If the stress from the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has you reflexively ordering takeout food all too often, finding the best meal kit delivery service for your taste and budget can be a healthier and more economical alternative that may actually give you some ideas for when you next feel like cooking.
While meal kit delivery services have come in clutch during the pandemic, I’ve long been on the meal kit service bandwagon for fresh meals. Even the most picky eater with a special dietary preference loves having a box arrive at their door with all the fresh ingredients they need to make a relatively easy healthy recipe. A meal delivery service can also help you avoid that nightly debate about what you’re going to make for dinner and save a trip to the grocery store if you’re missing an ingredient. Instead you have a foolproof meal plan with pre portioned ingredients — whatever meal comes in the box is the meal you make (and the meal selection is extensive). For us indecisive folks, this is an incredible perk.
But where to start when looking for the best meal planning options? Cheerful meal delivery boxes from the likes of Freshly, Home Chef, Sakara Life, Purple Carrot and Gobble are becoming more and more commonplace — just take a peek at your neighbor’s doorstep. While different boxes may offer a meal plan that falls into its own niche (such as vegan, paleo or gluten-free), each box from a meal delivery company combines the efforts of chefs, nutritionists and personal grocery store shoppers and delivers them into the hands of home kitchen cooks, with weekly menus and delicious, pre measured ingredients.
The variety of meal delivery program options available today is just staggering, including everything from fully prepared meals to gluten-free healthy meals to organic meals to vegetarian plant based meals available and ready to ship. Companies such as Sun Basket, Martha & Marley Spoon Snap Kitchen, Daily Harvest and Purple Carrot come with a variety of healthy and niche meal selection customizations. That means that people with special diets, like vegan gluten-free, vegetarian gluten-free, plain old gluten-free, paleo, low-carb, vegetarian, pescatarian, keto, plant-based, health-conscious and just about anything else can find a box that works for them. There are even boxes that focus on organic ingredients. Some services even offer smoothies and oat bowls, so you’re never far away from a delicious meal.
You’ll also often find promotional offers for new customers and convenient features like being able to skip weeks and cancel anytime. With limited or no commitment, if you’re a calendar master and an account-management ninja, you can dabble in any or all of these meal delivery services and choose, week-by-week, which best suits your circumstances and what meal options you already have in your fridge.
So! It’s time to find the best meal kit delivery service for your needs, regardless of whether you’re vegan, on a keto diet or just a picky eater and looking for a healthy meal. We update this list periodically.
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Home Chef
Home Chef boasts over 38 meal kits to choose from in any given week, including the all-new grill packs and one-pan dinners. Sample meal kit examples include meal kit options like Chipotle Chimichurri Mini Pork Meatloaves with Roasted Sweet Potato and Garlic Peppercorn Salmon Scampi with Garlic Cream Gemelli and Broccolini. Plus, you can customize the protein in your meal choices from chicken to pork to fish, which makes Home Chef dishes stand out from the pack. For example, with some Home Chef recipes, you can order double the protein such as chicken or meat without doubling the overall portions. With other options from the meal delivery service, you can choose to order antibiotic-free protein instead of the standard version. Meal kits and ingredients are usually pretty standard in their offering (which is what keeps Home Chef an efficient meal delivery kit for the masses).
One new and unique offering from Home Chef is their oven-ready meals, which come with everything you’ll need to make the meal including the cooking tray (no messy kitchen and no dishes). See an example of an oven-ready meal here.
Subscription: Starting at $7.99 per serving with additional premium Home Chef recipes offered at market price.
Chowhound
Healthy and fresh are common favorite meal kit descriptors, but Sun Basket goes a step further. Sun Basket is committed to organic, non-GMO, sustainably and responsibly raised products and ingredients, which the meal kit delivery service packages in 100 percent recyclable materials to boot. Basically, the box took the trip to the farmer’s market for you. Sun Basket’s recipes are developed by Justine Kelly, a San Francisco chef known for her work at the James Beard Award-winning Slanted Door restaurant and also for her appearance on Top Chef. All of her easy and delicious meals with organic ingredients are nutritionist-approved (500 to 800 calories per serving) and most meals take only about 30 minutes to prepare, with online Sun Basket tutorials available if you need a little extra guidance. You’ve got options for these nutritious meals too — you’ll be able to choose from a selection of six to 18 different organic meal recipes each week, including paleo, vegan meal, vegetarian and gluten free meals, so you’ll always get what you want. Sun Basket delivery is available in 36 states and shipments arrive on Tuesdays and Wednesdays between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m.
Subscription: For three Sun Basket meals each week, you’ll pay $74.93 for the two-person plan (or the $11.99 price per serving) and $143.87 for the four-person Sun Basket plan ($10.99 per serving), with a $5.99 shipping fee either way.
Freshly
A few of these services provide fully cooked, ready-to-eat meals to your doorstep. Freshly is a good one if you desire wholesome, tasty comfort foods such as peppercorn steak, penne bolognese or chicken and rice pilaf. The oven ready meal options are prepared right before delivery and are never frozen. With minimal reheating required by you, it’s like having Mom cook dinner for you in your kitchen, without having Mom live with you. (Sorry, Mom.)
Subscription: $8.99 to $12.50 per serving, with up to 12 servings per week. Shipping is free.
At just $4.99 per serving and with an emphasis on delicious, hearty meal options and generous portion sizes, EveryPlate is the best plan for those whose journey into meal kit delivery is based on affordability. It keeps its overhead low by offering eight easy recipes to choose from weekly, which mostly excludes vegetarians and those on special diets, but the eight available meals are full of variety and flavor otherwise. Get 18 meals for only $3.33 each, free shipping on your first order, plus the ability to skip or cancel anytime.
Subscription: Each serving is only $4.99. Each weekly box includes three recipes with either two or four servings apiece.
Blue Apron
Blue Apron is largely accepted to be the granddad of meal kit delivery programs in the US. The eight weekly menu choices available range from simple pastas to delicious international options, with a seafood and vegetarian option always available. With even the simplest recipes, you might find an unfamiliar component or two on the recipe card, and the website often highlights these ingredients as an educational opportunity. Recipes are tagged with helpful keywords such as “customer favorite,” “quick and easy,” “great for grilling” and so on. Occasional promotions include a menu from guest celebrity chefs, or recipes that highlight popular travel destinations. An optional wine pairing service is also offered.
Subscription: Price per serving ranges from $7.49 to $9.99, with options to prepare two to four recipes per week and two or four servings per recipe.
Dinnerly
Dinnerly rolls out some pretty exciting-sounding and delicious meals such as summery chicken panzanella and risotto with asparagus and cannellini beans. With no more than six ingredients per recipe, this meal kit company minimizes the damage done to your time and kitchen. Along with not overwhelming you with myriad ingredients and multiple steps, the price tag for Dinnerly puts it squarely in the budget-friendly category, clocking in with a cost per serving of around $5.
Subscription: The options include a Two-Person Box for $30, or a Family Box for $60, each with three recipes for the week.
Brandy Yowell
Gobble takes the template from the old guard of meal delivery kits but speeds it up by prechopping and part-cooking many of the components so that all recipes have a prep time of 15 minutes or less. Despite the “fast food” angle, each menu from this food kit delivery service has a sophisticated and worldly vibe. Weekly recipe choices are cleverly categorized into From the Range, From the Ranch, From the Sea and From the Earth options.
Subscription: Options range from $11.99 to $13.99 per serving, with options for two to four servings of two or three (or more!) recipes.
HelloFresh
HelloFresh helpfully tags each recipe accordingly, whether you are allergic to (or avoiding) dairy, gluten, soy, nuts and so on. Familiarity of ingredients is key, even when applied to dishes from various world cuisines. Hello Fresh’s portion sizes are generous, going with its relatively high cost per serving (up to $10 a person). A “dinner to lunch” element is a unique twist that provides the home cook a variation on tonight’s dinner to serve as a tasty portable lunch tomorrow.
Subscription: Options range from $8.74 to $9.99 per serving, with options for two to four recipes per week and two or four servings per recipe, customizable along Classic, Veggie and Family plans.
Green Chef
We like Green Chef for its versatility in the different specific diet plans available. Green Chef food kit delivery service offers paleo, keto, pescatarian, vegan, and vegetarian meals as well as gluten-free meals. No matter which diet you’re following (for health or personal reasons) you’ll be able to find a Green Chef plan that works for you. Because it offers so many different diet plan choices, this also makes Green Chef one of the most versatile meal kit delivery services since you get a plethora of different tasty menu options per week.
Subscription: $12.99-$11.99 per serving for a two-person Green Chef subscription at three meals/week; $10.99 per serving for a four-person Green Chef subscription at two meals/week.
More food delivery recommendations
The information contained in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as health or medical advice. Always consult a physician or other qualified health provider regarding any questions you may have about a medical condition or health objectives.