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Best Overall
Purple Carrot Meal Kit
Best for Families
Green Chef Meal Kit
Healthiest Meal Kit
Thistle Meal Kit
Best for the Basic Vegan
Hungryroot Meal Kit
Vegan-specific meal kit services are a modern miracle for vegans, who usually aren’t afforded the same conveniences as meat eaters or those without dietary restrictions. We at WIRED love meal kits, because they’re all about modern convenience—you can eat what you want, even if you’re on a specialty diet or have strong food preferences, without ever leaving your house. Gone are the days of grocery shopping and scouring online for recipes; these contemporary vegan meal kit services do the heavy lifting for you using curated menus and algorithms, with choices for both premade microwavable meals and kits where you do the cooking yourself.
Some vegan meal kit services, like Hungryroot, use AI customization to curate menus based on your specific tastes. Others, like Daily Harvest, have a set selection of choices so you can always keep your freezer stocked with vegan, gluten-free meals to have on hand. I’m vegan myself, so I know how difficult it can be to find new recipes that will actually taste good without breaking the bank. Plus, meal kits are a great way to try out new foods and recipes. I was pleasantly surprised to find that there are actually a plethora of meal kit services for vegans; my personal favorite was Purple Carrot, with Thistle being my favorite healthy choice. Four of the meal kit brands I tested offer only vegan choices, with the rest offering a full range with multiple vegan options.
Be sure to check out our investigation into whether Meal Kits Are Cheaper Than Groceries in 2025 and our related guides, like The Best Meal Kit Delivery Services, The Best Food Gifts You Can Buy Online, and The Best Delivery Chocolate Boxes.
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Best Overall
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Photograph: Molly Higgins
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Photograph: Molly Higgins
WIRED TIRED Adventurous, tasty recipes. Has both meal kits and ready-to-eat premade meals. Varied choices. Recipes can be involved and time-consuming. Not great for beginners. Purple Carrot (8/10, WIRED recommends) uses inventive plant-based ingredients from various cuisines from around the world, offering premade meals and fresh meal kits. This kit isn’t the best for beginners—the meal prep time was often around an hour and required sometimes-involved preparation and active cooking, but I liked the super-varied and always tasty choices. During my week of testing, the standouts were both meal kits that you needed to prepare—a delicious Mediterranean rice salad with roasted vegetables and stuffed grape leaves, and butternut dumplings with hazelnuts and sesame butter. I also made family-friendly tofu sloppy joes on pretzel buns with hand-cut fries that were solid and tasty, though not earth-shattering. For frozen meals, I had a yummy Middle Eastern-inspired cauliflower shakshuka and an average artichoke and mushroom ravioli that lacked flavor depth. I love cooking, so I liked the adventurous, inventive recipes. Although if you’re a picky eater, or don’t want to spend a lot of time in the kitchen, this may not be the service for you.
Is the brand completely vegan? Yes.
Availability: Lower 48 states.
Plan details: Fresh meal kits, ready-to-eat meals, or Jumpstart Program (preselected meals). Meal kits have two- or four-person plans with three or four meals per week. After signup, you answer questions about your cooking and flavor preferences and Purple Carrot comes up with a suggested menu. Purple Carrot auto-populates the next seven weeks of orders, and you can alter the menu from 16 available meals up to a week before shipment. Each meal has an icon next to it, noting things like less prep work, high-protein, low-calorie, gluten- or soy-free. But there’s no way to filter these things, so make sure you’re paying attention to those tiny green icons. Depending on shipping location, you’ll get your weekly delivery on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday.
Cost: At the time of writing, meal kit plans start at $11 per serving for four servings and $13 for two servings (so, two servings four times a week is $106 before any discount). Ready-to-eat starts at $13, is a single serving, and is six, eight, or 10 meals per week. The Jumpstart Program is a full meal plan with 12 ready-to-eat meals per week for four weeks at $130 per week. Shipping is $10, free if the order is over $100. Purple Carrot often runs 40 percent–off discounts for the first week.
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Best for Families
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Photograph: Matthew Korfhage
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Photograph: Matthew Korfhage
WIRED TIRED Basic meals that would work for most people and families, not just “crunchy” vegans. Servings up to six people. Vegan options tend to be mostly stir-fries. Sometimes long prep times. My meat-eating colleague Matthew Korfhage was impressed with Green Chef’s gluten-free fare (8/10, WIRED recommends). Unlike more adventurous and healthy vegan meal kits like Sakara or Thistle, Green Chef has vegan choices that are more basic and family-friendly. During my week of testing, there were half a dozen vegan choices from that week’s menu (it seems that there are usually five vegan choices per week; for vegetarians, there are several more—most meal kits tend to rely heavily on butter). You’ll first choose a vegan plan and preferred meals, and the next weeks’ meal plans will match your criteria and preferences. The meal kits I had relied heavily on simple, Asian-inspired stir-fries with tofu, veggies, and rice; this included sriracha-tamari tofu bowls and sesame tofu with sriracha peanut sauce (I can no longer find this dish on the company’s website). The standout was a risotto with squash, vegan pesto, and Parmesan—I’d be impressed to have a vegan dish as delicious in a restaurant. It took over an hour to make, but it may have been one of the best vegan dupe meals I’ve ever had.
Is the brand completely vegan? No, you’ll have to look for the “vegan” tag on the menu choices. There are usually around five vegan options per weekly menu.
Availability: Delivers to the lower 48 states (minus some parts of Louisiana).
Plan Details: Servings for two, four, or six people, at either three or four meals per week. Delivery is once a week, and you can choose which day it’s delivered (settings can be changed five days in advance).
Cost: At the time of writing, meals are $12 (and unlike others, cost doesn’t change depending on quantity), and shipping is $11. Like other meal kit brands, Green Chef offers heavy discount promotions for first-time buyers, like 50 percent off the first week and free shipping.
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Healthiest Meal Kit
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Photograph: Molly Higgins
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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.
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Best for the Basic Vegan
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Photograph: Molly Higgins
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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.
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Best Frozen Meals
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Photograph: Daily Harvest
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Photograph: Molly Higgins
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Photograph: Molly Higgins
WIRED TIRED Ideal for solo eaters. Easy to no prep. Gluten-free. You can choose all your own meals à la carte. Mushy texture. Can be bland. Some meals require a blender or food processor. Limited selection. Daily Harvest (6/10, WIRED recommends) is a gluten- and dairy-free, plant-based, premade frozen meal delivery service. The meals consist of smoothie blends and oatmeal for breakfasts, plus soups, harvest bowls, grains, and pastas for the rest. The meals are mostly low-calorie and high protein, and just require heating in a microwave or on the stove, with some things like soups and smoothies requiring a blender or food processor. Unlike most plans I’ve tested, which change weekly and have a curated menu, Daily Harvest lets you choose your meals à la carte, and its whole selection is available online (including prices). A restaurant-quality chickpea and coconut curry harvest bowl was a standout; a black bean and vegan cheeze bowl was bland, one-note mush. Oftentimes the flavors were a bit dull for me, and I grew tired of the mushy consistency. However, if you’re a solo vegan who wants to do minimal cooking, or just use the frozen grains as bases for a more lively meal, this is a solid option.
Completely vegan? Yes (and gluten-free).
Availability: Lower 48 states.
Plan Details: It’s à la carte and you can choose whatever you want, you just need to meet the $50 minimum amount to order. The menu changes out items periodically but doesn’t offer a curated, rotating menu like many others I tested. Daily Harvest also has dietitian-curated bundles, like a Mediterranean Diet–inspired collection, a protein smoothie bundle, meals that support GLP-1 diets, and meals that align with the Whole30 diet.
Cost: At the time of writing, servings start at $8 for a breakfast bowl and go up to $11 for most everything else, like harvest bowls and pasta. (Everything is a single serving). You need a $50 minimum to order and shipping is $10.
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Best Meal Kit for Supplementation
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Photograph: Molly Higgins
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Photograph: Molly Higgins
WIRED TIRED Short prep times. Meals that appeal to most people. Grocery options. Mostly paper, without tons of plastic packaging. Limited options for vegans weekly. Produce arrived on the decline and was not always organic. Besides Purple Carrot, Sunbasket was my favorite of the vegan meal kits I tested. Sunbasket has both premade, heat-’n’-eat meals and meal kits that you need to prepare, along with marketplace items you could buy from the grocery store, like fish and bread. Most weeks there are only two to three vegan dinner options, so this isn’t going to be a meal plan that vegans can eat all week, but it’s a super tasty and quick way to supplement meals. If Sunbasket had more vegan choices, I’d be subscribing weekly. During my week of testing, everything I had was delicious and took about half an hour to prepare. (Unlike the meal kit norm, meals that promised to take 20 minutes stayed within that range.) A fresh black bean and quinoa Buddha bowl was topped with seared zucchini, bell pepper, and caramelized onion for a warm umami flavor, and fresh avocado for creaminess; a cold udon noodle salad with gingered tofu and pickled vegetables had the right balance of crunch and acidity (I still dream about this dish); and a quick pre-prepped chop suey with shishito peppers, carrots, and mushroom was a solid stir-fry.
Is the brand completely vegan? No. You’ll need to use the vegan filter for dinners, and look for the vegan tag on all other meals and food items.
Availability: Ships to most zip codes in the US, except Alaska, Hawaii, Montana, North Dakota, and parts of New Mexico (and not all delivery days are available in all areas).
Plan details: Servings are two to four, or one if it’s a premade meal, with three, four, or five meals per week. You can filter options for vegans on the menu page, but for some reason, it only filters the rotating weekly dinner options. You’ll have to sift through the breakfast and snack options and look for the vegan tag. Depending on your zip code, most can choose delivery any day Sunday through Thursday, but delivery is only once a week.
Cost: At the time of writing, meals start at $10 per serving, with free delivery on your first order (after that, delivery is $10). Prices go up to $30 for the premium “Chef’s Table” meals, with the majority of vegan meals hovering at about $12 to $15. Unlike a lot of meal delivery services, Sunbasket’s prices don’t change depending on servings, and there’s a $45 order minimum. Like many brands, Sunbasket offers heavy discounts, like $90 off spread across your first four orders. You’ll need to make changes or cancel at least a week before the next billing period.
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Also Tried
Courtesy of Sakara Life
Sakara Life (starts at $141 per week; up to $465 for specialty programs): This vegan, gluten-free meal kit reminds me of what most people think when they think of “crunchy” vegan food—raw vegetables with an earthy taste. Nearly all meals in Sakara’s lineup are uncooked and preprepared—items like veggie burgers are without buns, lasagnas are “deconstructed.” For example, a “Lavender Quesadilla” has broccoli pesto and cashew “cheese” with hibiscus salsa … you get the idea. The menu is curated each week, and meals come in single servings. Sakara also has health supplements (which can be scientifically dubious), like a metabolism booster and fulvic acid cell reset. Sakara’s signature nutrition program meal plan is designed to replace all meals and delivers twice weekly. If you buy one week of five days, three meals a day, it’s $465 per week; weekly subscriptions of five days, three meals a day, is $395 per week; prices go down to $141 per week with a 12-week subscription for three days at two meals per day. There’s also a “Level II: Detox” program, starting at $465 per week. This meal kit seems fit for Gwyneth Paltrow or WAGs (wife or girlfriend of professional athletes) everywhere, but it wasn’t the right fit for my budget and taste preferences.
Eat Clean ($9 to $13 per meal): This vegan meal delivery service would be best for someone who loves the taste and convenience of TV dinners. Eat Clean has a dozen plant-based heat-’n’-eat meals available, with availability to order six to 20 meals per week, ranging from six meals for $13 each to 20 meals at $9 each. Each meal comes in a plastic container and needs to be microwaved or heated for around three minutes. Many of the meals have very similar flavors—the tomato sauce base for the chili, spaghetti, and lasagna all tasted the same. The meals with sides often felt random: zucchini with mac and cheese and nuggets; a cornbread on the side of chili that tasted exactly like a cinnamon coffee cake (the flavors didn’t go well together on that one). Like TV dinners, flavors were often one-note, and I opted to air fry or oven-bake things to enhance mushy textures. This wasn’t my favorite, but if you have the palate of a child and/or want a vegan meal in less than five minutes, it’s worth checking out.
Are Meal Kit Services Worth It?
The answer really depends on what you value, whether that’s time, convenience, cost, or something else altogether, like finding new recipes or eating healthier. For me as a vegan, I find it a bit harder to find new recipes or where I can find the ingredients needed when I do find them. The cheaper meal kit service plans hover around $13 per serving, with more expensive plans like Sakara at $400 for a full week of meals. For the cheaper meal plans like Green Chef at $12 with generous portions, the meal prices seem comparable to the cost of buying vegan (often organic) groceries. WIRED reviewer Matthew Korfhage did a deep dive to find out: Are Meal Kits Cheaper Than Groceries in 2025? and the results surprised me.
I ate and prepared at least three days’ worth of meals or four meals minimum from each brand over the course of a week. If the brand had both frozen, microwavable meals and meal kits that needed to be prepared, I tested both. When I could, I let the brand curate the meals for me, going with what the algorithm chose rather than personal taste to get an unbiased look at the choices offered.
For meal kits, I prepared them as indicated in the directions and didn’t add any extra food items or seasoning, so I could taste them exactly as they were meant to be.
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