Meal plans are great options for anyone who has a busy lifestyle and still wants to cook healthy, gourmet meals. While there are some people who know how to prepare dozens of fancy vegan meals, that’s not the case for everyone. But with meal kit delivery services, every vegan can eat fabulous meals. To learn about vegan options for the best meal kit delivery services, read on!
Are Meal Delivery Kits Suitable for Vegan Diets?
If you follow the vegan lifestyle for any length of time, you know that eating a vegan diet is not easy. With nearly all meals, you need to come up with creative alternatives and substitutions. So, you probably won’t be surprised to hear that most meal kits will require the same effort.
However, the variety of meals and unique recipes that many meal plans provide should make you excited about choosing a meal kit delivery plan. Sure, you could research each week to find new recipes to spice up your meal routine, but wouldn’t it be easier to have new recipes arrive at your door?
Additionally, many meal kit services are devoted to being environmentally friendly and help their users cut down on food waste. Because each meal comes with the exact ingredients, you’ll find that you throw away much less food each week; if you throw away any food at all, that is.
With a meal kit delivery service, you’ll have everything you need to eat a healthy vegan diet. Plus, you’ll discover a few great recipes along the way. Even if you will need to make some substitutions, choosing a meal plan will be well worth it for your vegan lifestyle.
How Can I Customize My Meal Kit for a Vegan Diet?
On top of offering vegetable-based meals, many meal kit delivery services allow their customers to customize their meal plans. So, you will definitely have the option to customize your plan to a vegan (or mostly vegan) diet.
For a vegan diet, your first step should be to choose a vegetarian plan if there isn’t a separate vegan meal plan. That way, you will at least be guaranteed to not get any meat in your meals. After you’ve selected your diet, you’ll have the option to opt-out of certain foods.
If after all that you still receive ingredients that aren’t vegan-friendly, you can easily substitute the way you would for any other meal. While it may cost a little extra to use substitutions, these ingredients should be ones that you can have on hand at all times and can be used for a variety of meals.
Some common ingredient substitutions include:
- Almond or cashew milk in place of dairy-based milk
- Soy-based vegan cheese for dairy cheese
- Applesauce or crumbled tofu for eggs
- Sunflower oil or olive oil for butter
- Beet sugar, fructose, or date sugar for sugar
If there is a vegan substitute you need, the internet will have it. If there is something in your recipes that you aren’t sure how to substitute, you will find exactly what you need online.
Choose The Best Meal Delivery Services
Blue Apron is another great option for meal kit delivery services. Because of its numerous weekly options, diverse diet plans, and budget friendly prices, consumers can’t go wrong with Blue Apron. Blue Apron does offer a vegetarian meal plan, but not a plan specifically for vegans.
Also, Blue Apron recently partnered with Beyond Meat, so they will soon be offering meals that incorporate this increasingly popular meat-substitute to their meals.
Is Blue Apron Vegan Friendly?
Even though they do not have a specific option for a vegan meal plan, Blue Apron is vegan friendly. Blue Apron offers a vegetarian meal plan that feeds two people, so it’s perfect for couples who choose vegan diets or an individual who wants leftovers.
Similar to Hello Fresh, you can opt to not receive certain ingredients and forgo other ingredients if they don’t fit into your diet or preferences. So even though Blue Apron offers only a vegetarian option, you can still customize it to vegan preferences.
With Blue Apron, you can get cooking some fantastic meals that will divert from your daily routine (in a good way). Some examples of Blue Apron meal options include:
- Baked Tofu with Creamy Tomato Curry
- Mushroom Mazeman With Bok Choy
- Butternut Squash Enchiladas with a Honey Chipotle Sauce
- Curried Cauliflower with Brown Rice and Cilantro-Yoghurt Sauce
If any of the above meals have non-vegan ingredients, you can substitute with vegan friendly options such as maple syrup in place of honey or coconut yogurt in place of milk-based yogurt.
PROs
- 23 Weekly Recipes including Carb-conscious, Vegetarian and more
- Meal Prep option - Cook once for 8 servings!
- No commitment needed - skip or cancel anytime
CONs
- Subscribing to this service can be costlier than grocery shopping
- This service is not ideal if you have food intolerances or allergies
Home Chef is one of the most competitive services in the meal delivery department. In fact, they delivered more than 10 million meals in the last year, so that has to say something about their service. Home Chef offers a variety of meal plan options that can be delivered right to your door.
They offer several meal plans including vegetarian, low-calorie, and standard options. Many meals come pre-prepared so that your meal preparation and clean up take little to no time at all.
Does Home Chef Offer Vegan Meals?
Home Chef does not have a specific vegan meal plan, but it does allow for customization. When you first begin the ordering process, you immediately enter your dietary preferences and choose to remove certain ingredients, such as red meat, shellfish, dairy, pork, mushrooms, and nuts. From there, you’re taken through the check out and meal selection pages.
Along with selecting your dietary preferences, you can choose to customize each meal by removing all meat or substituting Impossible Burger. So, Home Chef does have rather decent vegan options.
However, because some of Home Chef’s meals are pre-prepared, there isn’t much room for making vegan substitutions. That being said, you’ll have to be careful when choosing and customizing your meals if you get your meal kit from Home Chef.
Some meal options with Home Chef include:
- Gnocchi with Red Pepper Cream
- Black Bean and Corn Burger with Chipotle Aioli
- Waldorf Salad with Apples and Dried Cranberries
- Teriyaki Impossible Burger with Peanuts and Cilantro
PROs
- Dozens of Weekly Options Including Oven Ready
- No Contact Delivery To Your Door
- Up to 30 Weekly Meals + No Prep, No Clean Up Options
- No Commitment, Skip or Cancel at Anytime
CONs
- Not ideal for people with dietary restrictions
- Food is not 100% organic
Final Thoughts
If you’re looking for a meal plan that adheres to a vegan diet, you have many options to choose from. Even if the meal kits aren’t made specifically for vegan diets, you can customize the plans so that they have only vegan ingredients. So, no matter what your dietary preference is, you can find a meal plan to match.