Latest news with #PurpleCarrot
Eater
7 days ago
- Business
- Eater
Review: I Tried (and Loved) Purple Carrot's Plant-Based Meal Kits
At their best, delivery meal kits have led me to some relaxing Blue Apron-sponsored ASMR videos; at their worst, the very mention of a meal kit stirs up memories of my late great-grandmother's dreary Meals on Wheels microwaveables. Sometime in the 2010s, however, meal kit delivery subscriptions went through a renaissance in the United States, and today the several-billion-dollar industry boasts options for all kinds of diets, household sizes, and, dare I say, aesthetics (Goop lords = Sakara subscriptions ahoy). As a passionate but often exhausted home cook who loves her cruciferous-vegetable-heavy meals, that's why I wanted to give Purple Carrot's plant-based meal kit subscription a try. I signed up for about a work-week's worth of dinner kits, which, for me, meant four meals, each with one or two servings. My hopes and dreams were as follows: Please include plenty of vegetables that don't suck; please don't take more than an hour to cook; and please don't include an abundance of pre-made, sugar-filled sauces and salad dressings that Jacques Pepin would classify as dessert. The following is a breakdown of my week eating à la Purple Carrot, from the good to the confusing to the downright surprising. What is Purple Carrot? Isn't it vegan or whatever? Embarrassingly, it took me a moment to realize that Purple Carrot is a plant-based meal kit service. The main draw for me was simply that the platform's meals, which range from ready-to-eat microwaveables to more elaborate tofu shawarma bowl meal kits, looked tasty regardless of dietary needs. (Now, post-trial-period, I'm actually convinced that even my meat-loving family members would be satisfied with this hearty, elote-style creamed corn as a main.) Purple Carrot first popped off in 2014, which doesn't seem that long ago, but was the same year that Lana Del Rey's Ultraviolence came out and Solange kicked Jay-Z in that elevator (were we ever so young?). Purple Carrot was actually the first vegan meal kit subscription service in the United States, and it has been perfecting its model for over a decade and has partnered with the likes of Mark Bittman to develop many of its (now) hundreds of recipes. As Purple Carrot explains, '[we've] expanded from being solely a meal-kit company to offering holistic plant-based grocery needs and a constantly rotating chef-crafted menu to subscribers each week.' Are the meals (actually) tasty? I selected three meal kits, the kung pao cauliflower with garlicky cucumbers, jackfruit gyros with quick pickles and tzatziki, and barbecued mushrooms with crispy potatoes and spicy Brussels sprouts, and one pre-made meal for a night that I knew I would have zero time to cook, a burrito bowl with a handful of plantains. In order to test the idiot-proof nature of these meals, I made my first dinner after coming home from spontaneous drinks with friends. I was tempted to order my dinner on Caviar, but when I glanced at the packet of DIY gyros in my fridge with its 20 minute cooking time label, I thought, I could do this. And I did, in fact, do it in under 20 minutes. Here are the gyros I chose for my first grand Purple Carrot experiment: Purple Carrot meals arrive in a cooler-packed cardboard box, with the different meals in their own individual bags (so you never get confused about what goes with what). I followed the recipe religiously, and while it was layered up with enough tomato and mint and quick pickles to feel refreshing and substantial, I started to realize the cleverness of Purple Carrot's meals as less of a one-and-done approach to meal kits and more of an accessible blueprint to developing your own takes on its recipes. Even the recipe instructions come in individual, thick-paper folders with pictures, tips, and measurements so that you can store them for future use. Next time I make jackfruit gyros, for example, I made a note on the recipe to add in a bit of smoked paprika, avocado, and feta. As you build your meal kit plan online, keep in mind that you can accommodate different dietary needs such as high-protein, low-calorie, low sodium, gluten-free, and nut-free. While I enjoyed the gyros and was impressed by how easy it was to make and customize them, the stars of the meal kit lineup were without a doubt the barbecue mushroom dish and kung pao cauliflower, both of which had sauces worth licking the bowl for, and surprised me by showing me that I can actually enjoy mushrooms, which I had previously semi-sworn off after eating far too many in my 15 years as a vegetarian. The ready-to-eat burrito bowl was a little too quinoa-forward for my taste, and gave me a jumpscare back to the kale-and-quinoa-obsessed years of health food yore, but I zhuzhed it with some avocado, lime, and cilantro. My only gripe with my meal kit plan was the portion size, which was entirely decent for me but always left my partner, a person who actually works out and needs more calories than I do, craving a little more to munch. But I guess that's also why Purple Carrot has its grocery section, which is filled with all kinds of little snacks and drinks. Still, no one likes doing a fair amount of meal prep, easy or laborious, and being hungry after your meal. How much does all of this cost? Is it cheaper than eating out? At about $11 per serving, Purple Carrot is definitely cheaper than eating out, but is probably more expensive than if I were to go out and buy my own ingredients à la carte — of course, that may vary depending on grocery prices in your region. But that isn't factoring in how much the meal kits save me time- and bandwidth-wise; the ingredients I received in my box were all fresh and unbruised, the spice mixes and oils come pre-measured, and everything can be whipped up in under an hour (and often under 30 minutes). It's easy to get excited about eating penne pesto alla trapanese after a long work day, but less easy to hype myself up to schlep to the grocery store on the subway only to return home to stand over a stove for another hour to make it. That's the bandwidth factor, and one that I don't take lightly. (It's worth noting that you can cancel your subscription at any time without penalty, as long as you do so the Tuesday before your next scheduled delivery, meaning that it's easy to accommodate dinner plans or skip a week for whatever reason.) I would also argue that Purple Carrot makes for a much more cost-effective way to dabble in different cuisines without requiring me, for example, to spend $12 on a jar of ras el hanout that I'm just not going to use very often. If anything, Purple Carrot ended up giving me several blueprints for adapting some of its signature meals in the future — but more on that in the next section. Is Purple Carrot worth it? With some caveats, Purple Carrot restored not only my faith in delivery meal kits, but reminded me of why I love plant-based eating so much. I'm not going to go on a crusade about the benefits of eating plant-based meals (plenty of studies and medical centers can do that for me) but I always cleaned the plates of my Purple Carrot dinners feeling satiated and refreshed — lighter than I feel after eating a big plate of meat, for sure (a common sentiment reported by vegetarians). As someone who recently started eating meat again, I have been sobrassada-ing too close to the sun and, admittedly, missing that feeling of feeling satisfied without feeling heavy after eating a large portion of meat As a busy and tired person, I have also hated watching my inventiveness in the kitchen take a backseat to other tasks in my life, a New York City cliché if ever there was one, although I don't yet store my shoes in my oven. Purple Carrot not only kept me fed, but genuinely interested in the flavors and spices I was about to explore. If I had the budget to spend about $100 a week on the service, I would go for it without question. As it stands, I can see myself doing the occasional splurge for a week of Purple Carrot meals during a period that I know I'll be booked and busy. I would also suggest giving a subscription to a friend or family member who just graduated, went vegetarian or vegan, or moved into their first place, because these meal kits really do moonlight as recipe cards designed for personalization. Sign up for Purple Carrot (or just browse its menu) here.
Eater
7 days ago
- Business
- Eater
I Have Found a Surprisingly Great Meal Kit Plan for a Lazy (But Discerning) Person
At their best, delivery meal kits have led me to some relaxing Blue Apron-sponsored ASMR videos; at their worst, the very mention of a meal kit stirs up memories of my late great-grandmother's dreary Meals on Wheels microwaveables. Sometime in the 2010s, however, meal kit delivery subscriptions went through a renaissance in the United States, and today the several-billion-dollar industry boasts options for all kinds of diets, household sizes, and, dare I say, aesthetics (Goop lords = Sakara subscriptions ahoy). As a passionate but often exhausted home cook who loves her cruciferous-vegetable-heavy meals, that's why I wanted to give Purple Carrot's plant-based meal kit subscription a try. I signed up for about a work-week's worth of dinner kits, which, for me, meant four meals, each with one or two servings. My hopes and dreams were as follows: Please include plenty of vegetables that don't suck; please don't take more than an hour to cook; and please don't include an abundance of pre-made, sugar-filled sauces and salad dressings that Jacques Pepin would classify as dessert. The following is a breakdown of my week eating à la Purple Carrot, from the good to the confusing to the downright surprising. What is Purple Carrot? Isn't it vegan or whatever? Embarrassingly, it took me a moment to realize that Purple Carrot is a plant-based meal kit service. The main draw for me was simply that the platform's meals, which range from ready-to-eat microwaveables to more elaborate tofu shawarma bowl meal kits, looked tasty regardless of dietary needs. (Now, post-trial-period, I'm actually convinced that even my meat-loving family members would be satisfied with this hearty, elote-style creamed corn as a main.) Purple Carrot first popped off in 2014, which doesn't seem that long ago, but was the same year that Lana Del Rey's Ultraviolence came out and Solange kicked Jay-Z in that elevator (were we ever so young?). Purple Carrot was actually the first vegan meal kit subscription service in the United States, and it has been perfecting its model for over a decade and has partnered with the likes of Mark Bittman to develop many of its (now) hundreds of recipes. As Purple Carrot explains, '[we've] expanded from being solely a meal-kit company to offering holistic plant-based grocery needs and a constantly rotating chef-crafted menu to subscribers each week.' Are the meals (actually) tasty? I selected three meal kits, the kung pao cauliflower with garlicky cucumbers, jackfruit gyros with quick pickles and tzatziki, and barbecued mushrooms with crispy potatoes and spicy Brussels sprouts, and one pre-made meal for a night that I knew I would have zero time to cook, a burrito bowl with a handful of plantains. In order to test the idiot-proof nature of these meals, I made my first dinner after coming home from spontaneous drinks with friends. I was tempted to order my dinner on Caviar, but when I glanced at the packet of DIY gyros in my fridge with its 20 minute cooking time label, I thought, I could do this . And I did, in fact, do it in under 20 minutes. Here are the gyros I chose for my first grand Purple Carrot experiment: Purple Carrot meals arrive in a cooler-packed cardboard box, with the different meals in their own individual bags (so you never get confused about what goes with what). I followed the recipe religiously, and while it was layered up with enough tomato and mint and quick pickles to feel refreshing and substantial, I started to realize the cleverness of Purple Carrot's meals as less of a one-and-done approach to meal kits and more of an accessible blueprint to developing your own takes on its recipes. Even the recipe instructions come in individual, thick-paper folders with pictures, tips, and measurements so that you can store them for future use. Next time I make jackfruit gyros, for example, I made a note on the recipe to add in a bit of smoked paprika, avocado, and feta. As you build your meal kit plan online, keep in mind that you can accommodate different dietary needs such as high-protein, low-calorie, low sodium, gluten-free, and nut-free. While I enjoyed the gyros and was impressed by how easy it was to make and customize them, the stars of the meal kit lineup were without a doubt the barbecue mushroom dish and kung pao cauliflower, both of which had sauces worth licking the bowl for, and surprised me by showing me that I can actually enjoy mushrooms, which I had previously semi-sworn off after eating far too many in my 15 years as a vegetarian. The ready-to-eat burrito bowl was a little too quinoa-forward for my taste, and gave me a jumpscare back to the kale-and-quinoa-obsessed years of health food yore, but I zhuzhed it with some avocado, lime, and cilantro. My only gripe with my meal kit plan was the portion size, which was entirely decent for me but always left my partner, a person who actually works out and needs more calories than I do, craving a little more to munch. But I guess that's also why Purple Carrot has its grocery section, which is filled with all kinds of little snacks and drinks. Still, no one likes doing a fair amount of meal prep, easy or laborious, and being hungry after your meal. How much does all of this cost? Is it cheaper than eating out? At about $11 per serving, Purple Carrot is definitely cheaper than eating out, but is probably more expensive than if I were to go out and buy my own ingredients à la carte — of course, that may vary depending on grocery prices in your region. But that isn't factoring in how much the meal kits save me time- and bandwidth-wise; the ingredients I received in my box were all fresh and unbruised, the spice mixes and oils come pre-measured, and everything can be whipped up in under an hour (and often under 30 minutes). It's easy to get excited about eating penne pesto alla trapanese after a long work day, but less easy to hype myself up to schlep to the grocery store on the subway only to return home to stand over a stove for another hour to make it. That's the bandwidth factor, and one that I don't take lightly. (It's worth noting that you can cancel your subscription at any time without penalty, as long as you do so the Tuesday before your next scheduled delivery, meaning that it's easy to accommodate dinner plans or skip a week for whatever reason.) I would also argue that Purple Carrot makes for a much more cost-effective way to dabble in different cuisines without requiring me, for example, to spend $12 on a jar of ras el hanout that I'm just not going to use very often. If anything, Purple Carrot ended up giving me several blueprints for adapting some of its signature meals in the future — but more on that in the next section. Is Purple Carrot worth it? With some caveats, Purple Carrot restored not only my faith in delivery meal kits, but reminded me of why I love plant-based eating so much. I'm not going to go on a crusade about the benefits of eating plant-based meals (plenty of studies and medical centers can do that for me) but I always cleaned the plates of my Purple Carrot dinners feeling satiated and refreshed — lighter than I feel after eating a big plate of meat, for sure (a common sentiment reported by vegetarians). As someone who recently started eating meat again, I have been sobrassada-ing too close to the sun and, admittedly, missing that feeling of feeling satisfied without feeling heavy after eating a large portion of meat As a busy and tired person, I have also hated watching my inventiveness in the kitchen take a backseat to other tasks in my life, a New York City cliché if ever there was one, although I don't yet store my shoes in my oven. Purple Carrot not only kept me fed, but genuinely interested in the flavors and spices I was about to explore. If I had the budget to spend about $100 a week on the service, I would go for it without question. As it stands, I can see myself doing the occasional splurge for a week of Purple Carrot meals during a period that I know I'll be booked and busy. I would also suggest giving a subscription to a friend or family member who just graduated, went vegetarian or vegan, or moved into their first place, because these meal kits really do moonlight as recipe cards designed for personalization. Sign up for Purple Carrot (or just browse its menu) here . The freshest news from the food world every day
WIRED
29-05-2025
- Business
- WIRED
The Best Vegan Meal Delivery Services and Kits
Photograph: Molly Higgins Photograph: Molly Higgins WIRED TIRED Fresh produce. Easy to no prep or cook time. Complex flavors. Great textures. Gluten-free. Limited availability in the US. Maybe too adventurous for some. Mostly salads. Thistle (8/10 WIRED recommends) is the best healthy, single-serving (mostly) premade meal kit I tested. With the most laborious meals requiring just a flash in a hot pan to enhance flavor, these refrigerated meals are mostly a mix of gluten-free, fruit-focused breakfasts; inventive, fresh salads; and preprepared bean- and pasta-forward veggie dinners. The Mexican-inspired corn and poblano pepper salad was solid and hearty; the lemongrass shirataki bowl—a cold noodle salad dish—hit all the right elements of savory-spice and varied texture. Thistle's vegan take on cheesecake with tres leches-esque coconut vanilla mousse and tahini caramel was perhaps the best vegan dessert I've ever had. Without a discount, this plan is a bit above my price point, but it remains one of my favorite vegan meal kit services I've tested. Is the brand completely vegan? Yes, with an optional add-on for sustainable meats for certain dinners and lunches at an additional $3 per meal. Availability: East and West Coast cities and Chicago (you can enter your zip code to see if your area is covered). Plan details: Thistle has a new, curated preset menu each week, consisting of three meals, a snack, and a dessert for six days of the week, but you can make edits based on your preferences. Delivery is one or two times per week, depending on your plan. Cost: At the time of writing, breakfasts start at $13, lunches and dinners at $17, and snacks at $8. You must order a minimum of three meals per week. Prices decrease the more you order. Photograph: Molly Higgins Photograph: Molly Higgins WIRED TIRED AI-powered menu curation. Many choices of familiar flavors and foods. Good for people transitioning or new to a vegan diet. Also offers grocery options. Difficult to view meal options before committing. Flavors could be one-note. WIRED reviewer Matthew Korfhage liked Hungryroot's AI tool that micro-customizes menus for dietary restrictions or preferences (7/10, WIRED recommends), which also makes this a great meal kit for vegans. It didn't have the adventurous element of Purple Carrot or the plant-centric freshness of Thistle, but Hungryroot would be great for those with kids who need more tame options, or for people who want familiar choices, like those easing into a plant-based diet. However, with its AI-assisted customization options, you can easily curate it to your tastes. Nearly all the meals I prepared were solid but one-note, needing an extra element to add complexity—acid from a squeeze of lemon, or red chili flakes for heat improved many of these dishes. Throughout my week of testing, meal kits required little prep and only took about half an hour or less to make. They were varied but basic, with a lemongrass tofu and broccoli stir-fry, cauliflower tacos, and American fare like a veggie burger with sweet potato fries and a bunless Beyond burger and guac. Is the brand completely vegan? No, you'll need to use filters and look for icons to find vegan choices, and AI customization curates future meals based on preferences. Availability: Delivers to the lower 48 US states. Plan details: Delivers every day of the week, and you can make changes or skip until Monday or Thursday at 7 pm before your next delivery, depending on your delivery date. The smallest plan is two or three two-serving dinners; after, plans vary depending on how many additional breakfasts, lunches, dinners, snacks, and sweets you choose per week. Cost: At the time of writing, dinners will cost you $13 a serving, lunch costs $12, and breakfast is $5. The number of meals you choose turns into 'points,' where the sum is different for every dish (for example, one dinner plate is 12 points, snacks vary as a couple points apiece). Any remaining points can be used the next week. Like many meal kit plans, the company offers heavy discounts for first-time users, like 30 percent off your first week and a free food item.
CNET
14-05-2025
- Business
- CNET
Don't Pay Full Price For Meal Kits: The Best Meal Delivery Deals in May
I've tested all the meal kits -- many of them three or four times -- and have no shortage of for getting the most out of a subscription. First and foremost is not paying full price to try a service. Meal kits services offer seasonal and sign-up offers that net you dozens of meals at a fraction of the normal price. If you're looking to try healthy, keto or budget-friendly meal delivery or switch to a new meal delivery service, take advantage of the ridiculously low offers they make to get your attention. All of the offers below come with minimal commitment, so you can cancel or pause after the deal runs its course. Blue Apron just launched its biggest sale of the year good for $180 off or 22 free servings. The cheapest dollar-for-dollar meal kit deal in May is EveryPlate. This budget-friendly service already offers some of the most affordable meal subscriptions. New customers will get their first box for around $2 per serving but only for one box of meals. Don't pay full price for meal delivery. CNET Other discounts we found include deals on prepared services including Factor and Daily Harvest, with savings as big as $235 for healthy meal kits, keto meal kits, prepared meals and even meat, seafood and grocery subscriptions. Read more: Here's How Much Meal Kits Cost Versus Buying the Groceries Yourself Best meal delivery deals for May 2025 Purple Carrot For those eating plant-based or looking to add more vegetarian recipes to the weekly menu, Purple Carrot is the one to try. I tried Purple Carrot's meat-free meal kits, and all the recipes I made were a huge hit, earning it a CNET Editors' Choice award. The deal: Save 40% off and get free shipping. Details 40% off plus free shipping See at Purple Carrot Close EveryPlate You won't see a ton of haute cuisine in EveryPlate's weekly menu, but there are plenty of satisfying dinners for the current cold weather. I tried the pork sloppy joes and the chicken and linguine in a tomato cream sauce. All the meals I made were great, easy to prepare and light on the wallet. Read our EveryPlate review. The deal: EveryPlate is already our pick for best meal kits on a budget. EveryPlate's already cheap meal kits are now down to $1.99 a meal when you try them for the first time. Details $1.99 a serving See at EveryPlate Close Good Chop (meat delivery) Good Chop has the chops -- pork, specifically -- along with excellent cuts of beef, organic chicken and a range of seafood options. Good Chop is a subscription meat delivery service with shipments starting at $149 per month for 36 portions of quality meat. For right now, you can try it for much cheaper than that. The deal: Save $120 off your first box of meat. Details Save $120 on your first order See at Good Chop Close Martha and Marley Spoon Martha Stewart collaborated to create this upscale meal kit service, so you can bet the recipes are thoughtful, inventive and tasty. It's one of the higher-end meal kits with a price tag to match, which is why we recommend trying it at a discount and enjoying weeks of premium meal kits on the cheap. The deal: Get $235 off spread across your first five boxes of gourmet meal kits. Details Save $235 on your first five boxes See at Martha & Marley Spoon Close Omaha Steaks Omaha Steaks is one of the original meat delivery services. The sprawling site includes premium storage steaks, chops, chicken, fish and loads more. The service also has a bevy of premade sides, desserts including the famous apple tartlet and even breakfast foods to peruse. The deal: Save 50% sitewide and get 8 free beef burgers, plus free shipping on orders over $169 Details Get 50% off sitewide plus 8 free burgers See at Omaha Steaks Close Daily Harvest (prepared meals) Daily Harvest sells easy-prep vegan meals, including smoothies, grain bowls, flatbreads and soups. It's one of the healthier meal delivery services, and it's affordable, with most meals clocking in under $10 and some, like the pasta and grain bowls, are just $5 a serving. There's also no subscription necessary if you want to give it a quick test run. The deal: Save a cool 15% on your first order over $100 and save 10% on any subscription plan (recurring). Details Save 10% on orders over $100 See at Daily Harvest Close Hungryroot (grocery delivery) Hungryroot is somewhere between meal kits and grocery delivery services. The quirky food subscription sends healthy foods that can be eaten on their own or spun into recipes via the brand's gently suggested meal kits. I loved the service when we tested it recently. The deal: Sign up and get 30% off your first order and a free food gift in each box for life. Details 30% off plus a free gift for life See at Hungryroot Close ButcherBox (meat delivery) ButcherBox is a meat subscription service specializing in Australian grass-fed beef, although you can also have heritage pork, wild salmon and organic chicken sent in your delivery, depending on the subscription you pick. I did the math and ButcherBox's premium meat delivery is cheaper than if you were to buy similar high-end cuts at a grocery store. Read our full ButcherBox review here. The deal: Get free top sirloin steaks, ground beef or chicken breast with every order for a year. Details Free meat for a year See at ButcherBox Close CookUnity (prepared meals) Even if you try CookUnity at the discount price for only a week, you'll be glad you did. My guess is you'll keep the subscription rolling because this service has some of the best meals we've tried. There's also loads of variety and recipes developed by some big-name chefs. Read our CookUnity review. The deal: Get 60% off your first week of meals and 20% off the next three. Details Save 60% on your first week See at CookUnity Close HelloFresh HelloFresh has the most options per week of any meal kit service -- more than 50 on the standard plan -- with lots of substitutions and swaps available. While they can be hit or miss in terms of taste, most are rather tasty, and there's no better service for picky eaters or to accommodate niche diets such as gluten-free, dairy-free and diabetes-friendly. Read our full HelloFresh review here. The deal: Score 10 free servings spread out across seven deliveries. You'll also get a free protein add-on in every box for life. Details Save 50% on your first box See at HelloFresh Close Factor (prepared meals) It doesn't get any easier than Factor's prepared meals: Just heat and eat. Most of Factor's weekly menu options are healthy and low-carb or low-calorie so you can kick this year off on the right foot. Read our full Factor review here. The deal: Save 50% off and get free shipping on your first box. Details 50% off and free shipping See at Factor75 Close Green Chef Green Chef has some of the best healthy meal kits we've tried, using largely organic produce and ethically raised meats. Green Chef is a little more per serving than other meal kits, but you'll taste it in the final dish. Read our full review of Green Chef here. The deal: Save 60% off your first box of healthy meal kits and 20% on the next six deliveries. Details 60% off your first box and 20% off the next six See at Green Chef Close ModifyHealth (prepared meals) Another of our favorite healthy delivery services is ModifyHealth. The company is an excellent option for those with digestive issues and offers dozens of healthy meals for those keeping to a low-FODMAP, gluten-free, low-carb or heart-friendly diet. The meals are ready to go so you can just heat them and eat them right away, prep-free. Options start at just $10 per serving. Read our full review here. The deal: Save 25% off their first order and get free shipping with promo code Thrive25 at checkout. Details Save 25% off your first order and get free shipping See at ModifyHealth Close Gobble Gobble is quite similar to the other services, except that many items come already chopped, peeled, marinated and so on -- which can save you some prep time. The two meals I received, Yankee pot roast and cacio e pepe, were terrific. Dinner prices are normally a flat $12 per serving, so you do pay a bit extra for that convenience. For more, read our Gobble review. The deal: Gobble will send your first six meal kits for $36 total. That's about as cheap as you'll find high-end meal kits anywhere. Details Get six meal kits for $36 See at Gobble Close Dinnerly Dinnerly is one of the cheapest meal delivery services, even without a discount code. The quick and easy Meal kit company sends all the fixings for hearty and healthy meals, and the cheapest plan costs about $6 per serving. Read our full Dinnerly review. The deal: If you take advantage of Dinnerly's most popular discount voucher, you'll get a total of $140 off your first five boxes. Details Up to $140 off across your first five boxes See at Dinnerly Close Wild Alaskan (seafood delivery) Wild Alaskan Company has a lot of what you'd guess they have: quality Alaskan salmon of the wild variety. You can score bundles of fresh fish delivered to your door at a frequency of your choosing and never be without high-quality seafood. The service starts at $145 a month for 12 6-ounce portions, and there is a rotating menu of add-on specials that includes prawns, red king crab, cold-smoked sockeye salmon and more. The deal: Save $25 on your first box. Details Save $25 off your first box See at Wild Alaskan Company Close What are the best meal delivery deals? Make dinner in under 20 minutes with speedy meal kits. David Watsky/CNET If it's the lowest possible cost, EveryPlate, HelloFresh, Purple Carrot and Gobble will send meal kits that are ready to cook, with some clocking in at under $2 per serving. Other popular prepared-meal services such as CookUnity are ready to send premade, ready-to-eat dinners to your doorstep, at per-serving prices that are far cheaper than takeout. What's the best meal delivery service? Cook Unity has some of the best prepared meals of any service we tried. David Watsky/CNET I've tried most of them and they're all solid, with differences to consider depending on your budget, diet, taste and kitchen skill level. You can check out CNET's roundups of the best meal kit delivery services and thebest healthy food delivery services for a more detailed taste. Remember, nearly all of these meal kit companies let you pause or cancel anytime, so the risk and commitment when signing up for a meal kit service is minimal. Whether you're looking for ways to eat healthily, learn to cook new recipes or just make fewer trips to the grocery store this fall, a healthy, versatile and budget-friendly meal delivery deal can help you do it on the cheap. Fresh seafood is an option with most meal kit services. David Watsky/CNET These offers were valid at the time of publication, but they can end at any time and may be restricted by geography and other cookie-based conditions in your browser. If you don't see a deal populate, try in a new window or private browser. In the meantime, if you've already tried one or more of these, tell me which ones and what you liked or didn't like. My advice: Take advantage of one of these offers (making sure to pause or cancel after, unless you want to continue). You can see which service you like best and get super cheap takeout-style meals for weeks at a time. Is it easy to cancel a meal kit service? I restested EveryPlate and it's still my favorite cheap meal kit service. David Watsky/CNET Virtually all of the services we tried allow you to pause or cancel any time just in case you don't love it, so there's almost no risk after the deal is up, but you may have to unsubscribe from their email blasts. Most brands just want you to try out the meals and see if you dig them and those brands are willing to make it very easy (and cheap) to do that. To make things easier, we already tried the top meal kits and meal delivery services so you'll know exactly what to expect and you can pick the best food delivery deal for you and your tastes.
WIRED
08-04-2025
- Lifestyle
- WIRED
Daily Harvest Review: Good Meals for Single Vegans Who Don't Mind Mush
Unlike Thistle or Purple Carrot, which use mostly plastic packaging, the majority of Daily Harvest meals are in more sustainable cardboard bowls and packaging. The exceptions are frozen pastas, which come in freezer-safe plastic bags, and small plastic lids for liquids like smoothies. The meals arrive in a package on ice, and since they're frozen, there's virtually no cutoff date for use, which makes this service convenient, if only just to have a stockpile for lazy days. Daily Harvest isn't like other meal services with strict once-a-week deliveries; you can change your delivery day via app or online to a later date. Although, if there are no available dates for the upcoming week, you'll need to wait until the next week. Once scheduled, you'll get an email confirmation, but you can still modify your choices, schedule, and plan, including skipping deliveries. Because it's an automated meal plan delivery service, you'll automatically be beholden to a weekly plan, which can be adjusted, and you'll see your next five orders online or on the app. Luckily, Daily Harvest doesn't have duration minimums, but if you want to cancel, you'll have to do it the week before your next order cutoff to avoid being charged. I Miss Crunchy Veggies I will say, when you eat Daily Harvest, you can tell it's trying to be healthy. Which is not a bad thing! I'm vegan, after all; I love vegetables! But sometimes I want to feel like I'm eating an actual rich pasta bolognese and not a vegan version Frankensteined with hemp seeds and black lentils. I also didn't realize that I was such a texture person. I will give credit: Daily Harvest is aware that living only on reheated or blended foods can be a challenge, and it does try to add sturdier root veggies or things like legumes or seeds when possible, to provide some textural variance. But at the end of the day, I missed the crunch, bitterness, and just aliveness of greens. Many of the pasta and harvest bowls were a little one-note, and I found myself consistently adding more texture with tortilla chips or crackers, along with heavy dashes of salt, pepper, lemon juice, and sometimes hot sauce for more flavor variety.
