Purple Carrot is a meal delivery service designed to make plant-based eating easy and enjoyable by delivering all the ingredients and recipes you need to prepare healthy meals at home.
Offering a range of flavorful breakfast, lunch, and dinner recipes to choose from each week, Purple Carrot is a great choice if you’re looking to add some diversity to your diet.
This article takes a closer look at Purple Carrot, including how it works, who should try it, and if it works for weight loss.
Purple Carrot is a plant-based meal delivery service that provides a variety of recipes each week, along with the ingredients you need to prepare them at home.
Purple Carrot allows you to select from 8 dinner recipes and several lunches, breakfasts, and snacks to create your own custom menu.
All ingredients are pre-portioned and the recipes are designed to take around 30–40 minutes to prepare, which can help streamline and simplify your cooking.
With dinners starting at $9.99 per serving, Purple Carrot is an affordable and effective way to incorporate more fruits, vegetables, and plant-based proteins into your diet.
Purple Carrot offers a rotating weekly menu with 8 dinner recipes, each of which is available with either 2 or 4 servings.
Gluten-free, high protein, nut-free, and low calorie options are labeled on the menu, making it easy to select meals that work for you.
The weekly menu also features two breakfast and lunch recipes, which are available for an additional fee. When customizing your menu, you can purchase 4 servings of each breakfast recipe or 2 servings of each lunch meal.
You can also add prepackaged snacks to your order, including options like dried fruit, desserts, or nut and seed mixes.
Purple Carrot meals include a variety of fresh, high quality ingredients, such as fruits, vegetables, grains, legumes, herbs, spices, and sauces.
Certain cooking basics like salt, pepper, and vegetable oil may not be included with your order.
According to Purple Carrot, most non-produce items are organic, including nut milk, beans, tofu, and tempeh.
Although they also prioritize fruits and vegetables that are organic and free of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), these options are sometimes limited by shipping constraints and availability.
Purple Carrot’s weekly menu is designed by a team of chefs and features seasonal flavors and interesting ingredients.
For example, their recipes include a range of herbs, spices, sauces, and condiments that help maximize flavor.
Orders are packaged and protected using insulated liners and ice packs to ensure that they stay cool during transit and are delivered fresh.
All Purple Carrot meals and snacks are vegan, making the service a great choice for those following a plant-based diet.
Purple Carrot also labels recipes that are high protein, low calorie, gluten-free, and nut-free, making meal selection easy for those with certain food preferences or dietary restrictions.
However, keep in mind that Purple Carrot may not be a good fit for those following eating patterns that typically include animal proteins, such as paleo or ketogenic diets.
Options for other diet plans like low carb or low fat diets are also limited.
Each recipe lists all its ingredients, which can be useful for those with food allergies or intolerances. Just note that the food is processed in a facility that also handles allergens like wheat, gluten, and nuts, so it may not be suitable for those with severe food allergies.
Plant-based diets have been associated with several potential health benefits.
In fact, studies show that plant-based diets may help protect against several chronic conditions, including type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease (
According to one review of 9 studies, eating more fruits and vegetables was also linked to a lower risk of cognitive impairment and dementia (
Plus, switching to a plant-based diet may also help you lose weight.
In one review of 12 studies, people following a vegetarian or vegan diet lost an average of 4.4 lbs (2 kg) more over 18 weeks than non-vegetarians (
Vegan diets, along with vegetarian and pescatarian diets, may also be linked to a lower body mass index (BMI), less belly fat, and less overall fat mass compared with non-vegetarian diets (
Although Purple Carrot meals aren’t specifically geared toward weight loss, they do offer many plant-based meals that are low in calories, typically containing 400–600 calories per serving.
This may be beneficial if you’re looking to decrease your daily calorie intake to support weight loss (
Prices for Purple Carrot vary depending on the number of servings and the specific meals you select.
Dinners are available with either 2 or 4 servings and start at $9.99 per serving.
Meanwhile, breakfast recipes contain 4 servings each, priced at $4.49 per serving. Plus, they offer 2 lunch recipes per week with 2 servings each for $8.99 per serving.
You can also add prepackaged snacks to your order that range in price from $3.99–$15.99.
There are many similar meal delivery services on the market that also make it easy to enjoy delicious plant-based meals at home.
Daily Harvest, for example, offers a variety of vegan smoothies, harvest bowls, soups, and flatbreads that are ready in minutes. Like Purple Carrot, all Daily Harvest meals are completely plant-based, with items priced at $6–$9 per serving.
However, Daily Harvest meals typically require just one step of preparation and include only organic ingredients.
Sun Basket is another meal delivery service that caters to a variety of different diet patterns, including vegetarian diets.
With a range of nutritious and delicious recipes available on their rotating weekly menu, Sun Basket delivers all the ingredients you need to prepare vegetarian meals at home, starting at $10.99 per serving.
Unlike Purple Carrot, Sun Basket uses mostly organic ingredients in their meal kits. Additionally, some of their vegetarian meals contain dairy, so this service may not be ideal if you’re following a vegan diet.
Purple Carrot is a great option for those wishing to transition to a more plant-based diet while also learning to prepare fresh and healthy meals at home.
It can also be a good choice if you’re interested in experimenting with unique and interesting ingredients like seasonal fruits, vegetables, herbs, and spices that you may not be familiar with.
However, Purple Carrot may not be ideal for people with certain dietary restrictions, as it offers limited options for paleo, keto, low carb, and low fat diets, and is processed in a facility that handles many major allergens.
It also provides limited selections and serving sizes for lunch and breakfast, which may be challenging for larger families or those wanting to include even more plant-based recipes in their weekly diet.
Lastly, because most recipes require 30–40 minutes to prepare, those who are pressed for time may prefer a meal delivery service with options that are fully prepared and don’t need cooking.
Purple Carrot is a plant-based meal kit service that makes it easy to prepare healthy meals at home by delivering pre-portioned ingredients directly to you.
It offers a rotating weekly menu that features nutritious and flavorful recipes and may be a good option if you’re looking to transition to a plant-based diet and enjoy more home-cooked meals.
However, it may not be ideal for those who prefer eating mostly or only organic, people with certain dietary restrictions, and those who are pressed for time during the week.
