Cooking Dinner with a Gousto Recipe Box (REVIEW)

***REVIEW***
When I was invited to review a Gousto Recipe Box I knew it would be a challenge. Not because I don’t like cooking. Not because I find cooking difficult, In fact, cooking is one of my favourite past-times / necessities in life. But because I find it difficult to stick to a recipe. I love to experiment, put my own twist on things and adapt recipes to fit me and my family's tastes.

Cooking Dinner with a Gousto Recipe Box


However, I was also intrigued to discover how good a Gousto Recipe Box would be and therefore I would have to stick to the rules!


Choice of Meals

I chose two vegetarian dishes, which also happen to be vegan, which were a Crispy Mushroom Dal with Coriander Chutney and a Japanese Aubergine Katsu Curry. Both are variations on a curry dish. The Dal is more similar to something I’d usually cook but the crispy mushroom and pest etc was a great twist that I’ve already repeated. I know aubergines are good for me but I'm often unsure of how to cook them without them becoming too soft and that’s a texture I really don’t like so I had great hopes for the Katsu curry, both in terms of taste and teaching me something new.


Cooking Dinner with a Gousto Recipe Box

Crispy Mushroom Dal and Coriander Chutney

The ingredients are as follows: Mushrooms, onion, garlic, fresh root ginger, fresh coriander, stock cube, rice vinegar, chilli flakes, creamed coconut, curry powder, red lentils and green lentils.


Cooking Dinner with a Gousto Recipe Box


This was the first dish I attempted to make and I'm pleased to say I found the whole process simple, the instructions easy to follow and the time allocated was pretty much exact. I don't have a pestle and mortar but I found it just as easy to chop the garlic and ginger and just crush with the same effect. I did think when serving that the dish was missing either rice or bread, but do you know what once we'd eaten it there was absolutely enough food for two hungry people. Additional bread or rice would be a great accompaniment but not actually necessary. 


Cooking Dinner with a Gousto Recipe Box

As you can see the dish actually looks like it is meant to.


Cooking Dinner with a Gousto Recipe Box

Japanese Aubergine Katsu Curry

The ingredients are as follows: Aubergine, Basmati Rice, Fresh Coriander, Curry Powder, Mang Chutney, Breadcrumbs, Rice Vinegar, Mixed Salad, Soy Sauce, Spring Onions, Carrots, Fresh root ginger and shallots.

Cooking Dinner with a Gousto Recipe Box


This was delicious. So tasty. The amount of food was easily sufficient – could easily have had less salad on the plate but I thought we’d try and be extra healthy. The instructions were easy to follow, took slightly longer than the 45 minutes stated, however as a tip I’d say to prepare the vegetables first, rather as you go along and then the cooking will be so much easier. 

Cooking Dinner with a Gousto Recipe Box


Again I'm pleased to say that the dish looked like it was meant to. Both myself, and hubby were impressed.

Cooking Dinner with a Gousto Recipe Box


Online Ordering

It was really easy to order. The only thing that made it difficult was the choice. I’d decided I was going to pick vegetarian meals for me and hubby, but I’m not used to so much choice in comparison to supermarket meal deals or eating out in mainstream restaurants.

Delivery

I selected a date and my order arrived. Be sure to choose a date first as the meals available do vary according to the date.

Contents

Everything arrived perfectly and on time. There were no broken or damaged ingredients. Each ingredient is measured out to the amount the recipe requires. This maybe creates more waste from unnecessary packaging however overall it does make the cooking process a lot simpler. Some additional ingredients are required but these are store cupboard items such as flour, oil and sugar.

Cooking Dinner with a Gousto Recipe Box

Cost

Now to my only negative thoughts about of the whole experience. To order a box at full price is from £27.40 for two meals for two people. For the quality of food, this is cheaper than eating out or ordering a takeaway, but it is a lot more expensive than buying the ingredients yourself. The first dish was so tasty that in fact I have already done this and the equivalent items were less than a third of the price.

However, you are buying convenience and a new experience. There are often deals making a recipe box much cheaper than the standard price and I think this would especially be a great idea for someone who is unsure of cooking and wants to impress on a special occasion.

Overall I had a lof of fun both cooking and eating these dishes. The recipe cards ask you to rate the recipes. They would both get 5/5 from me.

Have you tried a recipe box?

Deb x


Disclosure: We were sent a Gousto Recipe Box free of charge in exchange for an honest review.

21 Comments

  1. Oooh these look delicious. The price puts me off as you say it's cheaper to buy ingredients yourself but sometimes it's nice not to have to and I love cooking new things!

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    1. There ingredients were really good quality but yes finding new things to cook was a bonus!

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  2. That aubergine dish looks SO good. I love aubergine but it always ends up going really soggy and because of that my husband refuses to eat it! I've never thought to have it like this as part of a curry though! We also tried Gousto, one meal was delicious and the other was a little different to what we would normally have. I definitely enjoyed the experience but agree, the price is quite high for what you're getting. That said, they do do it wonderfully and now I've got a couple new recipes to try! x

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  3. Ooooh I love the look of this service. I'm a big meat eater myself so I wouldn't personally choose the meals you've cooked but they do look fantastic and just like they're meant to! x

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    1. Thanks and there is a good selection of different meals to choose from

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  4. your food is almost identical to the photos! good job! i've never tried a box like this but love the idea of taking all of the thought out cooking!

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    1. I tried hard! The recipes were really easy to follow too x

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  5. That box sounds wonderful & the dishes look delicious! Wonderful kit for ones that doesn't know what to make for dinner :-)

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    1. I'd actually like to be sent a surprise one so I didn't know what I was going to be cooking x

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  6. Can I just say how delicious these look! What a super idea.

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  7. I tried these 2 recipes and completely agree with you. We now add the coriander chutney to all our curries to really make them zing!

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  8. It is expensive and I hate unnecessary packaging. However the food looks and sounds delicious! And I like that there are vegan dishes.

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    1. Yes the packaging and expense are the negatives - however the food was delicious.

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  9. Looks amazing, but I could never justify the cost, especially as I'm no longer working

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    1. With one of the many offers they'd be good for a special occasion, but I couldn't afford them on a regular basis.

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  10. Ooh those meals look nice, I think I'd like to try Gousto as a one-off but it would be too pricey for us regularly.

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  11. They look delicious and I love that they actually look like they should!

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  12. I keep chewing over the idea of a recipe box. I'm currently doing the shopping and the process of picking items to formulate a meal is frustrating. Firstly something that is interesting and secondly that the kids will like. The concept of click and send everything for a meal is soooo appealing.

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