Best Vegan Meal Delivery Services for 2023
Keep your plant-based diet rolling with one of these meatless meal subscriptions.
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What's the best vegan, plant-based meal delivery service?
Want to cut out the meat but not the taste? Mosaic Foods is the best plant-based meal delivery service in 2023 -- and we've tried most of 'em. In fact, Mosaic provided some of the best premade meals of all the services we sampled, plant-based or otherwise. The meal delivery newcomer churns out excellent, healthy lunches and dinners for as cheap as $6 a serving, earning it CNET's Editors' Choice award and my pick for the best vegan meal subscription for your money.
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But Mosaic isn't the only service killing the plant-based meal delivery game, and there are other options available that may be better suited for you, including vegetarian and vegan meal kits that require some cooking. We tasted our way through more than 20 meal delivery services with vegan offerings. These are the best meatless meal subscriptions for your money.
Read more: Best Cheap Meal Delivery Services
Best vegan meal delivery services of 2023
I tried about nine of Mosaic's plant-based prepared meal offerings over the course of a few weeks and there wasn't a true miss in the bunch. Not only is Mosaic Foods my favorite plant-based meal delivery, but it's also one of the cheapest vegan meal subscriptions available with plans starting at $6 a serving. That makes it an easy pick for this top spot on the list.
Mosaic uses global flavors and creative meat substitutes such as jackfruit, tofu and vegan sausages to create satisfying meals (even for this omnivore) that are all tasty and fresh. While everything I had from Mosaic was at least good, some standouts included the bean and vegan jackfruit chili, tomato olive and feta ragout and tangy Thai noodles.
Pros:
Over 50 vegan recipes per week
Most of the food was excellent
Family meals are only $6 a serving
Cons:
Very few low-carb options
The flatbreads were just OK
Pros:
Unique and interesting recipes
Fresh, high-quality ingredients
A great way to learn plant-based cooking
Cons:
On the expensive side
Very few modifications allowed
Best vegetarian meal kits
Purple Carrot
Purple Carrot is the first, and to my knowledge, the only 100% plant-based meal kit service and this vegan food service option takes its recipes seriously too. Purple Carrot's underlying vegan philosophy is not to imitate other foods using plant-based alternatives, but simply to create tasty and nourishing vegan dinners the old-fashioned way, using fresh vegetables, grains, legumes and other whole foods.
Out of all the vegan meal kits I've tried, Purple Carrot's provided me with the best knowledge of and practice for cooking vegan cuisine and its ingredient mainstays like lentils and grains. Purple Carrot also introduced me to some really interesting sauces and condiments great for a vegan diet like cashew cream and other nut-based "dairy" products. n Purple Carrot's recipes but you will find lots of lentils, mushrooms, ancient grains and nutritious produce. I tested a week's worth of Purple Carrot meal kits which you can read about here.
Pros:
Unique and interesting recipes
Fresh, high-quality ingredients
A great way to learn plant-based cooking
Cons:
On the expensive side
Very few modifications allowed
Best vegetarian meal kits for families
HelloFresh
Pound for pound, HelloFresh has the most vegan meals that will appeal to larger groups -- in my opinion. Because HelloFresh isn't confined by vegan rules, you'll find plenty of plant-based "cheat meals" like cheesy bean enchiladas, hot honey brussels sprouts and ricotta flatbread and pasta dishes galore. HelloFresh also has a ton of very crave-worthy meal kits that aren't vegetarian, so if you still want the occasional steak with peppercorn sauce or Thai coconut chicken curry, this is a great choice.
I tried out HelloFresh myself and found it to be one of the most affordable, flexible and consistent meal kit services on the market. HelloFresh's vegetarian meal kits were also some of the easiest to prepare, with many taking less than 25 minutes from start to finish.
Pros:
Meal kits are easy to execute
Can substitute a meatless protein for most recipes
Cons:
Some recipes are basic and boring
Extra $10 for shipping
Best prepared meals for flexitarians
Fresh N Lean
If it's a fully prepared meal delivery you're looking for, Fresh N Lean is one of best. Every meal I tried from the service was good, and many of them were great, including its plant-based offerings. With Fresh N Lean you don't have to go fully plant-based unless you want to but the nonmeat meal kits were just as good as any other, with fresh ingredients, all cooked to perfection with no mushy vegetables (a major problem I've encountered with prepared meals).
Fresh N Lean has as many as 12 vegan meals to choose from each week with plant-based meal options like cauliflower and squash with tofu, mushroom rice with lentils and teriyaki bowls with Beyond Beef crumbles. There are even some breakfast meals to tack on to your order, including pineapple coconut chia and banana oatmeal. There is even a low-carb vegan meal plan if you're going keto and plant-based.
Pros
Great selection of tasty vegan meals
Meals are healthy and fresh
Very few misses
Cons
Expensive if you order less than 10 meals per week
Some portions were small
Best for plant-powered smoothies and soups
Splendid Spoon
This is definitely the best meal delivery for ready-to-go, healthy breakfasts and lunches. Splendid Spoon uses whole ingredients and superfoods in its easy, prepared meals and snacks including smoothies, soups, noodles and grain bowls.
The weekly menu includes bold recipes such as cauliflower tikka and Mexican tomato, while smoothies come in tasty combos like almond butter and jelly, blueberry açai and a green matcha smoothie with spirulina, ginger and turmeric. Soups and smoothies are loosely categorized by their overall intended effect, like "heal," "energize" and "refresh." Splendid Spoon also offers a full-day soup cleanse add-on to reset your system.
Pros:
Over 100 smoothies, soups, and bowls to choose from
Meals are all vegan and gluten-free
Cons:
Some smoothies are high in sugar
Meals are a little hit or miss
Best meal kits for flexitarians
Sunbasket
Sunbasket is my pick if you're looking for vegan and vegetarian meal kits but not all vegan and vegetarian meal kits. Sunbasket has about three or four plant-based options per week, which is significantly fewer than Purple Carrot, Green Chef or HelloFresh. That said, Sunbasket's meal kits, vegetarian included, are of a higher quality than any others I tried.
Sunbasket also has a great market of vegetarian grocery add-ons like fresh fish, cheese, prepared foods, snacks, bread and breakfast foods so you can essentially tack on an entire shopping list to your meal kit delivery if you choose.
Pros:
Recipes are well thought out and interesting
High-quality ingredients
Cons:
Expensive
Prepared meals aren't as good as the meal kits
Best for breakfast and lunch
Daily Harvest
Daily Harvest offers an enormous menu of frozen and ready-to-blend vegan smoothies, flatbreads, snacks, premade soups, hearty grain bowls and beverages to keep stocked in the freezer. You can order a one-time box to try them or keep these healthy, vegan meals coming monthly with a subscription.
Some of the bowls and soups could pass as dinner, but I like this vegetarian meal delivery service best for a quick vegan lunch or breakfast. Depending on the specific meal, you either drop it into a saucepan or skillet to heat and eat. Or add nut milk and blend it up with any of Daily Harvest's protein-packed smoothies and lattes. Daily Harvest uses lots of ancient grains, oats, nut milk and trendy superfoods like chia, avocado and kabocha squash in its recipe selection.
Pros:
Recipes use tons of healthy superfoods
Most meals are ready in under a minute
Cons:
Requires some blending or cooking
Must provide your own milk for smoothies
Pros:
Mostly organic produce
Substitutions are allowed to tailor meals
Meal kits are mostly easy to make
Cons
On the expensive side
Don't expect many leftovers
Best organic, plant-based meal kits
Green Chef
Green Chef has billed itself as one of the healthiest meal kit companies with a majority of organic produce, and features nine vegetarian meal kits per week, making it a solid choice if you're looking to eat less meat or go completely meatless.
I tried Green Chef for a week and you can read my full Green Chef review here. While it wasn't my favorite meal kit experience, the results were solid and it is certainly one of the healthiest meal kit options whether you're eating vegan or not. Green Chef actually offers more vegetarian meal kits per week than Purple Carrot, making it a clear contender for the best vegetarian meal kit service, especially if you want variety and eating organic is important to you. Green Chef's veggie meals are also hearty with lots of chickpeas, cauliflower and lentils.
Pros:
Mostly organic produce
Substitutions are allowed to tailor meals
Meal kits are mostly easy to make
Cons
On the expensive side
Don't expect many leftovers
Best vegan meal delivery for picky eaters
Veestro
Just to be clear, Veestro is a fully prepared vegan meal delivery service and not meal kits, so all you've got to do is heat and eat. I tried it and found the 100% plant-based food to be consistently fresh and tasty, and Veestro has a massive menu of around 20 ready-to-eat, meat-free meals to choose from each week.
Veestro's vegan meals arrive frozen in shipments of 10, 20 or 30, so you can pop them into the fridge to defrost or into the freezer to keep for the days and weeks ahead. Having a few Veestro meals on hand is a good way to hold yourself to any plant-based nutrition goals you may have set since you're far more likely to eat healthy vegan food you have on hand than go out of your way to track it down in the throes of hunger.
Pros:
Food is all 100% vegan
Options for low-carb, low-calorie meals
Cons:
Expensive
Website isn't the best
Other vegan meal delivery services we tried
- Sakara Life: While all the food we tried from this trendy, organic and 100% plant-based meal delivery was great (and Instagram-ready) it's just too expensive to belong on our list.
- Martha Stewart & Marley Spoon: This service is comparable to Sunbasket in both its offerings and cost. It's a solid pick for those seeking plant-based meal kits with options for meat, too.
- CookUnity: This is another great prepared meal service to try, but it's on the expensive side and is not quite worth the money if you're choosing mostly plant-based meals.
- Territory Foods: This healthy meal service only has a few plant-based offerings on its menu and they cost between $15 and $17.
- BistroMD: These meals are intended to promote weight loss. The meals with meat are good, but the plant-based recipes are bland and boring.
- Home Chef: This meal kit service is good for families and has many plant-based meals. That said, there's too much plastic packaging, and many of the recipes we tried weren't very exciting.
How we test vegan meal delivery services
To test each meal delivery service, I tried at least five and sometimes as many as 10 meals from any given service. I tried to choose a range of meals from the various menu and meal plan offerings. For instance, I always mixed up the meal types to include pasta, rice bowls, soups, salads or any other various styles offered by the brand. Further, I made sure to test a variety of cuisines -- Italian, Indian, Thai, Mexican -- if they were offered.
I took careful note of each meal delivery service's website, including what information was provided (ingredients, nutritional info), how clearly the menu was organized and how simple it was to pick a meal plan and order meals. When they arrived, I noted how well they were packaged and checked whether each meal was still chilled or frozen.
To reheat each prepared meal, I took a twofold approach. For some meals, I meticulously followed the heating instructions on the label. But since these are merely suggestions, I reheated other meals the way I would if left to my own devices. Often that meant warming gently in a nonstick skillet or reheating in my air fryer
Testing meal kits requires cooking, of course, and thus different practices and procedures for evaluation. Here's more on how we test meal kits at CNET.
Plant-based meal delivery compared
| Service | Plant-based options per week | Subscription only | Price per serving (entree) | Shipping | CNET rating (out of 10) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mosaic Foods (prepared) | 50+ | Yes | $10 | $8 | 9.2 |
| Purple Carrot | 8 | Yes | $12 | Free | 8.6 |
| Fresh N Lean (prepared) | 12 | Yes | $9-$13 | Free | 9.2 |
| Splendid Spoon (prepared) | 48 | Yes | $12 | Free | 7.8 |
| HelloFresh | 6 | Yes | $9 | $9 | 8 |
| Sunbasket | 4 | Yes | $14 | $8 | 9 |
| Sakara Life (prepared) | 15 | No | N/A | Free | 7.6 |
| Green Chef | 9 | Yes | $13 | $10 | 7.6 |
| Daily Harvest (prepared) | 50+ | No | $9 | Free | 8.8 |
| Veestro (prepared) | 50+ | No | $14 | Free for subscribers | N/A |
Factors to consider
Meal kits vs. prepared meals: Which one should you choose?
The first choice you'll have to make is between meal kits and meal delivery. Vegan meal kits still save time and effort over starting a recipe from scratch but they require some cooking. If you're looking to hone your plant-based cooking skills or learn new vegan or vegetarian recipes, a meal kit service is the way to go.
Prepared meals are the other option and it just doesn't get any easier. These services send freshly cooked individual meals that are packaged in cooler boxes and sent to you to eat or freeze for later. There's generally no cooking involved, so you'll get all the benefits of a plant-based diet without having to do the work.
Purple Carrot is one of the only fully plant-based meal kit services.
Types of meals: 100% plant-based or a mix of meat and meatless
Some meal delivery services such as Purple Carrot and Mosaic Foods specialize in only plant-based foods. Most other services have vegan and vegetarian options mixed in with the weekly menus containing recipes with meat. Decide if you want to go full force with your plant-based diet or give yourself the choice of a chicken or salmon dish every once in a while.
Cost and pricing
Most vegan meal delivery services range from around $9 to $13 per serving. If you want the most bang for your buck, choosing a budget-friendly meal kit such as EveryPlare or Blue Apron and selecting plant-based recipes will be your best bet. Mosaic Foods also has family-sized meals that cost just $6 per serving making it the most affordable vegan prepared meal subscription we've tried.
Number of meals and servings
Most meal services have a minimum number of meals you must order per week, but some are higher than others. For meal kits, you'll want to order only the amount of servings you know you'll cook and eat in a week since most of the ingredients can't be frozen. Prepared meals offer more flexibility since you can typically freeze premade meals to thaw and eat later.