Life can get hectic, and there are days when the thought of cooking a homemade vegan meal from scratch is just too much to handle. Whether it’s post-work exhaustion, a lack of cooking imagination, or a simple ‘I don’t feel like it’ moment, we’ve all been there. And yes, even an experienced vegan chef and avid home cook like myself has those days.
That’s when I turn to my freezer, where a variety of tasty and nutritious pre-made vegan meals await me. These aren’t like the traditional ready meals that you find in supermarkets laden with sugar and wrapped in layers of single-use plastic. No, these vegan ready meals are different – let me show you!
Best flavour ready meals
Planty
- Vegan options: 100% vegan
- Dishes: 20+ main courses, a few desserts, sides and breakfasts
- Recommendation: BBQ Beef Enchilada
- Price: From £5.65 per meal
Planty is in my opinion the best vegan ready meal company. All of the dishes I have tried are packed full of flavour and with their wide offering, you’ll certainly never get bored. Find out more in my Planty review.
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.
You can pick from main courses, side dishes, breakfasts and desserts. Plus they update their meal offering quite regularly, which helps to add variety to your diet. They even do a vegan roast dinner!
Best variety of ready meals
allplants
- Vegan options: 100% vegan
- Dishes: 100+ meals
- Recommendation: Miso and Tamari Buddha Bowl
- Price: From £5.95 per meal
Allplants is another fully vegan food delivery company. They are one of the longest-running companies here, so it is no surprise that they have the biggest range of ready meals! Find out more in my full allplants review.
What makes allplants so special is their awesome lunchtime offering which includes lighter meals like buddha bowls and grain bowls. Plus, I find they have the best range of high-protein vegan meals.
With over 100 vegan dishes to choose from, you will always have variety with allplants. I particularly like their bundle deals which allow you to explore different dishes for a discounted price. Make sure to keep an eye out for their awesome ‘Chef in Residence’ meals where they partner up with some incredible vegan chefs to make even more delicious meals.
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Best specialist diet meals
Field Doctor
- Vegan options: Vegan-friendly
- Dishes: 13 vegan meals
- Recommendation: 100% plant lasagne
- Price: From £6.95 per meal
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. Read more about Field Doctor in my review.
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.
Best fresh ready meals
Lions Prep
- Vegan options: Vegan-friendly
- Dishes: 12 vegan meals
- Recommendation: Jerk tofu with roots, peas, & slaw
- Price: From £4.00 per meal
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!
They offer main meals, breakfast and snacks. With a total of 12 vegan options. If you are trying to eat less carbohydrates then they offer a low-carb option for all their main meals. Their meal plans are also highly customisable, meaning you can ask them to leave out certain ingredients you dislike. For me, I like to leave out the coriander. Ew.
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 it within 4 days, or freeze it to store it longer. Plus the food container is compostable!
Best family-sized ready meals
Mindful Chef
- Vegan options: Vegan-friendly
- Dishes: 8 vegan meals
- Recommendation: Chick’n Jerk Stew & Pineapple Rice
- Price: From £4.75 per person
Mindful Chef is a vegan-friendly recipe box company that also offers a great range of vegan-friendly ready meals that you can buy directly 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. It is the only company to allow for order sizes of 4 people in one go.
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 boxes at the same time to mix up your meals.
Best organic ready meals
Abel & Cole
- Vegan options: Vegan-friendly
- Dishes: 9 vegan meals
- Recommendation: Jackfruit Jalfrezi
- Price: From £5.25 per meal
Abel & Cole is an organic food delivery company focusing mainly on veg boxes. But alongside this, they 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 who 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, vegan wellingtons, and tinned meals.
Best supermarket find
Bol
- Vegan options: 100% vegan
- Dishes: 10+ meals
- Recommendation: Korean Ramen Noodles
- Price: From £3.45 per meal
Bol is a fully vegan ready meal company specialising in soups, noodle pots and stews. You will probably have seen them on supermarket shelves before.
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. Although a lot of them do contain sugar and some natural preservatives. Making them less ‘fresh’ than some other options here.
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.
Best treat meals
Plant Kitchen
- Vegan options: Vegan range created by a non-vegan company
- Dishes: Approx. 4 dishes
- Recommendation: Wood Fired Hot & Spicy Pizza
- Price: From £4.50 per meal
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.
Best budget-friendly ready meals
Wicked Kitchen
- Vegan options: Vegan range created by a non-vegan company
- Dishes: 10+ dishes
- Recommendation: Blazin’ Biryani
- Price: From £2.30 per meal
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.
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