Blue Apron Favorites July 2020

Welcome back to another installment of Blue Apron favorites! Here, you’ll find my top picks for meals we cooked with Blue Apron for the month of July. My favorites this month were definitely a mixed bag of nuts, with all different types of cuisines represented. That is why I love Blue Apron – variety!

Some Notes & Tips

This month, I wanted to share a few extra tidbits with how we do our Blue Apron meals as we sometimes make variations or add a little somethin’ extra.

• Meal Plan: We are on the three-meal plan, and find that is a good balance for us to still be able to throw in some of our regular favorite meals and/or have a night of takeout when we are feeling extra lazy. Blue Apron does now allow you to add a fourth meal, which is relatively new in the last few months!

• Seasoning Notes: We generally tend to add our own seasonings on top of what is provided to us in our meal kits. Sometimes, you’ve just got to give a helping hand to these dishes with extra spices you might have in your pantry. We use Flavor God spices pretty extensively, which can really help elevate any of your dishes you might find lacking in flavor.

• No Mayo!: Any time you see something with mayonnaise as an ingredient in our meals, we sub in sour cream (or occasionally labneh or Greek yogurt). I do not like mayonnaise, and my husband isn’t a huge fan either. We do love sour cream though! We have found that sour cream is the perfect substitution for any style of dish you are cooking.

• Double the Garlic: Adding extra garlic is the perfect way to infuse more flavor into your dishes. We usually get some pretty small heads of garlic in our boxes, so doubling the garlic always works well for us. The only time I do not add extra garlic is if we are utilizing it raw (like grated fresh into a sauce). Raw garlic has plenty of flavor in minimal quantities.

And with that said, here were my favs!

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Shrimp & Korean Rice Cakes

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Any time we see a Korean rice cake dish as an option for the week, we go for it immediately! The texture of the rice cakes may not be for everyone (soft and chewy), but we love them. These dishes are also usually packed with so much flavor from all the Asian elements like ginger, sesame oil, rice vinegar, and gochujang. The sauce for this particular dish was a tomato base with creme fraiche and grape tomatoes, combined with the aforementioned Asian ingredients. It was creamy and delicious!

This was a recipe creation by chef Tim Hollingsworth. If you don’t already know, Blue Apron occasionally pairs up with celebrity chefs to create new and innovative dishes. Tim Hollingsworth actually won the The Final Table competition on Netflix! We cooked a couple of his recipes over the month and they were all delicious.

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Cajun Shrimp & Corn Pancakes

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Wow – what a beautiful dish! This Cajun Shrimp & Corn Pancake dish was a little intimidating, I must admit, but mostly because we didn’t want to mess up the pancakes! Everything turned out really well though and our pancakes were perfect. The shrimp and vegetables came together with a vinegar based “sauce” that was tangy and flavorful. I also love that summer means a change up with seasonal ingredients, like fresh corn! The corn paired with poblanos and fresh tomatoes almost felt more Southwestern to me versus Cajun but not that I’m complaining about that in any way.

My only wish for this dish would be to have light cream sauce to drizzle over the top of it to give it a little more moisture. Overall, great flavors though.

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Persian Chicken & Crispy Rice

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Middle Eastern dishes with Blue Apron also tend to pack a huge punch of flavor. This Persian Chicken dish was a combo of savory and sweet, with the sweetness coming from the currants that get cooked into the rice and major flavors of savory coming from the shawarma spice blend. The creamy lemon labneh drizzled on top rounded out the savory and spicy flavors by cooling it off a bit. Keeping on the summer vegetable theme, this dish incorporated fresh zucchini.

The rice in this dish was a little different than we normally cook as it involved crisping up half the batch in the oven to mix with the fluffy rice at the end. Loved the texture combination! I’ve seen Persian crispy rice cooked before and it usually involves crisping up/browning the rice in the bottom of a pot, so this was Blue Apron’s way of making that process a little easier.

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Miso-Ponzu Burgers

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We are huge fans of the Asian-style burgers…huuuugeee! Our burgers always come out so juicy (my husband is a great cook when it comes to meat). These were relatively simple with the burgers, pan fried onions and a miso “mayo.” On the side, we had sauteed mushrooms and shishito peppers (which I love). I’m not, however, a fan of eating mushrooms in this fashion. I would have liked to probably cut them up smaller and top them on the burgers instead.

Our Variations

We used sour cream instead of mayonnaise for the “miso mayo” sauce that goes on the burger. My husband also added chili paste and soy sauce to the burger meat which made them extra moist and juicy (and added a lot of flavor too). I highly recommend the extra additions.

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Guajillo Beef Bowls

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Wow, what a great punch of flavor in this dish! These Smoky Guajillo Beef Bowls were probably my favorite of the month. Guajillo pepper sauce is now one of my favorite flavors. I have to figure out how we can recreate that! The carrots in this dish were roasted in Mexican spices, while the beef was sauteed with the guajillo sauce. We also made a simple salsa of cherry tomatoes with pickled jalapenos, and put everything together atop steaming hot rice (my fav!) with a lime sour cream and grated cotija cheese.

Our Variations

We subbed sour cream in for the mayo for the lime mayo that gets drizzled over the top. I think sour cream goes better with Mexican-style dishes anyway!

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Tomatillo & Chayote Enchiladas

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Last but not least, I really enjoyed these Cheesy Tomatillo Enchiladas with a brown rice and chayote squash filling. These enchilada dishes always make so much food! Generally, you mix all the filling up and stuff the enchiladas and the rest goes underneath the enchiladas in the dish. Can’t let that filling go to waste!

I’ve found that I am a pretty big fan of chayote squash, which we had never tried before cooking with Blue Apron. It almost reminds me of a pear when cutting it up. It’s tasty and crisp!

Our Variations

I added some extra cheese on top (what can I say, I’m a cheesy lover…) and some fresh sliced jalapenos from my patio plant. I also used all the provided sour cream in the filling and used my own stash to top it off, along with a scoop of guacamole. This was a dish where the spices needed a helping hand as well. I added quite a bit from my own pantry.

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If you cook with Blue Apron, what were some of your favorites for the month?

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