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I was today years old when I learned that carrots were originally (mostly) purple. Another thing that surprised me, a lifelong omnivore, recently? Vegan eating doesn’t have to mean seitan, bean soups, and grain bowls. It can be exciting, flavor-packed, and craveable if you go about it in the right way. At least, that was my main takeaway after two weeks of testing Purple Carrot’s vegan meal delivery service.
As Bon Appétit’s point person for meal kit coverage for the past few years, I’ve become intimately familiar with the benefits these services provide. A meal delivery will take the stress out of weekly meal planning and prep, save you time and energy, and help you cut down on food waste. The best of these services have also taught me new techniques and introduced me to new ingredients—but it wasn’t until I tested Purple Carrot that I realized a meal kit is a great way to familiarize yourself with a whole new way of eating, be it gluten-free, vegetarian, or, in this case, vegan.
I’ll admit I was a skeptic (hey, I love my chicken, salmon, and dairy yogurt!). But after two weeks of testing Purple Carrot’s vegan breakfasts, lunches, dinners, and snacks, I can confidently say I’d gladly do it all again.
Purple Carrot at a glance
What’s the Purple Carrot ordering experience?
When you sign up for Purple Carrot, you’ll first be prompted to choose between meal types (Meal Kit, Ready-to-Eat, or Mix and Match), dietary preferences (Chef’s Choice, High Protein, Gluten-Free, or High Fiber for the meal kits; Chef’s Choice or Jumpstart Program for ready-to-eat), number of servings per meal (two or four for meal kits, one for ready-to-eat), and number of meals per week (three or four for meal kits; six, eight, or 10 for ready-to-eat). These plans are all flexible, meaning you can add meals and servings later.
After checking out with your payment and delivery information, Purple Carrot will fill your first box with suggested meals according to the preferences you marked. You can add and delete meals from your box as you please as long as you do so before the order cutoff, which for me was six days prior to my Monday delivery date. Changing your delivery day or skipping a week’s delivery is easily done from your account’s home page. When you elect to skip a week, you’re given the option to send that week’s box to another address—helpful if you’re traveling or simply need a break and want to gift your box to someone else.
The weekly menu ordering page is straightforward. You can browse through meal kits, ready-to-eat options, and grocery items, which can be filtered by preference (gluten-free, high protein, less than 600 calories, sodium smart, and less prep). Each menu item features a photo, price per serving, and calorie and cook time information, but a full rundown of the recipe description, ingredients, nutrition facts, and instructions is just a click away.
What to expect from a Purple Carrot box
My Purple Carrot orders arrived on their scheduled delivery dates in insulated cardboard boxes with ice packs at the bottom. Most ingredients were packaged into clear plastic bags, grouped by the recipe they belonged to, while a few (namely, greens like kale and Chinese broccoli) were packed loose in their own bags at the top of the box. Each meal’s bag has an outer pocket where you’ll find the recipe card, which makes it easy to know which meal you’re grabbing from your fridge when it’s time to cook.
How are Purple Carrot’s ingredients?
Purple Carrot uses a mix of organic and non-organic ingredients. All of the produce I received in my boxes was in great shape by the time it arrived at my doorstep, none of it was wilty or blemished. Some items (like root vegetables) arrived pre-chopped, but most (like the bok choy, Chinese broccoli, and kale) arrived whole.
Pantry items like vegetable stock concentrate, spices, vinegar, and soy sauce are provided in small packets, sometimes in slightly larger amounts than the recipe may call for.
What I liked about Purple Carrot
Before I get into what I liked about Purple Carrot, there are two things you should know about me. The first is that I’ve tested at least 10 different meal delivery services throughout my time at BA. The second is that I’ve eaten meat and dairy products daily my whole life. With that in mind, I was very impressed with my Purple Carrot experience for several reasons.
I loved how neatly packaged each recipe kit was. I brought a few meals to my boyfriend’s house to cook throughout the week, so it was helpful to have all the ingredients packed together in one place so I could easily grab them out of the fridge (though, as mentioned above, certain larger bags of ingredients were packed separately for select meals).
I’ll admit I had a pretty outdated conception of what “vegan food” could be, and Purple Carrot helped squash that stereotype. There are around 20 meal kit recipes to choose from each week, and each one sounded so enticing that I had a hard time narrowing down my choices. I appreciated the wide variety of dish types and cuisines on offer, which make it pretty impossible to get bored.
While the meals I tested weren’t necessarily lightning-fast to prepare, they were each pretty true to the cook times listed on the recipe cards (which, for me, ranged from 30–40 minutes). The instructions were straightforward, and each meal was balanced, well-composed, and packed with flavor. Some favorites were the Winter Squash Soup, which was spiced with togarashi and served over a quinoa-speckled rice, the Zaru Soba, which made for a lovely light and refreshing lunch, and the BBQ Burnt ends, which were made from a mushroom-based protein that could’ve fooled me into thinking it was meat. While some of these meals were the kinds of dishes I frequently make at home, many of them introduced me to new ingredients or techniques that I could see myself turning to even after I’ve reverted back to my omnivore diet, like crumbling extra firm tofu into a stir fry when I usually would’ve cubed it.
What I didn’t like about Purple Carrot
When I went to place my first order, I did so on the day of my delivery date’s order cutoff and found that over half the meal kit options were sold out. With that in mind, I’d recommend selecting your meals well in advance.
Both weeks that I tested Purple Carrot, I received an email a few days before my box was set to be delivered alerting me that one of the items I’d selected was not available that week because “the ingredients for the original meal didn’t meet our quality standards.” Those meals were replaced with alternatives that I had no say in, and both weeks I ended up with meals I never would have chosen for myself (a pre-made mezze platter instead of the falafel bowl I’d selected, and a pesto risotto that would’ve taken 60 minutes to make). This was frustrating, and the fact that it happened with both of my boxes leads me to believe it happens with some frequeny. If I’d noted specific dietary preferences at signup, I’m unsure whether Purple Carrot would’ve replaced the unavailable items with meals that fit those preferences.
While I wouldn’t say any of the recipes I tried were particularly difficult to prepare, they could’ve been more streamlined. It would have been nice, for example, if the Winter Squash Soup came together in just two pots (one for the soup and one for the rice), but instead the instructions had me dirty a third cooking vessel by roasting the bok choy in the oven. It’s also worth noting that some prep steps (like chopping garlic or crumbling tofu) will be listed in the ingredients list, not in the recipe instructions. All that to say, it’s worth giving these recipes a thorough read before you start cooking.
In addition to meal kits, Purple Carrot offers ready-to-eat meals (think bowls, salads, pastas, and soups) and a selection of grocery items. This meant that on the weeks I ordered Purple Carrot, I didn’t need to go to the store for any additional groceries—a major win. The ready-to-eat meals made convenient office lunches, so I picked up a few in each of my orders. I tried a Vibrant Falafel Bowl and two different soups, all of which were tasty.
To my surprise, the grocery page turned out to be my favorite section of all. There are plenty of vegan dips, cheeses, proteins, and sauces to choose from, but the best part (in my opinion) is the snack and beverage selection, which is full of products I’ve long known and loved (many of which we’ve written about here at BA). Some favorites include Daily Crunch almonds, BjornQorn, and Seven Sundays cereal.
Should you order Purple Carrot?
If you adhere to a vegan diet and are looking for a way to cut down on time and energy spent meal planning and grocery shopping, you might really enjoy Purple Carrot. It’s also a great way to get some inspiration or pick up new techniques if you’ve fallen into a weekday dinner rut.
If, like me, you don’t adhere to a vegan diet but are perhaps vegan-curious, Purple Carrot is an excellent intro to the world of fully plant-based cooking. I didn’t find myself missing the meat or dairy at all in my two weeks of testing, which is a true feat. I’ll also note that Purple Carrot is one of the best meal delivery services I’ve tried, vegan or not, both because of its easy-to-navigate user interface, and because of the high quality of its ingredients and recipes.
