SimplyCook

Our review

SimplyCook is the budget-friendly outlier here: rather than sending you food, it posts a letterbox box of four recipe flavour kits for £9.99, which you combine with your own fresh ingredients to cook four meals. That works out at just £2.50 per meal, and because the box fits through your letterbox, delivery is a mere £1.99 with no need to be home. It's a clever way to add variety and seasoning know-how to your weekly cooking without committing to pre-made meals, and there are vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free recipe options to choose from. The obvious trade-off is that you still do the shopping and the cooking: the headline £2.50 covers only the flavour kits, not the meat, veg or other fresh ingredients you'll need to buy yourself, so the true cost per meal is higher. It also runs on a subscription, so you'll want to keep an eye on what's arriving and skip or pause as needed. This isn't meal prep in the heat-and-eat sense, and there are no calorie or protein figures published, so it won't suit anyone tracking macros precisely. But for confident home cooks who enjoy the act of cooking and just want inspiration and ready-measured spice blends, it's genuinely cheap and low-commitment on delivery. Treat it as a recipe and flavour service rather than a food box, and check the subscription terms before signing up.