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Roast beef tenderloin, plated with chives and the sherry-Dijon pan sauce Anna Gragert/CNET
Meal kits are great for cooking year-round, saving you hours of shopping, prep and cooking in the process. The only time you wouldn’t be able to use these kits is when you want to make specific recipes that aren’t on the company’s weekly menu, such as during the holidays. However, Blue Apron and other meal kit companies have filled that gap by offering meal kits specifically tailored for the winter season.
Blue Apron’s holiday menu does have overlap with the meal kits Blue Apron offered for Thanksgiving, which I also cooked. Those include creamy mac and cheese, roasted Brussels sprouts, roasted grape and goat cheese salad, challah dinner rolls and apple crumb pie. Two new additions for December are crispy roasted potatoes and roast beef tenderloin.
From now until Jan. 4, these meal kits are available -- minus the roast beef tenderloin, which is currently sold out. This is what happened when I tried to make them all for a holiday feast.
Roast beef tenderloin: a quality cut of meat
The roast beef tenderloin, topped with a sherry-Dijon pan sauce Anna Gragert/CNET
As a vegetarian, I handed this one over to my partner to make, and he found this 60-minute recipe flavorful and easy to prepare. The instructions were clear, and a lot of the flavor came from the sherry-Dijon pan sauce, which was simply made by combining the ingredients.
“The cut of the meat was nice, and I like that I didn’t have to trim anything,” he said. My partner’s only critique is that he wishes the meat were a bit more tender.
Rating: 8/10
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