Unlike some other meal delivery services, HelloFresh doesn’t make you jump through many hoops to find vegetarian options—the second question when ordering allows you to choose “vegetarian” right away. When selecting her meals, Clingham-David enjoyed “the breadth of personalization, including useful preferences to save money, limit waste, eat healthy, meal prep faster, or discover new recipes.” She was also impressed by how “varied and lively” the vegetarian options were week to week: “pasta and veg bowls, hearty wraps and sandwiches, flavorful soups and salads. Some were simple, such as pesto pasta, and others were more inventive, like BBQ Pulled Mushroom Sandwiches. Clicking into each dish reveals the full ingredient list, making it easy to see what you’re signing up for. The variety alone made me excited for the week of meals to come. These aren’t simply meat dishes without the meat—they were intentionally thought-out meals with a balance of flavors and textures,” she writes.
Clingham-David’s favorite dish during her week of testing was the Tofu Banh Mi. “At first I was skeptical—bahn mi, one of my personal favorites, is a balancing act of sweet, sour, salty, and spicy with pickled vegetables, bright cilantro, a toothsome marinated protein, and a soft, fluffy baguette. The flavors of HelloFresh’s banh mi were spot on. The instructions streamlined all the vegetable prep and allowed you to prepare your sauces well in advance of any cooking. The bread was pillowy and soft, and even though it didn’t fully hold up when stuffed with the tofu and vegetables, the texture was better than expected with bread from a plastic bag,” she writes.
What we’d leave: There wasn’t much Clingham-David didn’t like during her week of testing HelloFresh, but she does mention that some of the produce in her box went bad before she had a chance to use it.
Read our full HelloFresh review here.
The best prepared vegetarian meal delivery service: CookUnity
Pros:
- Restaurant-quality, chef-crafted meals
- Strong flavors and thoughtful preparations
- User ratings and reviews help narrow choices
- Breakfast, lunch, and dinner options available
Cons:
- Not all meals are winners
- Many vegetarian options are low in protein
- Creamy Tofu Tikka Masala
- Buffalo Cauliflower Bowl
- Broccoli-Cheddar Breakfast Frittata
- Mission-Style Soyrizo Burrito
Tester: Olivia Tarantino, senior commerce editor
About CookUnity: CookUnity’s ready-to-heat meals are developed by real chefs like José Garces and Esther Choi, delivering restaurant-quality dishes without the work. Start by selecting your dietary preferences (they have both vegetarian and vegan), flag any foods to avoid, and pick your plan based on how many meals you want per week. There are about 30 or so vegetarian and vegan options available each week, and each dish includes user ratings and customer reviews to help you decide what to order.
What we loved: “Every time I eat my CookUnity meals in the office kitchen, I end up trying to sell all my coworkers on it—it’s that good,” says Tarantino. She’s tested CookUnity before, but this was her first time ordering vegetarian options. “These vegetarian meals matched the flavor, texture, and restaurant quality of CookUnity’s meat-forward dishes. CookUnity isn’t afraid of bold flavors, and this week of vegetarian meals was packed with them.”
