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As a vegan, my choices for plant-centric meal kits are, let’s say, limited, compared to the extremely omnivorous WIRED reviewer Matthew Korfhage, who has tested nearly two dozen meal kits with everything from spicy shrimp to garlic filet mignon and plum pork loin.
I’ve tested several plant-based meal kits, which, unlike normal meal kits, are often much more expensive than my usual produce-heavy weekly grocery haul, and also seriously limited in their rotating plant-based or vegetarian options.
All this to say, I was pleasantly surprised when I tried EveryPlate’s vegetarian fare for a week. Each meal came to $7 per serving for two people for four meals, but oftentimes the leftovers ended up stretching over several meals. (There’s a discount running at the time of writing, with each serving going for $3—which is almost ramen pricing these days.) In total, my first box of four meals ended up being $56 without discount and $24 with the first-time discount (not including shipping cost of $11), and fed me for almost the entire week. That’s cheaper than my usual weekly grocery bill at Trader Joe’s in NYC.
Although EveryPlate meals could be boring, with a pasta or rice base and lots of cheese, each was tasty enough that I actually looked forward to eating the leftovers. I was actually excited to make (and eat) the next planned meal—a rarity in my time testing meal kits, to be honest.
Plan, Preferences, and Picking Process
After testing many meal kits, one thing I’ve grown to appreciate is transparency when it comes to meal choices and price. EveryPlate has both. At a regular price of $7 a serving plus shipping, HelloFresh’s budget offering, EveryPlate, is still the lowest-cost meal kit either Korfhage or I have tested; it’s cheaper than other budget choices, and even meal kits for toddlers.
EveryPlate is much like parent HelloFresh, but stays cheaper by relying more on simple, grain-heavy dishes, like pasta or rice with a hero flavor. EveryPlate’s choices leaned more safe and appealing to the masses; no meal was as adventurous as Purple Carrot, or as health-conscious as Thistle. Each meal I tested took about one hour to prep and cook, although the directions said it would take only 20 to 30 minutes (except for the pizzas I made). And each meal was listed in the 500- to 1,200-calorie range. Because there was limited information on the recipe card (more on that below), it was unclear if the calorie count was total or per serving.
When you order, you start out selecting meal type preferences, like Smart & Fit (calorie-conscious meals), Quick & Easy, Family Faves, and Veggie, so that EveryPlate shows you the most relevant recipes first. You can also see EveryPlate’s weekly menu to get a better idea of future meal selections and weekly choices. I appreciated EveryPlate’s transparency, considering about half of the meal kits I’ve tested don’t allow you to see selections until after you sign up and input payment information. If you don’t like their choices after you’ve paid, you’re SOL.
Each week, there are 36 meals to choose from, including about 10 weekly vegetarian options (I skipped my veganism for the week since EveryPlate’s vegetarian choices rely heavily on butter and cheese). You can look through the next three future weeks of selections, and each meal is labeled with things like “calorie-,” “sodium-,” or “carb-smart,” “quick prep,” “25 minutes or less,” and “veggie.” Although recipes repeat over time, there are always new meals on rotation each week.
You’ll need to choose whether you want three, four, or five meals a week, or servings for two, four, or six people. (As previously mentioned, my two-person meals often stretched into three or four meals for me as a single person.) You can also do a CustomPlate, which allows for adding or swapping ingredients, like adding chicken breast or ground beef to a vegetarian pasta or rice dish.
Once you set your meal preferences, you’ll create an account, fill out your shipping information, and choose a delivery date. The earliest available delivery date was four days later, and delivery was possible every day for the first 15 days after, between 8 am and 8 pm daily. You’ll have to input payment details to reserve your first box, and you’ll be charged four days before the delivery. EveryPlate, like most meal kits, is an auto-renewing subscription service model, but you can skip, cancel, or pause in advance without penalty by 11:59 pm Pacific five days prior to your next scheduled order.
Let ’em Cook
Although I was happy to see less single-use plastic separating meals, EveryPlate ingredients arrive together in one refrigerated box, with a one-sheet page for each recipe included inside. You’ll need to parcel out ingredients and match them to each recipe yourself.
The recipe cards don’t hold your hand too much either, with one side for ingredients and the other for prep and cooking directions. Under each ingredient picture, parentheses show two amounts that indicate how much you’ll need for each serving size. In many cases, you’ll need a certain amount of a spice for the recipe, but it comes in a sachet with no amount information. For this, you’ll need to measure it out yourself. Every recipe required you to provide pantry staples yourself, like S&P, sugar, flour, butter, oil, mayo, and eggs. This is also where you can see why EveryPlate has a cheaper price point.
I often found myself rereading recipe instructions and double-checking the amounts of ingredients for my two-person serving size. The sheet also provides calorie information but offers nothing else nutrition-wise, and lists active and total cook times. To find more specifics, like saturated fat, fiber, sodium, and more, I had to look online for nutritional information for each meal and found that the calorie count on the card is per serving. Most recipe cards also included a chef’s tip, offering advice on cooking times and chopping techniques, and always encouraged adding more ingredients you already have on hand, like fresh herbs. I liked this approach, which encouraged exploration in recipe cooking.
The four two-person serving meals I made throughout the week were vegetarian with optional meat add-ons. Two of the four were rice- and pasta-based, one was a hearty bean-dense soup with ciabatta, and one comprised veggie-topped pizzas.
The herbed white bean tomato stew with feta and garlic toasts called for a 30-minute prep and cook time, but between cutting onions, garlic, scallions, a tomato, and simmering to make a rich soup, it took closer to an hour. I was afraid this dish would be one-note, but with the salty feta cheese (I could’ve opted out and it would’ve been vegan) and hearty ciabatta, this was a cozy soup fit for my snow day dinner. (Although each serving contained 2,210 milligrams of sodium—about what you should have in a day. Yikes.)
The creamy zucchini penne with garlicky panko was a simple, noodle-centric dish with savory-salty goodness that felt a little indulgent. Cook and prep time claimed to be 20 minutes, but it took closer to 45. The zucchini was simmered in a pan with oil, mushroom stock, and lots of Monterey jack, cream cheese, and sour cream. This super-umami dish was a little one-note, but the toasted panko breadcrumbs added some crunchy texture. The sticky-sweet pepper and broccoli bowl was a solid stir-fry that could’ve been leveled up with an optional protein addition through EveryPlate of chicken breast or shrimp, or I could’ve added my own tofu. The recipe says it’s a 35-minute prep and cook time, but ginger, onion, garlic, broccoli, and bell pepper all needed to be sliced and diced, and cooked down with a savory-sweet soy glaze, which took about an hour total. I didn’t add the fried egg, and I used vegan mayo with the sriracha mayo (you need to provide your own), which made it totally plant-based. I liked EveryPlate’s options for customizing meals to your liking based on ingredients.
Last, I made two giant figgy caramelized-onion and arugula pizzas with walnuts and balsamic glaze, which had an expected total time of 60 minutes, but took nearly two hours. Luckily, I was given two packages of premade pizza dough, but those required shaping into balls, resting for 20 minutes, stretching into a pizza shape, and resting for another 15 minutes before they were ready to be assembled. It required chopping two whole onions, cooking them down, and simmering them in fig jam for a rich, semi-sweet taste. After cooking with cheese and onion, I topped the dough with a hearty amount of arugula and chopped walnuts and drizzled it with balsamic. I was worried the pizza dough wouldn’t rise and would be too dense, but it cooked perfectly golden brown. The pizza was balanced with savory cheese and onion, sweet fig, rich, acidic balsamic, and arugula for freshness. I split these with my roommate, and it stretched to three meals.
I think I may actually continue to subscribe to EveryPlate. Although the meals are a bit more calorie- and sodium-rich than my usual go-to vegetarian fare of salads and pea protein burgers, they were super filling and tasty. Plus, the two-person, four-meal plan lasted me almost an entire week, and at about $60 weekly without discount, it’s less than I spend right now grocery shopping, which isn’t as shocking as you might think.
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