Roast beef tenderloin, plated with chives and the sherry-Dijon pan sauce
Meal kits are great for cooking year-round, saving you hours of shopping, prep and cooking in the process. The only time you wouldn’t be able to use these kits is when you want to make specific recipes that aren’t on the company’s weekly menu, such as during the holidays. However, Blue Apron and other meal kit companies have filled that gap by offering meal kits specifically tailored for the winter season.
Blue Apron’s holiday menu does have overlap with the meal kits Blue Apron offered for Thanksgiving, which I also cooked. Those include creamy mac and cheese, roasted Brussels sprouts, roasted grape and goat cheese salad, challah dinner rolls and apple crumb pie. Two new additions for December are crispy roasted potatoes and roast beef tenderloin.
From now until Jan. 4, these meal kits are available — minus the roast beef tenderloin, which is currently sold out. This is what happened when I tried to make them all for a holiday feast.
Roast beef tenderloin: a quality cut of meat
The roast beef tenderloin, topped with a sherry-Dijon pan sauce
As a vegetarian, I handed this one over to my partner to make, and he found this 60-minute recipe flavorful and easy to prepare. The instructions were clear, and a lot of the flavor came from the sherry-Dijon pan sauce, which was simply made by combining the ingredients.
“The cut of the meat was nice, and I like that I didn’t have to trim anything,” he said. My partner’s only critique is that he wishes the meat were a bit more tender.
Rating: 8/10
Cost: $110
Servings: 6
Total time: 60 minutes
Crispy roasted potatoes: tasty, but tough to make
Softer-than-intended, but still tasty, roasted potatoes with rosemary
While I thought these roasted potatoes were delicious, I struggled to make them and ended up with soft potatoes rather than crispy ones. The instructions ask that after you boil your potatoes, you strain them and toss them to rough up the edges. This wasn’t working in my strainer, so I transferred the potatoes back to the pot, put the lid on and shook them. However, I think this roughed them up too much, as they didn’t end up brown or crispy after 30 minutes in the oven. I left them in for 10 minutes longer, but still no luck.
The lack of crispiness might have been caused by user error, and the dish still tasted great with the rosemary, Parmesan and garlic and herb butter. Nonetheless, I do wish the instructions were more specific to help users achieve the desired crispy texture.
Rating: 7/10
Cost: $8
Servings: 4
Total time: 55 minutes
Creamy mac and cheese: packed with flavor
The mac and cheese was perfection with the truffle breadcrumbs on top
I already made this mac and cheese as part of Blue Apron’s Thanksgiving offerings, and I enjoyed it as much as I did the first time. Although once again, I altered the recipe by combining the cream mixture and different cheeses in the pan to create a cheese sauce, rather than layering the cheeses and cream mixture in the dish itself.
I enjoyed the blend of cheeses: cheddar, fontina and Monterey Jack, with Parmesan on top. I also loved the flavor that came from the garlic béchamel sauce and truffle seasoning that I mixed with the breadcrumb topping.
Rating: 9/10
Cost: $20
Servings: 6
Total time: 45 minutes
Challah dinner rolls: take no time to make
Fluffy challah rolls with a maple butter glaze
Unlike the last time I made these rolls for Thanksgiving, they didn’t come squished, which added to my experience, bumping up my rating by one point to a 9/10. They get topped with a maple and salted butter mixture right out of the oven, and only require 15 minutes of your time — if that.
Rating: 9/10
Cost: $7
Servings: 12
Total time: 15 minutes
Roasted Brussels sprouts: a game-changing recipe
My new favorite way to make Brussels sprouts, with honey, lemon and pistachios
This has become one of my favorite ways to prepare Brussels sprouts, featuring honey, lemon and roasted pistachios. It only takes 30 minutes, cooking included, and is incredibly delicious. My only criticism is that I wish there were more pistachios included.
Rating: 10/10
Cost: $10
Servings: 4
Total time: 30 minutes
Roasted grape and goat cheese salad: missing ingredients
Despite a few missing ingredients, the pear and goat cheese salad
This is another recipe I made for Thanksgiving, but this time, the meal kit arrived without a few key ingredients: kale, arugula and red grapes. I ended up using my own kale, but didn’t have arugula or grapes. The latter is especially key to the salad, as the grapes are roasted to produce a jammy flavor that rounds out the salad, so I was sad they weren’t included.
Similar to the pistachios in the Brussels sprouts above, I wish that more walnuts had been included to fully fill out the dish. I also ended up slightly burning them, despite following the instructions.
Regardless, the salad was still tasty. I just wish it wasn’t missing ingredients, so I’m lowering my previous rating to 7/10.
Rating: 7/10
Cost: 12
Servings: 4
Total time: 35 minutes
Apple crumb pie with almonds
The Apple pie with a crumb topping
I also made this recipe for Thanksgiving, and it was just as good as it was last time. It requires a total of 80 minutes, but only 20 minutes of preparation time. I especially enjoyed the addition of quatre épices (white pepper, nutmeg, ginger and cloves) in the crumb topping, and appreciated that the crust came premade and ready to go.
Rating: 8/10
Cost: $15
Servings: 6-8
Total time: 80 minutes
How much do Blue Apron’s holiday meal kits cost?
Here’s the price breakdown for Blue Apron’s holiday meal kits:
- Roast beef tenderloin (6 servings): $110
- Crispy roasted potatoes (4 servings): $8
- Creamy mac and cheese (6 servings): $20
- Roasted Brussels sprouts (4 servings): $10
- Goat cheese salad (4 servings): $12
- Challah dinner rolls (12 servings): $7
- Apple crumb pie (6-8 servings): $15
The total cost: $182
Depending on where you shop, you may be able to make these recipes more affordably on your own (especially with grocery store inflation). Yet, you do save on time and effort when you choose the meal kit route, which is especially beneficial when you’re cooking for a crowd during the holiday season. Blue Apron’s new à la carte model also allows you to pick and choose which meals you’d like without having to lock yourself into a subscription.
My final thoughts
Overall, I enjoyed the holiday meal kits from Blue Apron and found everything delicious; yet, I think there is room for improvement in terms of missing ingredients and more detailed instructions (especially for the crispy potatoes). As someone who also tried the company’s Thanksgiving meal kits, I wish they switched it up with new meal kits and less overlap between the two holidays.
As a vegetarian, I also liked that I could eat all of these meal kits, except for the roast beef, which my partner still enjoyed. In the future, it would be cool if a different protein option were offered for vegetarians or vegans.