Founded in 2015, Mindful Chef has quickly become the UK’s top recipe box delivery service, as rated on Trustpilot.
Mindful Chef provide all that is necessary to cook and eat, high-quality, nutritionally balanced meals with ethically sourced ingredients. In fact, in the five years since they launched, Mindful Chef have delivered over 10 million ingredients from small, UK based farms.
What is Mindful Chef?
Mindful Chef is a recipe box service, similar to the likes of Hello Fresh and Simply Cook. Within the box, you will find meal kits containing all of the required ingredients, alongside recipe cards with easy to follow instructions for cooking your meal.
Mindful Chef’s point of difference to other providers is their focus on healthy meals, without any fad diets or calorie counting. Instead, they simply provide a recipe box that is packed full of nutritious, unprocessed, natural ingredients. Better still, all of the recipes are designed to be prepared in less than 30 minutes and have fewer than 8 steps to follow, so the service is compatible with busy modern lifestyles.
To ensure that all of their ingredients are as nutritious as possible, Mindful Chef has a real emphasis on ethically-sourced, fresh ingredients. They work with some of the highest rated suppliers in the country – such as Farmison, the UK’s Butcher of the Year – and only use free-range chicken, grass-fed beef and MSC sustainably caught fish.
All of the provided meals are dairy and gluten-free, with no refined carbs and a wide range of vegan options available. Mindful Chef is also a partner of the English Institute of Sport, so are supported by top athletes such as Andy Murray, Tom Daley and Victoria Pendleton.
Another benefit of using the service worth mentioning is Mindful Chef’s partnership with the charity One Feeds Two. For every meal that is sold, Mindful Chef donate another to a child living in poverty. They are the only UK meal kit service to offer this and have so far donated over a million meals to children in Malawi.
How Does Mindful Chef Work?
When you first signup with Mindful Chef, you’ll be asked to pick your first delivery date and will then be able to choose 2-5 recipes for 1, 2 or 4 people. Customers are given 20 recipes per week to choose from and it is easy to filter to only show vegan, meat or pescatarian meals if desired.
When we used the service, an impressive 6 of the meals on a weekly basis were vegan and 11 were suitable for pescatarians.
Boxes are delivered nationwide seven days a week and are insulated, so can be left in a safe place for up to 48 hours if you’re not in. Once you are subscribed, recipes can be selected weekly within the ‘account’ section of the website, up to six weeks in advance. You can also skip deliveries and pause/cancel your account.
Although Mindful Chef are primarily known for their recipe boxes, they now also sell a range of smoothies and frozen ready meals designed for lunchtime. These can be ordered online via the store with next day delivery across mainland UK and the frozen meals can be reheated in just 8 minutes.
Mindful Chef Meal Plans
Mindful Chef don’t have different types of meal plans as such, because customers pick their own meals from the weekly choice of 20 recipes.
This means that if you’re vegan, vegetarian or pescatarian, you can just choose from the weekly selection of meals that suit your dietary requirements. Equally, as the service is gluten-free and diary-free as standard, there is no need to select this as a preference.
You do, however, need to choose how many people your box is for. You can pick either 1, 2 or 4 people, and can select to receive 2-5 meals per week.
Mindful Chef Sample Recipes
How Much Does Mindful Chef Cost?
Pricing varies depending on the number of people you are buying for and the type of meal. Meals with meat and fish, for example, are typically more expensive than those without.
Average prices per portion are as follows:
- One-Person Box – £11 per portion
- Two-Person Box – £7.50 per portion
- Family Box – £5.75 per portion
Delivery is free on all of the recipe boxes.
Mindful Chef FAQs
Where does Mindful Chef deliver?
Mindful Chef delivers nationwide, but like most recipe box providers will be unable to deliver to some postcodes within the Scottish highlands, Northern Ireland, Isle of Man and the Isle of Wight. This is because these are outside the twenty-four hour courier network.
When is Mindful Chef delivered?
Mindful Chef deliver one box per week, seven days a week. Deliveries are made between 8am and 7pm, with an estimated time of arrival being given on the day of the delivery.
Do I Need To Be Home for my Mindful Chef Delivery?
No, you don’t have to be at home for your Mindful Chef delivery. The boxes can be left in a safe place for up to 48 hours as they are chilled and well insulated.
Is Mindful Chef Organic?
No, Mindful Chef is not organic. Instead, they work with providers who use traditional crop-rotation techniques rather than relying on pesticides. They also work with meat producers who use non-intensive methods without antibiotics being required.
Is Mindful Chef Gluten-Free?
Yes! Mindful Chef is the only 100% gluten-free recipe box service as standard. Mindful Chef is suitable (and used) by many coeliacs but they do not guarantee this, on the off chance that cross contamination occurs at the warehouse which packs the boxes.
Is Mindful Chef Diary-Free?
Yes, Mindful Chef is both gluten and dairy-free. They also have a number of meals each week which are paleo friendly and suitable for pescatarians.
Does Mindful Chef Offer A Box For One Person?
Is Mindful Chef Easy to Cancel?
Mindful Chef doesn’t tie you into a long-term subscription and can be paused/cancelled at any time via the accounts section of the website. You can also skip deliveries which is great when you’re on holiday. Do bear in mind that you need to do this before the deadline or your next box may be shipped.
How Large Are Mindful Chef’s Portion Sizes?
Mindful Chef’s portion sizes are excellent. In fact, they provide 30% larger meat and fish portions than other recipe boxes on the market and don’t use cheap fillers to bulk meals out.
Is Mindful Chef’s Packaging Recycable and Environmentally Friendly?
Yes. The cool boxes are made from cardboard and are 100% recycable. Other packaging items, such as tins and plastic trays, are also widely recycled. Ice packs can be reused and (if waster-based) recycled at bag collection points in larger supermarkets.
Mindful Chef also offset the emissions for deliveries, making them 100% carbon neutral.
Mindful Chef Pros & Cons
- Simple recipes that can be prepared in 30 minutes
- Boxes available for those living alone
- High-quality, ethically sourced ingredients
- Good portion sizes
- Healthy, nutritionally balanced meals
- Less choice than some other providers
- More expensive than other services
