Banh Mi Meatball Bowls Review from the Popular HelloFresh Meal Service

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HelloFresh Meal Kit Delivery – Banh Mi Meatball Bowls

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Banh Mi Meatball Bowls Time

• Total Time: 30 Minutes
• Actual Time: 40 Minutes

The Banh Mi Meatball Bowls took a bit longer to cook than the recommended time by HelloFresh. This dish took us 40 minutes to assemble while staying on task and going through each step. HelloFresh Meals are much easier to perfect with two people. We worked alongside each other, one person chopping vegetables and one person preparing the meatball mixture. Overall, this was an easy and seamless dish to prepare.

Banh Mi Meatball Bowls Price per Serving – $7.99 + Shipping

The Banh Mi Meatball Bowls cost us $7.99 per serving plus a few dollars for shipping, altogether about $18 for a delicious two-person dinner. This dish has an unique ingredient list consisting of ginger, Persian cucumber, and ponzu sauce. Ingredients I would not usually buy or use on a regular bases. I like to stretch the $7.99 by selecting meals that I would not normally eat or have the ingredients for. Asian and Greek cuisines seem to be the best HelloFresh meals to get people out of their comfort zone with uncommon ingredients.

HelloFresh offers affordable meals that are delivered right to your door. The money you save from not going out to restaurants, gas to the grocery store, and the cost of groceries will easily pay for your HelloFresh meals. If you are looking to get the most bang for your buck, go for the recipes that include high-end or uncommon ingredients.

Banh Mi Meatball Bowls Preparation

Read the Recipe

The Banh Mi Meatball Bowls is a level 1 difficulty, meaning an easy and quick dish. This was a very simple, straightforward, and easy-to-follow recipe. HelloFresh does a great job of spreading out the cooking process into steps. Work together, read the recipe and divide up the steps. Just three steps each, you will be done in no time. I have found that the meatball dishes are easier because you can pop the meatballs in the oven, set a timer and let them cook. No need to fuss with them, like other dishes with a seared steak or chicken breast.

Mise en place

Mise en place is a French term meaning to put everything in its place. In the culinary world, it is setting up your workstation: equipment is set out, vegetables are cut, ingredients are measured. After reading the instructions we got everything out and prepared. The carrots were already shredded, which was a great time saver.

My HelloFresh Tips & Hacks

Don’t have a fancy zester but still want to add the acidic bite with lime or lemon zest? Many HelloFresh Meals will require a zester, I do not find this small kitchen tool very common. If you have one great! If you do not, no need to sweat. We use a peeler to peel off thin strips, then we come through with a knife and mince the peels. It gets the job done and you don’t notice a difference.

Interested in purchasing a zester this all-in-one zester is a great tool to have in the kitchen

An easy way to peel ginger is with a spoon. Yes… a spoon not a knife or peeler. The ginger’s outside texture is rough and the spoon catches it perfectly, making it come of smoothly without getting of the actual ginger root.

Time to Get the Show Started!

Cooking the Banh Mi Meatball Bowls

The Banh Mi Meatball Bowl recipe has six steps and within those steps, there is a list of instructions. I prepared all of the vegetables at the beginning before I started cooking anything. This allows more time to pickle the vegetables, read upcoming steps, and keep an eye on the jasmine rice. A few minutes was shredded off our time by cooking the meatballs for 12 minutes rather than the recommended 14-16 minutes.

Cooking Tip: Make larger meatballs and cook them for less than the recommended time. Be sure to check they are cooked through. With ground beef, you do not need to worry if there is a little pink. A little pink is how I prefer to enjoy mine because they came out juicy and flavorful.

Feeling a little overwhelmed? Check out my Top Tips for Any HelloFresh Meal

Making it Our Own

We loved this dish on its own, so we did not add any extra elements. Siracha sauce was one of the HelloFresh ingredients. We are wimps when it comes to spice, so only a few drops was added to our aioli. HelloFresh recommended that we make 10-12 meatballs, we like ours a little larger so we only made 8… which turned into 9, after a glass of wine, we lost track! Bigger meatballs are more forgiving in the oven because the bigger they are, the less risk there is to overcook and dry them out.

Nutrition / serving

Taste

The Banh Mi Meatball Bowls were delicious and a treat! The siracha aioli was the perfect creamy element. We added just the right amount of siracha, a bit spicy on the tongue but not burning your mouth off. The acidic carrot and cucumber slaw was a perfect accompaniment to the spicy sriracha. I love a well-pickled vegetable slaw. I think HelloFresh should add another lime to the bag because there was not enough liquid to pickle the vegetables.

The soy glaze added a hint of sweetness and umami. Undercooking the meatballs was a great idea because they were flavorful and juicy. They were the highlight of the dish! The aromatic ginger folded in with the jasmine rice, was a perfect base to this meal. The ginger ads a warm, floral and spicy note to the basic nutty rice. This dish hits all flavors on the tongue with sweet, salty, bitter, sour, and umami.

*I paired this spicy and sweet meal with a glass of crisp Pinot Grigio.

Would We Order it Again?

I will definitely be ordering the Bahn Mi Meatball Bowls again. Light, healthy, and delicious, this dish was a big win in my book. It was easy to cook and a great change up from out usual weekly dinners. On the HelloFresh App, I pressed the heart to add this meal to my most favorite dishes, hopefully it will be popping up on my menu options in the upcoming weeks.

Next Week’s HelloFresh Meal: Salmon in a Creamy Dijon Chive Sauce

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