Purple Carrot: Helped With Healthy Eating, But Not My Favorite

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Every New Year, I inevitably get swept up in the meal subscription frenzy. You know the one—where every company under the sun is offering discounts and bombarding you with ads, all riding the wave of the “New Year, New You” motto. This year was no different, and I found myself eyeing Purple Carrot, a plant-based meal kit service.

Now, here’s the disclosure: I am not a diehard vegan. In fact, I’m not vegan or vegetarian at all. But this time, I was serious about eating better. I was in the middle of the 75Hard challenge and wanted an easy way to incorporate more vegetables into my diet while giving myself a break from the constant high-protein, meat-heavy meals.

The timing couldn’t have been more perfect. I was just returning from a 4-day bachelorette party in Mexico City (where, let’s be real, I completely fell off the 75Hard wagon). I knew I needed a hard reset, and Purple Carrot seemed like the perfect way to jump back into healthier eating. I scheduled my first delivery to arrive the day after I got home, and just like that, I was ready to dive into a week of plant-based meals.

The Purple Carrot Subscription

Purple Carrot operates like most meal kit services, delivering pre-portioned ingredients and step-by-step instructions to create vegan, plant-based meals at home. Since everything is 100% plant-based, there’s no need to choose between multiple meal plans—just one vegan option.

Love freshly made food? They have easy-to-create meal kits. Too lazy to cook? Get the ready-made meals.

The subscription is flexible, with weekly deliveries that you can pause or cancel anytime without penalty, making it easy to try without commitment. When you sign up, you’ll take a quick quiz about your eating habits and preferences (plus a few odd questions about gender and gym frequency, likely for marketing insights). Then, you’ll decide how many servings (2 or 4) and meals (3 or 4 per week) you want.

Each week, you’ll have about a dozen dinner recipes to choose from, which felt quite limited to me as a non-vegan (but maybe for actual vegans, this is plenty). You can also add breakfast, lunch kits, or snacks from their “Plantry”—a selection of vegan pantry items like lentil bowls, desserts, and even vegan cheese.

Shipping is always free, and ingredients arrive in insulated cooler bags designed to stay fresh for up to 72 hours (thanks to the lack of meat).

Purple Carrot Dinner Meals — The dinner meals I got to choose from.

I would have loved to try the ready-made meals because, let’s be real, I’m lazy and juggling two workouts a day for my 75Hard program (plus a PT/stretching regimen)—cooking just wasn’t high on my priority list. However, since the prepared meals cost an extra $2 per serving, I decided to stick with the meal kits for my first week and save a little cash.

Here’s a sample list of the ready-made meals offered to me:

How My First Week Of Purple Carrot Went

Overall First Impressions: It was a mixed bag of emotions during my unboxing. I liked that the food came in a food-safe box with ClimaCell insulation and two large ice packs at the bottom. It felt thoughtfully packed for food safety so I was quite impressed—until I started unpacking.

The amount of plastic used for the quantity of food I ordered was hard to ignore. Individually wrapped ingredients, plastic bags, and containers everywhere. It felt excessive, especially at a time when microplastics are everywhere in the news. We’re constantly hearing about how they’re in our water, our food, and even our bodies.

Purple Carrot Meal Kit Review - Unboxing

For a company like Purple Carrot, which caters to health-conscious, plant-based eaters (many of whom are likely environmentally aware), this level of plastic usage felt… off.

I mean, if you’re the kind of person who’s committed to eating vegan for health or ethical reasons, chances are you’re also thinking about sustainability. So, it’s surprising that Purple Carrot would be so frivolous with plastic. You’d think they’d lean into eco-friendly packaging to align with their audience’s values.

Don’t get me wrong—the food itself was good (more on that later), but the packaging left me scratching my head. It’s 2025, and we’re all trying to do better, right? Hopefully, Purple Carrot takes note and finds a way to cut down on the plastic.

Purple Carrot Meal Kit Review - Packaging Used — A nice and hefty box used to keep the meals cold in transit.

Crispy Kogi Lettuce Cups

First Impressions? Again, my first impression of this one was that there was a lot of plastic to house all the ingredients that the recipe called for. Instead of receiving one mini cup of soy sauce, I received 3 soy sauce packets. Instead of 1 larger pouch of cornstarch, I received 2 pouches in smaller increments. Another thing I noticed? Not a lot of fresh veggies (or sustenance for that matter). Aside from the sauces, I received 1 carrot, 1 small head of lettuce, 1 small pack of tofu, and rice. It was not very exciting, but maybe this was my fault for picking a simple-to-make dish.

Cooking Time? With my partner at home to help me, the prepping and cooking time for this one wasn’t bad. It was supposed to take 30 minutes, but because I put him in charge of the slaw and the sauce while I was cooking the tofu, it was more like 15-20 minutes. I highly recommend making meals with your partner to speed things along and make meal prepping much less painful!

Did the food taste good? The first time I made this meal (I ordered four servings of this which meant I had two packs of this meal) I also happened to make some guacamole. The guac paired so well with the meal, and it was much tastier than we had expected. Between the two of us, we were extremely full and finished all the slaw and tofu bites. The second time I made this, I didn’t add guac, and it was still pretty tasty but tasted less decadent. I was lazy the second time around and didn’t bread the tofu with cornstarch either. Despite cutting out so many calories in the second meal, I was still pretty full from the meal and didn’t need to snack after dinner.

Would I get it again? I would have liked a recipe with more varied veggies (like dark greens and something more vitamin-packed than carrots), so probably not. It was a surprisingly satisfying meal though!

Crispy Lemon Chick’n

First Impressions: Just looking at the main ingredients alone (a block of tofu, a couple of stalks of gailan, and brown rice), I thought I would be hungry after eating this. Again, I didn’t think the 3 stalks of gailan needed their own plastic shrink wrapping. There was a separate plastic bag for the two stalks of green onion too. I felt really bad throwing these pieces of plastic away because they were completely unnecessary. A paper bag with all of the greens would have been fine.

Prep/Cooking Time? All in all, it took me under 30 minutes to cook this meal alone. To be more efficient on time, I did the directions slightly out of order in order to multitask. While the tofu was frying, I was able to do some of the prepping.

Purple Carrot Meal Kit Review - Crispy Lemon Chick'n — Tofu and gailan, brown rice not pictured here.

Did the food taste good? It was okay. The tofu and the gailan were great, but the sauce used in this meal was not my taste. Since I’m not a fan of Westernized versions of Chinese sauces, I used a bit less of the soy/ginger sauce than what the recipe called for. Instead of using the entire portion, I might have used about 2/3 of it so that my tofu wasn’t completely smothered in sauce.

Last Impressions? I will say, the outcome of this meal was a lot more food than I had anticipated when looking at the raw ingredients. I don’t think this kept me and my partner full for very long because we’re both super active and work out every day, but for two sedentary people, this would be an adequate dinner portion for two.

Would I get it again? Probably not, I was not a fan of the sauce used.

Is Purple Carrot Worth The Money?

Without any first-time subscriber discounts, this box would have cost me $88, though I paid $53 with the first-timer discount. With that said, I did not think I received meals that were worth $88.

If you aggregate all the items I received, it was essentially:

4 blocks of firm tofu
6 stalks of gailan
4 stalks of green onion
2 carrots
2 lemons
4 packs of ready-made brown rice
some pieces of ginger
and ingredients to make sauce

Had I gone to the store and bought all these ingredients myself, it would have cost far less than $88. If we estimate our basket of items to cost $25, that means I’m paying over $60 for “convenience”. Had I gone to the grocery store myself with $88 in hand, I would have been able to purchase 4x of the amount of ingredients that I received.

And honestly, the convenience factor didn’t feel all that convenient to me. Sure, I saved time on grocery shopping, but I still had to spend time chopping vegetables, following instructions, and cooking. For someone like me, who’s juggling two workouts a day for my 75Hard program and dealing with the hassle of Invisalign (taking aligners out to eat is a huge nuisance), every minute counts.

Personally, I think ready-made meals are a better value for my lifestyle. At least with those, I’m paying for actual time savings—no cooking, no prep, just heat and eat. Purple Carrot does offer ready-made meals, but I wasn’t thrilled about the $2 upcharge for these meals (at the time of writing, each meal was $13.00).

Plus, looking at the images, the meals didn’t look like they were worth $13. Everything seemed too basic, with under 15 dishes to choose from each week. As someone who believes in paying for food I know I can’t easily make myself, these meals just didn’t cut it. I’d much rather opt for something like CookUnity, which offers more complex and exciting dishes.

Personally, I’m someone who believes in paying for food that I know for sure I can’t make. The meals just looked too basic for what they cost. I much prefer the meals offered on CookUnity.

All in all, do I think Purple Carrot was worth the money? Not quite.

As someone who works out regularly and needs protein to stay satiated and energized, the meals just didn’t have the right macronutrient balance for me. If I were more sedentary or only did yoga, maybe they’d suffice, but they didn’t work for my active lifestyle. I found myself getting hungry just a few hours after eating, which was inconvenient—especially with Invisalign.

For anyone who’s had Invisalign or knows someone who has, you’ll understand the struggle of constantly taking aligners out to eat. I’d rather stick to two or three big meals a day than snack throughout and deal with the hassle of brushing my teeth after every bite.

Flavor-wise, the meals were just okay. Nothing stood out as particularly exciting or memorable. A lot of the recipes were salads, and many didn’t include ingredients that justified the $11-per-serving price tag.

That said, if you’re someone who genuinely enjoys raw veggies, salads, and lighter meals—and you have the budget for it—Purple Carrot might be more up your alley than it was for me.

So, should you skip Purple Carrot? If you’re someone looking to transition to a plant-based diet, I’d recommend trying Purple Carrot for a week or two to get the hang of creating plant-based dishes. After that, you’re better off transitioning to buying ingredients through Instacart or in person—you’ll get far more value for your money.