Meal kits are a popular way to spice up the routine of meal planning and cooking. What could be better than a box of ingredients for specific recipes – all instructions included – delivered right to your doorstep? You can then cook each meal in the comfort of your own kitchen, without the need to plan ahead or shop for ingredients.
This may sound like a dream, but there is one catch: If your diet is anything other than ‘average’, it can be a real struggle to find a meal kit that’s suitable for your family. Catering for multiple food intolerances or restrictions using meal kits is even more difficult. So, are there any Australian meal kit companies that suit low carb diets?
If you’re on a keto diet, some meal kit brands have low carb options in Australia, though the definition of ‘low carb’ may not suit the strict macro limits required for ketosis. Hello Fresh offers limited reduced carb options, while Marley Spoon and Dinnerly have two to four reduced carb choices each week. However, carb counts range from around 7g to 18g per serve.
We’ll take a closer look at each meal box option in this post, giving you some direction if you’re keen to make your nightly dinners more convenient. If none of these meal kits work for your family, don’t panic – there are other solutions that might just be perfect!
What Are The Benefits of Meal Kits?
Of course, the best thing about meal kits is the convenience. As most brands work on a subscription-based model, you don’t have to spend time planning out meals or go out to shop for ingredients. Instead, they’re delivered directly to your home, saving you quite a lot of time and energy in the long run. This makes meal kits particularly attractive for those with very busy lifestyles, and many families swear by their favourite meal box to keep delicious and varied meals on the table.
The downside is that they’re usually more expensive than the cost of the groceries alone. But given the time and energy saved in the process, there’s definitely plenty of value involved in ‘outsourcing’ meal planning and grocery runs. However, there’s no opportunity to customise your meal kit other than selecting an overall ‘plan’, so this can lead to food waste or added hassles trying to adapt pre-set recipes to suit everyone’s dietary needs.
Meal kits also come with ‘some assembly required’ – you don’t get to skip the preparation or the washing up!
If you’re following a keto diet, meal kits can make macro- and carb-counting far easier. Unlike many recipes, each recipe in a meal box should have nutritional information on each of their meals. Where this information is provided ahead of time in the website, you can pick and choose the options that will best suit your daily macro targets.
If you’re getting bored with your usual keto-friendly family meals, meal kits also give you the opportunity to try some new and unexpected cuisines. Since recipes usually rotate each week, there’s plenty of variety, and you just might find a new favourite dish.
But all this relies on finding a meal kit company that offers keto-friendly meals, and enough of them to choose from that you really do get a variety. Is this realistic? Let’s find out what’s currently available in the Australian market.
Does Hello Fresh Have Keto Options in Australia?
Hello Fresh is one of the most popular meal kits in Australia, offering a wide selection of recipes from all over the world. They boast that they deliver only the freshest of ingredients, and have recently gained some attention for introducing keto Hello Fresh boxes in the US.
Unfortunately, as of the moment, Hello Fresh doesn’t have low carb or keto meal plans in Australia. There’s also no news on when (or if) they’ll be bringing their low carb meal kits to Australian shores.
Hello Fresh meal plans are available in four different varieties:
· Meat & Veggies
· Veggie (vegetarian)
· Family-Friendly
· Calorie Smart (under 650 kcal)
Just looking at these categories, it’s clear that ordering a Hello Fresh box to suit the whole family’s dietary needs could be a challenge. Within the set menu for the week, some meals are marked as ‘naturally gluten free’ (though unsuitable for coeliacs) and some are designated as ‘carb smart’.
Even requiring recipes that are gluten free and vegetarian, for instance, poses a problem, and there’s no adaptations to specific recipes for gluten free, dairy free or nut free diets, the most common intolerances and allergies.
What about low carb diets? At first glance, most Hello Fresh meals have rice, pasta or potatoes in them–a red flag for most of us looking for low carb meals. Based on this week’s ‘Calorie Smart’ meals, there’s a single ‘Carb Smart’ recipe, but if you’re looking for a full week of meals, your only keto-friendly option would be to remove carb-heavy elements of the dish, replacing them with substitutes like cauli rice.
If you’re in the habit of cooking ‘regular’ meals for the rest of the family, you may still save some time ordering a Hello Fresh box, but there aren’t many options for keto eaters to really get excited about.
How Much Does Hello Fresh Cost in Australia?
The cost of a single serving of a Hello Fresh meal will cost anywhere from $7.99 to $10.99 depending on your meal plan’s size, which can be either for 2 or 4 people. The higher the number of meals and servings you order per week, the cheaper it is per meal. An additional $9.99 is charged for shipping the meal box.
Where Does Hello Fresh Deliver In Australia?
Hello Fresh Australia delivers to virtually the whole country, and you can view their delivery areas on the website.
Does Marley Spoon Have Keto Options in Australia?
Marley Spoon also delivers ready-to-cook ingredients according to a weekly ‘menu’. Out of the 27 weekly recipes, four are dedicated low-carb meals, giving you more carb-conscious options than Hello Fresh. There’s also a good variety of gluten free, dairy free and vegetarian meals, and any of these categories actually overlap, making it easier to cater for multiple dietary restrictions.
Unfortunately, Marley Spoon isn’t immune to that common conundrum – where many ‘low carb’ dishes are still too high in carbs for dedicated keto eaters. Reduced-carb Marley Spoon meals range from around 6g of carbs to 18g, which is certainly challenging for those with a 20g per day target.
The exact menu changes each week, but to give you an idea, here’s a glimpse of what they’ll be offering for the next two weeks as of the time of writing.
For the delivery made on January 25, 2021, the low-carb meals on offer are:
· Reduced-Carb Grilled Salmon with Chili-Coconut Cabbage
Carbs: 10.3g | Fats: 42.5g
· Reduced-Carb Dukkah Beef Steak with Fennel Salad & Roast Zucchini
Carbs: 8.4g | Fats: 27.9g
· Reduced-Carb Pork Salad with Beans, Pear, & Walnuts
Carbs: 15.8g | Fats: 29.8g
· Reduced-Carb Mexican Chicken with Slaw, Pepitas, and Coriander
Carbs: 12.6g | Fats: 33g
For the delivery made on February 2, their available low-carb meals are:
· Reduced-Carb Salmon with Kale, Radish, and Walnut Toss
Carbs: 9.3g | Fats: 38g
· Reduced-Carb Beef Steak with Peach and Rocket Salad
Carbs: 7.3g | Fats: 31.4g
· Reduced-Carb Asian Pork Wraps with Water Chestnuts & Sesame Seeds
Carbs: 18.5g | Fats: 27.1g
· Reduced-Carb Grilled Chicken with Tuscan Broccolini Salad
Carbs: 13.7g | Fats: 23.9g
If you’re really strict about your carb intake, your options may be ever narrower than the four reduced-carb recipes per week. Still, compared to other options on the market, Marley Spoon is above average when it comes to keto-friendly options.
How Much Does Marley Spoon Cost in Australia?
Marley Spoon delivers meal boxes for either 2 or 4 people, and from 2 to 5 recipes per week. A single serving will cost around $8.50 to $12.50, depending on your meal box’s size.
Where Does Marley Spoon Deliver In Australia?
Marley Spoon delivers to the urban areas of Sydney, Canberra, Hobart, Launceston, Adelaide, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Wollongong, New Castle, and Darwin, as well some surrounding regions. Unfortunately, Marley Spoon doesn’t deliver to Perth or anywhere in WA at the time of writing.
Does Dinnerly Have Keto Options in Australia?
Dinnerly is similar to Hello Fresh and Marley Spoon: they offer 28 unique recipes to choose from weekly, and deliver the ingredients of your chosen dishes. In fact, Dinnerly is owned by Marley Spoon, and while it offers meals at around half the price per serve, the selection is a bit less ‘gourmet’ to match. There’s definitely a stronger focus on family-friendly meals at Dinnerly. When it comes to low carb dishes, they only have two recipes to choose from per week, and the carbs per serve sit around the 10 to 15 gram mark.
Here’s an example of their low-carb options for the week of January 25th:
● Reduced-Carb Indian Chicken with Cauliflower Salad and Yoghurt Dressing
Carbs: 11.6g | Fats: 28.9g
● Reduced-Carb Pork and Nectarine Salad with Shaved Fennel and Pistachios
Carbs: 14.2g | Fats: 39.7g
Here are the low carb Dinnerly meals for the week of February 1st:
● Reduced-Carb Roast Lemon Chicken with Cauliflower Mash and Wilted Kale
Carbs: 13.3g | Fats: 26.8g
● Reduced-Carb Indian Masala Beef with Zucchini and Carrot Ribbons
Carbs: 13.1g | Fats: 31.2g
How Much Does Dinnerly Cost in Australia?
Dinnerly’s biggest strength and selling point is its affordability. Offering boxes for either 2 or 4 people, they can deliver up to 6 meals a week, whereas Marley Spoon and Hello Fresh only offer up to 5 meals. On average, a serving will cost almost half of that of the other meal kit brands, ranging from $4.85 to $7.25 per portion depending on your box size.
This pricing does come with a caveat, as Dinnerly’s website itself indicates that one of the reasons for their significantly cheaper prices is because they use fewer ingredients, implying their recipes may be on the simpler side of things. A few negative reviews reflect this, complaining of unfilling and bland meals, and with only two low-carb options each week, keto eaters will need to be prepared for compromise.
Where Does Dinnerly Deliver In Australia?
For now, Dinnerly delivers to most of NSW, VIC, QLD, SA, NT, TAS, ACT and WA. There’s no word on why Dinnerly delivers to more destinations than Marley Spoon, despite being under he same ownership.
Does Make-Out Meals Have Keto Options?
Make Out Meals is a unique Australian meal kit offering 12 different recipes each week. These recipes aren’t just any recipes, however – they’re created by some of the best restaurants in Melbourne, so they’ll most likely be very tasty! On the other hand, this means they’re only available to order in Victoria.
Make-Out Meals offers the choice between ‘regular’, vegetarian and pescetarian meal boxes each week.
Unfortunately, Make-Out Meals doesn’t have any dedicated keto or low-carb meals, and anyone with dietary restrictions will simply need to select only suitable meals from the week’s menu.
To make things more complex, Make Out Meals also don’t seem to indicate their meals’ nutrition facts on their website, unlike their major competitors. The meals do look especially delicious, though, and the company provides cook-along videos along with recipe cards for every meal.
You can see the array of 12 gourmet recipes available for the week on the Make-Out Meals website.
How Much Does Make-Out Meals Cost?
Subscribing to Make-Out Meals offers boxes for 2, 4, or 6 people with 2, 3, or 4 meals included. A single serving costs from $10.56 to $14.75 depending on the box size. The good news is that you can also choose to buy a single box of 3 meals rather than subscribing, giving you extra flexibility to try it out or order an occasional meal box to mix things up. These one off boxes cost around $11.58 per serving.
Where Does Make-Out Meals Deliver?
Make-Out meals is only available in Victoria.
Does Dinner Twist Have Keto Options?
Dinner Twist prides itself in offering sustainable, ethical and planet-friendly meal boxes, and it’s clear they also have a strong focus on health and wellness.
Dinner Twist has four meal box options: Family, Plant-based, Wholesome, and Express. The great news is that their Wholesome Box is a dedicated reduced-carb meal plan, and all recipes are naturally gluten-free. You can even customise the proteins you’ll receive in each box, and replace them with free-range chicken if your family prefer to avoid certain meats.
If this sounds like a keto dream come true, you’ll want to read this section before you order. The downside to Dinner Twist is that you are unable to choose which recipes you’ll get due to their ‘no food waste’ policy. Basically, Dinner Twist decides which four recipes you’ll get every week, and there’s no indication of the nutritional information on their website.
Even this ‘reduced carb’ meal box contains ingredients like quinoa, which has more carbs than brown rice and almost as much as white rice. It may not be a refined carbohydrate, but that doesn’t mean it fits neatly into the macro ratios of a ketogenic diet, either. And with the meals pre-selected for you, there’s no opportunity to choose lower-carb offerings.
Essentially, if you’re on a keto diet, you should be prepared to adapt or avoid any Dinner Twist recipes that don’t suit your macros. On the plus side, you do have the option to order extra proteins to go with your meals.
Dinner Twist also assures customers that every week will be different and there will always be a diverse range of meals in their boxes. With a vast range of add-ons, you can get additional groceries delivered along with your Dinner Twist meal box.
How Much Does Dinner Twist Cost?
Their boxes contain 4 meals for 2 or 4 people. The Wholesome Box (as well as the Family Box) is priced at $110 for 2 people, and $160 for 4 people. This amounts to $13.75 and $10 per serving respectively. For reference, the Plant-Based Box is slightly cheaper, and the Express Box even more so.
Where Does Make-Out Meals Deliver?
Dinner Twist is based in Western Australia and only delivers within the state. They offer free shipping for Perth and surrounding areas, and a small shipping fee for regional areas.
Does Dinner Sorted Have Keto Options?
Every week, Melbourne meal kit Dinner Sorted offers a selection of 14 different meals to choose from. Three of these are billed as low-carb options. As an example, the delivery made on February 1 includes three ‘low carb’ meals:
· Thai Yellow Chicken Curry with Brown Rice
· Fish with Lemony Kumara Brown Rice and Cucumber Dip
· Beef Tenderloin with Roasted Veggies and Sweet Mashed Potato
Dinner Sorted doesn’t actually share the macronutrient profile or nutritional information of the meals on their website, so it’s hard to weigh up the options provided.
But if you’re following a keto diet, you’ll probably notice the obvious problem here.
Despite being listed as low-carb, they still have brown rice and sweet potatoes in all these meals, a big no-no if you’re sticking to a strict macro ratio. They do specify that there’s a low carb variation, but there’s nowhere to actually order this choice – so keto eaters may just be skipping the rice and/or adding their own side dishes.
How Much Does Dinner Sorted Cost?
Their meals are priced from $8.25 to $13.17, depending on the size of your meal box. However, they do also sell fruit and veggie or meat boxes alongside the pre-prescribed meal kits. The vegetable box is priced at $59 for a 2-person box, and $79 for a 4-person box. The meat box costs $49 for a 2-person box, and $94 for a 4-person box.
The meat-and-veggies box is $89 and $129 for 2 and 4-person boxes respectively. A fruit box with 30 pieces of fruit can be added on for $25.95.
Where Does Dinner Sorted Deliver?
Dinner Sorted only delivers within Melbourne.
Keto Meal Kit Alternatives
If you’re looking for a keto-friendly meal kit in Australia, you may be disappointed by the options available at the moment. Don’t despair, though – there are other convenient ways to make mealtimes hassle-free, and they offer much more customisation, perfect for low carb diets.
Produce & Butcher Boxes
A produce box is just what it sounds like: a box of fresh fruit and veggies delivered to your home, whether that’s through a subscription or a one-off order. If you’re a meat-lover, then you might want to consider a butcher box subscription for fresh chicken, beef or pork direct to your home, allowing you to stock up in bulk.
Of course, the downside is that it’s just a convenient delivery of ingredients – you still have to come up with a meal plan, find recipes, buy any other ingredients and cook the meals yourself.
Keto Meal Prep Service
Meal planning and cooking are some of the biggest demands on our time and energy at home. In fact, coming up with meal ideas to suit everyone’s dietary restrictions and preferences day out can be absolutely exhausting.
And when you’re dedicated to following a keto diet, juggling low carb meal requirements along with the rest of the family’s needs can feel like an impossible task.
The best solution for you might be a keto in-home cooking service, one that customises each recipe to suit your family’s needs and preferences, but still takes the stress of meal planning and preparation out of your hands.
It’s easy to see how the benefits stack up compared to ordering a meal kit:
· Recipes can be personalised for all dietary requirements
· Keto-friendly and family-friendly (even for fussy kids)
· You control the ingredients used (eg. organic produce)
· Get as many meals and servings as you need
· Meals can be fresh or frozen
· The cooking is all done for you
· You don’t even have to do the washing up!
Related Questions
What Is the Cheapest Meal Delivery Kit?
Dinnerly is the cheapest of all the meal kits available in Australia. Most meal kits cost upwards of $10 per portion. Dinnerly’s meal kits cost around half that price, at around $4.85 to $7.25 per serving.
Which Meal Delivery Kits in Australia Offer Gluten-Free Options?
Hello Fresh, Marley Spoon, and Dinnerly all indicate whether a particular recipe contains gluten or not. Dinner Twist’s low-carb Wholesome Box is naturally gluten-free, and their other boxes also have the option to be made gluten-free.
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