After one week of using a meal kit delivery service, the
home chef in me was ignited and wanted to continue. Hence, I sought out other
Toronto companies and Prepd graciously offered a week of meals to prolong my
culinary creations – something my husband was happy about as well.
Dependability
Prepd’s Sunday delivery date works the best for my schedule:
I like being home to put everything into the fridge as quickly as possible
(although Prepd froze the proteins and there were tons of ice packs so could be
left outside for a while) and gives me a chance to cook one of the meals on
Sunday – the evening I’m home the most and generally have time to cook.
Similar to competitors, ingredients are clearly labelled and
packaged (except proteins) into a separate bags for each dish. With the exception of salt, pepper, and oil,
everything required for the recipe arrives in the kit. Simply wash and prep the
produce and you’re ready to go.
I particularly like that Prepd offers a pick-up service to
return boxes and ice packs. Yes, I know items can typically be recycled, but
manufacturing and even the recycling process still uses resources and energy,
so anything we can do to re-use something helps the environment.
Additionally, their boxes were smaller (fitting all the
ingredients perfectly) and were less reliant on unnecessary packaging (for
example, not wrapping items such as carrots in plastic wrap, instead just placing
them in the bag).
Recipes: Ease of Use
Overall, recipes were very straight forward, laying out
instructions in chronological order. For example, the recipe would indicate to continue
making the salad while something is in the oven, so you literally just follow
the directions step-by-step. Looking back, there may be a few steps I’d process
differently – in the lentil salad mixing in the herbs and shallots with lentils
first, then adding the spinach as after adding the leafy vegetable it makes
everything difficult to combine – but, it’s a very small change.
Prepd also required minimal equipment. With the salmon
recipe, the carrots and almonds were also placed on the same baking sheet, so
everything’s essentially made in “one pan” minimizing cleaning. Even the
dressing for a salad could be made in the container holding the mustard – add oil
and vinegar into the mustard and shake up to create the dressing.
How It Tastes
Wow, the recipes sure incorporate a lot of herbs and spices.
Even the vegetable soup combined pesto and vegetable bullion to make a very
flavourful soup. Moreover, the selection of vegetables (carrot, leek, kale,
onion and broccoli) created different flavours and textures to add interest.
Including white beans into the dish made it hearty and filling (even more so
with the generous portions of toasted bread). With plenty leftover, this
re-heated nicely for lunch the following day.
My favourite meal was the salmon salad – fantastic hot the
night of and cold for lunch. To be honest, after looking at the ingredients, I
was skeptical whether I’d like the dish: carrots, dill, and chopped almonds?
Not exactly my favourite things, let alone mixed together in a salad. Boy was I
wrong! The sweet carrots with the dill and lentils actually worked nicely
together; the chopped almonds much better than the slices I find too crunchy.
The lamb and beef koftas was the sole dish that tasted mediocre,
simply due to the overpowering dry meat patties. Unfortunately, since I haven’t
used their spice mix before, it’s hard to judge how much to add “to taste”…
especially, when you’re adding it to raw meat – how do you even taste? Knowing
how strong chili powder is, I already decreased the amount that came with the
package, but unfortunately didn’t know what to do with the spice mix. Adding it
all was a big mistake - the kofta became grainy and overly citrusy.
The patties were also hard to bind together, something wet
(other than using wet hands to form the kofta) would definitely help and make
the meat moister. With something already so flavourful, the condiments could
have been toned down – the yoghurt would have been better plain, I found the
additional feta made it too thick and salty. Also, the garlic incorporated in
the yoghurt would have worked better in the meat, as the pungent raw garlic
along with red onions was too much. Just imagine how great your breath smells
afterwards.
Conclusion
Prepd’s recipes inspired me to combine a variety of ingredients
and herbs together. At times, I didn’t think I’d necessarily like everything,
but never one to not try something, I followed the formulas and (for the most
part) wasn’t disappointed.
Although the dishes don’t necessarily look the most exciting
from the pictures, they were actually full of bold flavours and with such
generous portions, enough to try again the following day.
Price and How to
Order the Service
If you’re living by yourself, congratulations – Prepd has a
one person plan! With three meals per week, it will cost you $40 or $13.33 per
meal.
For two and four people, the three meal plans and both work
out to $10 a meal ($60 and $120 for the two and four person, respectively). All
prices are inclusive of taxes and delivery charges – definitely one of the most
economical services.
At any time, you can pause or cancel your plan. So, you’re
not committed to having to order a meal kit every week.
Despite looking wispy and delicate the fritti requires at least two utensils to break part the crispy
batter holding everything together. While still savoury, it incorporates a
sweet element from the honey. I would have liked the lemon creama fesca (a lemon ricotta) to be stronger as the dish was
pretty greasy and heavy (even split amongst three); a robust dose of citrus
could help lighten the fritti. 
