KETO PRODUCT REVIEW: GREEN CHEF'S NEW KETO FRIENDLY MEAL KITS
I was super excited when Green Chef reached out to me and asked me if I would be interested in trying their brand new keto friendly meal kits. I love meal kits and I often credit them plus Pinterest with really igniting my love of cooking a few years back. Once I went keto I unfortunately had to stop using other meal kits for the most part because there just wasn’t enough flexibility. So, the prospect of Green Chef having a keto plan is so exciting to me!
Green Chef is a USDA-certified organic meal kit company who are now offering a variety of meal plans for people who are paleo, gluten-free, vegetarian and more. The keto meal kit I received included 3 recipes, which were each intended to be 2 servings each, so 6 total meals. The team at Green Chef did let me know prior to receiving my box, that I would likely want to reduce the vegetable portions, otherwise the carbs would be too high for keto. Once I saw the macros for each meal I understood what they meant:
Salsa Verde Chicken (400 calories: 14g fat / 10g net carbs / 50g protein)
Lamb Shakshuka (500 calories: 26g fat / 20g net carbs / 37g protein)
Sesame-Crusted Tuna (450 calories: 12g fat / 24g net carbs / 51g protein)
The Salsa Verde Chicken meal is the only one I would feel comfortable eating in the portions that are laid out in the recipe. However, the fat content is very low, so I would look for solutions on how to tweak that. The team at Green Chef acknowledged that their team of chefs were looking for ways to lower the carb content and up the fat in their meals. I can see why they are struggling, because currently they have these meals categorized as Paleo and Keto, which restricts the fats that you could add from full fat dairy.
So while these meals are low carb and paleo, they are not Keto as they are designed right now. But I worked with the ingredients and recipes and made tweaks so that they would work for my keto lifestyle. What would be extremely helpful is if Green Chef offered their nutritional information broken down by ingredient, that way I could really pinpoint which ingredients were contributing to the higher carb count. I can make an educated guess of course, but it would be much easier if it was laid out.
I loved that their meals each come color coded so it is easy and fun to separate out the ingredients and get ready to cook! I am a huge believer in buying the highest quality foods, so I love that they use wild-caught fish, organic produce, and grass-fed meats.
All of the ingredients for the 3 meals I made. I love how everything is color coded!
Salsa Verde Chicken
(400 calories: 14g fat / 10g net carbs / 50g protein)
This dish was my daughter’s favorite and is also most like something I would probably cook on a typical night at home. I love roasted cauliflower, so I liked the brightness of the lemon juice. Instead of putting my skillet in the oven, I just added the cauliflower to the baking dish with the chicken and let them roast together. I loved the salsa verde on top of the chicken, that is something I would make again for sure.
How I would add fat:
Goat cheese or feta would have been a nice compliment to the salad.
A mayo and parmesan mixture added to the top of the chicken while it roasted would have made the chicken juicer and would have added fat.
Drizzle Brain Octane Oil on top of the salad.
How I reduced carbs:
This meal wasn’t too high in carbs, but to lower it a bit more I only used half the number of capers provided.
I also gave my cousin and daughter a much larger portion of roasted red peppers to try and reduce carbs even further.
Green Chef's Keto Meal Kit: Salsa Verde Chicken
Lamb Shakshuka
(500 calories: 26g fat / 20g net carbs / 37g protein)
I was excited to make this dish because I love anything with a runny egg on top! I made this into 4 smaller meals instead of 2 larger portions so that I could keep the carbs down. That meant the amount of cauliflower rice that each person was small, but I still found it filling. I used 2 of my own eggs for the additional portions. I generally try to limit nightshades because of inflammation, but this dish was full of them and I just went for it. I only had to pay for it a little bit in my joints that night.
How I would add fat:
Drizzle Brain Octane Oil on top of the egg.
How I reduced carbs:
Changing the portion was the easiest way to control the carbs in this dish, which are just from the large number of vegetables.
Green Chef's Keto Meal Kit: Lamb Shakshuka
Sesame-Crusted Tuna
(450 calories: 12g fat / 24g net carbs / 51g protein)
I was surprised by the carb count in this dish when I initially looked at it, but the carrots and mushrooms really add up quickly. 1 cup of carrots is 11g of carbs (8g net carbs), 1 cup of mushrooms is just 2.2g of carbs (1.4g net carbs), 2 cups of purple cabbage is 10g of carbs (7g net carbs). So, I did quite a bit of tweaking to this recipe to lower the carbs, by lowering the amounts of vegetables I used. I also seared the tuna for too long, so next time I will get the pan hotter and then leave it on for a shorter amount of time.
How I would add fat:
Drizzle Brain Octane Oil on top of the tuna steak.
Add Miso Mayo to the top of the tuna steak or mix it into the cabbage for a slaw.
How I reduced carbs:
I only used ¼ cup of mushrooms and carrots and I used 1 cup of purple cabbage.
I only used ½ of the cashews for a total of 1/8 of a cup.
Green Chef's Keto Meal Kit: Sesame-Crusted Tuna
Overall, I am super excited to have a high quality, low carb meal kit available on the market. I would love to see Green Chef add tips on their recipe cards to reduce carbs and add fat, then I think they can really consider these keto meals vs just low carb. I love meal plans so much because it allows me to try recipes and flavor combinations that I don’t use in my everyday cooking. All 3 of these were delicious and I would happily eat any of them again! On the dishes that I tweaked, like the lamb dish, it was nice to have leftovers and only add 2 of my own eggs to extend the meal.
You can check out all the meal plans Green Chef offers at greenchef.com.
