Marley Spoon 2026 Meal Kit Review: Less Martha, More Moroccan

This included Turmeric Persian Chicken with Dill Rice and Currants which fit seamlessly into the Marley Spoon repertoire, and deglazed with lemon juice rather than wine. The rice was toasted and then cooked with currants and spinach. It was simple, elegant and kind of therapeutic. Among the Asian dishes, this was the most successful.

Other international takeaways are less faithful translations.

The essence of a Moroccan tagine is the hours spent cooking and caramelizing it in a conical clay pot. The challenge with the meal kit is translating that into a 45-minute meal. Marley Spoon’s chefs achieved this on their beef and apricot casserole largely by advocating sautéing onions and carrots quickly rather than caramelizing them slowly, and using ground meat rather than richer cuts that require slower cooking.

The flavours, a mix of almonds, dried apricots and North African spices, were delicious. Cooking was easy and intuitive, with minimal prep. When a recipe called for 30 to 40 minutes of cooking, that was actually true. But the dish doesn’t have the depth or sweetness of the braised meat and onions. It was Rachael Ray’s version of world-class cooking, the version where we get real with ourselves and admit we don’t want to try too hard.

The Indian-derived keema matar was also the tired parents’ version, made with tomato paste and cento tomato sauce: it resembled, more than anything else, a sloppy garam masala joe. However, it promised to be a 20-minute recipe, and it almost delivered.

A similar effect arrived with the crispy rice and oven-braised beef bibimbap, which involves cutting pre-cooked jasmine rice into an aluminum baking tray. Preparing my sasamjang was a fun little exercise, and I always love beef over slightly crunchy rice. But the resulting meal was no substitute for seasoned, fried beef with crispy rice on the stone.

Go ahead

Photo: Matthew Corvage

These simplified recipes are no problem, although the excellent cooking technique of classic recipes remains Marley Spoon’s backbone and main strength. Many families will be happy with 15-minute meals as an option throughout the week. Ease is what the meal kit is designed to do. The meal kit gives you a roadmap to flavors you wouldn’t otherwise come up with on your own, while simplifying the effort. I enjoyed each of Marley’s 15-minute dishes on their merits, the way you enjoy a relaxing ride on a short track.

Microwavable meals are more convenient, although I don’t recommend them overly. The ready-to-mix market salad provided coarse, attractive kale and the supermarket Ken’s Caesar, whose main flavor was soybean oil.

This renewed focus on ease of preparation amounts to redefining the kind of meal kit Marley Spoon truly represents. If Marley Spoon was once the meal kit that was the best on basics, now it’s competing on exactly the same ground as HelloFresh: variety, convenience and refreshing flavors. What is less clear is whether they will be successful in doing so.

Marley Spoon is still better off when she sticks to her strengths. Good cooking. Develop a good recipe. Chefs who make real meals.