Blue Apron meal kit review: What are the pros and cons? Is it the right choice for you?

By MixDex Article may include affiliate links

Blue Apron is one of the most popular meal kit companies — but is it right for you?

Here’s a list of pros and cons to consider as of July 2021:

Pros

• Blue Apron tends to feature more culinary adventures than other meal kits — often offering savory spice blends and interesting ingredients that foodies and adventuresome eaters will appreciate.
• There tends to be more variety than just “meat and potatoes” type recipes, although there are still some creative takes on those types of recipes as well.
• Select recipes let you upgrade to a different or better quality protein — but for a small extra cost. You can also often add protein to vegetarian or pasta meals to make it a bit heartier.
• Recipes in general seem to make good serving sizes.
• Recipes cards are generally easy to follow.
• Blue Apron generally supplies butter when a recipe calls for it. Not all meal kit companies do this — and butter can be a bit pricey.
• As of July 2021, Blue Apron has a partnership with WW (Weight Watchers) and lets you scan a barcode to add to your food logs. It also indicates “light” caloric recipes with a feather icon as well as vegetarian ones with a leaf. Low card options are also highlighted.
• Blue Apron seems to have slightly better quality produce and meat, though that’s tough to quantify and could vary based on personal preferences.
• Blue Apron offers select select family and “meal prep” options.
• Shipping is free as long as you order at least three recipes (six meals total).
• This one is a small but nice: Instead of send single gloves of garlic, Blue Apron typically throws in an entire head of garlic whenever at least one recipe you ordered calls for it. This is handy because some cooks might find that one clove of garlic in an Italian dish doesn’t quite cut it and having the flexibility to adjust the garlic levels yourself without having to buy extra garlic is nice.

Cons

• The more daring recipes may not be a hit with picky eaters or those not willing to try new things.
• While smaller items for each recipe are grouped together in what Blue Apron calls a “knick knack” bag, all the other ingredients are tossed in the box at random, meaning you have to sort out what ingredient is used for what recipe when it comes time to cook.
• Blue Apron, in general, seems to rely more on plastic bags in its packaging, which are harder to recycle.
• As of July 2021, Blue Apron does not offer as much protein swap flexibility as some other meal kits — for example you generally can’t swap fish for chicken, which could be a challenge if someone if your household has an allergy or doesn’t like fish.
• Like most meal kits, Blue Apron tends to be less than generous on more expensive ingredients (though it does typically advertise the amount you’ll be getting). Beef seems to be a particular victim of this — with the recipe photos making steaks look a whole lot bigger than what you end up cooking.
• Not all two person recipes are available in family formats, though the company has started making select ones expandable to four servings.
• Recipes tend to be a bit more involved and use more kitchen equipment that others (though this obviously varies on case by case basis) — which can result in more clean up.
• Despite the mentioned lower calorie options, the bulk of Blue Apron’s menus tend to be in the 600-1,000 calorie range, which could be problematic if you’re on a low calorie diet.
• Like most meal kits, however, the company doesn’t supply basic cooking oils unless it’s more specialty such as sesame oil for an Asian dish. In other words, you’ll need to have your own oil on hand — typically recipes call for olive oil, but you can also mix it up with peanut, grade seed, avocado or coconut oil if you prefer.
• Many recipes with the WW indicator require you to use cooking spray instead of cooking oil and omit ingredients such as butter.
• The selection of “oven ready” or “one pan” or “one pot” choices isn’t as good as with other meal kits.
• Like most meal kit companies, Blue Apron doesn’t guarantee organic produce.
• Blue Apron also isn’t the best for highly restrictive diets or strict vegans, keto, paleo devotees.
• Also like most meal kit companies, Blue Apron packages and produces its kits in facilities that may cause ingredients to come in contact with allergens, so it’s not a good option for those with extremely sensitive allergies.

Get started with Blue Apron

Blue Apron is always running specials for new customers so if you’re ready to get cooking with Blue Apron meal kits, you can find out what the latest offers are.