When you first visit the site, you take a food quiz and give the company a bit of background about yourself. Then each week, Hungyroot delivers healthy groceries with easy-to-follow recipes to make with them. I tried it out—here’s how it worked out.
Hungryroot Review
The basics The very first step is to take the Hungryroot quiz. You tell the company a little bit about yourself and then they start to assist with your weekly grocery plan. I filled out questions such as: Who are you feeding? You have the option to select how many people you’ll be cooking for each week. So I selected me +1. Then you select some of your goals for using the program. I selected: Eat more plants, save time, save money and grocery shop less. Next, you’re on to dietary restrictions, where I picked dairy-free and gluten-free. Then, you walk them through your typical daily eating routine: For example, do you eat a large breakfast? Just start the day off with a handful of snacks? Do a lighter breakfast plus snacks or skip breakfast and opt for a larger lunch. You also select whether you’d like the service to cover certain meals or all of them. I said I’d like them to cover some dinners and that I’d handle breakfasts and lunches on my own. Next, you tell them about your sweet tooth habits. Next, you select some sample breakfasts, lunches, dinners, or snacks that sound appealing to you so that the service can get an idea of your taste. In fact, after you get through this step, a window pops up that says that it’s “analyzing your taste buds.” Then, you pick your weekly plan. You then fill in your delivery date and enter your credit card information. You can always edit your food choices afterward, too. Each week, Hungryroot will recommend groceries and recipes catered to you and then you can make any changes you like. Everything gets delivered right to your door and you can change your food preferences, skip any week, or pause or cancel your deliveries anytime.
Cost of Hungryroot
Pricing plans average from $60 to $100 per week. Minimum weekly deliveries start at $59. I chose two servings and four dinner recipes, which came out to $89.91 for a weekly price.
Hungryroot ingredients
Hungryroot has a vast selection of ingredients to choose from. You can choose from fresh produce to meat and seafood, plant-based proteins, grains and pastas, sauces, dressing and dips, bread and bakery items, pantry staples, dairy and eggs, beverages and snacks. They have their own brand of ingredients but also sell popular brands like Banza, Califia Farms, Siggi’s, Bobo’s, Lightlife, Vital Farms, Purely Elizabeth, Violife, Nature’s Bakery, Field Roast, Kite Hill, Beyond Meet, and more. They also have a variety of ready-to-eat meals, which include options like chicken avocado salad, crunchy carrot lentil mix, or Sicilian caponata tuna. My experience I have to say, after taking the quiz, Hungryroot knew me very well. This is what came in my order:
Almond chickpea cookie doughPortabella meatless meatballsCauliflower gnocchiSesame ginger dressingTomato marinaraKale pestoAsian salad mixCauliflower linguineZucchini slicesGarlic Parmesan sauceSweet baby broccoliniRainbow veggie mixSavory spiced tofu bitesBaby spinachCoconut curryBraised lemongrass tofu nuggetsChickpea rotiniBrown rice quinoa blend
Everything looked so fresh and delicious, but I have to admit I had no idea what to do with any of it—until I found my personalized recipe plan. The service put together five dinner ideas for me.
Hungryroot Recipes
Recipe #1: Spiced Tofu Coconut Curry Skillet
This was a fun recipe. I had all this tofu and wasn’t sure what to do with it but serving it over the quinoa/brown rice blend with the coconut curry sauce was a nice touch. It was a protein-packed and filling meal. I’ve made my own curry sauce before, and it’s a big production–blending coconut milk with spices and curry paste (which is very hard to find in stores by the way) and it was nice to have a ready-made sauce that had a great flavor. I would definitely make this again, but I’d probably add more vegetables next time. Some bok choy and water chestnuts would have been a nice touch.
Recipe #2: Tangy Tofu + Rainbow Veggie Salad
This was a nice, light meal–sautéed lemongrass tofu nuggets combined with rainbow veggie mix and sesame ginger dressing. It took four minutes to make and was a nice dish, perfect for a day when I was feeling a smaller dinner.
Recipe #3: Chickpea pasta with zucchini and pesto
This one featured Banza chickpea pasta, sautéed zucchini and Hungryroot’s premade pesto sauce. It was a protein-packed meal and tasted great, especially when I added some plant-based grated Parmesan cheese on top.
Recipe #4: Cauliflower linguini with portabella mushrooms and garlic Parmesan
A homemade pasta meal that took a whopping 14 minutes to make? Sign me up! I heated the oil and sautéed the Franklin Farms portabella meatless mushrooms. At the same time, I got some water boiling and cooked the cauliflower linguini for 3 minutes. Then I sautéed the spinach and combined everything with the Hungryroot garlic parmesan sauce. The dish was so good! It was my first time trying cauliflower linguini and what a wonderful flavor. And the pre-made sauce was delicious. I may have cooked the meatballs a tad too long, as they came out a bit dry, but I added a swirl of olive oil on top of the recipe and that softened them up. I finished the bowl with some grated Parmesan cheese and it was a really good meal. I would totally make this again.
Recipe #5: Cauliflower gnocchi with marinara and broccoli
I’ve never had gnocchi before, of any variety. I’ve been hearing so much about the cauliflower version lately, with everyone buzzing about the package you can buy at Trader Joe’s, so needless to say I was excited to try these. They had a fun consistency and I couldn’t even taste the cauliflower. But I have to admit I prefer pasta. They tasted great with the sautéed broccoli and the Hungryroot marinara sauce was delicious. I topped this off with some vegan Parmesan.
Overall thoughts
Convenience, convenience, convenience! These meals were quick and super easy to make. The most basic of cooks will completely appreciate them. The ingredients were fresh and it was so easy to combine them all into something delicious. When the box first arrived, I unloaded all of the ingredients and was completely overwhelmed. Everything looked so great, but what was I going to make with everything? Pasta with tofu every night? Just boring plain old pasta with marinara sauce? Then I found the paper that Hungryroot put together for me with my own personalized recipes. As I read them all out loud, I thought, “Wow. These all sound so good.” It was also a really fun way to try some new ingredients that I had been curious about, like cauliflower linguini and cauliflower gnocchi. My only complaint would be that one of the dishes, the Tangy Tofu+ Rainbow Veggie Salad, wasn’t a hearty meal. And a few of the recipes, like the cauliflower gnocchi with broccoli and marinara, were a bit light on the protein. My husband and I loved the cauliflower linguini and mushroom meatball dish the best. And of course, we liked the cookies–but to be honest, that was an easy sell. If you like to have control overseeing exactly what recipe you are choosing upfront, then this is not the service for you. Other meal kits like Blue Apron and Sunbasket, for instance, give you a list of recipes to choose from right off the bat and you can click on the photo to read every ingredient that’s included in each dish. But if you can get past that, learn to embrace the unknown and trust the experts, you’ll find yourself with some great recipes. And you have a chance to review your delivery each week before it goes out, so if there is anything you’re not happy with, you can make some tweaks. Although a bit pricy, I was very happy with Hungryroot. The meals were delicious and the homemade sauces were incredible and surprisingly healthy. Out of all of the meal kits we’ve done lately, my husband was most excited about Hungryroot and is already asking me about ordering it again. Next up, 20 easy pantry meals to make when the grocery shelves are empty.
