I’ve Tried Every Healthy Meal Delivery Service, and These Are the Best for Easy Feel-Good Food

Tester: Alaina Chou, commerce writer

About Sunbasket: Sunbasket follows the blueprint of most kit-style meal delivery services, but it sets itself apart by focusing on high-quality, certified organic produce. The company offers both traditional meal kits as well as ready-made options.

What we loved: My favorite thing about Sunbasket—and why I’m recommending it here—is the variety of meals it offers. While some companies offer over 100 meals every week, Sunbasket keeps a tight list of 15–20 or so (plus some additional add-ons and ready-to-eat options). But don’t let that number fool you—it’s impossible to be bored flipping through the weekly menu offerings. You’ll find everything from Afghan-Style Butternut Squash Stew or Mexican Street Tacos with Tomatillo Chicken, Salsa, and Lime Yogurt to Dukkah Pork Chops and Kale Salad with “Everything” Ranch Dressing.

I appreciated how easy it was to filter recipes by dietary restriction (e.g., Paleo, Gluten-Free, etc.), nutrition (e.g., High Protein, Low Added Sugar, etc.), excluded ingredients (dairy-free, soy-free, etc.), and cook time—a plus if you have specific goals in mind, be they upping your protein or saving time.

The meals themselves were easy to make, relatively produce-heavy, and quite tasty. Portion sizes were generally plenty big, and I liked that the service got me cooking dishes and using specific ingredients that weren’t previously in my repertoire.

What we’d leave: In testing, I found that recipes tended to take 5–15 minutes longer to make than the stated times. But my main callout with Sunbasket is that it reserves the right to swap ingredients that were intended to be organic for nonorganic subs based on availability, which did happen to me on multiple occasions. As someone who isn’t married to eating organic produce only, I didn’t really mind this, but it’s something to be aware of—especially given you’re paying the same price regardless.

Sunbasket also offers heat-and-eat meals, but the one I tried—a chicken-and-dumplings riff with gnocchi—was a bit of a miss.

Testers: Alaina Chou, commerce writer, and Lizzy Briskin, contributor

About Factor: Factor offers entirely premade, heat-and-eat meals that require just a short trip to the microwave. The brand positions its meals as nutritious, dietitian-approved, and “designed to support your wellness goals.”

What we loved: I tested the service for two weeks and was pleasantly surprised. The dishes were well-seasoned and flavorful for microwave meals, and as someone who is trying to prioritize protein in her diet at the moment, I appreciated how easy Factor made it to do just that. Because the meals are completely premade and labeled with nutritional information, they’re a great option for anyone with hyper-specific macro goals or dietary preferences in mind.

Some favorites from my two weeks of testing were the Green Chile Chicken and Homestyle Turkey and Gravy. The meals tend to follow a protein plus vegetable plus starch format, which, while a bit repetitive after weeks of testing, meant they all felt balanced. Vegetable portions in particular felt generous—not always a given in the world of meal delivery services.

Factor recently partnered with the plant-based meal delivery brand, Sakara (one of our other favorite healthy meal delivery services), to develop a line of nutrient-dense, protein-packed salads. The salads, which get their protein either from chicken or plant-based options like chickpeas, tofu, or edamame, are substantial and tasty. Contributor Lizzy Briskin tested the Factor x Sakara salads for a week, reporting that “the lettuce, which can often become sad and limp in prepared salads, was crisp and green. I was especially impressed with the tender and flavorful chicken breast, which came well seasoned and cut into satisfying bite-size pieces.”

What we’d leave: While Factor meals are well executed for microwave meals, they are still, at the end of the day, microwave meals. After two weeks of eating six meals a week, I was ready for something home-cooked. With that in mind, this would be a great service to mix in with a few nights of actual cooking.

I found that some of the vegetable sides were both repetitive and a bit waterlogged after their trips to the microwave—though not egregiously so.

Tester: Alaina Chou

About Purple Carrot: Purple Carrot is an entirely plant-based meal delivery service that offers both meal kits and ready-to-eat meals. Over the past few years, multiple BA contributors have tested the service for several weeks. Every tester came to the same conclusion: This is an excellent meal delivery service for vegans and non-vegans alike.

What we loved: Most meals are a mix of fresh produce and packaged ingredients—think vegan cheeses, precooked grains, and premade sauces. I loved how neatly each kit was preportioned for its respective recipe, so I could easily grab everything I needed from the fridge when cooking at my boyfriend’s place.

Purple Carrot squashed my outdated perception of what vegan food could be. Around 20 meal kit recipes are available each week, and the variety of dish types and cuisines made it hard to narrow down my choices. The instructions were straightforward, and each meal was balanced, well composed, and packed with flavor. Standouts included the Winter Squash Soup spiced with togarashi and served over quinoa-speckled rice, the light and refreshing Zaru Soba, and the BBQ Burnt Ends made from mushroom-based protein that could’ve fooled me into thinking it was meat. Many recipes introduced me to new ingredients or techniques I’ll continue using, like crumbling extra-firm tofu into stir-fries instead of cubing it.

What we’d leave: When I placed my first order on the delivery cutoff date, over half the meal kit options were sold out—so I’d recommend selecting meals well in advance. Both weeks I tested Purple Carrot, I received emails a few days before delivery saying one of my selected items wasn’t available because “the ingredients didn’t meet our quality standards.” Those meals were replaced with alternatives I had no say in, and both times I ended up with dishes I never would’ve chosen (a premade meze platter instead of a falafel bowl, and a 60-minute pesto risotto). This happened consistently enough that I suspect it’s fairly common, and I’m unsure whether replacements would align with specific dietary preferences noted at sign-up.

While none of the recipes were particularly difficult, they could’ve been more streamlined. The Winter Squash Soup, for example, required three cooking vessels instead of two because the bok choy had to be roasted separately. It’s also worth noting that some prep steps (chopping garlic, crumbling tofu) appear in the ingredient list rather than the instructions, so give recipes a thorough read before you start cooking.

Testers: Emma Laperruque, associate director of cooking; Carina Finn, former commerce editor; and Alaina Chou

About Sakara: Sakara is a wellness-focused meal delivery and supplement brand with two nutrition program offerings: its Signature Nutrition Program and its Level II Detox. Meals are entirely plant-based, dairy-free, and gluten-free. They’re also an aesthetically-minded wellness head’s dream: Think rainbow-hued salads, veggie-laden soups, and protein-rich breakfast parfaits crowned with granola.

What we loved: We’ve extensively tested both of Sakara’s nutrition programs and think the Signature Program is the way to go if you’re looking for something to subscribe to long-term. Both associate director of cooking Emma Laperruque and contributor Carina Finn praised Sakara’s balanced, thoughtfully designed meals. The salads in particular were a highlight for Laperruque: “They’re generously portioned, so you have enough fuel to power you through the afternoon, and they’re thoughtfully designed with a range of textures and colors. Just about every dressing I wished I had a full bottle of to keep in the fridge for future meals.”

“As someone who puts condiments on my condiments, I expected to feel the need to doctor things up to make them taste better, but everything was already packed with flavor. The dishes ranged from Indian-ish (‘clarity curry’ soup with naan) to Mexican-ish (a lavender ‘cheez' quesadilla with broccoli pesto), and there was enough range that I didn’t get bored,” Finn writes.

What we’d leave: This is not necessarily a negative, but breakfasts tend to be sweet—something to be aware of if you’re a savory breakfast person. But the main downside to Sakara is the price. “At $140 to $465 per week (per person!), depending on your plan, it’s the priciest option on this list. But if you’re someone who prioritizes wellness and sees food as a source of nourishment and healing, you’ll like what you get. It’s also a great option for people who are gluten-free or vegan,” Laperruque writes.

Tester: Olivia Tarantino, senior commerce editor

About Hungryroot: If you hate grocery shopping or meal prepping, Hungryroot is the healthy meal delivery service for you. It’s more of an AI-powered grocery delivery service than a meal kit, but if you choose to add recipes to your weekly order, your box will include a recipe card with suggestions for how to easily combine the grocery items into quick and easy meals.

What we loved: Hungryroot’s flexibility is its biggest strength. Unlike services with limited weekly menus, you can select from recipe kits (like Southwest Chopped Salad with Beyond Patties and Cheddar or Craveable Chorizo Street Corn Grain Bowl), prepared meals (microwave-friendly bowls, soups, sandwiches, and salads), and grocery items à la carte (snacks, yogurt, juices, bread, and more). Your plan determines how many credits you receive each week, and you redeem those credits for whatever you want; meal kits typically cost around 11 credits, while snacks run one to three credits. That means you can load up on as many healthy items as you like.

“I appreciated being able to pick exactly what I wanted without feeling locked into a specific meal plan,” senior commerce editor Olivia Tarantino says. “Each recipe can also be edited, so if you already have cheddar cheese at home (like I did when shopping for a burger bowl recipe), you can remove it from your order and spend those credits elsewhere.” She also appreciated the freedom to repurpose ingredients: “I ordered a Marinara Ricotta Ravioli with Baby Mushroom dish and ended up using the mushrooms in an omelet instead of the pasta.”

The flexibility extends to timing, too. “If I couldn’t cook one night, I wasn’t frantically worrying about my meal kit expiring before I could get to it,” Tarantino notes. “Because most of the ‘recipes’ are basically collections of grocery ingredients, you’re free to use them for whatever you want.”

What we’d leave: The credit system takes some getting used to. “You use credit rather than dollar values, and each item has an assigned credit value—it’s not immediately intuitive, though you can reduce or roll over unused credits to the following week,” Tarantino says.

Because Hungryroot functions as a grocery store with endless recipe-building possibilities, scrolling through all the options can be time-consuming. Tarantino found herself spending over 30 minutes selecting meals, even with filtering options. If that doesn’t appeal to you, Hungryroot’s AI quiz will learn your preferences and automatically fill your cart with suggestions each week.

Testers: Erin Bunch, contributor; Joe Sevier, senior SEO editor

About Green Chef: Green Chef is the first CCOF-certified organic meal kit delivery service, which means it’s committed to sourcing organic fresh produce and eggs, as well as providing organic beef, chicken, and wild-caught seafood as an option. While the company acknowledges that it reserves the right to replace a given ingredient with a high-quality conventional option if the organic option doesn’t meet its quality standards, this is not a common occurrence, according to our testers.

What we loved: Senior SEO editor Joe Sevier praised Green Chef for its generally tasty meals, writing, “This was the best packaged kit I’ve ever reviewed.” Contributor Erin Bunch appreciated the ease of cooking thanks to premade sauces, herb blends, and thoughtfully written recipes that were easy to follow: “Even the steak dinner, which had the most plates and pans to juggle, was sequenced so intuitively that every step flowed naturally into the next: I reused the same pan for the steak and the pan sauce, then used another for the carrots and cauliflower,” she said in her review.

Green Chef also offers a free one-on-one nutrition coaching session with your first box. While neither of our testers took advantage of this, it’s a great option to have for people with specific health goals.

What we’d leave: The recipe offerings tended to be pretty formulaic, consisting of a protein, a veggie, and a carb or starch. Bunch noted that Green Chef is pretty pricey, which is to be expected for a meal kit that positions itself as premium. She also noted that while the recipes were easy to follow, “they still asked me to, you know, cook,” so if you want something you can set-and-forget, this isn’t it.