Over the years, when I’ve been in a meal planning rut, I’ve found trying out a meal kit delivery service helps snap me out of it. But while there are more than a few of these companies out there, their weekly menu options are often limited for vegetarians and vegans looking to avoid animal products. Whether you’re currently vegan, vegan-curious, or just want to be more conscious about your meat consumption, a plant-based meal kit subscription like Purple Carrot is a good place to start. I have tested more than a few meal delivery services, ranging from prepared meals to the cook-it-yourself options like Blue Apron, Green Chef, and Hello Fresh, so I came to my Purple Carrot experience knowing what makes a good meal kit and what doesn’t. How do Purple Carrot’s vegan meal kits stack up? And if you’re not already vegan or plant-leaning, could Purple Carrot meals be the catalyst that finally converts you? Read on for a full Purple Carrot review.
What to expect from a Purple Carrot box
Purple Carrot meal kits ship in an insulated cardboard box with two ice packs at the bottom. I didn’t have any issue with items staying cold and fresh during shipping (and because there’s no meat, fish, or dairy it’s less of an issue generally). Nothing inside the box arrived smooshed or crushed either. Each meal is mostly contained inside its own plastic bag (with the exception of some ingredients like garlic bulbs and large pouches of mixed greens), and each had its recipe booklet with a photo of the meal tucked conveniently into a pocket on the side. I dedicated half of a shelf in my fridge to line up these clear plastic packets for easy eyeball-appealing access.
How are Purple Carrot's ingredients?
Purple Carrot kits come with a combination of fresh produce and prepared or prepackaged ingredients, depending on the recipe. Generally, the packaged items (like tofu, grains, beans, nut cheeses, or spices) are organic, however, according to the Purple Carrot website, not all the produce is due to sourcing constraints. Any produce that’s in packaging comes prewashed, but loose items like sweet potatoes or lemons are not. The only things you won’t get with your order are salt, pepper, and oils. You’ll have to have those on hand to cook most of the recipes.
What’s the Purple Carrot ordering experience?
If you’ve ever dabbled in meal kits before, the process for this vegan meal delivery service will look familiar to you when it comes to subscriptions, ordering, and delivery.
You’ll first choose how many portions you want, two or four, and how many meals per week, one to four. At the two-servings, four-meals-a-week rate, they cost $13.25 per portion or $106 a week. That’s on the spendier side for a meal kit, but comparable to higher-end options like Blue Apron or Marley Spoon. Purple Carrot then auto populates your upcoming orders, going forward seven weeks, with a revolving slate of meals, which you can swap out for any of 16 entrées on the weekly menu up to a seven days before they ship out (or skip weeks ahead of time, too).
Generally, meal options fall into categories like noodles, grains and veggies, soups, tacos, or sandwiches (i.e. bean burgers or tofu bacon BLTs), and they range across culinary inspirations, from things like General Tso’s Tofu to Jackfruit Gyros.
What I liked about Purple Carrot
Whether you’re vegan or not, the Purple Carrot menu won’t leave you bored. I found that one of the best reasons to use Purple Carrot is because everything is big on flavor. Sandwiches get freshly-made garlic-infused aioli, and spicy dishes are actually spicy—not a given in the meal kit world. You can tweak those heat levels as well; they always, for example, include much more chili than any normal person will actually use. Nearly every meal offered a variety of textures and colors, and used ingredients like tomato powder, or nutritional yeast for bigger pops in the pan, while cilantro and citrus frequently offered nice finishing touches.
Overall, the portions were generous, which may help people looking to transition to a more plant-based diet from other animal product-based dietary habits. I often had leftovers from a single portion of pasta or curry. Beans, quinoa, nut-based dairy substitutes, and lentils in the mix kept the proteins and other main ingredients diverse, and meant that I would only see one block of tofu in a given week.
Most kits contained a combination of fresh ingredients (i.e. produce) and packaged items like vegan cheeses, precooked rice and quinoa, or special components like pre-made, like vegan cheese sauce for loaded baked potatoes or mango chutney for tofu palak paneer. I found everything in my kits to be high-quality and appreciated the shortcut ingredients to speed up cooking time.
While Purple Carrot’s bi-fold recipe cards are smaller than the larger full-page kind other meal kits offer, they were still easy to read and I appreciated that they were tucked into the actual kit bag for the corresponding meal — no separate binders or mixing and matching kits to loose cards (something you’ll frequently find in meal kit services).
What I didn’t like about Purple Carrot
Unlike other kits I’ve tried, Purple Carrot’s recipes demand a thorough pre-read. You don’t want to just dive in. Study the ingredient list, because that is where all of the unguided prep steps are written. For example, you will receive a whole russet potato or block of tofu in the kit, but the ingredient list will label it as something like “thinly sliced potatoes” or “diced tofu.” You need to chop herbs and halve tomatoes before you turn on the burner or crank up the oven. Some kits hold your hand through every cooking movement. Don’t expect this one to tell you when to peel and grate the ginger.
One I was excited to try, TBLTs (tofu BLT), required shaving thin strips of tofu and brushing them with a smoky, spicy paste before roasting them into crispy “bacon” strips. Cooking for the minimum suggested time (24 minutes) resulted in burnt tofu. I had leftover tofu and redid the process, cooking it about half as long (14 minutes), with the intended results. I point this out as for people who may not cook often and are not used to watching their ingredients carefully:You too might bungle the fake bacon.
If you’re gluten-free, soy-free, have a nut allergy, or want to focus your eating on narrower dietary preferences like high protein (i.e. keto and other diets focused on macros), high fiber, or low sodium, there are icons on each meal’s online profile to guide you. However, I could not seem to find a way to filter these options, so that I could, say, only view the nut-free meals. For those who might have allergies, I’ll also note that, when I looked at menus for the weeks ahead, one had seven options labeled as nut-free, while the next only had three, which means you may find yourself slightly limited. All of the little dietary icons are light green dots, which doesn’t make visually scanning for your preferences easy, either. But you can label recipes as “favorites,” so you can expect them to automatically show up when they’re offered.
Finally, this isn’t unique to Purple Carrot—it’s an issue across almost any meal kit delivery service you might order—but there’s a lot of plastic in each box. Most of the containers inside the bags (tiny bottles, tetrapaks, or clamshell cartons) were recyclable in my municipality. But if part of the reason you’re interested in vegan meals has to do with sustainability, your eco-consciousness might bristle at the number of wrappers you have to toss out.
Does Purple Carrot offer any extras?
In addition to meal kits, Purple Carrot also offers add-ons, including premade heat-and-eat meals like burritos, pastas, or rice bowls for $13 per serving, as well as sides like soup and vegetables, and breakfast kits like overnight oats or chia pudding for as little $4.50 per serving. There’s also a “grocery” section for items like vegan cheese and salami, breakfast cereals and coffee beans. It won’t fully replace your grocery store, but it does give some options for fully vegan swaps your local supermarket might lack.
If you’re newer to plant-based eating, you might be interested in Purple Carrot’s Jumpstart Program, a full-day meal plan which sends you 12 ready-to-eat meals per week for four weeks ($130 per week), including breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Purple Carrot’s website describes it as a way to “help you refresh your eating habits and kickstart your plant-based journey.”
Should you order Purple carrot?
I don’t usually adhere to a vegan diet (though I have intermittently in the past), so I won’t pretend to speak for potential Purple Carrot subscribers who already eat vegan. However, after several weeks, I think Purple Carrot is absolutely worth the price for the sheer variety and thoughtfulness put into each recipe. Not once did I wish I was eating something more substantial or feel like I was grinning and bearing it through some kind of knockoff entrée. But lest you read that as a cynical meat-eater’s take, let me say that my experience with Purple Carrot was easily one of the better meal kits I’ve tried, vegan or not. If you’re a little absent-minded in the kitchen, you may want to opt for a more guided cooking experience. But if you’re looking to cook up interesting and entertaining meals that don’t happen to contain meat or dairy, Purple Carrot’s vegan recipes should keep you satisfied.