Friday 19 August 2016

KITCHEN: Riverford Organics Vegetarian Recipe Box

It's no secret that I love food and cooking, they're my passion in life and have been from such a young age. Now that I'm a parent I enjoy cooking for Isabella too, but time for food shopping and cooking is limited. As a family we have always had home cooked meals, despite having to cook up to three separate meals each time. I'm a vegetarian, my husband isn't and Isabella has to have a low salt/sugar diet. That might sound like a nightmare for some of you, but it's our normal so doesn't bother us at all. So when an email from Riverford Organics popped into my inbox a few weeks ago I was so excited! They are probably best known for their organic fruit and vegetable boxes you can have delivered to your home, however they've branched out and are now doing recipe boxes too.



I had never tried a recipe box before, but was aware of their current popularity so was intrigued. Riverford do three different recipe boxes - original, vegetarian and quick. You can also choose between 2 or 3 meals for 2 people. Each recipe box is filled with all (except salt/pepper/oil) You can see the recipes you'll be getting each week on their website, which means there's an opportunity to change between recipe boxes or cancel a week if you don't fancy those recipes. I also really like that you're given the nutritional information for each meal. They deliver the recipe boxes for free and prices vary from £24.95 to £39.95. I think that's really reasonable considering you get all of the ingredients you need to make either 2 or 3 meals for 2 people and the vast majority of ingredients are organic. It also saves the hassle of thinking of meals (one of my least favourite jobs each week) and the weekly food shop is cut down massively. Anything that makes life easier as a parent is a good thing!

I was kindly sent the Vegetarian Recipe Box 3 meals for 2 people (£33.95), which included sweet potato, corn and black bean tostadas with tomatillo salsa, red pepper paella with spinach and picada verde and summer minestrone with broad beans. All of these recipes really appealed to me, yet were meals I wouldn't usually cook. That's something I really like about the recipe box concept - it pushes you to try new meals/food and enables you to explore exciting ingredients. I had never seen a tomatillo before receiving this box!


When the recipe box arrived it was all so beautiful presented, with three sections for each of the recipes smaller ingredients all surrounded by the freshest organic vegetables. As a foodie receiving the box was just so exciting. The recipes are also put in order based on how long the ingredient will stay fresh, which is such a good idea. The fact that you receive the right amount of each ingredient means that waste is almost non-existent, something we certainly need to improve in our household.
The summer minestrone soup was the first recipe I made, which was absolutely delicious and not something I would usually choose to cook. Cooking lettuce has been a concept I've never understood...until now. It's a lovely fresh addition to a summer soup!


The next day we had Red Pepper Paella, which again was very tasty. I love risottos and make them a lot, but had never made a paella before. The spinach is a fantastic source of iron for vegetarians and the smoky paprika adds such a nice flavour. We found that will each of the recipes it made enough for two dinners and one lunch. The portions are very generous and they could easily stretch to three people if you had an extra guest over one night. As my husband eats meat and fish he decided to add some prawns to the paella, which were very tasty...apparently!
The final recipe was a Roasted Sweet Potato and Black Bean Tostadas with a Tomatillo Salsa. This contained the most interesting array of ingredients, with tomatillos being a new discovery for me. These tostadas were so filling and again we had left overs for the next day. To improve the recipe box further it would be fantastic if there was an opportunity to choose the recipes you'd like in your box. There are lots of delicious recipes across the three recipe boxes Riverford Organics offer, but some weeks I've looked and wished I could have had one from the Quick Recipe Box and two from the Vegetarian Recipe Box - if that makes sense? That way you get three recipes you know you're going to like, though I do think that would take away the chance to try foods you wouldn't usually.
Have you tried a recipe box service before?
What do you think of the concept?

Feel free to leave a comment :)

Helen x

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5 comments

  1. This looks amazing! Starting to make me feel hungry now! #PickNMix

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  2. I've always liked the look of these, but they always seem very expensive. I think they'd be a great idea for a dinner party or something!! #binkylinky

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  3. I'm also a veggie whereas the rest of the family aren't. Recipes look fab but a little too pricey for our budgets #binkylinky

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  4. I love the idea of these boxes, for getting you to try new things. This looks yummy, thank you for linking up to #PicknMix

    Stevie x

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  5. I love this idea. It looks like you've cooked up some lovely meals. Thanks for linking up to the #BinkyLinky

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