My wife and I both work, we have two small kids and we listen to a lot of podcasts: Of course we subscribe to a meal delivery service. I’m not vegetarian, but everyone else in the household is, and my wife has some tricky allergies, so it was tough to find one that was a good fit for us, despite the plethora of meal kit services out there.
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Enter Purple Carrot. Now, it’s not just vegetarian, it’s fully vegan, and as a man who enjoys the odd rasher of bacon now and then, I admit that was somewhat off-putting. But unlike Meatloaf, I’ll do anything for love, and I was not just pleasantly surprised but really blown away.
As David Watsky wrote in CNET’s authoritative review of Purple Carrot, it’s all fantastically flavorful and really interesting. It comes in a big box with heavy freezer packs, each meal individually packed, accompanied by a cute recipe book and a huge clove of garlic. (We now have garlic coming out of our ears.)
The recipes are well written, each with five or six easy-to-follow steps that don’t require much cooking skill. We’ve had curries, salads, pasta, tacos, stews and more. I’m no Cordon Bleu chef but I’ve never had any trouble with them; they take about half an hour each. The vegan dairy substitutes are genuinely delicious. The produce is always excellent quality and thoroughly washed.
We’ve been getting it for a couple of years now and haven’t got bored with any of the recipes. Similar ones come around, but always with a new twist. Occasionally there’ll be nothing on the list that my wife can eat, so we skip a delivery, but almost always we can simply leave out an ingredient. It’s not cheap — I guess it works out to about $13 a meal — but I always feel like we got our money’s worth. My favorite thing: It always leaves the kitchen smelling wonderful.
I can’t take advantage of Purple Carrot’s current Black Friday offer because it’s for new subscribers only, but you absolutely should. It’s offering 50% off your first two boxes, plus free shipping. The deal is valid for new customers between Nov. 22 and Nov. 25. Just use code affbf50 to score a really great deal on some delicious and healthy eats. And if your carnivorous heart is set on some meat, check out David’s list of the best meal delivery service deals right now.