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The Little Green Larder: We put Dundee’s zero waste meal kit to the test

The Little Green Larder on Perth Road wants to compete against the likes of Hello Fresh and Gusto with its plastic-free recipe bags.

Food and drink journalist Maria Gran put The Little Green Larder's paella and Spanish salad recipe bag to the test. Image: Joanna Bremner/DC Thomson
Food and drink journalist Maria Gran put The Little Green Larder's paella and Spanish salad recipe bag to the test. Image: Joanna Bremner/DC Thomson

Every day I get flooded with ads for meal kits and recipe boxes, but The Little Green Larder’s plastic-free alternative caught my eye.

The Perth Road zero waste shop has sold its version of a meal kit – called a recipe bag – on and off since it opened in July 2019. But owner Jillian Crabb brought them to the forefront this year.

With the cost-of-living crisis, she found her customers struggling to find good and healthy recipes that don’t break the bank. Each week she puts together a new meal, packaged completely free of plastic in a paper bag or cardboard box.

I headed along to The Little Green Larder to pick up my dinner, and Jillian told me the meal kits have been very popular over the past few months.

“People have been asking what recipes are next and when they come in,” she said.

Jillian Crabb and her dog Lady can usually be found on Perth Road. Image: Kris Miller/DC Thomson

“Since you get the recipe included, many come back and buy the ingredients again and adapt them at home, which is really exciting.”

“We’re a local and sustainable alternative to the likes of Hello Fresh and Gusto. They’ve got the carbon emissions of delivering the kits, whereas we’ve got an electric van.

“We pack the kits on the day we deliver, so there’s no cool packs that are difficult to recycle. Everything is either in a paper bag or a box that you can reuse or recycle.”

What recipes are there and how much do they cost?

On the counter, Jillian had paella with Spanish salad and minestrone soup waiting for me. Both recipe bags cost £10, the paella containing two servings and the minestrone soup six, making each paella portion £5 and soup portion only £1.67.

My two zero waste meal kits, minestrone soup and paella with Spanish salad. Image: Devlin Farquharson

The Little Green Larder also offers two portion kits of spaghetti, meatballs and bruschetta, and garlic and chilli stir fry for £11.65 and £5 respectively.

There’s also sweet potato and chickpea curry, one-pot spaghetti and spiced butternut squash soup – all feeding four people – for between £7 and £12 pounds.

To help me cook and eat paella, I got my colleague and fellow zero waste enthusiast, environment and transport journalist Joanna on board.

What did we think of the zero waste meal kit?

Joanna and I agreed to go for the paella with Spanish salad, as neither of us had made it before and we were hungry after a long day at work.

I gasped as I opened the bag, because it contained two fresh peppers, a courgette and on the vine cherry tomatoes – something I had not seen in my local supermarket for three weeks at this point. What a treat we were in for!

I decided to give Joanna the eye-watering task of chopping onions. Image: Maria Gran/DC Thomson

The rice and spice mix went straight into a pot of boiling water as Joanna and I got to chopping. One onion was for the paella and one for the salad, and the recipe card helped us keep the two separate to avoid it all going into the frying pan.

We were both surprised by how quick and easy paella is to make, as after the rice was boiled we simply mixed it with the fried onions, garlic and peppers.

Spanish salad – consisting of courgette, red onion and cherry tomatoes – was new to us both, so we just sliced the ingredients and put them in a bowl. We drizzled some olive oil, salt and pepper over, kitchen staples that were not included in the bag.

We thought the paella was very quick and easy to make. Image: Joanna Bremner/DC Thomson

As we sat down to eat we quickly saw that if this was just two portions, it had to be for two giants. We didn’t even slice all the salad ingredients and we thought we’d struggle to finish.

The paella was flavourful – from the paprika, garlic salt, kibbled onion and veg stock spice mix – but on the simple side. It was very filling, but Joanna and I agreed we’d probably add beans, chickpeas or soy protein if we were making it again, just for variation and nutritional value.

We both enjoyed the crispy salad and it made a nice addition to the hearty paella. After both having seconds we were very full, but so was the pan.

The leftovers ended up being two lunches for me, taking down the cost per portion to £2.50.

The Spanish salad was a colourful, tasty and crunchy addition to the paella. Image: Maria Gran/DC Thomson

I tackled the minestrone soup on my own, which was a bit short-sighted as there were plenty potatoes, carrots, celery, parsley, onion and garlic to chop. After the long process of chopping it was very straightforward however.

The recipe was very easy to understand and making the soup was a breeze. Again for this one, all that was missing from the kit was oil for frying, salt and pepper.

It gave me six portions of soup and I put four in the freezer since Jillian told me it’s a good dish to keep for later. If you’re having it for dinner I’d recommend some bread on the side to bulk it out, and at £1.67 a portion there’s hopefully some room in your budget for that.

Are The Little Green Larder zero waste meal kits worth it?

I enjoy making a weekly menu and using up every last vegetable in my fridge, but I must admit I enjoyed the simplicity of the recipe bags. The Little Green Larder offers a good range of price points, meaning there’s both everyday meals and treats available.

Some of the recipe bags were even cheaper than kits from Hello Fresh and Gusto, which has definitely convinced me that local is the way to go here.

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