Green Chef Review for 2024: Bold Flavors and Creative Recipes

Share on Pinterest

Healthline score: 4.3 out of 5

Green Chef is a meal kit delivery service that emphasizes food quality and nutrient density, with a particular focus on using organic ingredients whenever possible.

A Healthline tester and nutrition editor, Kelli McGrane, MS, RD, shares her experience with Green Chef and whether she thinks it’s worth subscribing to.

Disclaimer: Green Chef provided us with a press box for free, but our opinions are ours alone and have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by Green Chef.

Green Chef at a glance

• Base price: $104 per week ($12.99 per serving)
• Shipping cost: $9.99
• Delivery area: all 48 continental United States
• Meals per week: 2, 3, or 4
• Number of servings per meal: 2, 4, or 6
• Meal plans available: Mediterranean, Calorie Smart, Quick & Easy, Plant Based, Protein Packed, Keto, Gluten-Free, and Gut & Brain Health

What is Green Chef?

Green Chef is a meal kit delivery service owned by HelloFresh, another popular meal kit company. 

Although there are many meal kit services to choose from, Green Chef stands out for several reasons.

For starters, Green Chef is a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) certified organic company, meaning that all the ingredients in your meal kit are organic unless labeled otherwise. The company also holds an organic handler certification from California Certified Organic Farmers.

Green Chef’s meal kits come with premeasured and prepped ingredients and colorful, easy-to-follow, recipe cards. 

Recipes are designed to take less than 30 minutes to make, though some customers comment that certain recipes can take closer to 40 minutes to fully prepare. 

Green Chef meal plans

Green Chef currently offers eight meal plans, which are referred to as “lifestyle preferences.” These include:

• Mediterranean: includes nutritious recipes with lots of veggies and healthy fats
• Calorie Smart: contains 650 calories or fewer per meal
• Quick & Easy: meals are ready in 25 minutes or less
• Plant Based: vegan and vegetarian recipes
• Protein Packed: provides at least 30 grams of protein per serving
• Keto: contains fewer than 20 grams of net carbs per meal
• Gut & Brain Health: recipes with high fiber and nutrient-dense ingredients
• Gluten Free: recipes are free of wheat, barley, rye, or triticale

You can select as many preferences as you’d like when signing up. While Green Chef will display meals that match your preferences first, you can still choose any recipes from their full menu each week.

My experience with Green Chef

• Name: Kelli McGrane, MS, RD
• Role: Healthline nutrition editor, registered dietitian, cookbook author
• Dietary needs and preferences: flexitarian
• Meal-time preferences: make-ahead, one-pan, and 30-minute weeknight meals and recipes that are toddler-friendly

I’ve been using meal delivery services for more than 10 years, testing over 25 services just within the past 3 years.

In addition to trying a free box provided by Green Chef, I’ve subscribed to Green Chef on my own several times over the years.

Learn more about how we test meal kits at Healthline.

Getting started with Green Chef

Tester rating: 5 out of 5

Getting started with Green Chef is straightforward and can be done online or using the company’s app. I’ve done both and don’t have a strong preference either way.

During the signup process, you can select as many lifestyle preferences you’d like for tailored recipe recommendations. You’ll also be required to select your box size.

Each week, you can opt to make 2, 3, or 4 recipes, with 2, 4, or 6 servings each. Note: The 2-meal option is only available if you select a 4-serving box.

You can also choose the day of the week that’s best for you to receive your shipments, and you’ll receive a weekly deadline based on that day. You must edit or skip your order by this deadline each week, or Green Chef will select your meals for you.

If needed, you can skip up to 4 consecutive weeks if you’ll be out of town or won’t need your meal kit during certain periods.

The company makes it easy to cancel your plan online at any time by navigating to the “Deactivate Your Plan” section in your account settings.

Currently, Green Chef offers delivery in the United States, except Alaska and Hawaii. Boxes are delivered Monday through Saturday between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. local time.

How much does Green Chef cost?

Green Chef’s pricing depends on how many servings per meal you need. Prices are the same regardless of which lifestyle preferences you select.

There’s also a $9.99 shipping fee on all orders, though first-time subscribers may be able to get free shipping on their first box.

For the company’s most popular plan of four 2-serving meals per week, Green Chef costs around $104 per week, plus $9.99 for shipping.

Here’s a breakdown of the cost per serving for each box size:

Meal variety

Tester rating: 5 out of 5

Green Chef offers a rotating menu with 47 meal kits to choose from each week, most of which feature seasonal, organic produce and sustainably sourced ingredients.

You can filter which meals you see by selecting one or more of the eight meal plans, but you can also just choose from anything on the menu — a helpful feature that the company didn’t offer the first time I tried it.

Each time I try Green Chef, I’m impressed by the wide variety of ingredient types and flavor combinations, making the service a great option for adventurous eaters and those (like myself) who frequently find themselves in a recipe rut.

Perhaps most notable is the number of vegan and vegetarian options. While it varies week to week, there’s often at least 7 to 10 vegetarian-friendly meals to choose from, with at least half of those being suitable for vegan diets.

With that said, while I’ve found plenty of options to choose from year-round, I tend to prefer the recipe options available during the summer.

Nutrition quality

Tester rating: 4.5 out of 5

Green Chef makes it easy to select nutritionally balanced meals by including detailed nutritional information for each recipe online and by offering multiple Mediterranean diet-inspired meals each week.

That said, some meals are higher in saturated fat, sodium, or carbohydrates than others. Similarly, while many meals offer a generous serving of vegetables, some recipes fall short of a full vegetable serving.

Finally, keep in mind that Green Chef doesn’t allow you to customize your box to omit specific allergens. Meal kits are processed in a facility that also handles food allergens, so cross-contamination is possible.

Packaging and sustainability

Tester rating: 5 out of 5

Meal ingredients are delivered in a large box with plenty of ice to help keep the food cold during transit. The ingredients are further grouped by recipe in a paper bag.

I really like this feature, as it keeps the fridge organized and saves time because you don’t have to go looking for individual ingredients.

While the service does use some plastic packaging, the company makes it easy to know how to recycle those items.

In addition to using mostly recyclable or compostable packaging, Green Chef strives to be more eco-friendly by sourcing seasonal and regional ingredients. Additionally, according to the company’s website, Green Chef is the only meal kit service to offset 100% of its direct carbon emissions and plastic packaging.

Ingredient quality and freshness

Tester rating: 4 out of 5

Green Chef works closely with suppliers and aims to stick to seasonal ingredients whenever possible to maximize freshness.

The company also prioritizes high quality ingredients, including organic produce and eggs, whenever possible, and proteins raised with high animal welfare standards. Some organic beef, chicken, and wild-caught seafood is available.

Boxes are lined with insulated packaging to keep ingredients cool during transit. According to the company, most ingredients will stay fresh for up to 5 days after delivery, though the shelf-life of some recipes — including those that contain seafood — may be slightly shorter.

While there have been a few instances of precut vegetables, like shredded carrots, starting to look a little brown toward the edges, I’ve generally found that the ingredients arrive fresh and in good condition.

Ease of preparation

Tester rating: 3.5 out of 5

Because the ingredients are premeasured, and many are even prechopped, I find Green Chef recipes to be overall easy to make. In fact, with the exception of chopping a few vegetables, I’ve been able to do most of the cooking one-handed with my kiddo on my hip.

With that said, some of the recipe cards I’ve had in the past could’ve had clearer directions, and I highly recommend reading through all of the instructions before getting started.

I also don’t love that many of the recipes I’ve tried required multiple pots and pans, making cleanup a little longer.

Taste

Tester rating: 5 out of 5

I’ve consistently found Green Chef meals to be very satisfying and flavorful. The recipes I’ve tried have included multiple types of vegetables, and the seasonings provided have been flavorful without being overly salty.

If I had any complaints about the taste it would be that sometimes the proportions of ingredients seem a bit off. For example, with the Apricot Chickpea Couscous Bowl, I found there to be too many chickpeas for the amount of couscous provided.

Is Green Chef worth subscribing to?

Overall tester rating: 4.3 out of 5

Despite a few minor complaints, Green Chef remains one of my favorite meal kit delivery services. In addition to saving me time by not having to plan meals, I’ve found it to be one of the most enjoyable services I’ve tried so far in terms of creative recipe options and ingredient quality.

It’s also one of the few meal kit delivery services that caters to six-person households.

The biggest downside is the cost, which, for my family of four, adds up to around $150 per week for just three meals.

With that said, I think it could be worth the cost if you prioritize eating mostly organic meals, are looking for creative flavor combinations, and value the convenience that the service provides.

Green Chef vs. other meal delivery services

Besides Green Chef, there are plenty of competitors in the meal kit space.

Frequently asked questions

The bottom line

Green Chef is a USDA certified organic meal kit service that delivers boxes filled with fresh ingredients on a weekly, biweekly, or monthly basis to allow you to make chef-curated meals in the comfort of your own kitchen.

Green Chef stands out from the crowd because it uses mostly organic ingredients and offers meal plans suited for people with specific dietary needs, including:

• gluten-free
• keto
• plant-based

However, Green Chef’s cost may not fit well with some budgets. But as tester Kelli McGrane points out, with a discount offer on your first few boxes, it might be a lower barrier to see if Green Chef is right for you and your family.