Behind the Scenes: How We Create New Recipes
Have you ever wondered how a meal makes its way onto our menu? It’s a process that blends creativity, an obsession with cookbooks, local sourcing, and a deep commitment to making real food easy and delicious for you. Every week, our team gets together to develop three to five brand-new recipes, to keep you happy and coming back for more local food.
Where Recipe Ideas Come From
A new meal idea can come from anywhere—a food trend, a friend or customer sharing a favorite dish, a dietary shift (like my recent obsession with Mediterranean meals), discovering a new vendor, or even just drooling over a cookbook.
For example, our marinated bean jar salads were born from a social media trend. We couldn’t stop watching videos of these vibrant, fiber-packed salads, so we decided it was time to develop our own versions. Now, they’re a staple for busy lunches, giving you a protein and fiber boost in the easiest way possible. Have you tried them yet?! So good, so fast, and so delicious, seriously, TRY ONE! My favorite is probably the black bean with chipotle vinaigrette. It's loaded with lots of crunchy colorful veggies, avocado, quinoa and pepitas.
Sometimes, it’s a producer that sparks inspiration. When Ollie, our head of purchasing, finds us an incredible new vendor—like La Pasta—we develop a series of ravioli recipes to support them. It’s a win-win: our customers get fresh, unique meals, and small producers get a platform to grow.
From Concept to Your Table
Once we have a recipe idea, Andrew, our head chef of over 10 years, takes the concept and makes sure it works with the local ingredients we can source. He’s developed over 1,200 recipes, and his process includes testing, tweaking, and perfecting before finalizing a recipe card.
Next, Bekah, our head of food and farms that has worked alongside me for 7 years, takes the meal for a spin. She prepares it, photographs it in our photo studio (my living room) with her fancy camera (aka as her iphone), and makes sure it’s ready for your kitchen. I’m usually lucky enough to be part of this step—it's literally one of my favorite parts of the job!
Once a recipe is approved, Taylor, who has worked in nearly every part of our company for 7 years, turns it into a meal kit: uploading it to the website, creating purchasing reports, and building pack sheets for our team... it becomes real!
How We Decide What Stays
Once a meal goes live, we track how well it sells. If it doesn’t catch on right away, we give it another chance a few months later (if the season allows). But if it flops twice? It’s cut.
On the other hand, if you see a meal every 4-6 weeks, that means it’s a fan favorite and you should probably see what all the fuss is about!
Why Our Meal Kits Are Different
Other than the fact that we deliver food and a recipe to your doorstep, you really can’t compare us to big meal kit companies. Our sourcing, packaging, and quality are on a completely different level. We prioritize organic, local, and truly clean ingredients—no preservatives, no chemicals, no hormones, no colors, no fake flavors.
We love hearing from you! If you have a favorite recipe you'd love to see on our menu, send it to chef@theacmebox.com. Who knows? Your go-to meal could become a new Acme favorite. We will kick you a gift certificate if you help us find a keeper!
The recipe we tested today was another marinated bean jar salad. It is loaded with garbanzo beans, quinoa, red bell peppers, shredded carrots, scallions, cilantro, lacinato kale, green cabbage, shaved almonds and a punchy, harissa tahini dressing. Yum!