5 Best Freshly Meals 2022: How to Pick the Meals You’ll Love
Freshly offers a good selection of prepared vegetarian, carnivore, and seafood meals. It also features several different cuisines to keep its menu pretty interesting, in my experience.
On Freshly’s menu, you’ll find Latin American, Italian, Japanese, Thai, American, French, and Indian food. No matter what your spice or flavor preferences might be, I think you’ll find that there’s something here that you’ll really enjoy.
Here, I’ll recommend several of the best Freshly meals your entire family might love – all of which require zero prep, zero cooking, and not much effort other than simply heating and eating them.
Short on Time? Here Are the Best Freshly Meals
Thai Green Curry Bowl – Best low-calorie vegan Thai meal
Steak Peppercorn – Best carb-conscious steak meal
Homestyle Chicken – Best chicken recipe with a side of mac and cheese
Cuban Mojo Shrimp – Lowest-calorie shrimp meal from the FreshlyFit menu
Chicken Tikka Masala – Best high-protein, gluten-free Indian meal from the Signature Collection
The Best Freshly Meals Reviewed
Key Features
Best low-calorie vegan Thai meal
Nutritional content per meal: 390 calories
Suitable for vegans, vegetarians, dairy-free, and gluten-free
The Thai Green Curry Bowl is a great vegan, dairy-free, and gluten-free option served with sweet potato, mushrooms, and basmati rice. You’ll find the coconut milk a nice complement to the Thai-influenced vegetables.
The veggies include bok choy, red bell pepper, green chickpeas, and yellow onion. This might not be the most family-friendly option – especially for those who like plain meals – but for those who like exciting meals, this is also a low-calorie and carb-conscious choice.
As with all of Freshly’s meals, you’ll have the choice of heating this up in your microwave or oven, depending on your preferences. It can be heated in about 3 minutes or less in your microwave, depending on its output, or about 30 minutes or less in your oven.
Key Features
Excellent basic family-friendly steak meal
Nutritional content per meal: 500 calories
Suitable for gluten-free, soy-free, and those who prefer high protein
The sautéed carrots and french green beans are a great complement to this otherwise pretty basic, family-friendly steak recipe. You’ll be getting a tender cut of flat iron steak (otherwise known as blade steak) served with creamy mashed potatoes.
The veggies are tossed in a garlic, lemon, herb, and oil sauce, and sauteed until they’re tender. If you have children, or anyone living in your household who prefers more basic meals with not too many spices, this meal could be a good option for you.
Some other ingredients to take note of are: the peppercorn cream sauce (made from water, half cream, and half milk), onion, plain yogurt, chicken stock concentrate, canola oil, rice flour, and baking powder.
Key Features
Simplest chicken recipe with a side of mac and cheese
Nutritional content per meal: 560 calories
Suitable for gluten-free, soy-free, and those who prefer high protein
This high-protein, soy-free, and gluten-free homestyle chicken recipe with mac and cheese is sure to please even those with the pickiest tastes, like children. You’ll notice a very modest number of pretty basic ingredients here like gluten-free brown rice pasta and gluten-free almond flour batter, and a sauce thickened with butternut squash.
You’ll find that the vegetables are tossed in a house-infused garlic oil sauce, with the option of adding a bit of kick as well in the form of red pepper flakes. All-in-all, the overall calories are pretty low at only 560 calories per meal considering that it includes mac and cheese, and the protein content is also quite high at 46 grams per meal.
Key Features
Great FreshlyFit Cuban shrimp meal
Nutritional content per meal: 410 calories
Suitable for carb-conscious, low-calorie, gluten-free, dairy-free, and soy-free
The Cuban Mojo Shrimp is a popular vegetarian choice in the FreshlyFit category and is served with cauliflower rice and black-eyed pea succotash. It’s also a very low-carb, low-calorie, gluten-free, dairy-free, and soy-free choice for those watching out for that.
If you’re into a bit of spice, the main ones used for the shrimp are cayenne pepper and paprika. You’ll be getting a sauce for the shrimp as well which is made of lime juice, orange juice, cumin, and garlic making this a very authentic Cuban-style dish.
As a side, you’ll get a succotash (a vegetable dish made from sweet corn) containing sweet corn, zucchini, sweet potato, black-eyed peas, red onion, and spinach. In total, you’re looking at one whole cup of vegetables if you’re looking to keep your heat-and-eat meals relatively rich in nutrition.
Key Features
Great gluten-free Indian meal option
Nutritional content per meal: 570 calories
Suitable for gluten-free, and those who prefer spicy and high-protein
This is one of my personal favorites and gets served with seven-spice vegetable biryani. The Chicken Tikka Masala is a spicy, gluten-free, and high-protein meal, and contains a creamy sauce made from Indian-influenced spices like masala seasoning, tomatoes, and Greek yogurt.
You’ll also get a combination of chicken thighs and chickpeas for added flavor and protein. The biryani (Indian rice dish) is made up of basmati rice, diced carrots, green beans, peas, and seven fragrant, Indian-influenced spices including cardamom, garam masala, chili powder, cumin, turmeric, curry, and coriander.
You can also add a homemade raita topping to add a bit of extra flavor to your meal. The raita is made up of Greek yogurt, sliced cucumber, and chopped mint.
Quick Comparison Table
Heat time | Calories | Suitable For | Difficulty Level | |
3 minutes or less | 390 calories | Vegan, vegetarian, dairy-free, gluten-free | Easy – just heat and eat | |
3 minutes or less | 500 calories | Gluten-free, soy-free, high-protein | Easy – just heat and eat | |
3 minutes or less | 560 calories | High-protein, soy-free, gluten-free | Easy – just heat and eat | |
3 minutes or less | 410 calories | Gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free, low-calorie, carb-conscious | Easy – just heat and eat | |
3 minutes or less | 570 calories | Spicy, gluten-free, high-protein | Easy – just heat and eat |
Bottom Line: How Freshly’s Meals Stack Up to the Competition?
Freshly is unique in the sense that it only provides prepared meals. All you will need to do is heat them up. But just how good can heat-and-eat meals be? Surprisingly, I’ve found Freshly’s meals to be high-quality, even though they’re heat-and-eat.
Whether you like to stick to more basic recipes from traditional American cuisine, or you like to experiment and try other things, Freshly has a quite large selection of different meals. You can choose from a variety of low-calorie, carb-conscious, vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, soy-free, and high-protein meals.
FAQ
Does Freshly have good meals?
This is a pretty subjective question – but in my experience, though Freshly’s meals are all heat-and-eat, I’ve found them to be quite high-quality. Its meals contain a very low amount of non-naturally occurring sugars and processed ingredients. Freshly is also certified gluten-free.
How long does it take to prepare a Freshly meal?
All of Freshly’s meals are prepared for you, this means all you have to do is heat them up. Each meal takes about 3 minutes to heat up. Each meal can also be heated in the oven if you prefer to do that. In that case, it’ll take about 25-30 minutes.
Should Freshly meals be frozen?
Each meal is delivered fresh and typically has a refrigerated shelf life of about 5-7 days. Freshly recommends freezing your meals if you aren’t able to consume them within those 5-7 days. The amount of time each meal will last will depend on how cold your freezer gets. Deep freezers will keep your meals fresher for longer.
Mike Pawlik
Mike is a writer based in Calgary. Though he's written about technology, fitness, and lifestyle, as a seasoned cook, food remains one of his top passions
