What add-ons are available with HelloFresh and why are they useful?

HelloFresh was one of the first companies to offer recipe kit delivery services and it remains one of the most popular. While a huge number of HelloFresh alternatives abound, this company manages to stay as a market leader.

As a result, it seems to be the food delivery company that forces others to ‘up their game’ and ensure the products that they are offering still offer the ultimate convenience to consumers.

One way that HelloFresh manages to do this is by continually updating the HelloFresh meals list every week - ensuring that people’s taste buds can never get bored. However, they have started to increase the products they offer within a box now too.

So, not only can customers ask for particular recipes and their corresponding ingredients, they can also start to include ‘add-ons’. But is HelloFresh worth it still as a result? Or are they diluting their product line too much?

We think that the add-ons are a great addition to their offering - and we delve into what they are and why they are great here.

HelloFresh Add-ons

Here are the latest selection of add-ons that HelloFresh offers its customers. While add-ons are not unique to HelloFresh, few HelloFresh alternatives offer such a comprehensive range with as much variety.

Premium

HelloFresh recognised that their customers sometimes like to make a meal that is perceived to be a little more special than some dishes. That’s why they have now started to include a premium selection in their HelloFresh meals list.

It means on the nights that you want to celebrate something - either on your own, with a partner or with your family - you can choose to include such a recipe in your box. Previous examples of these recipes have included a steak with chimichurri sauce.

They can cost a little bit more but the company is really transparent about that extra cost, so there are no nasty surprises.

Desserts

If you’ve got a sweet tooth, you’ll love the fact that HelloFresh lets you add desserts to your box. While not as large a selection as their main course options, users will be pleased to see the fact that they can choose from Gu pots - such as the delicious zillionaires cheesecake or the blueberry and lemon cheesecake, or a chocolate mousse for the chocoholics out there.

Again, they’re an extra cost to your weekly box price, but they’re a great fall back dessert to have in your fridge for the times that you don’t want to bake a cake or create your own pudding, yet you have a hankering for something sweet. There are at least 4 desserts on the HelloFresh meals list a week.

Sides

It’s possible to add a few sides to your box to pad out your meals or increase your intake of a particular food. This works really well with vegetables and a great way to ensure that your whole family is eating a variety of veg to ensure they’re getting all the vitamins and nutrients they need.

While the HelloFresh meals list puts an emphasis on ensuring that each dish is balanced already with veggies often included, it’s good that you can add extra. Either because one of the people in your household won’t like the veg selected by HelloFresh for a specific dish, or perhaps if you simply have a couple of members of your household who are ravenously hungry all the time - like teenage boys for example.

Sides don’t just include veg though. The company also includes items such as garlic bread which can also help you bulk out meal times. The company has at least six options that you can choose from a week from the HelloFresh meals list.

Lunch

Lunch can so often be forgotten about in terms of planning when it comes to food shopping. Yet, it is crucial that we eat regularly throughout the day to keep our energy levels up. HelloFresh includes a number of lunchtime recipes each week on their meals list so you can prevent this from happening.

Each recipe is ready in just 5 minutes or so, which means you don’t lose time on your lunch break making more food for yourself. Importantly, it also means that you don’t go out to buy an expensive meal as it’s just so easy to make any of the delicious options that HelloFresh provides.

Brunch

Finally, we loved seeing the addition of a brunch option to the HelloFresh meals list. While the company only includes one or two a week to choose from, it means that you at least have the option of making yourself a decadent breakfast at the weekend. For example, eggs Benedict with asparagus.

Again, this is a great convenience to so easily add this type of meal to your food box so you don’t have to worry about what you’re going to eat at the weekend.

Also read: Your 10 Step Guide To Choosing the Perfect Diet Plan for Your Lifestyle

Why HelloFresh Add-ons are brilliant

We’ve touched on a few reasons why these add-ons are great, but here are why we think they are a real game changer in the food box delivery industry.

Flexibility

Food boxes, in general, have to be flexible enough to fit into a person’s life. When they’re flexible, they remain convenient, which is imperative when you are paying a little more than you would do with a traditional supermarket shop.

The add-ons make these boxes even easier to fit into your life. On the weeks where you know you’ll be catering for more people every night, you can add more sides. For the weeks that you know you’re working from home, you can add your lunch to your box.

By being able to tailor the boxes even more closely to your catering needs for every meal, they become far more flexible and even more convenient to use.

Less waste

Typically, these food boxes already help reduce food waste by only ever delivering the amount of an ingredient you need. So it’s great that, with the inclusion of add-ons, that food waste can be reduced even further.

You’ll no longer throw out food that you had intended to use for your lunches, but you never got around to eating it. Or, you’ll no longer have to buy flour or eggs for desserts that you simply don’t have the time to make - and then have to throw those ingredients out.

As a result, these add-ons also save you money as they prevent you from paying for food you never use.

Time-saving

One of the reasons that these food boxes are so popular is due to the time-saving that they give people. Adding on yet more easy-to-make food into every box creates yet even more time-efficiencies for when you are catering for you or your household.

Plus, it means you have to go out and buy less food too - for example, by adding more sides to bulk out your main meals if you have a couple of eternally hungry mouths to feed in your home.

Or, by adding all the ingredients for a brunch recipe to your food box, you don’t have to nip out on a Saturday morning to buy the eggs or bread you need to make a delicious brunch.

Variety

Finally, we love how these add-ons provide yet even more variety to a person’s diet. Being able to add on a load more vegetables to your box is great because it means you can ensure you have a wider range of veggies each week.

When left to our own devices, we often end up eating the same foods week in week out. HelloFresh updates its meals list on a weekly basis, so not only do the main meal selections vary a great deal, the add-ons you can select do as well.

That’s great for your health as well as your interest in food. With variety comes more interest so that you don’t get bored of the food you make.

Read Our Full HelloFresh Review

Is HelloFresh worth it?

Looking at all the add-ons, which the majority of HelloFresh alternatives do not provide, it’s easy to answer the question: is HelloFresh worth it.

To us, it’s an emphatic yes. We loved the product without the add-ons, but feel that the large selection of extras has strengthened the company’s food box offering.

Plus, it remains one of the best value food box delivery companies on the market. While it _is _more expensive than the average supermarket shop, it’s not that much more per serving - plus with all the value that customers can derive from it, it works out pretty cheap in our eyes.

We love how these products make a person’s life easier, give them more time to spend how they want to spend it, and also know that they have eaten a well-balanced meal.

In a time-pressured world, all these benefits really do add up to make HelloFresh far more than just a ‘nice to have’.