In today's fast-paced world, maintaining a healthy lifestyle can be challenging. Plant-based diets have soared in popularity as people look for ways to improve their health, reduce their carbon footprint, and consume less (or no) animal products. However, consistently creating interesting, nutritionally balanced vegetarian and vegan meals can take time and effort. Whole food plant-based (WFPB) diet meal delivery services offer a convenient solution. These services provide creative, delicious dishes crafted with nutrition in mind, making it easier to embrace a plant-based lifestyle.
Why Choose a Whole Food Plant-Based Diet?
A whole-food, plant-based diet focuses on minimally processed plant foods, excluding all animal products, oils, and highly processed ingredients. This eating pattern is associated with numerous health benefits, including:
- Reduced risk of heart disease
- Lower cholesterol levels
- Improved blood sugar control
- Weight management
- Reduced risk of certain cancers
Navigating the World of Vegetarian and Vegan Meal Delivery
You might be looking for the best vegetarian meal delivery services because you’re an omnivore trying to eat more plants. Maybe you’re a flexitarian trying to ease yourself into a dairy-free, plant-based diet. Or perhaps you’re a lifelong vegetarian looking for quick dinner solutions that allow you to skip the grocery store. The truth is, the best meal kits features many plans that offer vegetarian and vegan dishes. But this time around we tested with the specific goal of finding the very best vegetarian options a meal kit could offer. While almost all of the regular meal kit companies do offer meat-free items, some lack variety. People who want vegetarian dishes will often have to choose an only slightly varied grain bowl or smoothie week after week. Grain bowls and smoothies are great, but sometimes you want something different-like quinoa and veggie enchiladas with spicy chipotle cream or pesto flatbread with agrodolce peppers and cannellini bean purée.
Top Whole Food Plant-Based Meal Delivery Services
Here's a curated list of some of the best whole food plant-based meal delivery services, offering a variety of options to suit different needs and preferences.
Purple Carrot: The Premier Vegan Meal Kit Service
Purple Carrot stands out as one of the few meal kit services exclusively dedicated to vegan meals. Its weekly menu boasts 12 dinner options, complemented by breakfast and lunch choices. Expect an array of vibrant dishes like caprese mac and cheese with sun-dried tomatoes and toasted breadcrumbs, masala cashew fried rice with cilantro chutney, and black bean burgers with creamy avocado-kale slaw. BA contributor Sarah Jampel says the dishes are intriguing, with flavors that are bold and bright. When trying out Purple Carrot, she was delighted to see that the vegetarian recipes featured ingredients she’d never think to combine, like crisped gnocchi with furikake and a miso-tomato sauce. Some of the recipes even taught her a few new cooking techniques, like, sprinkling roasted tempeh with sugar for the last few minutes in the oven so the crumbles caramelize. In addition to meal kits, Purple Carrot offers fully prepared, microwavable meals and grocery items. Whether you’re new to the world of plant-based cooking, you want to get more veggies in your diet, or you just want to skip your weekly grocery run, this is a strong vegan meal delivery service to consider. Meals starting at $11 per serving.
Read also: Satisfy Your Cravings with Whole Foods
Green Chef: Organic Ingredients and Sustainable Practices
If you prioritize sustainability and organic ingredients, Green Chef is an excellent choice. This is the first certified organic meal kit. Its weekly menu features around 50 meals to choose from, including ample vegetarian options and vegan options (along with dishes that fit a variety of other diets, like paleo and pescatarian). Most of the meals take around 30 minutes to prepare from start to finish-and if you’re anything like me, you’ll appreciate that some of the prep work is done for you. Most of these meal kits come with premade sauces, dressings, and spice blends. All of the Green Chef meals I tried were flavorful and satiating. That said, I should note that while dishes like the birria-style black bean tacos and the creamy tomato pasta with roasted veggies were quick and simple to prepare, they require the use of multiple pots and pans. You might have to dirty a stockpot, sauté pan, sheet pan, mixing bowls, and strainers for a single recipe. Still, this is the best organic meal kit, and it features high-quality, fresh ingredients from local farmers and eco-friendly packaging. Meals starting at $11.99 per serving
Martha & Marley Spoon: Variety and Customization
This collaboration between Martha Stewart and Berlin-based food subscription company Marley Spoon brings us carefully tested, family-friendly recipes from Stewart’s archives. With more than 100 weekly meals to choose from, they have one of the biggest menus I’ve seen from a traditional meal kit service. While not all of the meals are vegetarian, almost all of them are customizable, so you can choose any protein source you’d like. For instance, you can get this saucy orange stir-fry with beef, pork, chicken, or plant-based chicken-or this smash burger meal with Impossible meat patties or black bean-veggie patties. I enjoyed the dishes I tried from Martha and Marley Spoon (my fave was the roasted sweet potatoes and crispy chickpeas with marinated tomatoes and tahini dressing). That said, this isn’t much of a time-saving meal kit. Each recipe comes with preportioned ingredients and premade spice blends, but there’s still a hefty amount of prep work involved. I made a ravioli recipe that called for making my own caramelized onion sauce from scratch; it was tasty, but I’m not sure I’d be up for the task on any given weeknight. Most of the recipes also require you to have your own pantry staples on hand, like butter, white wine vinegar, and eggs. So, if you want a meal kit that allows you to feel like you’re cooking from scratch, as opposed to a “dump-and-stir situation,” this is your guy. Meals starting at $8.69 per serving.
CookUnity: Chef-Crafted, Ready-Made Meals
An actually good prepared meal delivery service is hard to come by, but CookUnity is the best one I’ve tried. In terms of quality and flavor, it’s miles ahead of the rest, probably thanks to the fact that all the meals are crafted by award-winning chefs, including Taïm’s Einat Admony, Teranga’s Pierre Thiam, Mokbar’s Esther Choi, and more chefs we’ve featured here at BA. CookUnity isn’t strictly vegetarian, but with over 100 dishes to offer every week, they have the one of most robust menus I’ve seen-so you won’t have any trouble finding options that fit a vegetarian diet. I really like that each menu item features ratings and reviews from previous customers (something not as common among other meal subscription companies), which makes it easy to see which meals are worth your money. Some of the most highly rated vegetarian dishes include the chana masala with coconut rice, baked rigatoni mezzi with pomodoro and whipped ricotta, and Colombian-style sweet corn arepa with veggies and egg. I’ve found most of the dishes I’ve tried to be filling, flavorful, and well-seasoned, especially compared to other premade meal kits on the market. The portions are a lot bigger too. While premade meals rarely taste as good as freshly made ones, CookUnity is a win-win if you’re interested in fully prepared meals, and it’s come in clutch for me during multiple busy weeks. Meals starting at $13.49 per meal.
Dinnerly: Affordable and Easy-to-Prepare
If ease and affordability are what you’re after, you’ll appreciate Dinnerly, the self-proclaimed “Affordable Meal Kit.” The meals start at just $5 per serving, making them one the cheapest meal kit delivery services we’ve tried. But that doesn’t mean it skimps on quality. Dinnerly has the same parent company as the much-loved Martha & Marley Spoon, so you can expect the same fresh, high-quality ingredients and thoughtful packaging. They even offer a few of the same exact dishes as Martha & Marley Spoon-but at a third of the cost. Aside from price differences, Dinnerly sets itself apart by focusing on more simple, picky-eater-approved meals that cater to both adults and children. The menu is centered around classics like spaghetti and meatballs, burgers and fries, and stir-fried lo mein. You’ll find that most of the meals are customizable with a variety of protein options including plant-based chicken, Impossible beef, and tofu. When looking through the menu, I liked that the 30 dinner options had varying levels of required prep work. For instance, in addition to traditional meal kits, Dinnerly also offers oven-ready “Tray Bakes” and “No Chop” meals that require minimal preparation. One of my favorite vegetarian dishes was the No Chop! Ravioli with Spinach & Parm, which called for only a few pantry staples and came together in under a half hour. The sauce was creamy and the flavor was mellow, which means it provided a solid base for me to play up on my seasoning preferences. I’d say this is a great meal kit service for anyone who wants super easy meals that would satisfy anyone-including the picky eaters in your household. Meals starting at $4.99 per serving.
Sunbasket: Culinary Variety and Inspiration
Sunbasket’s weekly menu extends beyond the basic “greatest hits recipes” I tend to see at other meal kit services-in terms of diversity of ingredients and dishes, the menu is unmatched. While Sunbasket doesn’t focus solely on vegetarian and plant-based meal options (it also offers meals that feature responsibly raised meats and wild-caught seafood), it does have some great veggie-based options to choose from. I really like that the recipes feature ready-to-use sauces and marinades that bring extra depth of flavor without any extra effort on my end. For example, Korean BBQ tofu burgers with daikon-cucumber salad come with a premade quick-pickle brine and the Burmese chickpea and tomato soup arrives with a garlicky, gingery, lemongrass paste. A couple other stand-out dishes include the rosemary-potato pizzas with fresh mozzarella and mushrooms and the okonomiyaki with sesame kale chips. And for times when you don’t want to do any prepping, you can visit their Fresh & Ready section for fully prepared, microwave-ready meals like spicy Sichuan mapo tofu and spinach saag paneer with basmati rice. If you appreciate culinary variety, you get bored easily, or you’re simply looking for some inspiration in the kitchen, this is a strong contender. Meals starting at $9.99 per serving
Read also: Whole Foods Breakfast Options
Cumin Club: Authentic Indian Cuisine
“Whether you’re looking for an introduction to Indian regional cuisine or an easy way to put dishes you grew up with on the table, Cumin Club offers low-effort meals that deliver big on flavor,” says Urmila Ramakrishnan, our associate director of social media. These are her go-to meal kits whenever she wants a hearty, satisfying meal but doesn’t have time to make something from scratch. All of the meals are vegetarian and take just five minutes to prepare: “It’s basically an ‘add water, heat, and serve’ situation,” Urmila says, and she loves it for that. The menu is divided into five categories (lentils, curries, rice, one pot, and all day eats), and features about 30 dishes to choose from. Once you select your meal plan, you can also filter the options according to your specific dietary needs, preferred spice level, and regions of India. Choose among dishes like vegetable biryani, paneer butter masala, and methi matar malai, a creamy curry flavored with sweet green peas and earthy fenugreek leaves. Urmila recommends the dal makhani, which is made from a short list of simple ingredients and has all the creamy richness you’d expect from the dish. The best part? It takes seven minutes to prepare, as opposed to overnight in the slow cooker. Serve it with a dollop of yogurt, chopped cilantro, and premade rotis. Meals starting at $4.24 per meal.
Mosaic Foods: Frozen, Plant-Based Convenience
If you don’t want to do any meal prepping yourself, consider Mosaic, a purveyor of frozen vegetarian and vegan dishes made with whole foods and no artificial ingredients. BA contributor Amanda Shapiro uses Mosaic from time to time and likes that the meals are actually high-protein and that the single-serving portion sizes are comparatively bigger than other frozen meals. After trying out a number of dishes, she realized there’s a bit of a learning curve to figuring out which ones are worth the money. Here a some tips for success: Go for dishes that are saucy by nature, like the delightful pepper, feta, and olive ragout over buckwheat and kale and the Italian ‘sausage’ and pumpkin lasagna; and do try the chef-crafted meals from Mosaic Plus, which are a cut above the other offerings in terms of flavor. One thing that sets Mosaic apart from other fully prepared meal services is that they also offer Family Meals, which heat in the oven and are designed to serve four (Amanda can vouch for the BBQ ‘meatloaf’ and sweet potato mash). If you’re looking for heat-and-serve, zero-effort meals that’ll fit into a vegetarian or vegan diet, Mosaic might be the food subscription service for you.
Factors to Consider When Choosing a Meal Delivery Service
With a variety of whole food plant-based meal delivery services available, consider the following factors to find the best fit for your lifestyle:
- Dietary Needs and Preferences: Ensure the service caters to your specific dietary requirements, whether you're strictly vegan, vegetarian, or have other allergies or sensitivities.
- Meal Variety: Look for a service that offers a diverse menu with rotating options to keep your meals interesting and prevent boredom.
- Ingredient Quality: Opt for services that prioritize fresh, organic, and locally sourced ingredients.
- Preparation Time: Consider how much time you're willing to spend on meal preparation. Some services offer fully prepared meals, while others provide meal kits with pre-portioned ingredients.
- Cost: Meal delivery services vary in price, so find one that fits your budget.
- Sustainability: If sustainability is important to you, look for services with eco-friendly packaging and practices.
Whole Harvest: A Pioneer in WFPB Meal Delivery
After shaving 40 points off his cholesterol within three weeks of going whole-food, plant-based, Mark Gossman was sold on the lifestyle-but finding time to prepare the meals proved difficult. “As a busy person, it was hard,” says Gossman, who co-founded Whole Harvest in 2020. The innovative WFPB meal-delivery service has received stamps of approval from Dean Ornish, M.D., Alan Goldhamer, D.C., and the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.
How It Works
The Whole Harvest menu currently features 16 entrees, with rotate seasonally and average $15-$17 each. All are free of animal products, oil, and highly processed ingredients. To place an order, you’ll need to choose at least eight entrees. Then select a delivery date (generally at least 1 week out). Meals are prepared fresh daily and arrive at your doorstep within days of being made. Each meal is individually sealed, ensuring a refrigerator shelf life of 5-10 days. When you’re ready to eat, just heat according to the label. (Instructions are provided for both the microwave and stovetop.) Any meals you haven’t finished before the best-by date can be frozen for up to six months.
Read also: Plant-Based Diet Guide
Taste and Quality
Whole Harvest sent me 12 entrees to try, and I found each to be fresh, flavorful, and hearty enough to keep me satisfied until the next mealtime. I especially liked the Southwest Comfort Mac-which features a rich-tasting sauce made with butternut squash and cashews-and the Mushroom Bolognese. And my absolute favorite was the Ratatouille: The seasonal gem is a saucy medley of quinoa, chickpeas, and veggies, perfectly seasoned in warming spices.
Sustainability Efforts
Whole Harvest meals ship in cardboard boxes lined with recyclable insulation and Enviro Ice packs, which are filled with a gel that can be safely washed down the drain or used as fertilizer in your gardens.