10 Best HelloFresh Recipes 2023: Try Before You Buy

You’re interested in HelloFresh, but you don’t want to commit to a subscription before you try the food. Why not cook some of the best HelloFresh recipes and see if you enjoy them?

HelloFresh offers an online cookbook with the instructions for many of their most popular meal kits. You don’t get the convenience of delivery, but you can buy the listed ingredients and prepare the meal according to its recipe.

I’ve scanned customer feedback and poured through HelloFresh’s cookbook to bring you the recipes that best represent the HelloFresh menu. I’ve also consulted with my colleague who found that the recipes “were well outlined and resulted in super tasty meals.”

If you like the recipes on this list, you’ll love a HelloFresh subscription. Read on for a guide to the best commitment-free HelloFresh meals you can eat!

Short on Time? Here Are the Best HelloFresh Recipes

• One-Pan Trattoria Tortelloni Bake – Best HelloFresh recipe
  

• When Steak Met Potatoes – Best HelloFresh steak recipe
  

• “Little Ears” Pasta with Broccoli & Pesto – Best family-friendly HelloFresh recipe

• Pan-Seared Chicken with Herbs De Provence – Best HelloFresh calorie smart recipe
  

• Honey Dijon Dill Trout – Best HelloFresh gourmet plus recipe
  

• Honey Dijon Dill Trout – Best HelloFresh gourmet plus recipe
  

• See 5 more HelloFresh Recipes

• Quick Comparison Table

• FAQs

The Best HelloFresh Recipes Reviewed

1. One-Pan Trattoria Tortelloni Bake – Best HelloFresh Recipe

Key Features

• Total cooking time: 25 minutes

• Cooking Difficulty: Easy

• Utensils required: Small bowl, medium pan, baking dish (if your pan isn’t oven-proof)

I gave HelloFresh’s One-Pan Trattoria Tortelloni Bake our #1 slot because it’s a perfect example of the things HelloFresh does well. This Tortelloni Bake may not be the most adventurous recipe in the HelloFresh cookbook, but it expands your cooking skills, improves your diet, and saves you time planning and preparing meals.

This recipe takes you through the steps of making a sauce. If you’re used to pasta sauce out of a jar, you’ll be amazed at how much better a homemade sauce tastes. Toss your tortelloni in an oven-safe skillet and you can take it from stovetop to broiler in one easy step.

While the calories (750) and sodium (1,490 mg) are a bit high, you won’t be consuming the preservatives, MSG, and high fructose corn syrup you find in many bottled pasta sauces. Eating healthy is a spectrum. HelloFresh lets you eat better while still eating the foods you love.

2. When Steak Met Potatoes – HelloFresh’s Finest Steak Recipe

Key Features

• Total cooking time: 30 minutes

• Cooking Difficulty: Easy

• Utensils required: Baking sheet, medium pan, large pan

There’s something primally satisfying about steak and potatoes. HelloFresh’s When Steak Met Potatoes uses high-quality but simple ingredients for a dinner that’s hearty, satisfying, and comes in at only 525 calories and 598 mg sodium per serving.

HelloFresh starts with oven-roasted potatoes and pan-cooked sirloin. When you start there, it’s hard to go wrong. But HelloFresh takes it to the next level with peppercorn sauce and creamed kale.

Kale? Yep, kale. In this recipe, kale’s assertive bitterness is blunted by the sour cream sauce, the roasted potatoes, and the rich sirloin. Add the zing from the peppercorn sauce and steak meets potatoes in a hearty yet perfectly balanced minimalist masterpiece.

One of the big advantages of a meal delivery service is that you’re exposed to ingredients you might otherwise never try. HelloFresh may forever change the way you feel about kale and lots of other healthy foods.

3. “Little Ears” Pasta with Broccoli & Pesto – Best Family-Friendly HelloFresh Recipe

Key Features

• Total cooking time: 25 minutes

• Cooking Difficulty: Easy

• Kitchen Equipment Needed: Large pot, strainer, large pan

If your children turn their noses up at broccoli, this tasty dish may change their minds. Orecchiette (“Little ears”) are the signature pasta of southern Italy’s Apulia region, where they’re often served with hot sausage and bitter rapini, or broccoli rabe.

HelloFresh offers a milder take on the Apulia classic, using sweet sausage and broccoli florets. The little ears are coated in green pesto and tossed with shaved Parmesan and sweet Italian sausage. HelloFresh includes an optional pack of chili flakes in its meal kit for those who want a little heat.

With 900 calories, these little ears may not be a good choice for those on weight-loss diets. But if you want to dish up comfort food your kids will love complete with a helping of vegetables, Little Ears Pasta with Broccoli and Pesto may turn your babies into broccoli-lovers.

4. Pan-Seared Chicken with Herbs De Provence – Best HelloFresh Calorie Smart Recipe

Key Features

• Total cooking time: 30 minutes

• Cooking Difficulty: Easy

• Kitchen Equipment Needed: Pot, Small Bowl, Large Pan

If you haven’t tried herbs de Provence yet, you should. This southern French blend of tarragon, lavender, and a few other spices is amazingly versatile. You can use it on pork, pasta, beef, and vanilla ice cream. (Try the last one. You’ll thank me later).

HelloFresh spices the chicken breasts with herbs de Provence before pan cooking, then serves it atop an Italian-inspired base of minced shallots and farro (a nutty grain), with mozzarella and Roma tomatoes drizzled with a dressing of honey, balsamic vinegar, and olive oil.

At 590 calories, Pan-Seared Chicken with Herbs de Provence meets HelloFresh’s Calorie Smart (under 650 calories) filter. With 38 grams of carbs and 10 grams of sugar per serving, this recipe is healthy but may not be suited for those on the strictest keto diets.

5. Honey Dijon Dill Trout  – Best HelloFresh Gourmet Plus Recipe

Key Features

• Total cooking time: 35 minutes

• Cooking Difficulty: Medium

• Kitchen Equipment Needed: Zester, large bowl, baking sheet, paper towel, large pan

If you want to try one of HelloFresh’s higher-end Gourmet Plus meals, (and you can get top-quality fresh steelhead trout), HelloFresh’s Honey Dijon Dill Trout is a great introduction to HelloFresh’s more challenging recipes.

The recipe involves laying thinly sliced potatoes in a single shingled layer on a baking tray, then removing the tray halfway through and adding some broccoli florets to roast. You’ll need to watch the time or you could end up with blackened broccoli if you don’t follow instructions.

(Oh, I forgot to mention that while the broccoli and carrots are cooking, you also need to pan-cook the trout and prepare the sauce).

If this is over your pay grade, never fear! Many HelloFresh recipes are rated “Easy.” But if you want to try more advanced cooking, HelloFresh’s Honey Dijon Dill Trout will reward you with a restaurant-quality meal.

6. Ginger-Turmeric Tilapia – Best HelloFresh Pescatarian Recipe

Key Features

• Total prep time: 35 minutes

• Cooking Difficulty: Easy

• Ingredients Required: Zester, small pot, large pan, medium bowl, paper towel

This is one of HelloFresh’s more adventurous recipes, but not that difficult so long as you follow the instructions. Prepare everything ahead of time (if you were buying a kit, things would already be organized for you) and you should do fine.

This recipe kicks mild tilapia up with a turmeric rub, then drizzles with a pan sauce consisting of ginger, shallot, and cilantro. Jasmine rice simmered with brown sugar is tossed with lime zest and toasted coconut flakes, then placed beside the fish and crunchy steamed green beans.

At 720 calories, this isn’t a good recipe for the calorie-conscious, and the rice and brown sugar raise its carb count past keto-friendly rankings. But if you want a great plate of tasty tilapia with an Asian Fusion flair, this recipe will tantalize your taste buds.

7. Lemony Chicken Paillard with Sweet Potato Wedges – Best Latin American Recipe

Key Features

• Total cooking time: 35 minutes

• Cooking Difficulty: Medium

• Kitchen Equipment Needed: Baking sheet, cutting board, knife, baking dish, bowl, small bowl, large pan

Overshadowed by Mexican and Brazilian food, Argentinian cuisine doesn’t get as much attention as it deserves. This Lemony Chicken Paillard is certain to catch your attention and leave you hungry for more.

Chimichurri is inspired by Italian pesto. But where pesto is typically processed to a paste (hence the name), chimichurri is made with finely chopped herbs that retain their shape and texture. HelloFresh combines parsley, garlic, cumin, and lemon juice with olive oil for its chimichurri.

The chimichurri goes over thin, butterflied filets of lemony chicken and alongside a peppery arugula salad and roasted sweet potato wedges. Argentina’s large Italian population gave the world the tango and this chicken is almost that impressive.

8. One-Pot Thai Coconut Curry Turkey Soup – Most Adventurous One-Pot Recipe

Key Features

• Total cooking time: 30 minutes

• Cooking Difficulty: Easy

• Kitchen Equipment Needed: Zester, small bowl, peeler, large pot

HelloFresh has a good selection of One-Pot Meals that offer quick preparation and easy cleanup. So what can you cook in a single pot in 30 minutes? Try a Thai Coconut Curry Turkey Soup with Sweet Potatoes and Bell Pepper in a broth flavored with lime, ginger, and garlic!

This “Easy” recipe involves a lot of mincing, dicing, peeling, zesting, and chopping and a couple of out-of-pot transfers to another dish. If you follow the instructions you’ll be fine, but if you feel overwhelmed, trust your gut. You know your own cooking skills better than HelloFresh does.

While this recipe has a long shopping list, most of the ingredients should be available at your local grocery store. If you love the soup but could live without the shopping, you’ll love a HelloFresh subscription!

9. Vegetarian Paella with Sweet Peppers, Mushrooms & Rosemary – Finest Vegetarian Recipe

Key Features

• Total cooking time: 40 minutes

• Cooking Difficulty: Medium

• Kitchen Equipment Needed: Large pan

HelloFresh offers some superb vegetarian and pescatarian options on its weekly menu. The HelloFresh cookbook includes a few very tasty vegan recipes, including this lovely Vegetarian Paella with Sweet Peppers, Mushrooms, and Rosemary. It’s a classic crispy-crusted 100% plant-based paella that comes in at 401 calories per serving.

The most difficult thing about this paella is the time you spend chopping vegetables and adding ingredients. Because you’ll be adding and removing ingredients at different times, make sure you have everything you need for each step of the process before you start.

While it’s not really suited to vegans, HelloFresh has many choices for those who want to eat more vegetables and fewer red meats. This Vegetarian Paella is a healthy and delicious introduction to vegan cooking and a great way to increase your plant intake.

10. Steak au Poivre with Cheesy Hesselbeck Potatoes  – HelloFresh’s Best Challenging Recipe

Key Features

• Total cooking time: 45 minutes

• Cooking Difficulty: Hard

• Kitchen Equipment Needed: Aluminum foil, baking sheet, cutting board, knife, pan, large pan

The ingredients for HelloFresh’s Steak Au Poivre with Cheesy Hesselbeck Potatoes are very similar to those used in When Steak Met Potatoes. But while When Steak Met Potatoes is rated Easy, this one is rated Hard. So what’s the difference?

This recipe expects the cook to handle several different time-sensitive tasks at once. You must keep track of potatoes in the oven while making shallot-peppercorn sauce and creamed kale on multiple burners. In addition, you have to sear the steak before finishing it in the oven.

If that sounds like fun to you, this recipe will give you warm perfectly-roasted potatoes with tangy Parmesan and a rich beefy sour cream and butter sauce with zingy peppercorns. HelloFresh’s Hard recipes are best suited for people who enjoy a kitchen challenge.

Quick Summary Table

Tips for Choosing the Best HelloFresh Recipes

The HelloFresh cookbook, like the menu, has recipes for different skill levels and menu requirements. And while you get around 30 choices on each weekly menu, the cookbook gives you access to hundreds of recipes! Here are some pointers to help you narrow them down.

1. Know your limits. I strongly suggest reading through the recipe first rather than relying on HelloFresh’s ratings. HelloFresh’s definition of “Easy” may differ significantly from yours. It’s worth noting that HelloFresh recipes are very clear and will give you good results if you follow the instructions.

2. Get your household involved. Meal delivery services are a great way to introduce your family to tasty new foods. But Kid-Friendly doesn’t guarantee your kid will love it. Including your household in meal planning and preparation can make dinner time a whole lot more fun for everyone.

3. Use stock concentrate or broth, not bouillon cubes. Many HelloFresh recipes call for stock concentrate packets, which you can find in supermarkets or on Amazon. In recipes calling for stock concentrate plus water, you can also replace the water with broth. These are both healthier alternatives to the high-sodium bouillon cubes.

4. Don’t be afraid to experiment. HelloFresh has a wide selection of satisfying comfort foods, but it also offers some interesting and delicious meals from cuisines around the globe. Meal delivery services can not only feed your household reliably, but they can also introduce you to delicious new ingredients and recipes.

Bottom Line: Finding the Very Best HelloFresh Recipes 

Your choice of best recipes comes down to personal preference. HelloFresh lets you sort recipes with a number of filters including ingredients, dietary preferences, and difficulty level. You can find the HelloFresh recipes you want and see for yourself if HelloFresh works for you.

HelloFresh’s cookbook not only lets you try out HelloFresh’s menu, but it also gives you an introduction to its recipe cards. If you find those instructions clear and easy to follow and love the meals you cook with HelloFresh guidance, chances are you’ll love a HelloFresh subscription!

FAQs

Can you choose recipes on HelloFresh?

When you sign up for a HelloFresh subscription, you answer a number of questions regarding dietary preferences. HelloFresh uses your responses to provide suggested meals from their weekly menu. You’re free to swap out any of their choices for any other recipe on the list.

What are the best meals in HelloFresh?

HelloFresh’s Most Popular tag represents meals that have received the highest ratings from HelloFresh customers. When Steak Met Potatoes, not surprisingly, ranks near the top of that list.

What is Hall of Fame on HelloFresh?

According to HelloFresh, its Hall of Fame tag represents “the best of the best” and “tried and true recipes that have been loved.” “Little Ears” Pasta with Broccoli and Pesto, which ranks high on my list,  is a Hall of Fame recipe.