You may well have the best intentions when it comes to cooking your own dinners at home, but it can often feel much less time-consuming to simply pick up the phone and order your favourite takeaway to be delivered to your door or to blitz yet another frozen vegan ready meal in your microwave for five minutes.
But this isn’t sustainable, nor particularly affordable long-term. And maybe, just maybe, you actually enjoy cooking. The issue is that time is of the essence, and meal planning and getting to the supermarket each week just isn’t a priority.
So, what if I told you that you could still cook tasty vegan meals, but all the prep work has been done for you? All thanks to these vegan recipe boxes that I am about to take you through. Pretty cool, right?
They create the recipes, work out the nutritional values, measure out ingredients, cook sauces, and box it all up with a recipe card for you to finish cooking it at home.
Moreover, we all know that variety is the spice of life, so I’m happy to tell you that there are quite a lot of companies offering these really awesome vegan meal kits. Meaning you can eat lots of different and exciting foods every week, or you can keep it simple with diet-specific options.
Let’s start simplifying your life and making your dinners more exciting and nutritious with my favourite vegan recipe boxes!
Here are the best vegan recipe boxes
The popularity and demand for vegan recipe boxes is clearly growing, as more and more companies look to offer this service. The following list features a mix of companies, some 100% vegan, and some with vegan offerings.
There is well and truly a vegan meal kit out there for everyone!
I have added an icon to each of the kits below which are from fully vegan companies.
Grubby
Size of the vegan menu: 10 dishes which change every week
Cost: Approx. £5.75 per serving
Packaging: They use cardboard and biodegradable plastic wherever possible
Ingredients: British-grown fresh produce and organic where possible
If you want to buy from a fully vegan recipe box company, then look no further! Grubby is on a mission to show off plant-based food with their weekly changing menu and championing of fantastic British produce.
When you sign up for their meal kit subscription you choose your first delivery date and box size, which can be either a regular box for 2-3 people or a family-size box for 4-5 people.
Their regular box can also be suitable for solo purchasers since the leftovers often make for a great lunch the next day!
You then get to browse that week’s vegan recipe options. You need to pick between 2 to 4 recipes per box delivery. The food options are really exciting and each shows a carbon rating so you can pick the most sustainable options, should you wish.
You’ll pick from dishes like vegan bacon carbonara, Lebanese potatoes with tahini dressing, and Shepherd’s pie. The recipes span all cuisines and make the most of vegetables and whole foods. But you may also catch the occasional collaboration with an awesome vegan brand like Oatly.
I would recommend their boxes to anyone who is vegan or has a fully vegan household. It is great to be able to support a fully vegan company and I’m sure the other vegans in your life will think so too.
They also supply you with a playlist to cook along to!
Gousto
Size of the vegan menu: 10+ dishes that change every week
Cost: From £2.99 per serving
Packaging: Eco chill box with recyclable cardboard and plastic bags which can be recycled at supermarkets and ingredients sent in paper bags where possible
Ingredients: British-grown fresh produce where possible with some overseas produce
Variety and affordability are at the core of Gousto’s recipe kit offering. They aren’t a vegan company, but their vegan offering is always exciting and delicious.
At the time of writing this guide, Gousto has a whopping 16 different plant-based recipes on offer, which is more than any other non-vegan company. Oh and actually, it is more than any of the fully vegan recipe box companies too. Meaning, Gousto has the greatest variety of vegan meals on offer. So, if you don’t mind ordering from a non-vegan company, then you’ll always be eating exciting meals with Gousto.
Their meals are really cheap if you are ordering larger boxes for multiple people, but I still find their smaller boxes are more affordable than their competitors.
Gousto partake in regular collaborations with vegan food brands, which means you get to try exciting new products regularly in your meals. For example, they regularly work with Fable who use mushrooms to create delicious vegan meat substitutes.
Within their large plant-based offering, you’ll find plenty of different cuisines to choose from. Expect everything from Thai to Mexican and Cuban food. I’m certain you’ll never get bored of their recipes.
I would recommend Gousto to anyone looking for great variety each week. I personally get very bored of eating the same food every day, so their offering is perfect for people like me.
Mindful Chef
Size of the vegan menu: 7 dishes that change every week
Cost: From £10 per serving
Packaging: Recycled denim insulation, cardboard, tins and biodegradable pods are used where possible. If plastic is used it isn’t virgin plastic and it is recyclable
Ingredients: British-grown fresh produce
Mindful Chef is one of the UK’s largest recipe box companies. They offer a large selection of weekly changing recipes as well as a vegan ready meal offering which can be bought from their website or on Ocado.
Unlike some of their competitors, they have a large vegan recipe box selection which is very clearly labelled. They even have a whole page dedicated to their vegan options.
I have found them to offer at least 7 vegan options every week with the option to add a fruit box to your order.
Mindful Chef is focused on offering healthy nutritious meals, so you’ll see a lot of balanced meals on offer. They make the most out of plant-based protein sources and collaborate with vegan food brands like Heura.
When you go to order from Mindful Chef you pick your initial delivery date, dietary preference and box size, which ranges from one-person to family-sized.
You can then pick 2 to 5 different recipes to be included in your box. Dishes are really varied and can include anything from mushroom gnocchi to teriyaki tofu.
I really like their focus on health issues, which includes their being partnered up with the likes of Diabetes UK. Any dishes which are suitable for such health issues are labelled appropriately. They also avoid refined carbs in all of their meals and focus on packing a lot of veg into their meals.
I think their boxes are really useful for large families, especially those with picky eaters as you can mix up the recipes very easily.
Green Chef
Size of the vegan menu: About 6 dishes which change every week
Cost: Starting from £4.94 per serving
Packaging: Recyclable cardboard box and recipe cards and where plastic is used it is recyclable and carbon offset
Ingredients: Some British produce is used but further details aren’t provided
Green Chef are another of the biggest recipe box companies here in the UK. Their focus is on creating boxes to suit 6 different dietary preferences, including veganism.
This does mean that a lot of their food is very health focused, with much of it being keto-friendly and lower carb.
They have at least 7 different vegan recipes on offer every week which are clearly labelled. I like how easy it is to see what is included in each recipe, simply click on one and you’ll be shown the ingredients you are being sent. Alongside this, they also show the cooking instructions, which is really handy to see before being sent it!
When you go to order from Green Chef you first need to sign up, give your dietary preference, number of people (2 or 4), and meals per week (3 or 4). Their price per serving is one of the cheapest I’ve seen!
After you sign up you can browse their weekly menu and pick your choices.
You’ll find a good variety of nutritious dishes that are clearly labelled vegan, as well as any other diets they are suitable. The recipes can include anything from fish-less pie and THIS isn’t chicken tikka masala.
You can easily mix and match their vegan dishes with non-vegan dishes if you have stubborn animal eaters in your house. But you can also cover any of your other dietary preferences, like high protein, quite easily.
If you are a solo buyer, then you can get their box for 2 and eat leftovers for lunch.
PHOMO
Size of the vegan menu: 1 main & 1 starter with seasonal specials
Cost: Starting from £8.96 per serving
Packaging: Recyclable cardboard box but lots of individually plastic-wrapped ingredients
Ingredients: No information as yet regarding the source of their ingredients
I can’t tell you how excited I was to discover a company offering Vietnamese recipe boxes. I lived in Vietnam for 1.5 years, so it is great being able to eat authentic Vietnamese dishes that I loved in my own kitchen here in the UK.
Hopefully, more and more people will now get to try these flavours from the comfort of their own kitchen, without having to attempt lengthy cooking of broths and sauces.
When you browse their website you can either build your own box by browsing all of their recipes available here, or you can simplify things by ordering yourself a bundle, like with their vegan bundle.
You can buy their box either as a one-off or as a subscription. I like the flexibility that this offers!
The dishes you can choose from include vegan phở (my favourite dish from Vietnam) and fresh spring rolls. You can also buy sides like their own chilli oil and lemongrass and garlic tofu.
Whilst you may be thinking that their menu is pretty limited, which yes it is, I lived off phở for years when I lived in Vietnam. I ate it pretty much every other day. And I could quite happily eat phở on a weekly basis to bring back those incredible food memories.
They also do regular special offerings which feature different toppings and broths, which keeps things exciting!
Riverford
Size of the vegan menu: 5 dishes that change every week
Cost: Starting from £6.73 per person
Packaging: Compostable ‘plastic’ used as well as recyclable cardboard (they are moving fully away from plastic altogether!)
Ingredients: Organic and locally sourced from their own farms in the UK (and sometimes Europe)
If you really care about your organic fruit and veg then you’ll love the recipe boxes on offer from the organic veg box company, Riverford.
All of their veg is grown on their own farms, either in England or France. So, all the fresh produce you will be eating is seasonal and local. Doesn’t get better than that!
My Mum orders a veg box from Riverford every week and the quality of the food is amazing. The same goes for their vegan recipe boxes!
They have at least 5 plant-based recipes on offer every week, with every recipe being suitable for 2 people. If you order two recipes you save 5%, if you order three or more then you can save 10%. So, it really pays to get a few different recipes delivered, but I do also like that you can just get the one delivered.
Their buying options are also really flexible, you can either buy it one-off or set up a subscription, including weekly, or every 2, 3, or 4 weeks.
The meals are packed full of veg and wholefoods and everything is always so colourful and exciting.
The recipes change week on week and utilise seasonal veg. You’ll see meals like black garlic, rosemary and red pepper risotto, mushroom stroganoff, and bang bang tofu.
I love that you can check out the ingredients you’ll be sent before it arrives along with the equipment you’ll need. This is really handy for anyone who is super organised and wants to plan their recipe boxes in with their evenings.
Pastan
Size of the vegan menu: 5 dishes, 1 dessert & 4 individual sauce and pasta options
Cost: Starting from £6.50 per serving
Packaging: HPE plastic packaging used which is widely recyclable across the UK
Ingredients: Wheat sourced from the UK and vegetables from within a 50-mile radius of London where possible
I first discovered Pastan when they had their first pop-up pasta joint in Convent Garden, London. The brand is fully vegan and everything they create is wonderfully decadent and simply delicious.
Everything they do is based around pasta and it is all handmade!
They now have a permanent restaurant near the Barbican and they also sell all of their popular pasta dishes as recipe kits on their website. This means you can enjoy restaurant-quality pasta dishes in the comfort of your own home. Nothing screams comfort more than eating delicious vegan pasta on your sofa.
You can order a mix of different pasta types and sauces, as well as pasta dish bundles for 2 people. I like that you can choose your favourite pasta, be it gnocchi, chitarra, or filled pasta, and mix it up with different sauces like carbonara or cacio e pepe. But you can also just buy the pasta and use your own sauces if you wish!
On top of the pasta, they sell their own vegan parmesan and their famous mini doughnuts with biscoff filling. These are an absolute must!
My favourite pasta is their pumpkin and sage tortelloni which goes really nicely in some melted vegan butter. And when it comes to their bundles, I love their Comfort You dish which is a take on macaroni cheese.
These are suitable for anyone who loves eating pasta on the regular or for anyone looking for something extra special to serve on date night or for a dinner party. They don’t have to know that you didn’t make the pasta by hand yourself…
Frequently asked questions
Here are some FAQs regarding vegan recipe boxes.
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