16 Best Plant-Based Meal Delivery Services | The Beet

When it comes time to embark on a vegan or plant-based approach to eating, the easiest and most helpful thing any modern urban eater can do is click to buy. As in, get food delivered! Thankfully, there are several meal delivery options out there that are a perfect transition from eating “regular” food to eating plant-based food that makes it easier, simpler, and a lot more fun to switch over. When I decided to go plant-based, I needed some help as to what I could eat, so I started "dialing for dinner."

I tried out every delivery option for someone who wanted to eat vegan or plant-based, and here is what we found out. Like most things, if you throw money at the problem (not private-chef money but still some pretty big dollars per day, like $80 or so) you could have amazingly fresh, beautiful, delicious meals in a snap. Still, there are much cheaper ones that are truly great.

Here are our reviews of 16 vegan or plant-based delivery services — from the cheap and cheerful to the luxury options.

Here's the criteria we're looking for in a plant-based meal delivery service.

Clean ingredients
Cost-effectiveness
Packaging and waste
Taste & Portion Size
Options available

The 16 Best Plant-Based Meal Delivery Services

1. Sakara

Shipping Area: Nationwide

Popular meals: The salad greens. The salads were some of the tastiest and most enjoyable parts of every meal I ate. I’m not a big salad lover but these all tasted amazing. Promise.

Cost: $349 and up

To Order: https://www.sakara.com/

The first delivery service I tried was Sakara. This is the chicest and most pricey of the options, but it looks so aspirational and the brand is so fashion-forward I decided to treat myself. After all, this was the time I was investing in my health so why not go to the one that seems like the biggest luxury first?

In fact, its ingredients were so crisp you would swear they came from the farm in the last 24 hours. But eventually, the cost wore on me and while I wanted to keep going, I couldn't justify the price, especially since I was not eating all the food and a lot of it went bad in my fridge, even though I was sharing it with my husband. (I was unable to bring lunch to work back in those days since our co-working space would not allow it, and we were going out most nights, so this was not a great use of my dollars after the first week.)

Beautifully curated, packaged, and artfully created, Sakara Life reflects the chic aura of its co-founders, who want you to not just clean up the way you’re eating, but your entire life. When you start the Sakara Life, you burn a piece of aromatic Palo Santo Incense, to ritualize the change from your old way of life to the new way of life.

2. Plantable

Shipping Area: Nationwide (except for Hawaii)

Cost: You can choose the Reboot four-week program, which delivers12 meals each week for $175 per week, or their shorter Quickstart plan, a one-week reset of 12 meals for $225

Since the corona crisis, Plantable has been offering new customers the opportunity to order from their À La Carte Menu, without the coaching, for a lower price of $162.50 for 12 meals, or about $13.54 per meal.

Popular meals: Rotating menu; Thai Coconut Red Curry, Zia Linga Sugo, Magic Mac "Un" Cheese, and Hippie Brunch Burrito

To Order: https://plantable.com/

Plantable’s approach is unique in that its meal delivery centers on a program designed to reboot your relationship with food, create healthier habits, and help you experience positive, long-term transformation. Ambitious, but what would you expect from a female founder, Nadja Pinnavaia, who is also a Quantum Chemist and former Managing Director of Goldman Sachs?

Plantable offers personal coaching with professionals who can help guide you through the on-ramp of committing to plant-based eating. Pinnavaia has chosen a path of trying to help people be healthier through the food they eat. She wants to give people the sense that they have control over their food, and their health and can choose to love a delicious, plant-based diet.

Plantable offers two routes: There’s the "Quickstart" option that gives you one week to reset your eating, and then there’s the "Reboot" option (their signature program) that lasts four weeks and helps solidify these new behaviors. Whichever you choose, you’ll also get connected with a personal eating and lifestyle coach who’s there for you 24/7 if you have any questions. Delivered frozen (but without added preservatives), Plantable’s vegan meals don’t have any added sugar, use whole grains, and are high in fiber. Once you finish up one of their programs, you’ll get access to purchase their ongoing subscription or their a la carte boxes.

3. Purple Carrot

Shipping Area: Nationwide

Cost: Your first week comes at a discount, starting at $59.50

Popular meals: Rotating menu; Hoisin Tofu Steaks, Tropical Avocado Cakes, Southwest Cheesy Mac

To Order: https://www.purplecarrot.com/

If you love to cook, this is the plan for you – or opt for Purple Carrot's prepared meals. When the box comes you get to sort your ingredients and line up which meals to cook first, which is fun, like being a chef in your own personal restaurant, where someone has done the shopping, sorting, and measuring for you. Then dive in. About 45 minutes later dinner is on the table.

I would highly recommend Purple Carrot to anyone who wants to be healthy and enjoys cooking or wants to learn a few tricks about unlikely pairings and interesting sauces. The process of pulling each meal together is joyful when you aren’t starving and impatient or you don’t feel like cooking. The food is fresh, delicious, and creative. It's just a whole lot of work.

4. Hello Fresh

Shipping Area: Nationwide

Cost: Your first week comes at a discount, starting at $35.92

Popular meals: Rotating menu; Sun-dried Tomato Spaghetti, Salsa Verde Enchiladas, Gnocchi With Spinach and Tomatoes

To Order: https://www.hellofresh.com/

I was planning to order Hello Fresh because I realize it's one of the most well-known and popular meal delivery services. Unfortunately, the site only has a vegetarian option plan, not vegan. Though they announced they were adding Beyond Meat to the menus due to popular demand, most of the vegetarian options still include some cheese, sauce, or other non-vegan elements, so if you are planning to "customize" these meals you may be disappointed since the packaging doesn't make it easy to do. For this reason, we are not reviewing Hello Fresh in this roundup. If they make changes to their plan we will update it here.

5. Sun Basket

Shipping Area: 47 states excluding Alaska, Hawaii, and Montana

Cost: Meals start at $9.99 per serving

Popular meals: Rotating menu; Black-eyed Pea Fritters, Rainbow Quinoa, Smokey Tempeh Nachos

To Order: https://sunbasket.com/

I never want to be overly harsh, because what's the point of reviewing something in a recommendation roundup and giving it a negative review? That said, I netted out that services like Sun Basket don't cater to the vegan or plant-based population, and their offerings in that department are pretty uninspired.

The bags arrive with the ingredients separated but none of it looks appetizing and the meals I did make were uninteresting. I'm not a big fan of seitan or jackfruit, so perhaps my own lack of enthusiasm for those proteins slightly tempered my view. I did eat the raw ingredients like the avocado and other fresh veggies, but ultimately I was disappointed with the way these meals were presented.

6. Veestro

Shipping Area: Continental U.S. (no Alaska or Hawaii)

Cost: You can get 10 meals for $11.70 per meal, 20 meals for $10.80 per meal, or 30 meals for $9.90 per meal

Most Popular meals: Enchilada Casserole, Red Curry with Tofu, and Breakfast Burrito

To Order: https://www.veestro.com/

Offering only vegan meals, Veestro earned VegNews’ 2018 Veggie Award for “Best Meal Delivery” of the year. It was also named the “best meal delivery for vegetarians and vegans” in 2020 by CNET.com. Veestro’s fuss-free meals are fully prepared, so all you have to do is heat them up with an oven, microwave, or skillet.

Founded by a brother and sister, Monica Klausner and Mark Fachler. They were living in Los Angeles when Mark told Monica that he missed the healthy plant-based cuisine that they knew from their childhood (they are originally from Costa Rica). He started a business based on the fact that it was hard to find healthy plant-based food to make quickly after a long day at the office. Veestro was born on the belief that healthy plant-based food should not be expensive, boring or hard to get.

There are three plans to choose from: A la carte, chef’s choice, and weight loss. With the á la carte option, to fully customize your box, you can pick your favorites from their entree and breakfast options. With the chef’s choice box, they’ll round up either their customer favorites, high-protein dishes, or gluten-free meals to send you. With the weight-loss option, you’ll get meals that add up to around 1,200 calories a day.

7. Daily Harvest

Shipping Area: Nationwide

Cost: Meals start at $6.99 per cup

Popular meals: A range of flavors of smoothies, harvest bowls, oatmeals, ice cream, lattes, bites, soups, and more

To Order: https://get.daily-harvest.com/

Daily Harvest, founded by Rachel Drori, was designed to make it even easier to eat healthy, fresh, organic fruits and vegetables daily. Hardly anyone in the US routinely gets their five servings of fruits and veggies a day, and Daily Harvest makes it doable and delicious, with no trips to the farmer's market or supermarket needed. The plan options allow you to pick your frequency, and when you order 12 cups or bowls, you can get the cost down to $7.99 a serving. They recently added soups, and now offer healthy bowl options, along with the original smoothies, so suddenly DH is punching above its weight, going head-to-head with meal delivery services.

Everyone wants to feel they are adding their own personalized touch to making dinner, baking a cake, or taking control of their health with meals that are carefully and artfully created. Now we have the fun of making a smoothie, soup, or bowl, but the ingredients are there for you so you know you'll have something healthy to eat at home.

The customization allows you to choose Low Carb, High Protein, Vegan, Gluten-Free, and other filters. The choices narrow quickly depending on what you choose, but the fact is you can be sure you're getting the best ingredients that are in season, no matter what you choose. While the bowls, smoothies, and soups were incredibly fresh and delicious, ultimately, I felt like Daily Harvest didn't provide a high enough volume of food to sustain me throughout the whole day. But it's a nice snack, smoothie, or soup to have around when you need something to tie you over till your next real meal. Ultimately it was fun to blend up the smoothies and made eating healthy a joyful experience.

8. Mosaic Foods

Shipping Area: This company is expanding so fast that it now delivers within a day's drive of most major cities, but to be sure of whether they can deliver to you, simply put in your zip code and they'll let you know (or update you when they come to your neck of the woods). Curious to check out their NYC pop-up? Head over to 607 Vanderbilt Ave in Brooklyn.

Cost: Bowls start at $9 each

Popular meals: Green Jackfruit Bowl, Ginger Sesame Noodles, and Peanut Tofu Bowl

To Order: https://www.mosaicfoods.com/

Mosaic is here to show that frozen food doesn’t deserve its bad reputation. Instead, it can have a positive impact by reducing food waste and expanding access to nutrient-rich food. Their plant-forward, protein-packed meals are divided between noodle bowls, risottos, and veggie bowls — all can be microwaved in five minutes or less.

Choose from their vegan or vegetarian menu items to customize your eight-meal box and then decide if you want to get deliveries every week, every two weeks, or every four weeks. While many of their menu items are vegan, not at all are, but those are clearly marked on their website and they take care to package non-vegan items (like cheese) separately.

Focused on changing the food system for the better, Mosaic partners with the non-profit City Harvest to distribute nutritious food to New Yorkers in need.

9. Sprinly

Shipping Area: Delaware, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Washington D.C., Northern Virginia, Nashville, Buffalo, and the Greater Chicago Area

Cost: You can choose to get 6 meals for $109 per week, or12 meals for $199 per week, or 18 meals for $289 per week

Popular meals: Rotating menu; Zucchini pasta with plantballs and cashew “parm”, spicy chana masala with sweet potatoes over brown rice, and smoky bun-less beet burger with cilantro lime dressing

To Order: https://www.sprinly.com/

Sprinly delivers 100 percent vegan meals that are gluten-free as well as free of refined sugar. Their menu changes every week, so there are constantly interesting new dishes to try—all of which are nutritionist-approved. Any dish you choose will be fresh, fully prepared, and ready to eat in three minutes or less.

When signing up for Sprinly, you have to decide whether you want 6, 12, or 18 meals a week, but like with other plans on this list, you can conveniently skip or cancel weeks at any time without a fee. As an extra plus, Sprinly chooses to give back to the community by donating to Wholesome Wave, an organization committing to increasing access to fruits and vegetables for those struggling with hunger.

10. Thistle

Shipping Area: California + parts of Arizona, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Washington

Popular meals: Rotating menu

Cost: Starts at $11.50 per meal or $42 per week

To Order: https://www.thistle.co/

Thistle works like a subscription plan where you get fresh, ready-to-eat meals delivered at a set time each week. Don’t worry about getting locked in, because you can change your plan whenever you like. The Thistle chefs come up with a new menu of gourmet, nutrient-packed dishes every week that are free of dairy, gluten, refined white sugars, artificial preservatives, artificial additives, and artificial dyes.

Not all of Thistle’s subscriptions are vegan or plant-based though, so make sure you choose one of their 100% plant-based selections. Along with breakfast, lunch, and dinner meals, they also offer juices, snacks, and wellness shots to those who live in their local delivery zone. As part of their commitment to sustainable sourcing, Thistle donates the by-product of their food to local farmers for composting.

11. Green Chef

Shipping Area: Almost everywhere in the continental U.S. (except Alaska, Hawaii, and parts of Louisiana)

Popular meals: Rotating menu

Cost: Starts at $9.99 per meal

To Order: https://greenchef.com/

Green Chef has different plans to suit different diets, and one of them is their plant-powered menu that’s geared towards vegetarians and vegans. Each week, they put out a new menu, and you can decide if you want your meal deliveries every week, bi-weekly, or monthly. Unlike many of their competitors, Green Chef brings you into the cooking process by providing easy-to-follow recipes and the necessary prepped, pre-measured ingredients, so you get to don your chef hat and whip up a tasty meal in about 30 minutes. Don’t worry if you’re not a pro in the kitchen—their step-by-step instructions and color-coded system make cooking easy. Except for certain cases when food safety is a concern, Green Chef uses recyclable, reusable, and/or compostable material for its packaging.

12. Fresh n’ Lean

Shipping Area: Nationwide

Popular meals: Rotating menu

Cost: Starts at $9.33 per meal

To Order: https://www.freshnlean.com/

There’s no cooking necessary with Fresh n’ Lean’s ready-to-eat meals, and vegans have two menus to choose from: their standard plant-based menu and their low-carb plant-based menu. The difference is that the low-carb, plant-based meal program leaves out grains for one of the meals per day.

Depending on how often you want their food, you can subscribe to a weekly meal plan that gets delivered fresh every Friday or you can place one-time orders from their a la carte menu. Since Fresh n’ Lean promotes using seasonal ingredients and wants to keep their offerings exciting, each week presents a new menu of dishes. Concerned about environmentally friendly packaging? Fresh n’ Lean’s packaging is all recyclable and BPA-free.

13. Thrive Foods Direct

Shipping Area: Continental U.S. (no Alaska or Hawaii)

Popular meals: Rotating meals

Cost: From one entree starts at $14.99 per day to Thrive Plus plan (three meals plus a supplement serving)/$34.99 per day

To Order: https://www.thrivefoodsdirect.com/

Thrive Foods Direct began as an offshoot of the Thrive book series by Brendan Brazier, an endurance athlete and proponent of a vegan diet. After so many people responded well to the nutritional principles in his books, Brazier was inspired to start a meal delivery service made up of nutrient-dense, plant-based meals that followed the same fundamentals.

Thrive Foods Direct has a few plans, including one entree per day plan and the Thrive Plus plan (three meals per day plus a supplement serving), which is targeted at those doing above average physical activity. The type of meals you get are randomly selected from their rotating menu, but they’re centered on the key components of antioxidants, electrolytes, alkaline-forming, essential fats, phytochemicals, calcium, and iron.

14. MamaSezz

Shipping Area: Nationwide

Popular meals: Lazy Lasagna, Millie’s Chili, and Gardener’s Pie

Cost: A la carte dishes range from $4 to $6 per serving, and various bundles of 24 meals in different customized menu options are priced at $169 or about $7 per meal.

To Order: https://www.mamasezz.com/

MamaSezz meals aren't just vegan; they’re also free of gluten, wheat, oil, refined sugar, preservatives, peanuts, and sesame. The way it works is you place your order online for one of their meal bundles or from their a la carte menu before Sunday 8 pm ET and then you��ll receive your fresh, fully prepared meals by delivery on the following Thursday or Friday.

After that, it’s just a matter of heating and eating! If you’d like, you can also subscribe to automatic deliveries for bundles every week, every other week, every three weeks, or every month. MamaSezz also has a program where they provide a shipping label so you can return your packaging materials to them to recycle.

15. Vegin’ Out

Shipping Area: Continental U.S. (no Alaska or Hawaii)

Popular meals: Rotating menu

Cost: Starting from $127.99 per week (three entrees, four side dishes, one large soup, and one bag of cookies)

To Order: https://www.veginout.com/

Vegin’ Out’s meals are all vegan, but they still offer a range of unique plans to their customers. For example, outside of their standard delivery plans, there’s also a diabetic-friendly blood sugar control meal plan, low carb plan, and five-day soup and juice cleanse. You have the choice of throwing on some extras like side dishes, cookies, and salad dressings to further spice up your meals, too.

The menu changes from week to week, so the type of meals you’ll get will vary but most are designed to be mix-and-match bundles with different entrees and sides. For your convenience, all of Vegin’ Out’s meals are prepped and cooked, so when you get them, you just have to heat them up.

16. VegReady

Shipping Area: Continental U.S. (no Alaska or Hawaii)

Popular meals: Amazonian Rainforest Meal Case and Coastal Verde Meal Case

Cost: $60 per month

To Order: https://vegready.com/

With VegReady, it’s also a game of mix and match as you’ll receive a case of 24 vegan dishes, including mains, sides, and sauces, that you can combine together for a total of eight complete meals. The most distinguishing characteristic of VegReady’s meals is that they don’t require refrigeration, making them great to keep on hand at a weekend retreat or while road trippin' or camping.

The company uses an all-natural food preservation process (no chemicals!) so their meals stay fresh for up to a year without being popped in the fridge or freezer. VegReady is currently only offering one-time purchases but has plans to bring back monthly subscriptions in the future.

For great ideas of what to eat when you're in the mood to cook, check out The Beet's recipe library that has over 1,000 easy-to-make delicious recipe options, many that cost under $1 a serving.

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