Transforming how you cook nutritious meals at home with the help of meal kits like Gobble and Blue Apron is a total game-changer. You spend lesser time in the kitchen figuring out what to cook because services like these deliver fresh ingredients right at your doorstep with straightforward cooking instructions.
No more hunting down recipes online, meal prepping, making last-minute (read: hasty!) modifications, and, most importantly, doubting how “healthy” your meals actually are. With meal kits, you can select mouthwatering recipes that are easy to cook with pre-measured ingredients, so there’s no uncertainty about getting your nutrients right.
Meal-kit delivery services like Gobble and Blue Apron offer intriguing and flavorful recipes. But how well do they compare alongside each other?
I believe that a meal-kit delivery service is a long-term investment for most of us. We don’t want to commit until we know everything there is to know about their services and meals.
I’ve rated and reviewed Gobble and Blue Apron side-by-side for that very purpose to find out which contender is well worth your money. Also, you can find out what each company offers in terms of meal planning, price packages, menu variety, etc.
Before That, Here’s Something You’d Love to Know!
What’s the big deal about meal kit delivery services anyway?
Meal kit delivery services are an exercise in making healthy choices and living a minimal lifestyle. Instead of looking up recipes every day of the week yourself, you can have new and nutritious recipes delivered to your home. And all you have to do is cook them, which is simpler because all ingredients come in the right quantities.
Let me quickly explain the benefits of subscribing to a meal kit delivery service…
- Less effort equals healthier food choices
Based on a recent study, those with subscriptions to meal kit delivery services are more likely to eat healthier at home.
The nutritional quality of meal kits is superior because it’s designed by dietary experts. So each meal contains a good balance of fats, proteins, fiber, etc. Plus, meal kits provide a combination of desirable ingredients with not-so-desirable ones.
I can think of potatoes being a “desired” ingredient because everybody loves potatoes be it mashed, baked, or roasted. Kale is the least favored ingredient because it’s a leafy green that doesn’t pair well with most other ingredients, and it has no taste, only texture!
With meal kits, you can make kale in a variety of ways you didn’t bother knowing otherwise. You’re less likely to cringe at the sight of kale because of the delicious recipes your meal kit has to offer.
This study also shows how the most effective way of reaping the benefits of any diet – be it for weight loss or weight management – is sticking to a healthy diet that is good for you. And meal kit services allow you to focus on eating new delicious meals every day while keeping your health in check.
- You end up saving more money
Two ways where you save money without noticing as soon as you subscribe to a meal kit delivery service.
First, you spend less on buying groceries because you don’t always use all the spices/sauces you purchase in a single recipe. Most of the stuff you buy ends up at the back of the refrigerator.
Second, with meal kit delivery services, you pay for what you eat right away, which means there’s little to no food wastage.
It’s shocking to know that roughly a third of the world’s food is wasted annually, 61% of which comes from households. That is, the food you have in your refrigerator.
So we’re not only talking about food wastage on a global scale but on an individual scale; you spend way more than you need to for your daily food consumption and/or your family’s. And a portion of what you pay for winds up in the garbage in the next couple of days.
Meal kits provide the perfect solution for meal rationing. You cook what you eat right away, so there’ll be no leftovers in the refrigerator. This includes pantry items and cooked food.
Gobble vs Blue Apron – Pricing
Speaking of saving money, Gobble offers a fixed price for all its meal plans: Classic, Vegetarian, and Lean & Clean. Each meal costs $11.99 per serving.
The minimum order you can place with Gobble is three meals for two people. Your bill for this order would come up to 6 servings ($71.94) + shipping costs ($6.99) = $78.93.
Blue Apron, on the other hand, sings a different tune. The starting price is $9.99 per serving. It’s a fixed price for all meal plans, including Signature, Vegetarian, and Wellness.
But Blue Apron is better at pricing as it reduces the cost per serving by $1-$2.5 if you increase the number of servings in a single order.
Let’s break it down:
When you order from Blue Apron, you pay $9.99 per serving. When you order two servings at a time, the bill comes to $19.98 + a $7.99 delivery fee. This could be from any meal plan – Signature, Vegetarian, or Wellness.
With Blue Apron, the minimum order you can place is $27.97 for two servings.
But let’s say you want to purchase four servings, which is double their minimum order. Does that mean you pay $27.97 + $27.97 = $55.94 for 4 servings? No, there’s a discounted rate for those who want to buy more!
If you order four servings at a time, Blue Apron reduces the cost per serving down to the starting price of $7.49 – $8.99. That’s not all; it also makes the shipping cost FREE. So what you pay for four servings at Blue Apron is between $29.96 – $35.96 – the amount of the final bill, not one dollar more!
On the other hand, with Blue Apron, you pay $29.96 – $35.96 for four servings with no shipping cost.
When you compare Gobble vs Blue Apron, the latter has more discounted rates than the former per serving. And no shipping cost if you order more than three meals in a week with Blue Apron. With Gobble, you have to pay for shipping no matter how many meals you order.
You save more money with Blue Apron by a huge margin than with Gobble, thus making Blue Apron a budget-minded pick for your weekly meal requirements.
Gobble vs Blue Apron – Meal Prep
This favours Gobble because all meal plans take the same amount of time to prepare. The prep time for each meal is 15 minutes. This explains the higher cost, doesn’t it? You’re paying slightly more to save time prepping in the kitchen.
With Blue Apron, the average prep and cooking time for any one of their meals is between 20 to 65 minutes. That’s a huge jump from just 15 minutes of prepping and cooking time with Gobble.
Though Gobble might be preferred when you want a quicker meal, it is a tough call because Blue Apron is cheaper. Your individual preferences at the time of order would eventually determine which one you’d go for.
Gobble vs Blue Apron – Meal Varieties / Menu
The meal plans that Gobble offers are versatile and exciting. They really do spoil you for choice at Gobble with more meal options to choose from on a week-to-week basis.
You can either select from the meal selections or personalize the meals by adding a protein of your choice. How does that work? Well, if you want to switch chicken with shrimp or steak, Gobble allows you to do that quickly and simply.
In fact, Gobble includes extra meal options such as soup, breakfast items, desserts, and snacks. And the menu changes every week, so you don’t have to repeat the recipe twice.
Blue Apron features 12 exciting recipes on its menu. But unlike Gobble, you can neither customize your daily meal plans nor get extra options weekly. But what Blue Apron does have, and Gobble doesn’t, is celebrity-chef recipes.
Blue Apron provides its customers with specialized recipes for festivals or guest award-winning chef recipes that are premium meals included in your meal kit service.
Coming from a place of customization, Gobble allows you to switch protein between chicken, shrimp, and steak on the classic menu. You can have the same recipe but with another protein option. You often don’t see this with meal kit delivery services, so Gobble raises the stakes on menu variety.
Gobble vs Blue Apron – Diet Plans
Blue Apron redeems itself with dietary preferences because it has a wider variety of diet plans for specific needs. While Gobble features only three menus – Classic, Vegetarian, and Lean & Clean.
The Lean & Clean menu on Gobble features low-carb, nutritious dinner meals. They are relatively calorie-conscious than the Classic meal plans. It makes it the ideal choice for someone planning on calorie deficit meals with the right portion of lean proteins, more veggies, and healthy fats!
Each of the dinners under the Lean & Clean menu is under 600 calories. You’ll find no filler grains in the Lean & Clean plan, so you’re 100% eating a mix of proteins, veggies, and necessary fats.
On the other hand, Blue Apron features its classic Vegetarian, Signature, and Wellness meal plans. But it also features other meal plans, including a little something for reducing carbs, weight loss, and diabetic meals.
I’m sure you think these are just vague titles for meals, and they don’t mean anything! WRONG! Blue Apron has ADA (American Diabetes Association) approved meals for its Diabetes-Friendly meal plan, so it really adheres to all the guidelines co-created by nutritionists and chefs.
The science behind Blue Apron is more solid and foolproof when you’re looking for dietary-specific meal plans. Gobble is more generic in that it checks all of the boxes in terms of versatility and menu variety.
Gobble vs Blue Apron – Packaging
Let’s consider how you will receive Gobble and Blue Apron meal kits. It’s pretty straightforward; there is little difference between how Gobble and Blue Apron pack their meals.
Gobble provides a separate bag for each meal with labels on every bag, so you don’t get confused and mistake one meal for the other. The plastic bag for each ingredient is flexible and easy to seal for storage.
Whether it’s thyme, parsley, snacks, meat, sauces, etc. the seals make sure nothing spills out. It’s a transparent seal as well, so you can see everything besides identifying the ingredient by sticker.
With Blue Apron, you receive a weekly box with all the ingredients in plastic sealed bags. The basic idea for Blue Apron is meal prep; you save time throughout the week by prepping for all the week’s meals at one time.
But for someone who prefers to do their meal prep right before actually cooking it on a specific day, getting the ingredients together from the single ingredients box might take a couple of extra minutes.
But having all the ingredients in a single box means fewer packaging materials than Gobble, which uses tinier packaging materials for each ingredient in a specific meal. This may be more convenient for you, but it uses more plastic, which means it’s not as eco-friendly as Blue Apron.
Speaking of eco-friendly, Blue Apron uses How2Recycle labels, which means 85% of their package is recyclable. Gobble provides no such assurance about being eco-friendly. They did at one point, but this claim was opposed by the National Advertising Division, after which they stopped advertising “Eco-friendly” labels.
Gobble vs Blue Apron – Delivery
Blue Apron is a more popular and widespread meal kit delivery service across the United States. This includes the whole adjoining United States, barring Alaska and Hawaii.
When you set up an order on their website, you’ll be presented with a few options regarding the day of the week you want the meals to be delivered. And this isn’t a ‘once-and-for-all’ type of preference; you can change the days whenever you want at the end of each week. Blue Apron delivers all weekdays, and during the weekends, so there are no limitations there.
Unfortunately, Gobble is not as ubiquitous as Blue Apron. Like Blue Apron, Gobble does not deliver to Alaska and Hawaii. Unlike Blue Apron, it does not deliver to these parts, sorry, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota!
Gobble allows you to select the days of the week you want the delivery, and this flexible scheduling can be changed on a week-to-week basis.
Gobble vs Blue Apron – Vegetarian Recipes
On the website of both Gobble and Blue Apron, you can clearly make out that they offer a wide selection of vegetarian recipes.
The menu of Blue Apron, as a plus point, offers a specialized ‘Vegetarian’ category. You quickly know what’s vegetarian at the click of a button, unlike Gobble, which features a broader categorization on its menu, including Dinner, Premium Dinner, and Lean & Clean Dinners.
You can swap meals from chicken to a vegetarian on Gobble – that’s an option. But no Vegetarian filter will allow you only to view the menu that’s 100% meat-free.
You get a good blend of vegetables throughout the week with Gobble, but here’s the catch. Blue Apron offers you a thorough breakdown of all the ingredients of each recipe. Gobble does NOT have that information available unless you subscribe to their plan.
When I click on one of their vegetarian recipes, I’m directly sent to their sign-up page. With Blue Apron, I’m directed to the recipe page with all the fresh ingredients information, how to cook the recipe, and nutrition. It seems that Blue Apron cares a lot more about its vegetarian customers than Gobble, keeping all this essential information handy.
Gobble will mention a small detail on the recipe card on its menu about what the recipe contains for people who may have one or multiple food allergies: peanuts, wheat, eggs, soy, nuts, etc. Blue Apron offers the same information on its nutritional profile, which I think is very impressive.
Since we’re on the subject of healthy, vegetarian meals, you should also know that Blue Apron takes the issue of organic and sustainable food practices very seriously. It includes organic, non-GMO vegetables. There is no such information on Gobble about the certification or source of its vegetables.
Gobble vs Blue Apron – Serving Kits for Four
Both Gobble and Blue Apron feature larger servings that cater to 4 people in a single meal plan. So instead of ordering for four different meal plans, you can make one recipe for four servings – saving time and money on your final order.
It’s perfect for hosting dinners, get-togethers, and large families. When you’re all having the same dish, these speciality kits for four servings let you cook according to portion with step-by-step instructions.
What can I say, Blue Apron, again, steals the prize on this one because it features way more recipes under the category’ Signature for Four’ for an entire week (10 recipes, to be exact). Gobble offers only two recipes under their ‘Specialty Kits for 4’ category.
Gobble vs Blue Apron – Protein Content
Vegetarian Protein
From GOBBLE:
From the vegetarian menu, I selected the Sheet Pan Tandoor Cauliflower & Sweet Potatoes with Lentil Dal & Naan recipe because it contains protein-packed ingredients such as lentils, peas, and sweet potatoes.
From BLUE APRON:
The Chipotle-Roasted Tofu Lettuce Cups recipe of Blue Apron is also loaded with protein-rich ingredients, such as mushrooms, brown rice, tofu, and non-fat Greek yogurt.
Chicken Protein
From GOBBLE:
They have a few chicken recipes that are high in proteins. The recipe that contains beef meat can also be swapped with chicken meat. For example, the Parmesan-Crusted Chicken with Basil Lemon Orzo Salad has chicken as its primary protein source.
There’s also the Japanese-Inspired Chicken Bento Bowl with Poached Eggs. You’re doubling down on your protein with poached eggs and chicken in a single recipe!
From BLUE APRON:
The two protein-dense meals on Blue Apron that I hunted down are the Tahini Chicken & Warm Kale Salad, which contains up to 43-45 grams of protein. It has many more protein-rich ingredients like sweet potato, chicken thighs, and kale.
And the second one – Lemon & Garlic-Butter Chicken – contains 46-48 grams of proteins with chicken breast, potatoes, and broccoli as its protein sources.
Beef Protein
From GOBBLE:
The Buffalo-Style Burger with Broccoli Slaw & Creamy Ranch Dressing is prized as the website’s ‘Hall of Fame’ recipe. Beef and broccoli surely are protein-rich ingredients. There’s even the Korean Bulgogi Beef with Broccoli & Japchae Noodles – it’s got beef and broccoli and Japchae noodles made of sweet potatoes.
From BLUE APRON:
It doesn’t get better than the classic Smoked Gouda Burger – ground beef and sweet potatoes!
Seafood Protein
From GOBBLE:
Did you know shrimp is high in protein! It’s almost pure protein, making the Shrimp Tacos with Avocado Cabbage Slaw & Chimichurri even more tempting. It’s got shrimp and avocado dressing as the main protein sources.
In the ‘Lean & Clean Dinners’ section, Gobble lets you swap pork with a salmon fillet on the Roasted Pork Tenderloin with Charred Brussel Sprouts & Peruvian Dipping Sauce. Can you guess the second protein-rich ingredient other than salmon? Brussel sprouts!
From BLUE APRON:
The Yuzu-Orange Glazed Trout is a delicate and scrumptious delight with roasted sweet potatoes and sesame seeds. It’s also a low-calorie meal for health-conscious eaters.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Can you order from Gobble / Blue Apron if you have food allergies?
Both Gobble and Blue Apron inform you about the most common allergy-causing foods the recipe consists of. Although Blue Apron is more transparent about its ingredients than Gobble.
But it’s a surprising disappointment that neither Gobble nor Blue Apron comes with separate packaging details for processing eggs, soy, nuts, etc. So you do not have “special” treatment per se, but you do know what’s in your food that could trigger your pre-existing food allergies.
I want to say something unique about Gobble, though. Gobble writes what the recipe contains on each menu card, like soy, peanuts, eggs, milk, etc. But it also lets you know which of those ingredients are optional; you can skip out on adding them when planning your meals.
I didn’t find any such flexible customization on Blue Apron. But you can switch from meat/chicken to plant-based chicken/beef in some of their recipes. Or even from beef/chicken meat to seafood.
How easy is it to order for the first time?
Again, both Gobble and Blue Apron offer a similar sign-up process with seamless interfaces. When you’re on Gobble, you must first add your email, password, and ZIP code to sign up. Following that, you can select your meal plans, serving size, and other important information regarding personalization and scheduling.
Here’s the thing about ordering from Gobble that I didn’t like: they don’t let you read recipes before signing up. You must sign up first to get more out of the whole Gobble experience.
With Blue Apron, you can explore their menu, each recipe’s nutritional profile, cooking instructions, etc., before signing up. Blue Apron, too, has a simple sign-up process.
Can you skip a box or cancel your subscription?
Yes, both Gobble and Blue Apron let you opt-out of the subscription any time you like. They even promote flexible scheduling; you can select the days you want the meal for the week to be delivered.
You can event track and manage your order with Blue Apron’s app, which is compatible with Apple Store and Google Play.
On Gobble, once you’ve subscribed and you’d like to pause or skip a few deliveries, you can do it four weeks in advance as well! They offer multiple flexible options for you to try out. Opting for delivery once every other week, receiving only two weekly recipes instead of 4, etc.
They have a ‘Get in touch’ page where you can add your email address and type down the details of your request. Or you can directly cancel your subscription and receive a confirmation right away on your registered email.
On Blue Apron, the same flexible scheduling process is applied. Go to the ‘Manage Delivery’ option once you log in and select the order you’d like to skip/change.
However, to cancel, you have to mail the customer service (cancellations@blueapron.com) or visit their Help Center for more specific information. They’ll take care of the rest right away. But for skipping meals, they have a dedicated page for quickly managing your orders at least five weeks in advance!
Pros and Cons
Gobble
| Pros | Cons |
| ● Aimed at making dinner that’s ready to read in 15 to 20 minutes. | ● Too many packaging bags in a single meal box. |
| ● Most of the ingredients are prepped before packing. | ● You can’t read the nutritional details of the recipes. |
| ● Beginner-friendly recipes save time. | ● The minimum order costs more than other services. |
| ● The ‘Lean & Clean’ recipe is great for low calorie-meals. | ● No shipping cost discount on larger orders. |
| ● You can easily swap protein on specific dishes. | |
| ● You know what’s cooking 4 weeks in advance. | |
| ● Skip or swap ingredients if you have allergies/food intolerance. |
Blue Apron
| Pros | Cons |
| ● 100% transparency about ingredients/nutritional info for each recipe. | ● You cannot swap allergy-causing foods, like with Gobble. |
| ● No shipping cost for larger meal plans. | ● No clarity about vegan or specialized-diet meals. |
| ● Certified-organic productions with eco-friendly packaging. | ● It will take longer than 30 minutes to cook a meal. |
| ● The minimum order is two meals per week. | ● Limited menu variety and customization. |
| ● Affordable pricing with highly versatile meal plans. | ● The hassle of emailing customer service for cancellation. |
| ● Some of the best ingredients/dishes you’ll find. | |
| ● Hormone-free meats & non-GMO vegetables. | |
| ● It comes with an app for easy tracking. |
In Conclusion…
Both outfits are excellent meal kit delivery services for beginners and tempted cooks who want to try something different at home. Considering how simple it is to make a meal out of Gobble, Blue Apron comes out as a winner because it’s more affordable in the long run than Gobble.
The overall quality of ingredients, consistency of flavor, and meal selections are unparalleled. It takes away all the hassle of grocery shopping. Plus, you can browse from a large variety of ingredients on your laptop and tablet/phone.
Gobble is a great choice for ease of preparation since most of the ingredients are already prepped and ready to go. But in terms of pricing and consistency, Gobble falls a bit behind.
