Easy Recipes from the HelloFresh Free Recipe Hub

Inside: A look at the HelloFresh Recipe Hub and a try of one of their recipes. Sponsored post.

I don’t know about you but I am so bored of all of the meals we are eating right now. Having been at home, unable to go to pubs and restaurants, I have got myself stuck in a rut. So, I have been looking for new recipes to try out.

HelloFresh has lots of free recipes in their Recipe Hub for you to create at home with no sign-up or subscription fee.

They work in the same way as the cards you receive in their boxes, but you have access to the entire online catalogue at any given time and buy what you need when you need it.

We’ve used HelloFresh in the past and loved the fact that all the food you need arrives in the box, taking the planning and sourcing of ingredients away from you, to leave you more time to do other things.

Not everyone wants to leave meal ideas to chance though and so having access to their Recipe Hub is great! All the fab recipes but you are in control.

What is the HelloFresh Recipe Hub?

The HelloFresh Recipe Hub is an extension of their brand concept, giving you planned, simple and delicious meal ideas in just 6 easy steps.

With the HelloFresh boxes, which you will already know about I’m sure, you sign up to a monthly plan, which sees food boxes delivered straight to your front door each week.

Each box contains everything you need to create delicious meals – taking the stress out of wondering ‘what’s for dinner‘ each day.

The boxes are great, we’ve used them in the past and found some great new meals to add to our favourites.

But if you don’t want to sign up to anything right now or prefer to source your ingredients yourself, then the Recipe Hub is a great way to utilise the simplicity of the HelloFresh recipes and find new meals each week.

The Recipe Hub contains past favourites from their boxes and includes lots of amazing dishes from around the world. So whether you like Middle Eastern flavours or have a taste for a good old American dish, there is something there for everyone to enjoy.

They also have some fusion recipes to try, which bring together flavours from different recipes to create a whole new world of fun with food!

What recipes will I find?

The Recipe Hub has tabs to direct you to different cuisines, including North African recipes, Middle Eastern recipes, Turkish recipes, American recipes, Korean recipes, Indian recipes, and more!

We tend to stick to Indian, Chinese and Italian as a family so I am excited to explore more flavours from different parts of the world.

The front page of the Recipe Hub also has categories for vegetarian recipes, quick recipes (that take less that 25 minutes), and balanced recipes for those wanting to make sure they get all of their nutrients in their diet daily.

If you’re not sure what you want to try, you can head over to their most popular recipes and have a look there for anything that catches your eye.

There are so many recipes to try and each one is so simple to prepare, taking only 6 steps from beginning to end. You can’t ask for more than that!

How does the Recipe Hub Work?

To use the Recipe Hub, you don’t need to have a subscription plan at all, just head to www.hellofresh.co.uk/recipes and start browsing.

When you find a recipe you like the look of, click on the picture and it will take you through to the recipe.

From there you’ll see the recipe as it would be written on the cards as they come in the box. It shows the ingredients and utensils needed and the 6 steps to get you from start to finish.

It also lists any allergens so you can make any necessary swaps and tells you the difficulty level of the recipe and how long it will take.

For those wanting to know, it also tells you the nutritional values for the meal which is handy and you can change the quantities needed for the ingredients list depending on how many people you are cooking for. All very simple and easy to use.

So, let’s test one out!

Beef Sloppy Joes on Ciabattas

HelloFresh is aimed at dinner time but lots of the recipes lend themselves to lunch too and so I decided to try the Beef Sloppy Joes on Ciabattas with homemade guacamole. (You can also find the recipe here).

I chose the 2 persons serving size so obviously, I have less in terms of amount per ingredient, but even so I like that there aren’t too many ingredients to worry about.

The ingredients are laid out nice and simply with the nutritional information to the side. You can see I have mine toggled to 2 persons, so the ingredients are adjusted accordingly.

The first thing to note is that because the cards are produced to accompany the boxes, some of the ingredients listed may have measurements in ‘units’.

Which of course would make sense as being one pot or something like that within the box but here we have to make a guess.

So for this recipe, I had to make an estimate on the amount of passata and ketchup to use but that isn’t too difficult when you know what you are aiming for.

And within the method section it talks about consistency so that helped me gauge how much was needed.

The second thing to note is that again, some of the ingredients will be called something general like ‘finely chopped tomatoes with onion and garlic’.

Well, I knew this to mean passata with garlic and onion added to it already. Also here it calls for Central American Spice Mix – I knew that to mean a Mexican fajita spice mix.

How to make Beef Sloppy Joes on Ciabattas

As I’ve mentioned, the recipe is broken down into 6 steps. All very easy and straight forward. As a busy mum of 3 I am all about the simple!

Step 1

Fry the mince in a pan for 3-4 minutes until brown, breaking it up with a wooden spoon.

Meanwhile, grate the carrot using a coarse grater. Add the carrot and the spice mix into the pan with the mince and stir for another 2 minutes.

Step 2

Add the passata and the ketchup along with some salt and pepper to season. Stir for 5-6 minutes until thick.

This is where I had to use my judgement on amount but I knew I didn’t want it to be too dry and too runny that it would be soaking into the ciabatta.

Step 3

Pre-heat the grill (I put mine on medium heat) and grate some cheese ready for the next step.

Step 4

Take the two ciabattas and cut them down the middle. Place them on a baking tray.

Spoon on the mince and top each one with cheese. Place under the grill for 3-4 minutes until the cheese is melted.

Step 5

Halve an avocado by cutting into one side until you hit the stone. Turn and repeat on the other side. Twist to separate the halves and squeeze the soft flesh of one half into a bowl.

Squeeze in some lime juice and mash together with a fork to create your guacamole.

Step 6

Take the ciabattas out of the oven and scoop some of the guacamole on top. And you’re done!

---

The verdict

The whole recipe was so easy to follow! I am not great at trying new recipes as a rule as I like to stick to what I know so then I know it won’t take me long to prepare. But this was simple to follow and now I will turn to it again and again. More importantly than that though, it was delicious!

I am not one for being brave with new flavours and when I first saw lime as one of the ingredients I did look at it and think ‘oh no’ but it was perfect with the avocado and the whole mix of flavours worked so well it was a really great lunch!

Best of all, the kids can get involved in making it too. Mine love cooking and thanks to the Tukataka learning tower, toddlers and young children can work at the kitchen worktop, table, and kitchen sink.

They can observe your actions and participate in new, stimulating activities such as washing up, dough rolling and more. These activities enable your child to develop and learn new skills. Thanks to the wide range of colours, varnishes and add ons, every Tukataka tower is unique.

---

I would most definitely recommend the HelloFresh Recipe Hub if you are feeling like your’e stuck in a rut with meals but also need recipes that are quick and easy to follow.

Head over to the Recipe Hub now to see what you can find!

Enjoy!

This post is written in collaboration with HelloFresh but as always, all words and thoughts are my own.