Subscription review: SimplyCook

Subscriptions are everywhere… music, tv, software… you even are, in a way, a subscriber to social media content, notwithstanding that you aren’t very in control of what you see there. Maybe even someone subscribes (via RSS) to this blog, not that I feel that’s very likely (we don’t know because we don’t track you). But it’s not just digital options where I’m not the only one to increase the number of subscriptions I have recently, with there being more and more physical product subs to choose from.

My most long-standing sub is to a monthly sticker kit, but in this post I review my subscription to a few boxes from SimplyCook, a recipe kit subscription. The sub itself is about providing three pots of spices, herbs, stocks etc., together with a simple recipe, with the aim of making it easy to break out of a rut in the cooking of midweek meals, with all the dishes billed as only taking 20 minutes to cook. You shop for all the fresh products, carbs and other canned stuff.

Each time your sub is sent, at a minimum frequency of once per month, you get to choose from a selection of four of ~100 options available; forget to do that and they send you a kit based on some initial preferences about what spice level you’re happy with.

Although, at first, these proved enjoyable, the overall thought is this isn’t one to keep with long term. Most of the recipes are just too lacking in ummph, and feel watered down, especially in terms of heat, yet heavy on salt, compared with how I’d want them to be. This means I know that many of the recipes I didn’t try are going to be a disappointment - they even state how they’ve made Jerk chicken, which must be fiercly hot with Scotch bonnet chilli for me, a ‘two-chilli’ (out of three) heat dish, probably so as to not scare people off.

I also tended to avoid the Korean-style recipes, given that I’d usually have gochujang and doenjang sauces obtained far cheaper in the pantry. Finally, as new recipes aren’t added often, it just gets samey.

One other thing to note is that some of the recipes are also far too optimistic on cooking time, to the extent you could have raw meat or potato, plus some recipe cards also miss cruicial details. However, it’s easy enough to use some basic cookery skills to make sure they turn out more-or-less as intended.

Where I do think some of the kits could come into their own is to have in the store cupboard for something to bring out when you’re short of the time needed to simmer a stew or curry enough to develop the needed flavour, so as the taste isn’t a bit raw spice. They also would be good to take into situations where you don’t have your usual pantry, say as part of a self-catering holiday.

If you do want to consider buying some kits - noting that you can usually get introductory offers for a trial box - my reviews as left as feedback on the SimplyCook website are below. Five stars is given for a dish that is definitely worth considering; three stars means neither better nor quicker than making from scratch, and I wouldn’t bother with it.

tl;dr is I’d pick Japanese seared steak, spicy bean chilli, chicken makhani and jambalaya for my first four options.

Reviews of individual kits

5 stars out of 5

Chicken chilli chowder

Lovely simple winter meal. A little warmth to make it something a bit different here. I perhaps would prefer a more New England style thickness to make it hearty but not so rich. Possibly just more cornflour.

Chicken makhani

Indulgent but very mild curry. It does have a feel of ready meal about it as it doesn’t end up with much freshness or zing, but that certainly has its place.

Churrasco chicken

I really enjoyed all three elements of this; I was worried the piri piri wouldn’t have enough heat given most things SimplyCook seem to be made very mild (even with a hot rating) but it does have just about enough. The sweetcorn was an interesting twist for the recipe too.

Firecracker chicken noodles

The sauce does have heat - absolutely perfect to liven up a basic noodle stir fry. It wouldn’t benefit from holding back with it; it’s great to have something spicy from SimplyCook, and its still far from mad hot as part of the dish as a whole. Good flavour from the other pots and by adding sesame oil here too. I probably could get a similar effect without the kit but using it does makes it easy to balance the sweet and star anise flavours as well as the hot sauce.

Hot cajun meatballs

Meatballs in tomato sauce flavoured with paprika, garlic, herbs with this Cajun-style kit. What’s not to like here? It’s not especially hot; nothing SimplyCook ever seems to be - so if you like spicy you could add more chilli/a little cayenne. It’s super easy to use chopped up sausages instead of meatballs too for variety.

Jambalaya

Tastes pretty much how it does when I cook this from scratch, but so easy with the kit. Has a lot of flavour, although that’s not just from the kit but chorizo and prawns as great ingredients. Not hot, but some paprika spice. Very good.

Japanese seared steak

Yes, this kit uses expensive ingredients, so it would be hard to not be excellent, but the kit really made it a little different from a usual steak and mushroom; some spice on the meat, some flavour from the mushroom rice, and a different and delicious sauce to go with it all. Only negative for me is it’s just a little too salty.

Pork tacos al pastor

Needs the extra pickle to make it great, but this one has proper flavour, mainly from the beans. The hot sauce doesn’t make the dish too hot in any way; just a little extra kick (i.e. it’s far from Tabasco-type heat). I did use shoulder steaks for the pork, and feel fillet would be too dry.

Spicy bean chilli

It does indeed make a spicy and richly flavoured chilli, with great chipotle-style smokiness; in fact it’s exactly as you’d expect it to be from the description. It’s not super hot once you eat with rice but it does merit a three-chilli rating unlike some so-called spicy kits that turn out bland and mild.

4 stars out of 5

Beef rendang

This is nothing at all like a rendang, as that’s a completely different cut of meat and is slow cooked, meaning this kit produces far less flavour. However, it makes a fairly simple and quick beef and coconut curry with some Indonesian style. As you need good quality steak it is always going to be nice - whether it’s really worth it to add the curry sauce to such good starting ingredients I’m not sure on.

Beef stroganoff

Stroganoff is always a special treat, and the kit makes a nice enough cream paprika mushroom sauce (exceptionally mild). However, I found the potatoes disappointing. I like the idea of horseradish but it just doesn’t pack any sort of flavour, when you’d think such a powerful ingredient would come through quite strongly. Overall, this makes the dish somewhat disappointing and too bland. Might go for it again owing to the ease of making the dish.

Ca kho to

Flavoursome with ginger/fish sauce/garlic, and sweet to make it feel Vietnamese, but not only salty, as some of these SimplyCook recipes can be. Not at all hot. I had not cooked with coconut water before, so this was an interesting use of flavour without the fat of coconut milk. I added some squid to give a better texture than I think it would be with soft white fish only.

Chipotle glazed pork

Too salty, but otherwise a nice (and super quick) smoky bean stew, which accompanied pork particularly well; it would probably be a bit lacklustre without chorizo though. I feel it needs an extra side dish to make a complete supper e.g. a green salad.

Crispy chilli beef

I wasn’t expecting this to be like a takeaway, as that’s not possible to do without deep frying. However, I found the little bit of cornflour (yes, cornflour is missing in the ingredients) and very much more beef (best with a good quality steak) much nicer than the standard takeaway all-batter shreds, and liked that a lot. I wouldn’t do grated carrots again - although they cooked quickly, they just turned to mush; they would have been much better as matchsticks despite increasing prep. Also not quite enough chilli sauce to make it feel as indulgent as you’d hope.

Goan fish curry

This kit gave a good flavourful coconut-based curry. It’s quite mild as you’d expect from a Goan sauce, but it wasn’t bland, and went very well with the fish and tomato. I’d like to try it with full-fat coconut milk to see if I could get the sauce thicker.

Louisiana linguine

Creamy pasta dish, with some depth to it, mainly from wine and stock rather than spices, making it mild. Would have felt less French and more Louisiana with the addition of more paprika or cayenne pepper.

Mexican beef quesadilla

It makes nice quesadillas no question, but it’s not really special enough to justify the price over basic pantry seasonings and sauces. Not an instant to bother with again.

Mexican pulled chicken

Difficult to rate this - the outcome is actually great. Really easy, and pulled chicken baps are not something I’d have thought to do and they come out tasty (although watch the cooking times; as I very much expected you needed lots longer than it said not to have raw potato and chicken). But it’s just the only flavour is chipotle (both for coleslaw and chicken). Only really got basic seasoning off the potato. Of course sweet potatoes are not going to go crispy, so expected that. Overall, good recipe but no more than I could have done with chilli en adobo sauce and salt.

Moghul chicken korma

Kit makes a fairly good korma that is a little fresher than a supermarket sauce. It’s just a bit too bland and even a very mild curry should be a bit ‘more’.

Moqueca de peixe

A pleasing and quick fish stew made different from Asian/Indian coconut curries by the addition of tomatoes. Spices here gave pleasant warmth to make it lively, but not hot.

Seekh kebabs with gunpowder potatoes

Well developed with herbs and spices, although not hot and could take more heat. Cumin is especially prominent. What elevated it from what I’d cook myself was the chutney to drizzle over at the end.

South Indian salmon

I wasn’t sure about a cream-based sauce with salmon as opposed to a coconut curry but actually I did really like this one. Not any heat, but definite flavour from the spice and it all worked well together as a dish with the roast veg and spinach. The cauli and potatoes need to be very small to cook in the time quoted; maybe blanching first and having them bigger would be better. My main criticism though is that some of the spices are very coarsely ground, which on the whole I like, but here if you do crunch down on those you get a bitter hit.

Tamil black pepper chicken

Slightly spiced meat and yoghurt, and onion flavour rice, with a quick easy marinade. A good sour flavour in this one (tamarind?) but not as exciting as a really good curry.

West African peanut stew

Very rounded for a ‘stew’ cooked so quickly with a nice consistency sauce. The method to cook the okra was also great - they didn’t turn out at all slimy. I’m just not too sure about the cocoa flavour given this didn’t have any sort of heat. A really interesting one, definitely not something I’d have done without the kit.

Yemeni lamb pilaf

Quite a fair amount of spice, which transports you to the food of the region. The mint dressing was a nice twist. However, could also do with a whack of fresh chilli and lemon to boost it to something that’s not just ordinary (it’s very mild otherwise), which I always find disappointing after buying the kit for the spices already. Also a pity so heavy on the salt in the rice that it overpowers the rest. Nice enough to consider again but not very special.

3 stars out of 5

Chicken katsu curry

It’s tasty enough if you really have no clue how to make a katsu curry from scratch but not a patch on the equally easy recipe (simple ingredients) released by a well-known brand in 2020. Weird use of a Korean sauce to give flavour. Very meh with the pickle too - just ridiculously low in acid so it tasted wet, when could have been a good accompaniment. 3 stars because wouldn’t buy again - neither easier nor more flavoursome than going it alone.

Cuban prawn pasta

Can’t get excited about this; it makes a nice cream prawn pasta but prawns are an excellent and expensive ingredient that would be hard to go wrong with. Nothing to set it apart from what you’d make without a kit except a few orange granules in the mojo seasoning, It’s also exceptionally mild, nowhere near its ‘medium’ rating, so to get much flavour you end up adding more chilli. Can’t see bothering with this again.

Sichuan dan dan noodles

Just meh. Not hot, not enough flavour and rather dry. Quick but neither easier nor better than a stir-fry with store cupboard stuff.

Sicilian roast chicken

Lemon and herb chicken and cooked lettuce - yep, that’s as you’d expect and nice eating, if very predictable. Then, I didn’t really like the mash; something was bitter about, but it was not strongly flavoured so OK as part of the meal. It was livened up a bit with drizzle, but not enough to go for again.

Vietnamese pork

The meaty/beef flavour to the rice was an interesting twist, but you only get ginger and garlic out of the rest of the flavour, and something slightly sour; might be tamarind, might be lime juice. Very little chilli. The rest is just sugar and salt. A little underwhelming. I’d have liked more ummph, especially on the chilli. Easy but only OK.