SimplyCook UK Review
Easy-to-cook 15 - 20 minute recipe boxes
Serves: 2 - 4 people
No waste and no leftovers
£3 trial
Pros & Cons
- The recipes are easy to use
- Customers have the freedom to customise the recipes
- The menu contains a wide array of flavours and cuisines
- There are many filters customers can apply to the menu
- You only have to pay for the boxes you order
- Some of the ingredients aren’t top-quality
- The recipes can take longer than expected
Plans & Pricing
Since Simply Cook requires customers to cook their own meals with the ingredients provided, the service is relatively more affordable than other ready-to-eat meal kits and services on the market.
Simply Cook offers a trial for only £3 to allow customers to test out their recipes and boxes before subscribing to the service. Each recipe box contains four different kits for four different meals. With the trial, you get an entire recipe box with four different meals of your choice.
While other meal kit subscriptions charge you every week or month, Simply Cook charges per delivery. All of the boxes cost the same, with a fixed price of £9.99 per box. So, in the end, this levels out to around £3-£6 per meal or per person. You can opt to deliver meals weekly, once every two weeks, or whenever you order a box for yourself.
Each recipe in the box is good for 2-4 people, depending on how hungry a person is. So, with one recipe box, you can create 10-12 meals, filling up a fair amount of your weekly meals. This saves you time on choosing what to eat, buying ingredients, and figuring out the right ratios.
Whenever you order a recipe box, you get to choose every single meal that goes in there. Simply Cook offers a fairly varied menu, but we’ll touch more on that later. For now, just know that compared to other meal delivery services, Simply Cook can be anywhere from £1-£3 cheaper per meal.
Overview
Simply Cook is a new meal service that’s slowly been gaining traction. Unlike the other popular options on the market, Simply Cook works by sending over recipe boxes with all the spices and ingredients you’ll need to make a full and tasty meal.
With Simply Cook, you won’t have to deal with bottles upon bottles of leftover spices going to waste in the cabinet. On top of that, it’s a great way to try out new recipes by yourself, with the option to customise the meals with whatever ingredients you have in your pantry!
Special Features
Simply Cook uses recipe boxes, which is what separates it from the other options out there. However, on top of that, one of the most unique features is that you can customise your recipes with any ingredient in your kitchen.
While the Simply Cook recipes are designed by professionals, everyone has their own tastes. So, at times, you may want to add your own twist to specific recipes to make them suit your preferences better, and with Simply Cook you can do that. All you have to do is go through the recipe, follow the steps, and add whatever unique ingredients you want whenever you feel like it’s right.
Ease of Use
Using and subscribing to Simply Cook is incredibly easy, and all you have to do is head to their website. On their website, if you’re timing is right, you may be able to try out their £3 trial that contains a full recipe box with four different meals.
To order, all you have to do is head to their “Recipes” menu on their website. From there, you can add up to four different meals per recipe box and have them mailed right to your letterbox. When you order a meal from Simply Cook, most of the ingredients are stored and processed in the box; however, you will have to buy your own fresh ingredients.
This may be a hassle, but it does give customers more control over what goes into their food. Once you select four different recipes, you can proceed to checkout, pay, and then wait for the order to arrive. Typically, the Simply Cook recipe boxes arrive in your mail within four working days after you confirm your order.
You only have to pay for every box you order. So, if you aren’t feeling meal kits for a specific week, you can simply not place an order, and you won’t be charged. This gives customers the freedom to end and restart their subscription whenever they want.
Suppliers
One of the main complaints that customers have with Simply Cook is that they aren’t transparent with their suppliers. Usually, meal delivery services offer all the information you need to know about their suppliers, so you know exactly where your food comes from.
However, since the meal kits contain spice blends and pre-packaged ingredients, it can be hard to determine where each individual ingredient comes from. When you get a meal kit, you aren’t just getting a bunch of herbs and spices. Each recipe is designed by professional chefs and can contain up to 18 different ingredients! However, there isn’t that much information on who supplies the ingredients.
So, does this affect the quality?
Yes, but not necessarily in a bad way. Granted, there are a few customers who pointed out that some of the ingredients in the meal kit may seem “sketchy”, but in the end, the food still ended up safe, healthy, and tasty.
Another downside to the lack of transparency with the suppliers is that you can’t decide on the exact origins of your food. For casual cooking, this won’t make a huge difference. However, if you’re particular about your tastes or are a picky eater, this might be a big deal worth noting.
Variety of Food
If you head to the Simply Cook menu, you’ll find a wide range of different cuisines and flavour inspirations. The items on the Simply Cook menu range from classic British and European cuisine to food from other parts of the world such as Balinese, Japanese, and even Mediterranean diets.
With that said, Simply Cook doesn’t offer that many options for people on very restrictive diets. For example, if you’re vegan, you’ll have a hard time finding food on Simply Cook. Most of the recipes on the website contain meat, and while there are some vegetarian options, there aren’t a lot of pure vegan options available.
Additionally, keto and paleo dieters might also find it hard to order recipes tailored to their dietary needs. In fact, while you can apply filters to only display the vegan and vegetarian options, there are no specific menus for other specific diets.
While the items don’t exactly cater to specific diets, they do contain a lot of variety. There are tons of different filters you can apply to the flavours of your food. So, you can filter out options to only view the Balinese and Korean options or view the Eastern European and African offerings.
Food Allergies
If you have specific food allergies, you can view all the ingredients that go into specific recipes. That way, you can view all the different options that won’t be good for you and the ones you can actually eat. The website highly recommends screening all their recipes for specific allergens before ordering for your own safety.
With that said, Simply Cook clearly states that they do not use any nuts, peanuts, or sesame in their packaging and recipe. However, there are some recipes that contain these ingredients and other allergens, but since a full ingredient list for all the recipes is readily available on the website, screening for allergens isn’t too hard.
Additionally, when browsing through their menu, you can even apply filters to remove food with specific allergens. You can choose options such as shellfish, milk, crustaceans, gluten, eggs, and soya. Once you click on any of these filters, the website will remove all items in their menu that contains any of these ingredients.
So, while they don’t exactly have separate menus for people who require gluten-free or dairy-free diets, you can apply filters to make it easier to choose the right options on their main menu.
Customer Support
For inquiries and concerns, Simply Cook has a Help Centre and FAQ page on their website. These pages answer some of the most common inquiries and concerns. However, if you have a unique concern, you can also send them an email at hello@simplycook.com. The company also has a couple of different videos on their YouTube channel to show you some of the basics of their service.
If you want to contact Simply Cook, here are the different ways to do that;
- Head to the FAQ page or Help Centre on their website
- Email them at hello@simplycook.com
- Check out the blogs on their website
Final Word
Simply Cook offers a new take on the classic food delivery service. With this service, you get to cook your own food and customise the recipes to your liking. On top of that, all the spice blends and mixes fit into the letterbox and have great shelf lives, so you don’t have to worry about anything going bad.
If you’re looking to cook your own meals and try out new recipes, Simply Cook is a great service for you. However, keep in mind that Simply Cook requires some effort, and recipes can take up to 30-45 minutes to cook. But since you have to cook your own meals, the prices also end up a bit cheaper than other options out there.
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