Some days, cooking nutritious vegan recipes from scratch just isn’t an option. It may be that you are tired after work, you dislike cooking, or you simply can’t be bothered.
Keeping your fridge and food cupboards fully stocked with ingredients for nutritious vegan cooking can be a struggle at times and definitely a bit of a juggling act. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that so many people let their health go out the window and rely heavily on beige freezer food.
But, I don’t believe there is any shame in that! Just as long as it is an occasional thing. Instead, those who love convenience food, hate cooking or just have no time to make nutritious meals, should look at filling their fridge & freezers with these best vegan ready meals.
Especially since there are now so many amazing ready-to-eat options out there that are nutritious, healthy, convenient, and actually really quite tasty. Oh, and pretty affordable too!
After something a little more hands-on? Then check out these incredible vegan recipe boxes. They are also pretty convenient, like plant-based ready meals, but you do the cooking!
Top Picks
- Best flavours: Planty | Skip to review
- Best range of dishes: allplants | Skip to review
- Best gluten-free options: Field Doctor | Skip to review
- Best eco-friendly option: Lions Prep | Skip to review
- Best for families: Mindful Chef | Skip to review
- Best organic: Abel & Cole | Skip to review
- Best supermarket find: Bol | Skip to review
- Best unhealthy options: Plant Kitchen | Skip to review
- Best budget-friendly: Wicked Kitchen | Skip to review
Are vegan ready meals actually healthy?
Not all vegan ready meals are created equal, meaning some are definitely a lot more healthy than others. The average ready meal you’ll see on the shelves of your local supermarket, probably isn’t that healthy. Especially if you are looking to eat a pre-made vegan pizza every night.
That being said, there are now so many healthy vegan ready meals that you can buy in both your supermarket and online. They use a lot of plant-based protein sources, as well as vegetables. On top of this, some of the vegan-friendly ready meal companies, like Planty, work closely with nutritionists to ensure their meals are well balanced.
Do vegan ready meals taste good?
Ready meals aren’t what they used to be! There are now many vegan ready meals that you can buy that actually taste good. Most ready meal companies freeze the food straight after cooking to retain a lot of the flavour and freshness without using any preservatives. Other companies may deliver their meals fresh every week to ensure you get the best flavour. These are not at all like the traditional tasteless ready meals you may remember from years back which were packed full of preservatives.
Here are the best vegan ready meals in the UK
I’ve been a buyer of vegan ready meals for some time now, I like to fill up my fridge and freezer with a few just to take the edge off when I have a busy week ahead. For me, it is really important that they are nutritional and tasty. So here I have shared my favourite plant-based ready meals that are healthy and tasty, so hopefully, you can enjoy a few nights off of cooking too!
1. Planty
Vegan options: 100% vegan
Dishes: 20+ main courses, a few desserts, sides and breakfasts
Recommendation: BBQ Beef Enchilada
Planty is in my opinion the best vegan ready meal company. You can find out why in my full Planty review. I love their range of meals, which includes main meals, desserts, and side dishes.
When it comes to deciding the meals you want as part of your delivery, you can easily filter by preferred cooking method, course, spice level, nutritional needs, and intolerances. I have found this to be very intuitive and really handy for picking out the perfect vegan ready meals for me.
They update their meal offering quite regularly, which helps to add variety to your diet. I particularly love their seasonal options, including a vegan roast dinner for Christmas.
As for the delivery, they use eco-friendly packaging with carbon-neutral deliveries. Everything is recyclable, and some items can be returned very easily to be reused.
The meals are delivered frozen as they are flash frozen after cooking to retain freshness without using preservatives. This also means they will last a long time in your freezer. Simply cook from frozen following their cooking instructions.
2. allplants
Vegan options: 100% vegan
Dishes: 100+ meals
Recommendation: Rigatoni Bolognese with almond parm
Allplants is another fully vegan ready meal company. They are one of the longest-running companies here, so it is no surprise that they have one of the biggest ready meal offerings! Find out more in my full allplants review.
I really enjoy their dishes and find it really accessible now that they sell some of their meals on Ocado too.
Browsing their large menu on their website is really easy thanks to the filtering system in place which allows you to select meals based on nutritional values, cooking methods, intolerances and cuisine inspiration.
They make sure to update their seasonal menu regularly and with over 100 vegan dishes to choose from, you will always have variety with allplants. Unfortunately, there isn’t the largest variety on Ocado at the moment, but they do have many of their bestsellers on there, including my favourite rigatoni dish.
I particularly like their bundle deals which allow you to explore different dishes for a discounted price. This is particularly good for anyone looking to get an easy meal plan for the coming weeks.
The company is B Corp certified and puts a lot of effort into being eco-friendly. All of their packaging is either recyclable or returnable.
3. Field Doctor
Vegan options: Vegan-friendly
Dishes: 13 vegan meals
Recommendation: 100% plant lasagne
As you can see, there are plenty of vegan ready meals on offer. But what about gluten-free vegan meals? And what about low-fodmap vegan meals? These can be a lot harder to come by.
Fortunately, Field Doctor saved the day. Their meals are crafted by a dietician and a Michelin-trained chef, so that they are both healthy and tasty. They offer a range of vegan dishes, most of which are low-fodmap friendly and gluten-free. Meaning that you can enjoy their plant-based meals on even more restrictive diets.
All of the vegan meals that I have tried by Field Doctor are both really tasty and comforting. Plus the gluten-free dishes are just as good as gluten-based alternatives.
On top of their meal offering you can also book in to talk to one of their gut dietitians. This is great for anyone like myself, who struggles with their gut health.
4. Lions Prep
Vegan options: Vegan-friendly
Dishes: 12 vegan meals
Recommendation: Jerk tofu with roots, peas, & slaw
Whilst Lions Prep isn’t a vegan company, they do offer an extensive and exciting vegan menu. I find many of the dishes to be very enticing and different! And the quality is amazing.
I particularly love the fact that they deliver all their food fresh, rather than frozen like some other companies. So you have the option to either keep it in the fridge and eat within 4 days, or freeze it to store it longer.
In terms of the meals, they offer main meals, breakfast and snacks. The vegan range is relatively big, with 12 vegan main meals on their menu at the time of writing this.
The food is inspired by many different cuisines across the world, including Turkish, Hawaiian, Thai, Indian and Jamaican. Browsing the menu is enough to make you salivate!
And a big plus point for anyone that may live with non-vegans, you can get dishes to suit everyone!
Ordering is really simple, but you do have to order enough for 3 days’ meals.
The whole meal container that the food is housed in is actually fully compostable, which is amazing! Everything else used for the packaging can be recycled or reused.
5. Mindful Chef
Vegan options: Vegan-friendly
Dishes: 8 vegan meals
Recommendation: Cashew & chickpea korma
Mindful Chef is a vegan-friendly recipe box company who also offers a great range of vegan-friendly ready meals that you can buy direct from their website and from Ocado.
They aren’t a vegan company, but they do make it quite easy to locate their vegan options thanks to their ‘vegan’ label. I counted a range of 10 vegan ready meals on offer on their website at the time of writing.
Each dish is packed full of veg and plant-based protein sources. They have a bigger focus on whole foods within their meals, which is great to see. The meals themselves are really quite affordable, and they are even more so if you buy their plant-based bundle.
On top of this, you can also buy smoothies, soups, desserts, breakfast, snacks and vitamins from their online shop. You can even buy a few of their vegan recipe kits at the same time to mix up your meals. This is great if you do also enjoy cooking occassionally!
They are a certified B Corp and use eco-friendly packaging to deliver the meals. They also use carbon neutral delivery. The vegan ready meals are delivered frozen and can be cooked straight from frozen.
6. Abel & Cole
Vegan options: Vegan-friendly
Dishes: 9 vegan meals
Recommendation: Penne with harissa, olives & capers
Abel & Cole is an organic food delivery company focusing mainly on veg boxes. But alongside this, they do also sell loads of other food items which either come from their own brand or from other organic companies. Included in this, is a selection of vegan ready meals.
The range is quite small but it is very good for anyone that wants to buy a few ready meals to go alongside their regular grocery shopping. Particularly, for anyone who wants to make sure they are buying organic food!
They make sure to add seasonal food, like vegan Christmas roasts in the winter. They also offer soups, a few starters, burgers, pies, and tinned meals.
A lot of the meals come in eco-friendly packaging, but it does differ depending on the brand.
The meals are delivered fresh, but do make sure to check each one as some of the brands have stated that their meals are previously frozen so aren’t suitable for refreezing once they arrive at your home.
I find their meals to be really homely and nutritious. They use a lot of vegetables, but there isn’t a whole lot of protein about.
I particularly love that they sell a lot of Clive’s pies so you can buy these alongside a few ready meals!
7. Bol
Vegan options: 100% vegan
Dishes: 10+ meals
Recommendation: Korean sweet chilli ramen noodles
Bol is a fully vegan ready meal company specialising in soups and stews. You will probably have seen them on supermarket shelves before.
More recently, they expanded their range to include what they call ‘posh noodles’. I particularly enjoyed their Korean noodles, they had a great spice and depth of flavour to them.
Their food is delivered at fridge temperature, but a lot of it can be frozen once it has arrived at your home.
They have a large range of vegan ready meals to choose from. And they are perfect for anyone who loves soups and stews.
They make sure to include a range of ingredients in their meals to ensure you are getting a nutritious meal in each bowl. Their range includes protein-boosted and immunity-boosted soups, as well curry pots.
I find the flavours to be nice and the meals themselves to be really quite filling. They are perfect served up on their own or with accompaniments like bread for the soups and rice for the curries.
Annoyingly though, they rely heavily on plastic packaging!
You can buy some of their products from their website, but you can get more from most supermarkets. Including, Ocado and Tesco.
8. Plant Kitchen
Vegan options: Vegan range created by a non-vegan company
Dishes: Approx. 4 dishes
Recommendation: Thai green curry & rice
Plant Kitchen is a fully vegan range from M&S, which is also available to purchase from Ocado. If you are looking for a more traditional ready meal style offering, then Plant Kitchen has got your back! They do everything from pies and pizzas to curries with rice and no-chicken kievs.
I will admit, this isn’t the healthiest option, but it is definitely great for the occasional treat meal. That being said, some of their main course meals are just curry and rice, with plenty of vegetables! You just have to pick wisely.
The food comes packaged inside plastic containers, which is annoying. But this is very common for supermarket ready meals. The dishes themselves are at fridge temperature and some are suitable for home freezing. They can be cooked easily in the oven or microwave.
The best bit, when ordering from a supermarket, you can pair up one of their desserts and a side dish with a bottle of vegan wine, and have an extra special easy date night.
Their food is relatively affordable, but not that much cheaper than some of the fully vegan ready meal companies mentioned above. Despite this, the Plant Kitchen ready meals are really convenient, since you can add them to your next grocery shop!
9. Wicked Kitchen
Vegan options: Vegan range created by a non-vegan company
Dishes: 10+ dishes
Recommendation: Bangin biryani with Beyond Meat
Wicked Kitchen is a vegan food brand built by the Sarno brothers, Chad and Derek. They were born in the US, but have built up their brand alongside Tesco here in the UK.
The brand started off by supplying sandwiches and wraps in all Tesco stores, but has quickly expanded to include vegan ready meals, burgers, sides, and desserts. They make sure to use a lot of vegetables and plant-based protein sources in their food. And you can expect to see a few mushroom-based foods too – which is awesome!
Their vegan ready meals come frozen, dried, and refrigerated. So, they cater for all kitchens! They don’t however put much focus on the eco-friendliness of their products and packaging, which is a shame. But then, they are some of the most affordable vegan ready meals that you can buy. A frozen curry will only set you back £2.75 for one person.
The food selection is a bit basic, with a few curries and a chilli. But is perfect for anyone looking for no-fuss dinners! I love that they partner up with other brands to create some of their meals, like their biryani which uses Beyond Meat.
Comparison table
| Brand | Vegan options | Recommendation | Buy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Planty | 100% vegan | BBQ ‘beef’ enchilada | Buy direct |
| Allplants | 100% vegan | Miso & tamari buddha bowl | Buy direct |
| Field Doctor | 13 vegan meals | 100% plant lasagne | Buy direct |
| Lions Prep | 12 vegan meals | Satay tofu | Buy direct |
| Mindful Chef | 8 vegan meals | Sunflower mince lettuce cups | Buy direct |
| Abel & Cole | 9 vegan meals | Jackfruit jalfrezi | Buy direct |
| Bol | 100% vegan | Malaysian laksa | From Tesco |
| Plant Kitchen | 100% vegan | Vegan lasagne | From Ocado |
| Wicked Kitchen | 100% vegan | Blazin’ biryani | From Tesco |
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