purplecarrot-review-featured

Purple Carrot Review: Plant-Based Meals Made Easy?

​Vegan or vegetarian meals that serve up flavor and nutrition in equal measure are by no means typical, and so I’ve been on the hunt for delicious delivery services serving up recipes so tasty that you want to share with friends.

Finding a healthy and balanced meal delivery service can be difficult; finding one that ​don’t only have vegetarian options but is also vegan friendly is even harder.

​That’s why we have below ​our Purplecarrot Review. Read on so you can assess how ​delicious ​every meal in Purple Carrot is.

What Is Purple Carrot?

Not many people know that carrots are naturally purple; they were genetically engineered to take on their now famously orange coloring by the Dutch in the late 16th century.

Studies have shown that the natural purple variety of carrot may be more resistant to certain types of diseases and pests [1] and also higher in alpha and beta carotene [2] than its orange cousin.

You would assume that a company taking on such a name would be interested in natural and healthy ingredients when compared to the standard meal kit (see also our review of Terra’s Kitchen), and you’d be right.

purple carot product image

In my wildest dreams, I didn’t think that this would come back as a color for consumers

Dr. Phillip Simon

​USDA Vegetable Crops Research

They craft delicious and exclusively plant-based meals that focus on health. As an ethos, the story of the purple carrot lies at the heart of what they do.

PROS

  • ​Massive variety of meals, recipes, and ingredients
  • checkOne of the first all-vegan and plant-based services of its kind
  • checkEasy to follow, prepare, and cook recipes
  • checkHigh flexibility in plans and choices available
  • checkGourmet ingredients like kimchi and toragashi for exotic recipes delivered right to your door
  • checkConstantly changing menu means you’re always trying something new

​CONS

  • ​Each box comes with a bulky and space-consuming amount of individually portioned ingredients
  • banSome recipes may need a little extra spice to satisfy those with more exotic tastes
  • banEven the cheapest option is significantly more expensive than shopping for yourself

Other recommended vegan meal plan services:

  1. ​Trifecta (Our #1 recommended vegan meal plan service)
  2. Fresh n’ Lean,Vegin’ Out
  3. Veestro
  4. Sun Basket

Different Meal Options Offered By Purple Carrot

Different Meal Plan Banner Image

An excellent meal delivery service (see also ‘Territory Foods Review‘) offers a selection of meals that appeal to a variety of tastes. Still, even the most delicious plant-based meal kit is going to get boring if you are eating it week after week.

At Purple Carrot, they are constantly rotating and changing the menu, meaning you’re always getting different recipes and never getting bored.

Here is the menu selection at the time of writing as an example:

Breakfast

  • ​Banana foster chia pudding with ancient grain granola
  • checkLoaded avocado toasts (see also ‘How to Make Vegan French Toast’) with fresh dill and super seeds

Lunch

  • ​Pro-power bowls with roasted peppers and herb vinaigrette
  • checkSoba noodle bowls with red curry almond butter dressing

Dinner

  • Mafaldine pasta with melted leeks and garlic herb cashew cream
  • check​Black pepper tofu with Chinese (see also ‘Can You Eat At Panda Express As A Vegan?‘) broccoli and brown rice
  • check​​​Kimchi quesadillas with togarashi sweet potato fries (see also ‘The Best French Fries For Vegans‘) and lemon aioli
  • check​​​​Chickpea quinoa bowls with tarator sauce and pickled shallots
  • ​Mediterranian skillet with apple sage sausage and tzatziki cucumber salad
  • checkMango curry with chickpea dumplings and spinach
  • checkItalian chopped salads with roasted chickpeas and creamy parmesan dressing
  • checkCarrot soca cakes with green beans almondine and olive relish

What Are People Saying About Purple Carrot?

purple carot meal

The reviews online for Purple Carrot are primarily very positive, with many customers praising their dedication to making plant-based meals that deliver in nutrition as much as in taste.

How much variation could there really be in a meal made exclusively of vegetables? And would I be depriving myself of a symphony of flavors by further limiting my diet? After trying out plant-based meal kit plan Purple Carrot for a week, the answer to those questions are “a lot” and “absolutely not,” respectively.

Lulu Chang

Business Insider

There are a few negative pieces of feedback, the most frequent seems to be one that is true across the whole of the meal delivery service (see also ‘HungryRoot Review‘) market, and that is the packaging.

It is wasteful and takes up lots of room in the fridge. There are a few users who also found the Purple Carrot recipes to be a little lacking in flavor to contrast those with high praise we encountered before.

Purple Carrot Comparison And Review

So now we know what Purple Carrot is, what they offer, and what other people are saying about their plant-based meals, but what did we make of it?

Let’s get stuck into our per serving review of Purple Carrot.

​How much does Purple Carrot Cost?

Purple Carrot’s meals (see also ‘The Battle for Healthy Delivery: Green Chef vs. Purple Carrot‘) can be expensive, as most delivered meal kits are. The price for three meals a week delivery starts at $68. If you don’t want this option, you can also opt for the price per serving option and choose the two servings plan.

But you don’t just pay for the meals, part of the price is the convenience.

If you were to source the recipe, shop for yourself, and then portion, prepare and cook it properly, you’d be making huge savings. However, you’d be losing out on time.

A Purple Carrot food kit is incredibly easy to make, and preparation takes 10-15 minutes maximum.

It also works out well financially when compared to other meal kit (see also ‘HelloFresh Review‘) options if you work it out per serving and if you are sharing with someone else.

It’s cheap for a meal kit, which is to say it’s still expensive for a food expense.

Purple Carrot thumb

​​​What’s the Delivery Schedule ​Like?

Purple Carrot makes sure it’s as easy as possible for customers to get exactly what they want and when.

If you’re going to receive meals for the upcoming week, you simply visit your profile and select from the forthcoming menus, which are all clearly labeled in terms of gluten and calories for those with more specific requirements.

You can skip a week or two easily from the same menu if you have other plans.

They also make it a lot simpler to cancel than most other meal kit subscriptions, with an easy to find and implement way to cancel your subscription built into your profile.

Which is a welcome change from the phone call pleading you have to undertake with a lot of other service providers.

clock on wall

​​How Do the Meals Taste?

Purple Carrot’s meals taste ​okay for a delivered meal kit. For me, this is one of the most important factors — if you are going to be paying a premium for the convenience of a food box delivery, I want it to taste like it was made for me by a 5-star chef.

​Majority of the meal kit recipes that I tried that were a bit bland​ and it honestly turned me off. The food looks good and appetizing, so I expected the taste to be well-seasoned. ​Sadly, I’m on the fence when it comes to the taste.

​How Are the Meals Packaged?

This is my biggest gripe with Purple Carrot is the box packaging — and it can be applied to almost all food delivery services.

​I feel like there needs to be a big rethink in the way they send out their boxes, or else it just isn’t sustainable with a customer base that is becoming increasingly more eco-aware. The box contains meals that are individually wrapped in plastic, and the per serving carbon footprint is massive.

There is growing evidence and an argument to say that it is better for the environment to order bespoke or gourmet recipe ingredients through a service like Purple Carrot [3]. But surely it doesn’t have to all come individually wrapped in plastic.

​My Overall Experience With Purple Carrot

Great meals should be easy to make, taste delicious, provide a variety of nutrition through vegetables and other ingredients, and also for me, at least, be vegan and plant-based.

Purple Carrot makes achieving these goals incredibly easy.

From the moment the box was delivered, I was excited to try out each of the different meals. They had sent me dishes that I was excited to try cooking, and that is key to a service like this.

The plan I had chosen was only for three dinners per week, but I had to try one out the day it arrived, and I wasn’t disappointed.

delivery thumb

I started with the kimchi quesadilla, and so the first step was prepping everything and only took about 10 minutes.

At this point, I have to point out again how nice it was to be working with such exotic ingredients like kimchi, and the togarashi seasoning was a great sign of what to expect.

The main dish was accompanied by togarashi sweet potato fries (see also ‘Are French Fries Vegan? What About McDonald’s Fries?‘) and lemon aioli. Meals like this ​made me excited but the taste was just so-so. It’s something new and simple to cook​ but a bit lacking in flavor. The combination of Asian and Mexican cuisine was creative though.

​How Does ​Purple Carrot Compare With Other Meal Services

Being that with most other services of this kind, you are limited to maybe one or two plant-based or vegan options amongst a menu that is mostly not meant for you.

I would say Purple Carrot is one of the best when it comes to ​variety, and choice. They also do right by others with other diet restrictions, and the gluten-free options are well labeled and varied too.

It compares well in cost and comes in cheaper than most if you have a larger family and factor in the free delivery.

It is healthier than most and is clearly labeled and focused on those who are looking to lose weight and eat healthily. I also like how there are recipe cards so you can try cooking your meal next time.

Purple Carrot offers ​a flexible menu focusing on plant-based meals and dishes that make other services offering their same animal product heavy menu week after week look ridiculous.

Meals on table

​Related Post: Nutritiously Vegan Starter Kit Review

Would We ​Buy Purple Carrot Again?

​While Purple Carrot is a good plant-based ​meal service, I personally won’t use it again for two main reasons.

Their creative menus feature exotic ingredients in dishes and meals yet the flavors don’t translate. For a menu as elaborate as theirs, I expect more on the taste and sadly, it’s lackluster on that department.

Secondly, the individual packaging is over the top and bulky and too much waste, in my opinion.

I personally ​am subscribed Trifecta ​delivery service, and I find their menu way more palatable compared to Purple Carrot. The brand is a lot more environmental friendly, too.

​It should be common knowledge at this point that eating a wide variety of different vegetables can be massively beneficial to your health for many different reasons [4] and ​Trifecta have made achieving that goal easier than ever.

​>> Order a ​Trifecta box for yourself ​today.

​TRIFECTA

​Our #1 Vegan Meal Delivery Service

Trifecta thumb

  • Offers large meal plan varieties – Keto, Paleo, Vegetarian, Vegan, and Classic
  • checkOrganic ingredients
  • check​Utilizes low carbon footprint
  • checkDelivers fully-cooked meals at your doorstep
  • checkGet the BEST PRICE until the end of [month]

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Jason Hughes
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