Gluten-free cuisine has a deservedly bad reputation. This is not because wheat has a monopoly on good taste: Entire countries and cultures would disagree. Rather, it's that cooks far too often make things that desperately need gluten to be what they are: pancakes and waffles, say, or Southern fried chicken. Or, lord help us, pizza.

And so every time I've tried out gluten-free plates among the many meal kits I've reviewed, it's been with a little bit of fear—lest I find myself endlessly chewing a tapioca pancake, or breaking my own heart over a tray of limp zoodles.

Which is all a prelude to say: The gluten-free meals from HelloFresh's organic meal-kit brand Green Chef were a hell of a nice surprise. More than half of Green Chef's recipes are gluten-free, a quality that the brand attests with hearty, full-throated validation from the Seattle-based Gluten Intolerance Group, which offers certification for gluten-free ingredients and restaurants.

More on that validation and what it means, in a bit. But first, I'll say that among a week's worth of gluten-free meals from Green Chef, I didn't miss the gluten. I didn't miss it, because aside from a swap of gluten-free amino sauce (