Purple carrot is a vegan meal delivery company that curates delicious plant-based recipes and sends all the ingredients directly to your door. They pride themselves on empowering people to eat more plants. I tested Purple Carrot out a few times and this is my honest Purple Carrot review.
**This post contains affiliate links. I will receive a small commission if you decide to subscribe to Purple Carrot. However, this is my completely honest review and you’re by no means obligated to use my links. If you do, thanks so much for supporting my site.
A question I get quite often from readers about meal kit delivery services is do any of them cater to a vegan lifestyle? More and more people are turning to a plant-based diet and are looking for the same convenient services that are offered to everyone else.
Some meal kit companies, like Sun Basket or Green Chef, do have vegan options/plans but their focus isn’t solely on vegan meals so options are somewhat limited. However, if you’re looking for a mix of vegan and other meal plans then those companies might work for you.
However, if you’ve been waiting patiently for a vegan meal delivery service that only focuses on plant-based foods then you’ll be happy to know Purple Carrot has stepped up to the plate to meet your vegan needs!
I’ve been reviewing meal kit delivery companies for a couple years now – it’s honestly become a favorite hobby of mine that I enjoy sharing with all of you.
Purple Carrot has been on my “review” list for a couple months. But with the holidays it was really difficult to fit vegan meals in-between Thanksgiving turkey and Christmas cookies. Just saying…you know how it goes. Anyway, many people are trying to eat healthier foods so I figured now is a great time to test out this vegan meal delivery service.
In this Purple Carrot review I’ll go over all the basics of this meal kit delivery service, my experience and opinion about the food sent to me, who I think this service would work for, and who I think shouldn’t bother. My goal is for my review to help you decide whether or not Purple Carrot is a good fit for your lifestyle.
Alright, let’s get started.
If you’re ready to try Purple Carrot, and don’t want to read my entire Purple Carrot review you can sign up for your 1st box here. They will provide a $20 coupon when you sign up.
Purple Carrot Review
Purple Carrot is a vegan meal delivery service. They believe that eating a plant-based diet can significantly improve your health, our environment, and animal welfare. They cover some of the scientific facts that link meat consumption with heart disease, diabetes, and high blood pressure.
However, Purple Carrot is not pushy at all with their views – which is good. They simply believe in the power of plants and want to provide these options to the mainstream through Purple Carrot. So, whether you are looking to go vegan or just add more vegan meals into your diet Purple Carrot is there to support those choices.
Personally, I believe in the power of food and that we are what we eat. When I drink a daily green smoothie, eat a mason jar salad, and eat a diet high in fruits and vegetables I feel amazing. My skin looks great, my hair is shiny, and my stomach has zero bloat or pain. I agree that many health problems could be prevented and cured by adding more fruits and vegetables and also getting rid of the processed junk.
With that said, I was looking forward to testing out Purple Carrot. I could never go fully vegan – I love eggs and cheese too much – but I’m all for eating more plant-based meals. Plus, I do struggle with adding more vegetables into dinner time. Like I said, I consume a lot of fruits and veggies early in the day but dinnertime trips me up. So a goal I had with subscribing to Purple Carrot is to teach me more plant-based dinner options.
Purple Carrot Cost
With any meal kit delivery service “what’s the cost” is typically the first question. I get it, we all work hard for our money and want to make sure NOT to waste it.
Purple Carrot has 3 meals plans – Chef’s Choice, Quick & Easy, and High Protein. Each plan includes 3 dinners and serves 2 people. You can add on more meals every week and other breakfast and lunch extras. They have options like overnight oats, green smoothies, grain bowls, and salads. If you’re looking for vegan meals beyond dinner this is a great option.
If you’re ready to try Purple Carrot, and don’t want to read my entire Purple Carrot review you can sign up for your 1st box here.
The cost for all 3 plans is $12 per plate ($72 a week). This is the same cost as Sun Basket. However, Sun Basket has a shipping fee and shipping is included with Purple Carrot. So this make Purple Carrot vegan meals a little cheaper.
They also have TB12 Performance Meals for $13 per plate ($78 a week). What makes TB12 different from the other meals? They are designed for more active people so they are higher in calories and protein. These meals are also gluten-free and limited in soy and processed sugar.
How to Cancel Purple Carrot?
Not all companies make it easy to cancel. In fact, many make you send an email or call. Not Purple Carrot. Just go to your profile and then easily cancel your account in the “account settings” section. This is a HUGE plus in my book.
One of the biggest complaints I hear about meal kit delivery companies is not being able to easily cancel a subscription. This is something you don’t need to worry about with Purple Carrot.
Is it easy to skip weeks with Purple Carrot?
Yes, Purple Carrot makes it very easy to skip weeks, select meals, and add a meal. After you log in and click on “upcoming menus” you’ll be able to see all the upcoming weeks. From there, you can skip a week by clicking on the check mark. When it’s skipped it’ll turn grey and become an x. Please note the skip deadline so you don’t accidentally get meals when you were planning on skipping them.
If you choose to get Purple Carrot meals delivered that week then you can change meals by clicking on the purple “change meals” button right next to the arriving date. You’ll get to choose from 6 dinner options and could add on breakfast and lunch options too at this time.
If at any point you want to change your meal preferences then you’d do that in the profile section. For example, if I want quick and easy dinners instead of high protein then I’d need to make that change in the meal preference section of my profile.
If you’re ready to try Purple Carrot, and don’t want to read my entire Purple Carrot review you can sign up for your 1st box here.
Is there a Purple Carrot coupon?
Purple Carrot doesn’t have as many coupons floating around like the other meal kit delivery service companies. However, once you sign up with your email they’ll give you a $20 discount. So yes they do have a coupon but you need to add in your email information first. Regardless, that’s still a great price to try Purple Carrot.
My Purple Carrot Experience
Okay, now I want to walk you through my Purple Carrot experience and share my thoughts.
Just like every other meal kit delivery service I’ve tried, Purple Carrot sends all the recipes and ingredients in a sturdy insulated cardboard box.
When I opened the box there was a Purple Carrot recipe booklet right on top. In the recipe booklet they had all the recipes offered for that week – not just the ones I chose. I really like this perk. This is especially helpful if your goal is to cook more vegan meals. Of course, you need to store these booklets so if you plan to keep them I suggest putting together a file of sorts so you don’t end up with a bunch of booklets stuffed in the junk drawer. Just saying…been there.
Here are all of the ingredients packed in the box. As you can see one recipe was in-between the box and insulation. This wasn’t a huge deal because it’s FREEZING outside but could’ve been an issue if it were summer. I’m not sure if this was a packing error or maybe it happened in-transit.
Regardless, everything was cold and fresh. No mushy or rotten vegetables.
After I took the ingredients out this is what the inside looks like. Just like all the other companies, Purple Carrot provides adequate insulation to keep everything cold and fresh.
One complaint, or criticism, I often hear about with these companies is the amount of garbage from the boxes. It is a lot but most of it is recyclable and reusable so that’s just something to keep in mind.
I also want to point out that all of the recipes come in their own bags. I love this touch because it makes it super easy and convient to just throw it in the refrigerator until you’re ready to cook.
If you’re ready to try Purple Carrot, and don’t want to read my entire Purple Carrot review you can sign up for your 1st box here.
How do Purple Carrot meals taste?
Let’s get to the good stuff! How do these vegan meals taste? Because, quite honestly, that’s often the deciding factor when choosing to reorder or cancel a subscription.
The three meals I’m going to review are the Winter Vegetable Grain Bowl, Vietnamese Style Ramen, and Vegan Chick’n and Dumplings.
Let’s start with the Winter Vegetable Grain Bowl.
This is the one I was most looking forward to because I love roasted vegetables and quinoa. Mmmmmm!
Everything is portioned out and labeled. The recipe was very easy to follow. If you’re new to cooking then the colored step by step photos in the booklet will be helpful. I think the only possible complaint is there are a lot of steps to this recipe – it definitely isn’t a 20-minute. Also, I needed to use 3 different dishes to cook this. A sheet pan to roast vegetables, a pan for the quinoa, a small skillet to toast the walnuts, and small bowls to make relish and sauce. Not a huge deal but I just wanted to point that out.
Regardless of the pans and dishes, this was very easy to make and super tasty. Roasting is my favorite way to cook sweet potatoes and Brussel sprouts.
The dill sauce came together quickly and was super tasty. It called for tahini which I’ve only ever used in hummus. I thought it had great flavor, especially with the dill.
I wasn’t sure about the “relish” because I’m not a huge celery fan but it gave the grain bowl a nice crunch. This is one of the reasons I love meal kit delivery services, I’d never make a meal like this on my own.
Overall this meal was very good and super filling. If you want to meal prep this recipe ahead of time you could easily prepare everything in advance, store it in the refrigerator, and then warm it up and put the bowls together the night you want to eat it.
The next Purple Carrot recipe I tried was the Vietnamese Style Ramen. First of all, I love anything ramen, and with a broth, so I was looking forward to this one. Just like the other recipe, everything came labeled and portioned-out.
If you’re ready to try Purple Carrot, and don’t want to read my entire Purple Carrot review you can sign up for your 1st box here.
This recipe came together super fast. Of course, peeling and chopping carrots can be a pain but even that didn’t take a lot of time. I did have to use 2 seperate pans to make this – one for the ramen and one for the broth. Not a big deal but just wanted to mention.
This was my favorite of the 3 recipes. I thought it was so comforting and delicious. I should also mention I had a sinus cold the night I ate this. The heat from the jalapeno peppers and chili sauce cleared my sinuses right out.
This Purple Carrot recipe can also be prepared in advance. My recommendation is to keep the broth and noodles seperate until you’re ready to eat – nobody likes mushy noodles.
The 3rd recipe I tried was the Purple Carrot vegan Chick’n and Dumplings. I have mixed reviews on this recipe.
Let me start with the positive. The vegetables were fresh, everything was portioned-out, the recipe included clear instructions, and I only needed one pan. Also, the flavors were very tasty but I’ll talk about that more in a minute.
The downside of this recipe was it was complicated. There were a lot of steps. First, I had to prep all the vegetables. Maybe I was just being lazy but this seemed like a task to me.
Then I had to flour and “fry” the mushrooms. Again, another task I didn’t feel like doing during the week.
Then I had to cook everything, and when it was almost done, make dumpling dough to drop into the recipe. I’m not going to lie, the dumpling part made me nervous. Mostly, because this was the first time I ever made a recipe like this. The good news is the recipe came out just like it should – thanks to the step by step instructions. However it took about 40 minutes to cook – possibly more. I don’t have that kind of time during the week. In my opinion, this is a recipe for a Sunday dinner not for during the week. Now this is just my opinion.
Besides chopping the vegetables this recipe really shouldn’t be made ahead of time.
With all that said, I will say this Vegan Chick’n and Dumplings had really good flavor. Even my oldest daughter thought it was good – and she’s the picky one. It definitely had that down home chicken and dumplings taste but without the chicken.
Even though this recipe was more complicated than I would’ve like, it took me out of my comfort zone and taught me something new. However, moving forward I’m going to stick to recipes like the first two.
If you’re ready to try Purple Carrot, you can sign up for your 1st box here.
Purple Carrot Review (Pros)
- All the recipes are vegan and ingredients are organic.
- It’s a great way to introduce more plant-based recipes into your meal plan.
- If your goal is to become vegan, Purple Carrot is a great way to start.
- Prices are comparable to other organic meal kit delivery companies that offer vegan options (ex. Sun Basket or Green Chef).
- Recipes are easy to follow and have great flavor.
- Recipes are eclectic and a great way to try new flavors and cuisines.
- Purple Carrot sends a booklet with all the recipes for the week, tips, and other information on eating more of a plant-based diet.
- They offer breakfast and lunch options.
Purple Carrot Review (Cons)
- The recipes used more than 2 pans. This is more of a personal preference but I’d definitely like to see more one-pot meals.
- While prices are comparable to similar services they are on the pricer side compared to non-organic meal kit delivery services. However, like most things, you get what you pay for. Also, please keep in mind – and I say this all the time – meal kit delivery companies are not in the business to save you money. They are in the business of convenience. That convenience cost money.
- While some people love trying new eclectic recipes this can be a negative for someone wanting vegan meals that are on the “basic” side.
- You can only order recipes to feed 2 people. I wonder if this is because most people who order this would only be a family of two or don’t think the whole family would like this. I totally get this because my kids are picky eaters so when I get Purple Carrot it’ll be just for me and Mike.
Who do I think would benefit most from Purple Carrot?
I think if you’re trying to eat more vegan meals, but not sure where to start or in a rut, then this would be a great option for you. There’s a lot to learn with vegan cooking and I think Purple Carrot does a great job teaching. Also, if you like trying new foods and flavors then Purple Carrot will work because most of their recipes have eclectic flavors. Last, if you don’t mind paying for the convenience of a vegan meal plan being put together for you and all the recipes delivered to your door then you’ll be very happy with Purple Carrot.
Who do I think wouldn’t benefit from Purple Carrot?
If you’re concerned about getting the best deals on groceries then subscribing to Purple Carrot, or any meal kit delivery service, won’t work for you. Also, if you don’t like eclectic flavors then this might not be the best meal delivery service for you. Last, if you’re looking for a meal kit delivery service that’ll feed your large family Purple Carrot might not be your best option.
Overall Purple Carrot thoughts
Of course, I think anyone can order meals from Purple Carrot but I definitely think this meal kit delivery service has a specific customer they are catering too. Therefore if you’re already vegan, starting the vegan lifestyle, or appreciates vegan meals then Purple Carrot is a great option.
If you’re looking for a vegan meal delivery service that offers delicious fresh recipes and ingredients directly to your door then I recommend trying out Purple Carrot. I hope my Purple Carrot Review helps you make an informed decision about whether or not it’s a good fit for you. You can sign up for your first box here. Upon sign up, Purple Carrot will give you $20 off your first box.
