Can Purple Carrot convert an omnivore to plant-based eating? I taste-tested to find out

Purple Carrot mainly stands out in the meal delivery service space because all of the food is vegan. You can set your plan to deliver two or four servings of three or four meals each week, and you can choose between ready-to-cook recipes or pre-made meals you need to heat and eat. You can also add frozen meals or snacks like protein bars to your orders whenever you want.

When searching the menu, you can filter for “high-protein,” “gluten-free,” or “less prep” to find exactly what you want. But unlike some meal delivery services like HelloFresh or Blue Apron, there’s not an overwhelming selection to sort through. There are just 28 or so recipe kit options and the same number of ready-to-eat meals. Helpfully, you can read all the ingredients, instructions, nutrition facts, and any tools you’ll need. You can also see how long it will take to make, with different estimates depending on whether you’re cooking two or four servings (a distinction that most meal kits leave out).

Owing to a miscommunication, the delivery arrived four days earlier than planned, while I was out of town. I was afraid that all of the food inside had gone bad. But I was happily surprised — shocked, really — by how hearty the ingredients turned out. Not a single piece of produce had wilted. The included ice pack (and, to be fair, the snowy weather) had kept everything perfectly fresh.

Inside the box, each meal was separated in its own plastic bag, with a recipe card included, so it was easy to tell which ingredients I’d need for each meal. Yes, this does mean there’s a good deal of plastic waste involved, but I found Purple Carrot didn’t use quite as much packaging as some other meal kits.

Once I started cooking, I appreciated how easy and quick many of the meals were to make — and how accurate the time estimates were. A pesto white bean salad that said it would take 20 minutes actually took me exactly 20 minutes. Several of the recipes I tried also used pretty minimal tools — in the case of a chickpea salad wrap, it required just one large bowl and a small frying pan — so the recipes required little cleanup afterwards.

Another thing I particularly enjoyed about Purple Carrot’s cooking process was how the instructions told me when I could customize the recipe to my tastes. For instance, one recipe told me to add as much red onion as I liked, and another let me choose how much sriracha to use. This was the only recipe box I’ve tried that did this consistently. Not only did it mean I was more likely to enjoy the final flavors, but I also felt more in charge of the cooking process, rather than just following a series of steps.

And I really, truly enjoyed the meals themselves, even when I was prepared not to. Each recipe had a smart mix of textures: toasted lentils and garlic topped a stew, and a sesame-orange tofu dish had me crisp the tofu until it had a nicely browned crust to bite into. The ingredients were healthy but cooked in ways that were appealing even to fussy eaters. I loved how many veggies were included and the smart ways of adding protein with ingredients like beans, nuts, and nutritional yeast. Also, the portion sizes were spot-on; there was enough to fill our bellies without getting overstuffed.

With each of these meals, without fail, when my husband found out they were vegan, he’d tell me he wasn’t hungry, but would have “just a taste” to check it out — and then once he did, he’d ask for more. We even got our toddler to dig in, and she learned how much she loved crispy tofu. (Stew was another story, but you can only expect so much from a three-year-old.) Overall, these meals forced me to admit I’ve been unfairly judging vegan meals for far too long.