Picking between Hungryroot and Blue Apron is like making a decision to watch a film at home vs stepping out to watch the same film in the movie theater. The end result (of the film) is the same, but how you’re planning to go about it is different.
Hungryroot is a special meal kit delivery service. While it’s not like Blue Apron, the latter is also categorized as a meal kit delivery service.
With Hungryroot, you order groceries – not recipes – which get delivered to your doorstep. In the parcel, along with the groceries, you will find relevant recipes that you can make based on the grocery items you’ve ordered. There’s more to the ordering process of Hungryroot, which I will explain in detail below.
With Blue Apron, on the other hand, you order recipes directly from their menu. You select which meals you want to eat for the week and receive them in meal boxes with all the ingredients premeasured with cooking instructions.
Read on to see how it works!
Do Meal Kit Delivery Services Work for Most People?
Preparing and cooking meals by meal kit delivery services such as Hungryroot and Blue Apron are simple and quick. They include easy cooking instructions, premeasured ingredients, and more helpful tips to reduce cooking time and effort in the kitchen. This kind of delivery service is a blessing for a novice home cook.
Probably the most beneficial thing about such services is that they cut the cooking time in half and practically erase prep time from your weekly agenda. Where you would have spent an additional 10-20 minutes every day getting the ingredients ready, with a meal kit delivery service, you already have that work cut out for you.
Since the ingredients are all premeasured and, in the case of Hungryroot, pre-prepped, it’ll take you less than 30 minutes to cook.
In addition, the versatility of the menu and dietary choices is impressive. You’re minimizing food wastage because you buy per serving, and even if there are some leftovers, you can easily refrigerate them and devour them the next day. However, I guarantee you there will be none left!
Hungryroot vs Blue Apron – How to Order
Deviating away from what traditional meal kit services do, including Blue Apron, Hungryroot lets you pick a number of grocery items per week to help you make breakfast, lunch, snacks, dinner, and even desserts.
Hungryroot does things uniquely by asking you about your food preferences. What do you like to eat? Pick omnivore, vegan, pescatarian, vegetarian, nondairy, nut-free, gluten-free, soy-free, and so many more dietary preferences.
The best thing is you can choose multiple preferences at a time. Based on your choices, Hungryroot offers all the relevant grocery items you can buy that fit those dietary needs. It also recommends recipes you can make with that list. It’s like entering a grocery store that is designed just for your likes and dislikes.
You’ll find all types of food items on Hungryroot – meat and seafood, fresh produce, plant-based proteins, grains, pasta, sauces, dips, sweets, and a few others.
The prep time gets reduced to half because most of the ingredients are prepared before they are packed. You’re ticking three separate boxes with Hungryroot:
- Shopping for groceries
- Planning your meals ahead of time
- Prepping each and every ingredient before cooking
For someone pressed for time, this sounds convenient and practical. It’s also a lot of fun when you want to make challenging meals that don’t take as much time or meal prepping to ace.
Moving forward, Blue Apron lets you pick recipes so you don’t have to worry about fetching the ingredients. Their menu contains a wide variety of delicious and wholesome recipes. You select the number of servings (2 or 4) you want per week followed by the number of meals from 2, 3, to 4.
It’s optional to pick a preference (just for the sake of getting unique recommendations along with every week’s meal plan). However, you can select from any food category you like, such as the following:
- Chef’s Favorites
- Wellness
- Family Friendly
- Fast & Easy
Once you select your meal plan for the week, you receive the entire meal kit with all the ingredients premeasured and a booklet with cooking instructions for each recipe.
Hungryroot vs Blue Apron – Price of Minimum Order
The minimum order on Hungryroot is 6 servings per week which costs $9.99 per serving -a total of $60 per week. There is no shipping fee, even on the minimum order.
Let’s compare this to the minimum order on Blue Apron.
On Blue Apron, the least you can order is 2 servings for 2 meals per week. The cost per serving is $11.99 plus shipping $9.99, which totals to $34 for 4 servings.
For a newbie, choosing Blue Apron makes more sense because it’s more affordable. You pay less at first, then if you like what you get, you can think about increasing the number of servings per week.
However, Hungryroot gets an advantage here primarily because the price you pay for shipping on Blue Apron will get you another serving for that same week on Hungryroot. The money you pay is put to better use if you ask me, and unfortunately, Blue Apron charges shipping on most of their meal plans.
Hungryroot vs Blue Apron – Overall Pricing
Both Hungryroot and Blue Apron charge per serving. Luckily, the more you order per week, the lower the “per-serving” cost.
Since the minimum you can order on Hungryroot is 6 servings per week at $9.99 per serving without a shipping fee, their prices vary from that of Blue Apron. You must also know that with Hungryroot, you can only add meals in twos, which means you can either opt for 2, 4, 5, 8, and so on meals per week. This simplifies the pricing structure of Hungryroot, but it also means you end up paying more or less based on how much food you want in a week.
There’s no such restriction when it comes to ordering any number of meals per week with Blue Apron. You can easily opt for 3 meals per week on Blue Apron for a reduced cost.
Here’s the breakdown of Hungryroot’s pricing tiers.
| Average price per serving: | $9.99 |
| For 6–10 servings per week: | $9.99-$8.75 per serving |
| For 10–12+ servings per week: | $8.75-$8.49 per serving |
Hold on a minute… there’s more!
Hungryroot includes meal kit boxes in three different sizes: Small, Medium, and Large. You can think of these boxes as upgrades with some add-ons such as snacks or sweet items. Each box consists of 2 servings of 3, 4, and 5 meals, respectively.
Assuming you have a meal per day, you get the option to select 3 different meals in the small box, 4 different meals in the medium box, and 5 meals in the big box.
- A Small Box includes 6 servings + snacks for $69 per week (meals for 3 days per week).
- A Medium Box includes 8 servings + snacks for $99 per week (meals for 4 days per week).
- A Large Box includes 10 servings + snacks for $129 per week (meals for 5 days per week).
What I like about Blue Apron’s pricing structure is that it’s less complicated than Hungryroot. Blue Apron is all about charging per serving with zero limitations on how many meals you want per week.
Blue Apron’s 2-serving per meal plan (weekly).
| Shipping cost: | $9.99 (on all orders) |
| 2 meals per week: | $11.99 |
| 3 meals per week: | $9.99 |
| 4 meals per week: | $9.49 |
Blue Apron’s 4-serving per meal plan (weekly)
| Shipping cost: | $9.99 (on all orders) |
| 2 meals per week: | $9.49 |
| 3 meals per week: | $8.49 |
| 4 meals per week: | $7.99 |
No matter what you select, this is the fixed pricing plan for both Hungryroot and Blue Apron. They are structured differently, but to sum it up, I found that Hungryroot demands more money in the long run than Blue Apron.
It costs less to order from Blue Apron when you’re ordering for 1-2 people per week for months. The only downside of Blue Apron in terms of cost is shipping fee. Unfortunately, it charges a shipping fee on most orders even if you order for more than 3 people per week.
Hungryroot vs Blue Apron – Menu Variety
Hungryroot
Hungryroot comes with a customized grocery plan. Once you answer a few questions about food preferences, dietary needs, etc., the groceries presented to you are filtered based on your answers.
You select some food items that seem interesting to you -say you select food items like fish, sweet potatoes, brown rice, and broccoli. (These I’ve named randomly for the sake of illustrating to you the variety of ingredients on Hungryroot.)
From these items, Hungryroot recommends recipes that you can make with those ingredients. The recipe is also based on the answers you gave just a while ago. Every suggestion after signing up on Hungryrootis centered around your dietary needs and personal preferences. You can change these preferences anytime you want by signing in.
All the ingredients are premeasured and pre-prepped which means you don’t have to chop or marinate anything.
The variety of ingredients on Hungryroot is unparalleled. You can shop for ingredients that go in salads, pasta, sandwiches, burgers, wraps, grain bowls, tacos, main dishes plus sides, and a few others.
Let me just say that Hungryroot offers thousands of recipes you can pick from every week, while Blue Apron offers a limited menu (up to 30 recipes each week).
Hungryroot’s grocery list is worth drooling over. It has everything a supermarket does but is conscious about your dietary needs and shares accurate nutritional information about each product.
The best thing about Hungryroot is its versatility. It outweighs Blue Apron with different pantry items such as almond butter, cookie dough, wafer bars, tart, crunch bars, pudding, etc. Impressive, right?
For snacks, you have delicious and nutritious options such as hummus chips, pink sea salt popcorn, yogurt biscuits, pastries, breakfast biscuits, etc.
Recipes
You can filter recipes by type, protein, spice level, cooking time, calories, and dietary needs on theirRecipes page. There are over 10 different types of cuisines, 10+ protein sources, and just as many dietary needs that you can select more than one at a time.
Under each recipe, you can select the grocery items that go into making that dish. Hungryroot is so popular that you can also see how well each recipe is ranked out of 5 with a total reviewer count. This definitely takes the authenticity of meal kit delivery services to a whole new level!
Groceries
If you want to jump right into grocery shopping, browse their Grocery section which forms the whole essence of the Hungryrootexperience. Again, you can filter by dietary needs, spice level, protein, and food type.
Each food item has a nutrition label that lets you know whether it’s nut-free, vegan, gluten-free, etc. You can also read the servings per container, serving size, and what you can add that particular food item to in a variety of recipes.
Hungryroot delivers everything preprepped and premeasured. I will this say again because it guarantees that cooking time for each meal is under 15 minutes.
Even a dish as complicated asLamb Tikka Masala with Broccoli + Naan takes only 20 minutes to cook because Hungryroot delivers a premade Tikka Masala Simmer Sauce and a bag of Lamb Cubes that cook faster. It tastes just like a restaurant’s, which is perfect for weeknight meals.
Blue Apron
In comparison to the versatile and never-ending menu of Hungryroot, Blue Apron has a limited selection of weekly dishes. They change their menu every week which means more new recipes to try.
While Blue Apron is about whole and nutritious meals, they cater to specific dietary needs that are not as wide-ranging as Hungryroot.
Meal Plans
Their current menu includes four different meal plans that cater to most people:
- Signature
- Vegetarian
- Wellness
- Signature for Four
The Signature plan features both veg and nonveg recipes. These are main + side dishes for 2 or 4 servings. It varies from rice bowls, burgers, pasta, pizza, and tacos, to grilled dishes. You have a comfortable menu to pick your meals from, and Blue Apron ensures that the recipes are nutritious and wholesome no matter what you end up with.
In their Vegetarian menu, as the title suggests, only plant-based meals are included. Again, these recipes are highly nutritious and filling.
The Wellness menu is designed for people on a weight loss diet. The recipes in this menu are designed by nutritional experts so they are not very carb-dense and are recommended for you if you practice a holistic diet. When you think “doctor-recommended,” these are the recipes you should go for.
Lastly, the Signature for Four menu includes meals that serve 4 people or 2-3 people with some leftovers. It’s a blend of recipes that require prepping but also recipes that are packaged pre-prepped to save cooking time.
Instead of ordering an extra serving of the same meal, the Signature for Four meal plan offers a relatively discounted price and easier and faster cooking instructions.
A Few Pantry Items
I would also like to point out that Hungryroot serves snacks and sweet items which Blue Apron does not. Blue Apron, however, does have a few select pantry items that you get to buy on their Pantry webpage. They feature different flavors of spice blends like Cajun, Barbecue, Smoky, Mexican, and Za’atar and seasonings like Kosher Sea Salt and Flake Salt.
These spices are perfect for making marinades for burgers, grills, sandwiches, curries, etc. You can also use them for salads and rice dishes. They’re created to suit a wide variety of cuisines and recipes.
Hungryroot vs Blue Apron – Cooking Time
There’s always an added convenience of time with Hungryroot. The grocery items save time in grocery shopping and provide the comfort of deciding what you’re going to cook with those ingredients, which usually takes a long time if you cook most days of the week.
Hungryroot’s recipes are faster to cook because the ingredients you select have already been pre-prepped and precut. I can explain this better with an example.
The Korean Barbecue Chicken recipe is made from two main ingredients that you can quickly buy from Hungryroot’s website – organic seasoned jasmine rice and Korean BBQ-Style Chicken. Both are preprepared, which means you only have to heat them in the microwave and serve them hot.
You can make the recipe on the stove for better results, especially the chicken. You can pan-grill the chicken with a little bit of oil to caramelize the texture for better flavor on both sides. The chicken cooks evenly along with the microwaved jasmine rice. The rice is already seasoned – it says so on the package itself.
The ingredients on Hungryroot are not the kind that is meant to be prepared from scratch. They have packaged sauces, dressings, and marinades for all kinds of cuisines. As soon as your package arrives, you simply have to combine all the necessary ingredients together and allow it to cook for 15 minutes or so.
Blue Apron, on the other hand, sings a different tune than Hungryroot. All its recipes need to be cooked from scratch, which may take up to 45 minutes. Cooking time is longer, and more effort is needed in the kitchen for each meal. There are a few pre-prepped meals that take less than 20 minutes to cook, but the choices are few and far between.
We’re often discouraged to cook something when the recipe takes longer than 30 minutes. With Hungryroot, the promise that you can cook and eat your dinner in less than 30 minutes is enough to keep you hooked.
Blue Apron, I imagine, is for those who don’t mind spending a little more time in the kitchen. While their recipes are not complicated, they take a longer time to cook since nothing is prepped in advance.
Hungryroot vs Blue Apron – Dietary Preferences
Both Hungryroot and Blue Apron are nutritionist-approved meal kit delivery services, offering a nuanced, holistic, and authentic approach to healthy eating and meal prepping.
For home cooks, this means 100% transparency about nutritional information. How many proteins, fats, carbohydrates, and calories does a serving have?
Hungryroot flaunts all its recipes, cooking instructions, and nutritional profile before you sign up. It’s not like many other meal kit delivery services where you need to sign up before getting all the important information,but that’s not the case with Hungryroot. The same goes for Blue Apron.
It’s a hearty and thoughtful brand with all the right nutrition facts about its recipes – along with their cooking instructions, serving size, and allergy information.
Another way in which Hungryroot and Blue Apron are flexible options for people on a diet is with their swappable ingredients!
Hungryroot allows you to add chicken into your cart before checkout to make tikka masala instead of beef. It’s only a matter of adding the right food item to the cart.
Blue Apron features a few recipes with swappable protein from tofu to chicken breast or thighs to beef or turkey and even plant-based chicken patty, but these are on select recipes. With Hungryroot, you can switch from chicken to tofu or seafood with practically any recipe you like.
Hungryroot vs Blue Apron – Delivery and Packaging
Here’s a word on delivery before I move on to how your orders are packed each week.
Hungryroot charges no shipping fee, even on the minimum order. Anything it delivers by road is 100% free. However, if they have to deliver your parcel by air (flight), there is a $10 fee on every order. This is not bad at all considering you don’t have to pay extra for road deliveries. The air shipping expenses are to be expected.
Blue Apron does quick and efficient deliveries but with a shipping fee. A $9.99 shipping cost is charged on all orders, including orders with more than 3 meals.
According to Blue Apron’s Food Safety webpage, all these packaging materials are USDA-compliant. They are temperature-tested to ensure 100% freshness and flavor. No matter what you order, there will be a small booklet that instructs you how to store the ingredients and at what temperature to best preserve the rich flavor.
Sensitive ingredients like cheese, eggs, chicken, seafood, and bread need more attention and care.
There’s no difference between Hungryroot and Blue Apron when considering food packaging and food safety. They follow stringent guidelines to maintain the freshness of the food.
The packaging materials provided by both services are recyclable. Including the big box, your meal kits come in liners, ice packs, food protectors, tins, and rigid plastics.
Blue Apron labels each and every packaging material so you can fully reclaim the plastics and metal tin cans during disposal.
Read more about their sustainable practices here (for Hungryroot) and here (for Blue Apron).
Hungryroot vs Blue Apron – Customer Service
It’s quick and easy to reach Hungryroot by text, email, and phone. However, if what you’re reaching out to them for is to customize your meal boxes, they have a Manage Orders page for you. You can adjust the schedule day and order quantity easily without contacting customer service.
There is a separate option for cancellations as well. I didn’t find any grievance with their customer service or their flexible scheduling process.
Blue Apron also offers you multiple ways of getting in touch with them – submit a request, email, phone, and a very accurate FAQs section. They even have an app for adjusting orders and rescheduling or skipping meals.
For cancellations, you do have to email them, and the customer service agent will take up your request right away.
Hungryroot vs Blue Apron – Vegetarian and Nonvegetarian Protein Sources
Please note that I’ve selected each recipe below at random. There are other recipes you can browse through and select for yourself on both Hungryroot and Blue Apron.
Vegetarian
Suppose you’re in the mood for some veg tacos, but you’re not sure which is healthier. Here’s the breakdown of how both services cater to your tacos craving – nutrient-wise.
| From Hungryroot | From Blue Apron | |
| Spicy “Chorizo” Harvest Tacos | Cheesy Brussel Sprout Tacos | |
| Serving size | 2 | 2 |
| Calories (per serving) | 570 calories | 950 calories |
| Fats (per serving) | 14g | 45g |
| Carbs (per serving) | 57g | 115g |
| Proteins (per serving) | 27g | 28g |
| Sodium (per serving) | 1440mg | 1050mg |
Chicken
A chicken bowl is one of the healthiest and most wholesome dishes you can eat. It’s protein-backed, low in carbs, and low calorie. If you’re on a weight-loss diet, I’d definitely recommend these dishes after an intense workout session.
| From Hungryroot | From Blue Apron | |
| Coconut Curry Chicken Power Bowl | Romesco Chicken Bowl | |
| Serving size | 2 | 2 |
| Calories (per serving) | 580 calories | 530 calories |
| Fats (per serving) | 17g | 32g |
| Carbs (per serving) | 56g | 38g |
| Proteins (per serving) | 48.5g | 25g |
| Sodium (per serving) | 1158mg | 1160mg |
Beef
When you think beef, you think steaks! It’s the first dish that comes to mind, and both Hungryroot and Blue Apron offer up their own special versions of steak.
| From Hungryroot | From Blue Apron | |
| Steakhouse Plate with Curry Carrots | Tenderloin Steaks & Salsa Verde | |
| Serving size | 2 | 2 |
| Calories (per serving) | 1080 calories | 1350 calories |
| Fats (per serving) | 20g | 72g |
| Carbs (per serving) | 90g | 63g |
| Proteins (per serving) | 70g | 115g |
| Sodium (per serving) | 1180mg | 2110mg |
Seafood
Both are salmon dishes, but Hungryroot offers a healthier, less calorie-dense salad. On the other hand, Blue Apron has more filling recipes with salmon served with puffed buttery rice.
| From Hungryroot | From Blue Apron | |
| Roasted Salmon Sweet Kale Salad | Salmon Piccata | |
| Serving size | 2 | 2 |
| Calories (per serving) | 300 calories | 700 calories |
| Fats (per serving) | 18g | 34g |
| Carbs (per serving) | 24g | 63g |
| Proteins (per serving) | 17g | 36g |
| Sodium (per serving) | 720mg | 890mg |
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. Which Is a Better Option for People with Food Allergies?
Hungryroot’s menu is more versatile and customizable than Blue Apron’s. Unlike Blue Apron, Hungryroot features a variety of ingredients that can be used for different recipes.
So, while you won’t find a meal in your Hungryroot’s box, you will find ingredients that you can use for a bunch of different recipes. Hungryroot provides you with a booklet of recipes you can make quickly with the ingredients you ordered for that week.
This automatically suggests that Hungryroot is more compatible with people with food allergies and/or dietary restrictions. You can swap any ingredient you’re allergic to, and Hungryroot will fine-tune the recipe recommendations with what you’ve chosen instead.
Blue Apron’s menu is more limited but not lacking in quality or flavor than Hungryroot. Only for select recipes can you adjust the ingredients, swapping them from veg to nonveg or from nonveg to veg or plant-based alternative.
There is little to no room for swapping main ingredients like nuts, egg, milk, or cheese from the recipe itself. You can only swap protein sources but for select recipes only.
Every recipe includes allergy information, whether it contains nuts, soy, seeds, cheese, etc., for you to skip the recipe altogether.
2. What’s the Sign-Up Process Like for Placing the First Order?
Hungryroot makes it unbelievably easy for you to order for the first time. You can browse their recipes and groceries menu without signing up, which means you know exactly what you’re going to get. There’s no mystery there!
To sign up, first, you have to answer a few questions regarding food preferences, dietary restrictions, and quantity. The quick help narrows down your search so you find exactly what you’re looking for.
You can adjust the answers later on. Nothing is set in stone from the get-go. Once those steps have been taken, you’ll be presented with a list of ingredients, and you can start selecting whichever one you like to make different cuisines.
If you’re wondering whether or not Hungryroot delivers to your locality, it does deliver to all 48 contiguous states including Washington DC, excluding Alaska and Hawaii.
Hungryroot features an app and website for you to access all your delivery and address information alongside all upcoming deliveries for the week.
The sign-up process of Blue Apron is easy to navigate as well. You can view their upcoming menu before signing up. It requires necessary information such as name, address, email, and phone number upon sign up. Then you can immediately select the meal plan of your choice. It’s quite easy and straightforward. Someone new to the world of meal delivery kit services won’t find the sign-up process complicated. It’s even faster than Hungryroot!
They, too, deliver to all contiguous US states, excluding Alaska and Hawaii.
3. Is It Possible to Skip or Cancel a Meal After Placing the Order?
Yes, both Hungryroot and Blue Apron let you skip or cancel a meal for the upcoming week. Hungryroot has a weekly cutoff time: before 7 pm EST time on Mondays and Thursdays before the week of delivery. You can do the same via their phone app or desktop website.
To skip a meal delivery on Blue Apron, you can go to the Manage Delivery page on the phone app and website.
Amazingly, Blue Apron lets you customize and skip meals 5 weeks in advance. There is no time limit when it comes to skipping meals when using Blue Apron. However, you must skip a meal for an upcoming delivery at least 2 days before the order is shipped.
Canceling a kit is possible on the app/website itself on Hungryroot. You can cancel the delivery of specific ingredients and add them more easily on the My Hungryroot page.
To cancel your subscription to Blue Apron, send an email to Blue Apron’s customer service. They usually take less than 24 hours to get back to you and confirm your cancellation request. The response is quick, and you can always ask more questions about editing your order if you’re lost.
Final Take: Hungryroot
Pros:
- The quickest cooking time I’ve ever seen.
- Wide variety of healthy, delicious recipes.
- Snacks and sweet items are also included.
- Personalized selection of ingredients.
- The sign-up process is smooth and user-friendly.
- So many different cuisines to pick from weekly.
- You can filter by cooking time, spice level, dietary needs, etc.
- No shipping cost for road deliveries (by air costs $10 per order).
Cons:
- It is a bit on the expensive side.
- There may be some leftover ingredients after cooking.
Final Take: Blue Apron
Pros:
- Selecting meals is fun and quick.
- Plenty of nutritious, healthy meals for lunch, dinner, and breakfast.
- A great choice for health-conscious eaters.
- The ingredients are certified free of hormones and GMOs.
- 85% of packaging is recyclable, including rigid plastics.
- Well-suited to different eating preferences for weight loss and diabetes.
- Some plant-based meat options are available.
- Heat-and-serve meal options are included.
Cons:
- Limited choice for people with allergies and dietary restrictions
- Shipping cost ($9.99) on all orders
- Longer cooking time as ingredients are not prepped
Conclusion
After considering everything, what is your final impression of Hungryroot and Blue Apron, and which service seems like it will be more convenient for you?
The curious ones can’t help but fall in love with a meal kit delivery service like Hungryroot. You pick exactly the ingredients you prefer to eat and get a delicious recipe based on those select items.
Blue Apron is more streamlined in that you can try different dishes without worrying about buying their ingredients separately. It’s also fun to select the meal every week rather than individually combing through the ingredients which can be confusing for some people.
While Hungryroot certainly offers more food options, Blue Apron doesn’t let you get bored because they feature a whole new menu every week. Overall, the decision falls into your hands as they both offer fresh ingredients and delicious meals.
