Home cooks (and those who aspire to be more frequent home cooks) have been turning to meal kit deliveries as a dinnertime solution for over a decade. And even as an avid cook and culinary school grad, I get the appeal: preportioned, pre-chopped mise en place and an elaborate recipe that takes minimal time and even less forethought. Sign me up!
Beyond convenience, Green Chef distinguishes itself by offering organic ingredients without the supermarket markup. With grocery prices on the rise, I set out to find out if a Green Chef subscription can actually save you money, or at least help you break even, compared to buying organic at the store.
How much does Green Chef cost?
As a new customer, you’ll get a nice discount of 50% off your first box. But once you’re seasoned, GreenChef meals cost an average of $12.99 per serving plus $10.99 for shipping.
A six-serving box (three meals serving two) costs $88.93, including shipping ($10.99 per box), without discounts. That’s $14.82 per serving.
What I ordered and how it arrived
I received a three-meal box from Green Chef, which included:
Sirloin Steak With Parmesan FettuccineGarlic-Herb Chicken With Sun-Dried TomatoesSouthwestern Shrimp Tacos With Corn Slaw
Off the bat, each dish sounded more elaborate than what I’d typically put together on a weeknight. I was happily surprised (but a little skeptical) that the cooking time estimates ranged from 25–30 minutes.
The Green Chef ingredients come packaged in a single paper bag per recipe, with proteins at the bottom of the box sandwiched between ice packs; within the paper back, most ingredients are packaged in plastic. Most of the veggies in the kit (onions and shallots) arrived whole. Each meal included a few premade sauces or flavoring agents, such as roasted garlic butter and creamy mushroom broth.
My methodology for comparing the cost of Green Chef vs. grocery store
To figure out the precise price difference between a Green Chef subscription and grocery shopping, I tallied up what I’d spend on the ingredients at my local Wegman’s in Manhattan, choosing organic whenever possible. I assumed I had nothing at home but salt, pepper, and olive oil (which is what Green Chef requires from your own pantry).
In the price comparisons below, I’m including two per-serving costs. For the first, I took the total cost of my grocery haul and divided by two, the number of people I’d be serving with the meal (and the same number of people fed with the Green Chef recipe). Of course, when you’re buying many of the ingredients brand-new, you will have a lot left over for future use (spare cloves of garlic, near-full spice bottles). In the second calculation, I priced out the cost of only the amounts of the ingredients you need for the Green Chef recipe. This may give a more accurate per-serving price comparison, but that really isn’t the way people shop. You can’t buy a half jar of sun-dried tomatoes, for instance.
Recipe 1: Sirloin Steak With Parmesan FettuccineIngredients
⅓ oz. parsley, 1 shallot, ¼ oz. garlic, ½ oz. sun-dried tomatoes, ¼ cup breadcrumbs, 12 oz. sirloin steak, 1 Tbsp. ranch seasoning, 1 package fresh fettuccine, 3½ oz. creamy mushroom broth, 1 oz. crème fraîche, 1½ oz. Parmesan, 1 package umami stock concentrate, 1 Tbsp. butter, salt and pepper
Cost comparisonGreen ChefGrocery Store #1Grocery Store #2Meal price (2 servings)$25.98$86.13$86.13Shipping$3.67 per recipe$0$0Total cost per serving$14.82$43.07 (total cost divided by 2)$22.10 (cost of only ingredient amounts in recipe)
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