As a person who prides herself in serving up tasty dinners on the cheap, the idea of meal kit services kind of kill the fun for me. It’s exciting when I figure out how to whip up a dope meal for less than $4 per serving, and grocery shopping is like therapy for me. Even so, oftentimes I’m strapped for ideas, so when I got a sweet HelloFresh coupon in the mail with an offer I couldn’t pass up, I decided I would get one—and try infusing the dishes.
I signed up in seconds with my Facebook account and ordered my first box. I was surprised by the range of options I could choose from—they were all nutritious and creative, and not at all as basic as I had imagined. I picked the Cherry Balsamic Pork which had been documented as their Hall of Fame fan favorite. I also got the Classic Roasted Salmon because I can never say no to seafood, ever.
(Monica Lo/@sousweed for Leafly)
The unboxing was quite an experience. Each meal comes its own brown paper bag so you don’t mix your ingredients up. Each ingredient has been prepped, portioned, and packaged accordingly. The menu cards are beautifully designed and each process has a visual so it makes it pretty hard to screw up (very convenient if you’re cooking while already elevated). The thing is, these meal kits don’t provide the staples—salt, pepper, sugar, olive oil, butter. Luckily, that works out perfectly if your pantry is stocked with medicated versions of these essentials, as many cannabis enthusiasts’ pantries are (if yours isn’t already, check out my recipes for butter and olive oil below).
(Monica Lo/@sousweed for Leafly)
There are a few tweaks you’ll need to make to meal kit recipes if you plan to infuse them. As a best practice, it’s better to cook with cannabis at lower temperatures, because THC starts to degrade above 375˚F, and the recipes I made from HelloFresh called for the potatoes and salmon to be baked above that point. For this reason, I was not able to use my Sous Weed olive oil (recipe below) to bake the potatoes or salmon; I opted instead to use unmedicated olive oil and butter for those steps, and finished off each plate with a healthy drizzle of the medicated goodness once the dishes came out of the oven.
(Monica Lo/@sousweed for Leafly)
The Cherry Balsamic Pork recipe I ordered was a strong choice—the pork tenderloin was juicy and the cherry glaze was divine, a perfect balance of sweet and savory. I added a tablespoon of Sous Weed butter (recipe below) to the glaze as it simmered on low, and that was all it took. On the other hand, the salmon really benefitted from that extra drizzle of oil when it came out of the oven: It was dry and I probably could have shaved a minute or two off the recommended baking time. A tablespoon of Sous Weed olive oil went over the entire plated dish along with some dill, salt, and pepper to finish it off.
(Monica Lo/@sousweed for Leafly)
Overall, the infused meal kit was an engaging and delicious experience, although personally I probably won’t use a kit service again—I love grocery shopping way too much. I definitely recommend it to people who are looking to cook more and be more hands-on in the kitchen, though; the kit instructions are easy to follow, and I did learn a few cool tricks and techniques in the process. The crispy potato rounds, for instance, rocked my world, and I don’t think I can go back to potato wedges again!
Cannabis-Infused Sous Vide Butter
Start to finish: 4 hours (for a quicker version, use our standard stove-top cannabutter recipe)
Yields: 16 ounces cannabutter
Approximate potency: Depends on flower (learn how to calculate an approximate value here)
Ingredients
• 16 ounces butter, softened
• 1 ounce cannabis clippings/trim or flowers (add more or less to reach your desired potency)
Directions
- Seal your butter and cannabis in a freezer-safe, zip-sealed bag and lay the bag on the edge of the countertop to seal, making sure you push out all the air from the bag.
- Set your sous vide water bath to 85˚C (185˚F).
- Once the sous vide water bath has reached its temp, place the sealed bag into the water, making sure the bag is submerged.
- Sous vide for four hours. Remove from water bath and strain. Discard the clippings and allow the infused butter to cool and solidify. Use the cannabis butter to infuse any meal kit dish calling for standard butter.
Cannabis-Infused Sous Vide Olive Oil
(Monica Lo/@sousweed for Leafly)
Start to finish: 4 hours (for a quicker version, use our standard stove-top cannabis oil recipe)
Yields: 16 ounces olive oil
Approximate potency: Depends on flower (learn how to calculate an approximate value here)
Ingredients
• 16 ounces extra virgin olive oil
• 1 ounce cannabis clippings/trim or flowers (add more or less to reach your desired potency)
Directions
- Seal your olive oil and cannabis in a freezer-safe, zip-sealed bag and lay the bag on the edge of the countertop to seal, making sure you push out all the air from the bag.
- Set your sous vide water bath to 85˚C (185˚F).
- Once the sous vide water bath has reached its temp, place the sealed bag into the water, making sure the bag is submerged.
- Sous vide for four hours. Remove from water bath and strain. Discard the clippings and allow the infused olive oil to cool. Use the cannabis butter to infuse any meal kit dish calling for standard olive oil or similar cooking oil.
