Recently one of my Facebook friends gifted me a free box of Purple Carrot, a vegan, plant-based meal delivery service. I had never tried Purple Carrot, but I’d had my eye on this weekly box for quite a while. Word on the street was that this box was pretty awesome, but of course, I wanted to try it for myself lol! I was curious about a few different factors, specifically ease of preparation, serving size, and of course, the deliciousness level 🤔
My household is comprised of my son, the athlete, who consumes 4-5K calories a day, my husband, who believes in an old school Cuban meal, my daughter, who isn’t a vegan but is always down to try any new vegan-friendly spots I want to check out, and finally, me…the only vegan! 🌿 Will Purple Carrot pass the test of helping make meal time more delicious, interesting and user friendly???
For the sake of this post, when I refer to meals, I am going to solely focus on my own; sometimes my family is eating something different when it comes to the protein. We are big on rice & beans, so typically I will eat that with some kind of tofu or veggie dish. I also love pasta, so once a week I will make that with a vegan meat sauce or my new obsession, a cashew alfredo sauce. Last night I made tacos, which is always a fast & easy meal for everyone.
We all fall into the routine of cooking the same go-to recipes in our arsenal. It isn’t that the same meals we keep preparing are bad, but I can say that sometimes it does get a bit mundane, or dare I say, boring? This was the first thing I thought was great about Purple Carrot! 💜🥕 The recipes are unique, and introduce a lot of flavors and combinations that really bring the dish to life. I am obsessed with the recipe book that comes in each box. You get to see not just the recipes for meals you received, but all the recipes for that week. There are a ton of great images to use as reference and the steps are pretty logical and user-friendly. So if there was something you were interested in trying but didn’t add it to your box, you can still replicate at home with your own ingredients.
Let me give you the low down on pricing and what’s included before we dive into the recipes I received and created over the past few weeks. Purple Carrot is a weekly meal delivery service that is 100% vegan and 100% plant-based. Can you say music to my ears??? They automatically select the minimum amount of meals (three dinners) for the box each week and you have about a week prior to that to switch out any recipes, and add on any other dinners, breakfasts, lunches or “plantry” items. I think I spend quite a bit of time perusing the different recipe options each week, because it is really son hard to decide!
Let’s talk price 💸 The minimum box of three dinners is about $72 USD. Add-on meals range anywhere from $4.50-$12 USD per serving. I would say based on my experience, the dinners, meant to be two servings, are quite generous. My daughter and I were splitting each dinner, and honestly we could have probably gotten a 3rd serving out of them. I love having leftovers to take to work!
Let’s talk about each of the three different meals I created with Purple Carrot, a weekly vegan, plant-based meal delivery service! 💜🥕
Middle Eastern Tabbouleh Bowl
The Middle Eastern Tabbouleh Bowl with Spiced Cauliflower & Tahini Yogurt is probably my favorite recipe from the box and most definitely could have easily been three servings. I was initially attracted to selecting this recipe for a few different reasons. First of all, I love cauliflower! I wish there had been a bit more of this but overall I was still satisfied. I was also loving the combination of the sauerkraut, cherry tomatoes, and Persian cucumber. It just sounded like some crunchy, flavorful goodness!
I also love that creamy tahini yogurt. It is refreshing and delicious and so easy! This is an example of something I could easily replicate moving forward when I make other things at home as well. It’s like I’m eating yummy af and learning how to add new things to my repertoire. The brown rice was also delicious and more than just rice with the diced radishes and mint. Honestly, this was such a refreshing and flavorful recipe! I would totally try and replicate this on my own.
One thing I will note about the Purple Carrot ingredients, is how incredibly fresh they are! What I do wish there was a little more of was preparedness. If the veggies were chopped and garlic minced my time would be cut much shorter and so would the amount of bowls I used to keep my chopped items in. Don’t let the green cutting board fool you! LOL!
Just take a look at the finished dish below! 🥗 It was so delicious!!!
Thai Mango Noodle Bowl
I had high hopes for this recipe. I really thought it was going to be my fave but I would say this one landed in the #3 spot. Not that it was bad, it was good but it could have been way better. I was drawn to the Thai Mango Noodle Bowl with Coriander Tofu & Roasted Sweet Potato again for a few reasons. I love learning new techniques for preparing tofu, a highly underrated vegan staple. I also love mango, along with peanut sauce and rice noodles so I was surprised/sad when it just didn’t meet my expectations.
The biggest contributor to this was the peanut sauce. It was good, but there just wasn’t enough of it. To their credit, they do state in the recipe book that “You don’t have to use all the rice noodles.” I, of course, love noodles so why would I not go all in?!?! Since there wasn’t enough peanut sauce to really cover all the noodles though, they ended up being pretty bland 😕
I also think there could have been more sweet potatoes 🍠 It was only about 3-4 steak fry size pieces per serving. I would have also appreciated more chile garlic sauce. There was really only enough for the completed dish you see below 🢃
Spanish-Style Tofu
The Spanish-Style Tofu with Avocado Radish Salad & Paprika Aioli was a major fave as well. It took the #2 spot for a couple of reasons. First off, I needed something as a base. Maybe some quinoa or brown rice, but something was definitely missing to anchor the recipe and make it way more filling. The 2nd thing was the avocado. If you follow me over on Instagram, you know how much I love avocados! Sadly, the avo that came in the box was still too green to incorporate into any recipe. Don’t worry, I did enjoy it later on with some olive oil and salt…simple & very delish 🥑
Aside from those two reasons, I would give this recipe a total thumbs up. I loved the way the tofu was prepared with the sautéed onions, peppadew peppers, and paella seasoning. I could have easily eaten all of the tofu on its own! The broccolini and radish salad were also nice but I think I would have sprinkled some lemon juice and/or olive oil and salt on the broccolini for some added flavor.
Just check out how fresh those veggies look! The colors speak for themselves 😍🥦
The finished product was an explosion of flavor! I loved the sweetness of the sautéed onions and peppadew peppers. Tofu is almost like a blank canvas…It really takes on the flavors of the other ingredients in the dish. I also loved the radish salad, and I can only imagine how good it would have been with buttery avocado. The paprika aioli was a nice addition on top with the a cool, creamy consistency.
Overall, I really enjoyed my experience with the Purple Carrot vegan, plant-based delivery service. I would say that it isn’t the most conducive for everyday cooking, at least for my family of four with so many different schedules, food preferences, and activities going on. The one weekly box lasted me about 3 weeks, creating about one meal per week. I think this box would be excellent for a working professional, as well as, a couple or a couple with a young child, that can come home and know that everything they need to create a delicious meal is waiting for them on their doorstep.
The variety of recipes offered each week was phenomenal, the flavors for the most part were on point, and I loved learning new techniques and flavors I could incorporate into my own cooking on a regular basis. The booklet is also a total winner with such great pictures and step-by-step directions for every single recipe that week! I can see myself doing about a box a month with 4 dinners to continue creating that one special dish every week that I can share with my daughter or split into dinner and leftovers for lunch the next day 💗
Your turn! Have you tried Purple Carrot? Let me know in the comments 😊 What has been your favorite recipe so far?
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Cruelty Free Lucy 