Purple Carrot is a plant-based meal delivery service that brings easy meal kits, prepared meals, or both right to your door without the mess. All the meals with Purple Carrot are 100% plant-based and vegan meaning they’re perfect for vegans, vegetarians, even include some gluten-free options.
Wait…Purple Carrot isn’t a financial service, so why is Money Under 30 reviewing it? Our editorial team has decades of experience researching and giving honest reviews, so we decided to cover some outside services, like meal delivery, to help you make informed decisions with your money. We tried all the top options to help you pick.
Purple Carrot is veggie-centric – delivering plant-based vegan meals every week. The meals don’t include meat or dairy products but still strive for a balance of proteins, starches, and veggies. Their portions are generous, and the recipes are easy to follow.
- Healthy options that are filling and delicious
- Veggie-centric meals
- Step-by-step recipes
- Pricier than other meal options
- Not much price transparency
- Limited customization for food allergies
What is Purple Carrot?
With the new popularity of the best meal delivery services, some companies are finding niches to distinguish themselves. Purple Carrot, as you might have guessed from the name, is veggie-centric – delivering plant-based 100% vegan meals every week with a commitment to a plant-based future. The meals don’t include meat or dairy products but still strive for a balance of proteins, starches, and veggies.
As a mostly-vegetarian who never cooks meat, I was delighted to find an all-veggie meal service. And with evidence showing plant-based diets are good for the planet as well as your health. Purple Carrot is a positive addition to the meal services out there.
» Sign up and try Purple Carrot today!
Purple Carrot pros & cons
Pros
- Healthy options — Their food choices are healthy, delicious and filling at the same time.
- Veggie-centric — Purple Carrot adds veggies to every meal and are 100% vegan meals with vegan protein sources; good for both you and the planet.
- Great for beginners — There are step-by-step recipes that make cooking easy.
Cons
- Pricey — The cost skews a little more than most meal plans, but the portions are quite large….
- Limited customization for special needs — You can choose your meals with the two-serving plan, and common allergens like soy and wheat are marked clearly in the condiments, but there aren’t many options to customize for food allergies.
How does Purple Carrot work?
Choose your plan
Purple Carrot gives you 10+ rotating meal options per week, and you pick your top three. Since I don’t have any dietary restrictions other than meatlessness, I let Purple Carrot choose for me.
You tack on extras if you want
For an additional cost, Purple Carrot will send you smaller bonus recipes like breakfast foods and snacks. I didn’t go for this option, though everything looked delicious (see what I mean below). You can opt-in or out of extras at any time.
The box shows up and you get cooking
My delivery came on a Wednesday packed in plenty of ice. There was no worry in my mind that the food had been properly kept fresh.
You keep going with your meal plan – or change, pause, or cancel
At any point, you can switch from a two-serving plan to a six-serving one or vice versa, hit “pause” on your orders for a month, or cancel your order entirely.
Payment is per week, so you won’t have to pay for anything you don’t receive.
I really appreciated this flexibility because if you just don’t want or need meals delivered one week – it’s easy to cancel.
Purple Carrot pricing and plans
The price per serving with Purple Carrot depends on how many meals you get in each box and how many servings you’re requesting. Here’s a breakdown:
- 2 servings: 3-4 meals per a week for $13.25 / serving
- 4 servings: 2-3 meals per a week for $11.00 / serving
To these, you can add both breakfast and lunch ‘extras’ that cost around $18.00 each total. Breakfast come with 4 servings ($4.50 per a serving) and lunch with 2 servings ($9.00 per a serving), so breakfast rings in at a lower amount per a serving.
There are also prepared meals that are 1 serving per a meal with 6, 8, or 10 meals per week starting at $13.00 /serving.
Shipping is $10 if your order is $99 and under (but you get free shipping on your first order when you use our link).
Purple Carrot sign-up offer and discounts
» Get 50% off the entire month of January when you use our Purple Carrot link to sign up! This is a limited time New Year’s Sale from Purple Carrot so don’t wait!
Purple Carrot may provide discounts to the following individual with verification.
- Current & former military
- Military families
- Law Enforcement
- Firefighters
- Emergency medical personnel
- Government employees
Plus, if you’re an active subscriber, for every 4 orders you receive you can gift 1 free gift box to a new user via their Share-A-Box (more on that later).
Purple Carrot features
Step-by-step recipe booklets
Each box comes with a fancy booklet including pictures, step-by-step cooking instructions, and lists of the ingredients you should receive. The booklet wasn’t in my first box for some reason, but I found the recipes on Purple Carrot’s website and followed the instructions with no problem.
One perk of the recipe booklets is that they include ALL Purple Carrot’s weekly recipes and extras, not just the two or three recipes you receive. I enjoyed these no-cost additions to my recipe collection in case I get store-bought ingredients and try my hand at them later.
Share-A-Box
Active users are automatically included in Purple Carrot’s Share-A-Box program. With this, for every 4 orders a subscriber receives, they earn 1 free box to gift to a new user to give Purple Carrot a try. It’s one-per-household so you can’t send a free box to your favorite aunt and uncle more than once.
My experience using Purple Carrot
Food quality is excellent
Almost everything arrived fresh and stayed fresh until I cooked it. Some of the salad leaves were wilted by the time I opened the box, but that’s probably because I left the box out too long (pro tip: refrigerate veggies ASAP in the summertime). I was impressed, though, by how fresh the dairy substitutes and condiments remained.
Portions are super big
Portions were pretty large for some dinners, meaning leftovers and more for the money. The Charred Eggplant Pad Thai lasted for four meals and was just as delicious as leftovers that 4th time!
Some lighter meals like the Green Goddess Chickpea Sandwiches came out to about two portions. But still – the fact that the portions were generous I appreciated because good food is great to eat again as leftovers.
So just saying – the cost may not be as steep as it appears per meal.
Enjoyable taste and flavors
Great – I love vegan food so I wasn’t missing the meat, but the real test was that my omnivore, bacon-loving boyfriend also gave the food a stellar review.
So that’s a win-win review for Purple Carrot – the food is THAT good!
All the necessary spices (except salt and pepper) were included. If you like a lot of spice you can always augment the meals from your own spice rack. And you may end up having a lot of extra garlic; Purple Carrot sends you a whole head of garlic when a recipe needs a few cloves.
For me in particular, it was fun discovering new ways to cook vegetables. Their garlic roasted carrot fries might be my new go-to potato substitute when I’m in a healthy mood.
I also am now a huge fan of the Spicy Barbacoa Tempeh over rice with avocado on the side and Pesto Stuffed Peppers with quinoa – both delicious and pretty simple to make.
Good delivery and packaging
As with most delivery services, these days – the box is recyclable. Yay!
But I was bummed to see that everything is packaged with so much plastic.
I was glad to see Purple Carrot is using small condiment containers that can be recycled, though. And I was able to reuse some of the plastic bags so that’s good.
Ingredients are clearly labeled so you have no trouble figuring out what’s what.
Price was somewhat high
At $11.99 per serving or even $9.99 for the six-serving plan, Purple Carrot costs a lot more than I typically budget for a night cooking at home.
Still – given that given everything came delivered to my front door in exactly the right quantities and the fact that I had leftovers, the price point ends up being lowered.
Who is Purple Carrot good for?
If you’re like me and you’re interested in healthy, wholesome food – Purple Carrot is going to be an excellent choice for you.
Vegetarians and vegans
Meals included vegan versions of dairy staples, like cashew cream cheese and cashew yogurt, which tasted pretty good! I have since learned that cashews are one of the magic nuts for making delicious vegan cheese.
As someone who is super protein-conscious – I commend Purple Carrot for making sure that every meal includes a protein source. This is especially important for herbivores who want or need more protein in their diets.
Brand new vegetarians and vegans
A dietary change can be less stressful when the meal planning is done for you already. And the meals are super simple to cook.
Plus, the recipe card includes great pics to guide you along.
People trying to eat more veggies
If you’re struggling to find time to shop or to come up with veggie-centric recipes, Purple Carrot has you covered.
Really!
Since the deliveries come weekly you can use the produce fairly quickly without worrying it will go bad.
» Sign up and try Purple Carrot today!
Who is Purple Carrot not good for?
People who need meat or dairy in their diets
If you’re anemic or otherwise need animal-based protein, or if that’s simply the diet you prefer, another meal delivery service like Home Chef (where you can even customize proteins) might be more up your alley.
Extremely busy people
The recipes don’t take a ton of prep time – about 30 minutes each, so the cost of a meal kit may be worth it . But since Purple Carrot is so produce-centric they need to be prepared pretty soon after you receive them. If not, you’re losing money on produce you have to dispose of.
Highly budget-conscious grocery shoppers
Purple Carrot is a tad steep in terms of price, especially over an extended period of time. This is partially due to the nature of the ingredients. Meat and dairy substitutes like tempeh and vegan cheese sometimes come at a higher price point.
But you’re still spending more than you might if you bought larger portions when properly saving at the grocery store.
Plus, and this is so important: the portions are HUGE so each meal will likely cover part of another meal too. So your dollar is stretched in that sense!
The competition
Purple Carrot ranks among our most recommended for the top healthy meal delivery service, but there are a few options we include above it.
Purple Carrot vs Sunbasket
Sunbasket delivers healthy meals that are full of quality organic, sustainable, and ethically sourced ingredients for a number of dietary needs. We believe it’s the healthiest all-around meal delivery service.
Sunbasket is the meal kit to choose if you're looking for the freshest ingredients and the healthiest recipes.
Although more expensive than competitors, Sunbasket has menus for every diet and lifestyle, whether vegan, paleo, gluten-free, keto-friendly and more.
- Meal options for most dietary needs
- Fresh organic ingredients
- Neat, recyclable packaging
- Pricier than other services
Meal kits with Sunbasket start at $11.49 per a serving, a smidge above Purple Carrot, but their recipes can include meat and fish, so there may be a higher associated cost on some meals. There are also multiple options for vegan and vegetarian diets.
Produce is sourced from trusted farms and Sunbasket aims to deliver 100% organic but usually hits 98% due to issues they can’t always control.
» MORE: Details on it being the healthiest meal delivery service in our Sunbasket Review
Purple Carrot vs Green Chef
Green Chef is another comparable healthy meal service that delivers organic, sustainably sourced ingredients.
Green Chef stands out as one of the best healthy meal delivery services using certified organic ingredients. It’s ideal for people who want nutritious dinners made with organic food and those looking for a variety of flavors and ingredients to fit their specific diet.
- Meals for paleo, a vegetarian, or gluten free
- Certified organic ingredients
- Eco-friendly sourcing and recyclable packaging
- Higher cost per a serving
Green Chef’s meals start at $11.99 per meal, so again pricier than Purple Carrot’s lowest price, but you may find you like Green Chef more. There’s a whole set of plant-based meals for vegetarians and vegans with Green Chef that feature dishes like black bean flautas with kale salad, broiled corn, guacamole, and chipotle aïoli. Delish.
If you’re a beginner in the kitchen who loves to eat organic while valuing variety, quality, and sustainability, then going with the Green Chef may be right for you. And, if you want to learn more, check out our review below or compare Green Chef vs popular HelloFresh for more perspective.
» MORE: Check out our full Green Chef Review
Purple Carrot vs Blue Apron
Blue Apron is another great option if you want to aim for healthy and quality but not spend as much as you would with Purple Carrot, Sunbasket, or Green Chef.
Blue Apron offers both meal kits you prepare yourself and heat-and-eat meals that are already fully cooked. Ingredients are sourced directly from family-run farms to ensure freshness and quality and recipes are curated by a team of professional chefs.
- Highest-quality ingredients
- Adventurous recipes foodies will love
- Plenty of menu choices
- Not allergen-friendly
- Excessive packaging
Blue Apron delivers fresh, quality ingredients sourced directly from farms, importers and family-run purveyors starting at $7.99 per a serving. That’s still higher than alternatives, like affordable EveryPlate, but quite a bit cheaper than the three we’ve already discussed.
There’s three meals a week with Blue Apron that are WW recommended recipes to help you stay on track and a number of plant-based delicious meal options.
» MORE: Read about quality options in our Blue Apron Review
Summary
Purple Carrot is a fantastic way to get a variety of vegan and veggie-centric recipes into your diet. And the fact that my meat-eating boyfriend also liked the food is a huge win.
Whether you’ve been thinking about adding more plant-based meals or you’ve been vegetarian for years, this service is worth a try.