what you would have picked yourself.

However, I'm pleased to report that everything was perfectly packed and in great condition when I eventually opened it up at 6pm. The fresh veg was still fresh and the ice pack still had hours left in it by the looks of it. You could say the packaging is a bit over the top but I genuinely think that if any less was used, this could compromise the quality of the products when it reached the customer.

What I love about Gousto is that they send exactly what you need for those particular recipes which means that you can try new things without having an oversupply of whatever tiny bit of seasoning it required. The first meal I cooked was the haddock linguine and this is what we had to make it with:

I'd be lying if I said that this was a super-easy meal to make, because it wasn't but what I can say is that all the instructions on the recipe card are really clear and the fact that you don't have to measure anything out also takes off some of the time it would normally take. Obviously if you don't want to spend as little time as possible then you'd filter for the 10 minute meals when you're choosing your recipes.

After nearly choking myself and Kev with chilli flakes, the meal was complete. The portion sizes are slightly smaller than what we are used to but I honestly think that it's me that usually over-does it rather than these actually being small portions.

It was so tasty and really great to have something different. We tend to get stuck in a rut of eating the same things on repeat every single week and don't even get me started on how much I hate shopping and then planning and deciding what to eat. Gousto box takes those steps away and means that midweek meals are so much easier.

The usual price is £34.99 which is expensive and I will question my subscription when the price goes back up but my first one had 60% off it and I'll get 30% off for the rest of the month so I'm happy with that. Follow my link If you'd like to try a box with 60% off (cancel the subscription at any time) if you do buy a box through my link I get £15 so if you'd prefer not to use that link then this is the affiliate-free link to the Gousto website.

Please let me know via Instagram if you do decide to try - let me know what you think!