The best meal kits available for nationwide delivery right now

Hop & Roll’s Hopper Kits

Hop & Roll was started by founder Rosh in June 2019, and began as a street food business born out of a desire to reconnect with Rosh’s own Sri Lankan background. Becoming a meal kit company in lockdown, Rosh has now evolved the business to also include live London-based hopper classes, which offer attendees the chance to learn how to make the Sri Lankan rice flour pancake the best way – hands on! For those further afield, Rosh’s hopper meal kits are available nationwide and include everything you need to make wonderful hoppers at home. Expect a specialist spatula, all the ingredients to make roughly 20 hoppers (flour, rice flour, coconut milk powder and yeast) and the step by step recipe card with loads of tips to make the perfect hopper, plus the all-important hopper pan to keep you cooking these for years to come. Just add your favourite curries and a coconut chutney and you’re on your way to a dinner of dreams. Available from Hop & Roll (from £39.99).

Aktar At Home kits

How often do you order an Indian takeaway for home delivery? Transform that pleasure into a spectacular Sunday-roast treat by trying one of Michelin-star chef Aktar Islam’s at-home kits. Star billing goes to the smoked leg of lamb, a winning dish on the BBC’s Great British Menu. The meat comes on the bone, frozen, uncooked and marinated in a medley of glorious spices, alongside four ready-to-defrost-and-heat vegan and veggie side dishes (the dal is stand-out good), plus pulau rice and four fluffy naans. The latter are bigger than your head – one is enough for two, so leave one or two in the freezer for another time. Portions are generous: there were four of us and the leg we tried was 3kg HUGE. Despite big appetites and a valiant determination to polish it all off, we had enough lamb left over for two more meals… Two! The price for the complete kit is £70 – impressive value when you consider it’s a complete meal for six with all those lovely leftovers. Check out the tandoori boxes, too, also £70, which include more than 4kg of marinated meat. Cook on the barbie or in the oven and prepare for food heaven. Available from Aktar at Home (from £70).

Nonna Tonda

This fresh pasta delivery services offers pasta made with Cacklebean farm eggs from the Cotswolds and flour from Paolo Mariani Mill in Marche, with interesting sauce combinations you might not have tried before, such as chilli and parsley crab tonnarelli or a roasted red pepper, San Marzano tomato & Westcombe ricotta mafalde. Cheese comes from Italian suppliers in Piedmont, and vegetables from Natoora, and the quality really shines through in these kits, which feel good as good for you as a home cooked dinner. Crucially, each portion is well-seasoned and generous enough to serve 2. Available in 2,4 or 6 weekly portions, from Nonna Tonda (from £6.60 a portion).

Hoppers Cash & Kari

Featuring ready-to-cook dishes, cocktails and Hoppers’ own brewed beers, this kit brings the whole dining-out experience to your home.

We tried the lamb kothu roti, kalupol chicken, pol roti, mutton rolls and carrot salad. All of this took only 45 minutes hands-on time to prepare, and came with easy-to-follow (and beautifully designed) instructions. The flavours are fantastic. Mutton rolls are crisp and perfectly seasoned, the kalupol chicken is amazingly tender and subtly spiced, the kothu roti (a combination of lamb kari, chopped roti, vegetables and onions) is the ultimate stir-fry. There’s even dessert included too (choco-coco biscuit pudding, we salute you). Available from Dispatch (£30 for 2 or £40 including beers). Vegan and veggie kits also available.

Berenjak ghormeh sabzi kit

Berenjak is based in in Soho, and now some of their menu is available nationwide so you can enjoy a taste of home-cooked Persian food wherever you are in the UK. If you’ve never experienced the joy of a tahdig or the zingy, bright flavours of a ghormeh sabzi, read on. The cooking here isn’t for the faint-hearted, as the stew itself requires a good 4 hours in the oven (start EARLY), and the rice is a labour of love (you need to wash and rewash it and par cook it, but it’s all in the name of the best rice dish you’ve ever prepared at home). When the stew is in its final hour, the rice goes into its pot for the final cooking stage, and when you flip out your tahdig to reveal its golden crust, the sense of pride is electric. The shirazi salad and mast o sabzi (yoghurt with herbs) are lovely accompaniments. This kit claims to feed 2, but there is enough rice for 6 here – make note for leftovers. If you have intermediate skills in the kitchen and are hungry for a taste of Persia – this kit is for you. Available from Slerp (from £45 for two, plus leftovers).

Dabbadrop

Dabbadrop was inspired by co-founder Anshu’s family recipes from all over South Asia, and the team brings you plant-based dinners to your door, like this: their dosa kits. This South Indian fermented rice pancake can be an intimidating and lengthy process to reproduce, but not with the prepared batter and instructions provided here, which make it a doddle to prepare at home. Also included is a ladle to get the all-important dosa swirl, and their famous ginger jam and crunchy gunpowder topping make great accompaniments. Available from Dabbadrop (£22).

Decatur shrimp boil

Decatur was founded in 2014, and their menu offering is about as close as you can get to Southern soul food in the UK. Luckily for us, they are delivering their shrimp boil kits, seasoned with a secret blend of boiling spices, directly to you. If you’ve never experienced the joy of Louisiana inspired seafood before (let alone delivered to your door), we urge you to give this kit a go.

This is one of the most user-friendly kits going, and can be ready at the table within 35 minutes. All that you’ll need is a boiling pan of water to add your spices into, followed by your potatoes, corn, smoked sausage (if using) and shrimp. Then douse it all in that most flavourful garlic butter, and extra spicy seasoning, and you’ll feel as if you’re down by the bayou toute-suite. Please note the kits sell out VERY fast, and go on sale on Sundays for the following Friday. But trust us, when you bag one, you’ll have the Friday night dinner of your dreams to look forward to. Available from Decatur (from £42 for two).

Pizza Pilgrims Pizza In The Post

Pizza made in a frying pan? Yes,  we were sceptical too – but this frying pan pizza kit seriously delivered. Choose from a variety of flavours (including dairy free and gluten free options) and your kit will include all the ingredients used in the Pizza Pilgrims pizzerias. We tried out the double pepperoni and spicy honey kit and the flavour combination of salty chorizo with sweet, fiery honey was to die for. The kit makes two generously-sized pizzas and the instructions inside couldn’t be easier to follow, with your pizzas taking about 15 minutes from start to finish. If you don’t have two large frying pans, there’s no need to panic, you can simply cook one pizza at a time, and even keep one warm on the bottom shelf of your oven, whilst you prepare the second. Or you know, eat as you go… Available from Pizza Pilgrims (starting from £14.50 for two pizzas, plus delivery).

Made In Oldstead Food Box by Tommy Banks

Don’t fancy cooking? Have Michelin-starred chef Tommy Banks make your dinner for you instead! The kit includes an abundance of produce grown both on and around the family farm in Oldstead, Yorkshire, with info on its source. Choose from his three different menus (including a veggie option) and you’ll receive an incredible three-course menu for two delivered to your home. The packaging and food presentation are both beautiful for a start. Servings are on the generous side and your entire meal comes with very clear instructions. Deliveries are available on Fridays. We recommend that you order in advance to avoid disappointment. Available from Tommy Banks’ website (prices starting from £21 per head).

Steins at Home Recipe Boxes

Can you think of anyone you’d rather have prep dinner for you than Rick Stein? His ‘Steins at Home’ recipe boxes bring fresh Cornish seafood to your own kitchen. Inside each box, you’ll find plenty of food – enough to serve two people – with a starter, main and dessert (and there’ll likely be leftovers). Choose from four boxes available on the website: The Hake Box, The Lobster Box, The Indonesian Curry Box and the Coq au Riesling Box. Dinner will take you about 20 minutes to cook and plate up, while well laid-out instructions will hold your hand throughout. We couldn’t fault it in any way! Available from Rick Stein (£40-85 for two, depending on which menu you go for).  

OMA – immersive cookery kits

These are regional cookery kits with a difference – more like cookery courses. You get the quality authentic ingredients you probably can’t find in your local supermarket; recipes and a booklet with features from the region covered, PLUS access to video tutorials where well-known chefs talk you through the dishes and give insight and background. Rohit Ghai demonstrates the North Indian Kitchen menu: tadka dal, jeera aloo, fish amritsari, chicken tikka masala. You do need to buy the main perishable items such as the fish and chicken but, with a little effort, you’ll gain genuine skills and techniques. Courses cover Korean, Mexican, North Indian, Malaysian, Japanese and more. Available from Oma Kitchen (£39.99).

Simon Rogan at Home Kit

A trip to Simon Rogan’s two Michelin-starred L’Enclume in the Lake District is something of a culinary pilgrimage – and now you can experience it at home. His menu changes weekly, but each begins with fresh bread and raw butter. The quality of the vegetables was abundantly evident in the dishes we tried, from a peppery kohlrabi velouté finished with stunning emerald wild garlic oil to some intensely flavoured beetroots and their puree. Custard to accompany a bread and butter pudding was infused with the herb woodruff to finish. Hands-on time is minimal; it’s best to prepare and devour each course before moving on to the next. Just make sure to read through the instructions in their entirety before beginning, in case anything needs to be removed from the fridge in advance. This kit isn’t cheap, but the price reflects that of a set lunch menu at quality restaurant. Available from Simon Rogan at Home (£100 for two including delivery).