I tried Mindful Chef for a week... this is what I learnt

Cooking and food discovery is, what people might call, my ‘bag’. I get an uncharacteristic amount of satisfaction from meticulously finding a recipe, cooking it up step-by-step and then, the best part... eating it.

Whether it’s a mid-week meal, or cooking up a weekend storm, food brings joy to – not only me – but the people around me (I hope anyway!)

So, when I was asked to try Mindful Chef for a week, it was only natural that I almost bit off the team’s hand. Five days, five meals of my choosing that would be perfectly packed up and laid out for me – where do I sign?

It’s true, though, that there are elements of the cooking process I don’t like. Portion control.

The top and bottom of it is, I don’t have any. I find trying to adapt recipes to two people a thankless task – one is even harder. Busy leading a time-poor life, can I be forgiven for not always weighing out my pasta portions?

Happily, when the large familiarly branded purple box landed on my doorstep, my woes of portion control were no more.

Taking the guesswork out of my usual cooking days, everything is packed up in neat and sustainably packed portion sizes.

But before I do, I’d firstly like to note my opening thoughts when unpacking my big purple box.

‘Wow, that’s convenient’ and as I looked deeper, ‘Oh, that’s sustainable’. All of my portioned-out meals were packaged in brown paper with minimal extra packaging within; I was even encouraged to freeze the ice packs to use at a later date. Don’t mind if I do!

Now, onto the food.

A healthy portion of excitement

Even though I’d selected the meals myself, I was loaded with a healthy portion of excitement when deciding how to plan out my week of meals.

Naturally, there are plenty of factors that contribute to this calculation: will we be out late one night? Do we want fish two nights in a row? What could we do together?

I made the executive decision to opt for the Miso & Ginger Tofu with Edamame Fried Rice and the Speedy Middle Eastern-style Steak & Dill Cucumber Salad on night two.

Both are part of Mindful Chef’s ‘Ready in 20’ list, as I was strapped for time on the first two nights. In keeping with their promise, they were both ready in 20, with just the amount of effort needed to seem like it was a maximum-effort meal.

Feeling as though I needed to embrace some flamboyance, I opted for one of the trickier dishes of the week: The Iconic Cod Tacos.

Keen to learn how they’d developed their iconic status, (though I later discovered this was adopted from an restaurant collaboration with Rock Fish, an online fish monger), I was eager to get prepping, which would be the lion’s share of the making, with a total time of 35 minutes.

There were a few steps to do in this one, with different dressings to be made and assembled, but having each portioned out immeasurably took the hassle out of each of these steps – no quick rush out to the supermarket for a forgotten item on this night!

Six tacos between us were incredibly comfortable (usually, I would have made 8 or 9!). This actually gave me a better understanding of how much food we actually consume.

Iconic tacos in the bag, and having found enough flair with the prep work, we opted for a one-pan wonder the next evening: Sticky Chicken & Chestnuts with Rice.

A spicy dinner with diced peppers and chicken, the surprise of this dish for me was the chestnuts. Not an ingredient I would traditionally cook with; I was looking forward to seeing how I could apply it to other meals I might make for added nutrition – if I were to like them.

No surprise that they went down a storm and have since become a regular feature in some of my mainstay meals.

Last but by no means least, Fish Friday was saved for Sesame Salmon Noodle Salad with Miso Dressing.

My favourite of the dishes, this light and fresh salad ticked the spicy box for me with lots of different flavours. Using white miso paste was a novelty, as well as brown rice noodles for a change.

Safe to say, by the time the end of the week rolled around, I’d noticed that I would be back in the driving seat for next week’s dinner plans, which still excited me (my love of food discovery runs deep), but it was nice having a helper along the way from Mindful Chef.

Happily, the recipe booklet that I received not only contained my five meals, but actually the 21 to choose from that week. Maybe Mindful Chef recipes won’t be leaving my household as soon as I thought...

If you’re a Vitality member, like me, and want to give the Mindful Chef offer a go, you can register your account and get up to £10 off your box when you earn 12 activity points each week.

A delivery fee will apply. Terms and conditions apply.

A £43 minimum spend is needed for the discount to apply. A delivery charge will apply. Mindful Chef deliver to mainland Great Britain and Jersey and Guernsey. There are currently no deliveries to other UK Islands or Northern Ireland. The discount is only available for one member on each plan. Further terms and conditions apply.