Meal Kit Orders Surge During Lockdown

2020 has been a strange and trying year for many of us.

When the dreaded Covid-19 virus hit the UK shores and many folk started stockpiling bog roll and baked beans, another portion of the population trialled meal delivery kits for the first time.

Main image Brooke Lark - Upsplash

Mindful Chef saw an uptick in orders of 452%, a not insignificant rise.

Meal kits offer convenience for the recipient. OK, they may be a bit pricier for the end consumer (although there are some attractive discounts for first time customers), but if it meant that you didn’t need to leave your house to get your food, it seemed people were willing to pay the extra.

Another element of convenience that meal kits offer is the decision making process of what to actually cook. A recent survey showed that the average family cooked the same dish every week.

Now we’re all for a tasty spag bowl or salmon steak (2 weekly staples in our household), but the having new ideas (with ingredients to make it) really helped freshen up the weekly menu.

So what about the cost? Mindful Chef quote on their website that you can get meals delivered for just £3.44 per person per meal.

Assuming a family of 4, that’s £13.76 per meal and you can expect that to be higher for more luxurious ingredients. Gousto comes in at £47.75 for 4 recipes each feeding a family of 4, so that works out at £2.98 per serving.

Allergies are also taken care of with many of the major meal kit delivery boxes too. Plenty cater for gluten-free, nut allergies and there are plenty of vegetarian and vegan options that you can add to your box as well.

The range of recipes available to choose from is the area that has probably improved the most in recent years, as the popularity of these services has improved.

When we tested them, we were never stuck for choice, with the end results almost always delicious and full of flavour.

Only once during our 2 months use of both Gousto and Mindful chef did we have a dish that we thought lacked flavour.

In terms of time to prepare the meals, we found on average that you need 45 minutes to prepare and cook most dishes.

Ok, it’s not as quick as sticking an oven-ready meal in and certainly a lot more time consuming than pinging a microwave meal, but the end result is a much fresher and nutritious dinner, which, let’s be honest, many of us would rather if we had a spare hour to cook.

As we emerge from a national lockdown, and who knows, we might be back in one within the next month or two, it seems that meal kits are here to stay.

Even if you don’t take it up every week, we think it’s a good option every now and again to provide you with a wide range of options and delicious tasting food.