Green Chef vs Home Chef – Which One Is Worth the Money?

Meal kit delivery services like Green Chef and Home Chef offer beginners and experienced home cooks the chance to make restaurant-quality and nutritious recipes at home. Nothing about subscribing to either one of these services feels complicated or risky. The advantages are plenty!

You can cook really delicious recipes at home such as pan-roasted salmon, turkey burgers, tacos, sandwiches, hummus bowls, etc. Plus, these recipes are not at all difficult to take on. Ranging from different cooking times, some of these recipes take as little as 20 minutes to cook.

Between Green Chef and Home Chef, you have to decide between convenience and versatility:

• Green Chef’s meals are very quick and easy to make. Plus, they have excellent vegetarian options with high proteins, less salt, and healthy carbs.
• Home Chef’s meals are more diet-friendly with customizable meal plans. You can add more proteins to your meal plans, swap ingredients, and follow a more diet-focused restricted weekly plan.

What Are Meal Kits and Are They Worth the Money?

Meal kits contain premeasured and some prechopped ingredients for you to simply cook according to recipe instructions. Meal delivery service of this type has a lot of advantages because it simplifies cooking for people who either do not have time to cook or dislike doing so.

The premeasured and prepped ingredients come with recipe cards and information on estimated cooking time, tips, and nutritional details.

You can modify the serving size and meal plans while placing your order. Ideally, meal kits can be adjusted with 2 to 6 servings per recipe. Furthermore, you can select from 2 to 6 recipes per week from a menu of 20 to 30 recipes that vary weekly.

Whether you’re looking for some recipe inspiration or want to skip grocery shopping altogether, meal kit deliveries are a great option. Even when you want to cook 2-3 times per week, subscribing to a great meal kit delivery service can take loads of time off your hands.

It’s a good choice for health-conscious eaters who are tired of eating unhealthy, junk food for their weeknight dinners.

You can find affordable meal kit delivery services that offer full meals for as low as $7 per meal. Otherwise, you can opt for premium recipes that cost a little more but offer a versatile and wholesome blend of healthy ingredients and restaurant-style recipes.

Services like Green Chef offer meals for $12- $13 per recipe. On the other hand, Home Chef offers a host of different prices with various cooking times, ingredients, and meal plans.

Green Chef vs Home Chef – Meal Plans

Green Chef offers only one type of meal plan -a meal kit with premeasured and packaged ingredients. All the ingredients you need to cook the recipes displayed on Green Chef’s weekly menu are a part of each meal kit.

If you select their Southwest-Spiced Turkey Salad, you get the following ingredients in your meal kit based on the number of servings you select for this particular recipe: ground turkey, lettuce, Roma tomatoes, cheddar cheese, bell peppers, scallions, pepitas, sour cream, Cholula sauce, tomato paste, chimichurri sauce, chili, cumin, and paprika spice blend.

Paired with the individually packaged ingredients will be a recipe card containing proper step-by-step cooking instructions. The recipe takes 30 minutes to make from scratch, and you’ll need a sauté pan to prepare the ingredients. An oven or microwave oven is optional if you want to roast your peppers the authentic way.

Simple yet delicious recipes like these are included in Green Chef’s meal plans. It features 24 recipes that change weekly, so you won’t be eating the same dish 2 weeks in a row.

Green Chef also tells you which recipe is part of different dietary categories. These categories vary and are tempting to try out even if you’re a beginner in cooking diet food with wholesome ingredients.

Even so, you get to indulge in recipes that are part of a gluten-free diet, keto diet, Mediterranean diet, paleo diet, and a vegan/veggie diet. If you’re unsure about which diet plan to select from, try the “Balanced Living” diet! Recipes in this category include a bit of everything including low-carb and plant-based meals.

Each diet category has new and exciting recipes with uniquely nutritious ingredients. Have you ever eaten an orzo pasta salad in a lemony butter sauce paired with fish? Green Chef’s Tilapia Meuniere is a French recipe that cooks in less than 20 minutes.

Home Chef’s weekly menu looks slightly different starting with the different types of meal plans. You have the Meal Kits, Easy Prep Meal Kits, and Extra Add-On for proteins, breakfast, snacks, etc.

The Meal Kits are exactly like Green Chef’s meal kits in that they offer pre-portioned ingredients and cooking instructions. These are more time-sensitive, which means you have to cook the ingredients yourself. Most of the time, that takes about an hour with Home Chef. In general, Home Chef’s meals take longer to cook than Green Chef’s.

Home Chef’s Blistered-Tomato Salmon recipe takes 50- 60 minutes to cook, but it offers the same serving as Green Chef’s French fish recipe. Meanwhile, the latter features a cooking time of only 30 minutes.

I also found that Home Chef meal kits are a bit less varied than Green Chef. Green Chef’s menu looks more colorful than Home Chef:

• Home Chef’s Sticky Chicken Tacos contains red bell pepper, peanuts, pineapples, and green onions.
• Green Chef’s Harissa-Spiced Sweet Potato Tacos, on the other hand, hosts a varied blend of tomatoes, sweet potatoes, kale, olives, pistachios, and protein-packed hummus!

The Easy Prep Meal Kits are quickly prepared meals that can be warmed up in a microwave, oven, or stove in less than 15 minutes.This is perfect for people who either don’t like cooking or don’t have the time to cook a meal every day.

Nothing about the prepared meal kits of Home Chef feels paler in quality or quantity. The recipes included in this category are just as delicious and uniquely crafted. Different pasta recipes, tacos, beans, pie, and grilled recipes are a part of the Easy Prep Meal Kits. The average cooking or prepping time for these meals is 10- 15 minutes tops per serving.

The Add-Ons are food items you can add to your weekly cart along with the meal kits. These include small pantry items that you have to pay separately for, such as yogurt cups, juices, coffee cans, smoothies, breakfast items, salad packs, and protein. Protein includes meat and seafood, but there are no plant-based proteins.

Green Chef vs Home Chef – Cost

The per-serving price for every Green Chef meal starts at $13, but it lowers once you add more meals/servings to your weekly cart. You can pay as little as $11 per meal depending on the number of meals you order weekly.

Having said that, the most affordable package you can pay for on Green Chef is $72 + a $10 shipping fee, which is the cost for 3 meals per week and 2 servings per meal. I recommend this if you stay alone and hate leftovers.

Contrastingly, the most extravagant package you can pay for on Green Chef is up to $300. That gives you 4 different meals per week and 6 servings per meal. I recommend this plan for large families.

The different box sizes and prices on Green Chef look like this:

Frequently Asked Questions About Green Chef and Home Chef

1. Can You Make Changes to Orders?

Whether you choose Green Chef or Home Chef, both let you modify your order after placing it. You can view all your orders after logging in. You can change meals and add/remove meals from your weekly plan easily with Green Chef.

The cutoff time for Green Chef to make any such changes is at least 7 days prior to the scheduled delivery date. Information on the deadline and any other important detail about your order will be sent to you via email after you place your order.

Home Chef is more user-friendly and straightforward with its order modifications. On top of swapping protein or adding protein bundles to your order, you can change delivery dates and make substitutions easily. For this, you don’t need to contact customer care. Simply log in to the account and make your changes.

The cutoff time for Home Chef is every Friday before the delivery week at 12pm CT, but if you forget or realize you need to make changes for next week’s delivery after Friday at noon, you can contact customer care to assist you.

2. Can I Freeze and Skip Meals?

You can easily pause or skip meals 5 days before the delivery date. Just go to the “My Menu” option and choose “Edit Delivery.” There, Green Chef lets you skip a week or freeze your order easily without contacting customer service.

For those related to your delivery address, payment, or number of servings, all changes should be made 7 days before. There isn’t any minimum requirement for changing or modifying your orders. You can easily skip meals, freeze meals, swap recipes, or cancel your order 5-7 days prior to the delivery date.

Home Chef has a classy and intuitive interface for canceling or skipping meals without delay. Just go to your Account Settings tab, and from there, you can pause your subscription, cancel orders, or skip meals as you like.

The deadline to do so is on the Friday before the delivery week at 12 pm CT. You cannot skip or freeze meals after Friday, and if it’s an emergency, you can contact customer service, and they will assist you accordingly.

3. Are They Good for People with Severe Food Allergies?

All the meals you select from Green Chef come with an allergen warning so you know exactly what goes into the recipe. Other ingredients, however, are processed and packaged in the same kitchen facility as other allergy-causing foods such as nuts, soy, egg, wheat, etc.

What this means for people with severe food allergies is that if you’re allergic to common ingredients such as wheat, soy, eggs, or pine nuts, there may be the risk of cross-contamination with Green Chef’s meals. This is even if you order a meal that doesn’t include any one of the major allergens. Since the ingredients are processed and packed in the same kitchen, the risk is significant.

The same applies to Home Chef’s meals as they display the common allergens in their recipe cards. The processing and packing of meals are carried out in the same facility with no special food handling facility for people with serious food allergies.

My recommendation would be to read the ingredients label very carefully before placing an order. Both Green Chef and Home Chef pack all the ingredients individually, so there is no risk of leaking or spilling once you open the meal kit.

Pros and Cons

Green Chef Pros

• Lots of vegetarian and vegan options.
• Certified organic and sustainably sourced ingredients.
• Low-carb and high-protein meals are included.
• Keto and paleo recipes are delicious.
• Most of the recipes are gluten-free.
• Quick recipes with less than 30 minutes of cooking time.
• You can freeze, cancel, or modify orders anytime.

Green Chef Cons

• No meal customizations.
• You cannot select add-ons or more proteins.
• The menu variety is limited.

Home Chef Pros

• Calorie-conscious and low-carb meals are included.
• Meal kits and prepared meals are a part of the weekly menu.
• You can double the protein portion easily.
• You can swap proteins in select meals.
• Mix of beginner-friendly and expert-level meals.
• Add-ons such as proteins, snacks, and desserts are included.
• Family-friendly meals with up to 6 servings per recipe.
• 15-minute freshly-prepared meal kits are available.
• Changing meal plans after placing an order is possible.

Home Chef Cons

• Very limited vegetarian/vegan options.
• No information on organic or sustainable sourcing standards.
• Some of the meals are high in salt and carbs.

Final Word

Green Chef is better than Home Chef if you’re looking to save more time and stick to a blend of vegetarian and nonvegetarian meal plans. As for Home Chef, it’s a solid choice for people who want to stick to calorie- and carb-conscious goals by swapping ingredients and adding more protein to their weekly diet.

Green Chef has plenty of protein-rich recipes too, but you cannot swap ingredients or add proteins to your meal kits. Home Chef’s diet plan is not the best choice for vegetarians since they do not offer as many veg options as Green Chef.

I recommend that you figure out which healthy meal kit helps with your dietary needs. Both are incredible options that are easier to subscribe to and jumpstart your healthy eating goals!