I decided to order one of those meal prep deliveries to help me get out of the rut of not cooking for much of the Spring and Summer (unless you call making quesadillas and steamed broccoli cooking...). We're vegetarian. I settled on Purple Carrot which delivers vegan recipes. I have now had 3 weeks in which a box with 3 recipes and the measured out ingredients showed up on my doorstep on Wednesday late afternoon. Overall, I would call the experience a success. Here are my thoughts so far: Positives: 1) I am definitely cooking more! I have indeed succeeded in making all 3 recipes for 2/3 weeks, and one of the weeks isn't over yet. 2) Not having to choose recipes, given busy schedules, removes one barrier to preparing meals at home. 3) Having everything measured out ahead of time is indeed cutting down on the amount of prep, which is making it possible to cook meals in about 45 minutes - with busy schedules, this is key. 4) I am enjoying learning about cooking with new and different ingredients, using new styles/techniques for cooking, and eating a good variety of flavors. 5) I get to use small amounts of some ingredients that would be too expensive to buy just for one recipe (e.g., date syrup). 6) The ingredients are fresh and the recipes healthy. 7) The instructions are pretty good! I have made a few supplementary notes on some of the recipe cards, but not many. 8) I expect that I will pull out the recipe cards and make a good number of these recipes again. Areas where there is room for improvement: 1) While the instructions are pretty good, sometimes a video would be helpful to illustrate techniques. 2) The serving sizes are often large for what we typically eat at dinner (but not always!)- probably a good idea to look at the nutritional information, and sometimes eat as 3 servings instead. 3) Occasionally some ingredients didn't seem like they lasted until it was time to cook (e.g., small quantity of arugula didn't last from Wednesday to Saturday). It would be good for the recipes to come with recommendations about which recipes are best made sooner and which can keep for a bit. 4) Some of the quantities of herbs and spices were a little skimpy. 5) While I did succeed in making all of the recipes in about 45 minutes, they varied in terms of how much of a circus needed to take place in the kitchen, and at least half the time I found that a sous-chef was critical to keeping the timing of the different steps on track. 6) Biggest down-side: The amount of packaging. I am convinced that I am throwing out much less food for sure, but I am not so crazy about the box getting shipped from far away, and about throwing out the box (which is of heavy cardboard) and ice packets each week. I would be interested in a more local option. read more

It's only my second week with purple carrot but so far so good. Everything was fresh. The recipes were also very good. I had used another meal service to deliver vegan meals and it was straight up nasty and flavorless so I was pleasantly surprised that these were so good and had wonderful flavor combinations. I cook for myself a lot but I've been in a bit of a cooking rut lately and I've been very repetitive and lazy with my cooking. This kind of reintroduced me to seasonings I forgot I liked and made me excited to experiment again. I'm excited for my husband to get off deployment so I can make him some of these. :) read more

I have been on the TB12 plan for about four months now, and I'm very pleased with it. The food is delicious, and the recipes are creative. Purple Carrot has introduced me to a number of new ingredients that I never would've thought to try. It's a great way to learn how to cook vegan foods and to become a better cook in general. I am not a vegan. I chose the plan because I love the food and it's healthy. I have served it to many friends who are not vegan and they also have enjoyed it. The portions are generous. I get three servings out of them most of the time. My primary complaint is the amount of time it takes for me to cook and clean up the meals. It's about an hour all in. The recipes do have a number of steps to them. I use a lot of pots and pans and bowls, all of which need to be cleaned up afterwards. They also occasionally have some ingredients that don't survive the shipping journey. Basil and some greens are just too delicate to ship, especially in the summertime. read more

I really wanted to like this! I have cooked 3 meals from The Purple Carrot and I have to say I'm not impressed. The first two meals had rotten, slimy squash, the second had slimy peas. All of the ingredients appeared fresh in the 3rd meal. I have eaten many vegan dishes in my day and two of the 3 dishes were just not good. I wrote to customer service and told them about my issues and all they did was provide me with a link to cancel subscription. Between the rotten food, bad recipes and poor customer service... I'm out! read more

I am very impressed with this home meal delivery service. The recipes offer a variety of flavors and proteins (not just tofu) and range from simple to unique but they have all been delicious. I have always wanted to go completely vegan and Purple Carrot is making that possible with meals that are never boring and always fill you up. I also like that they offer breakfast, and snacks as well. The deliveries have all been on time with the food fresh and wrapped well. Vegan is the way to go for many reasons, it's healthier, humane and better for the planet. This service has even turned my meat-eating husband into a believer. After just one week of eating vegan he says he has more energy and his joints are not as stiff. I would recommend Purple Carrot to anyone that wants to try eating vegan and just needs a good place to start. read more

Overpriced and the produce has not been fresh. Soggy spinach and other decaying vegetables (I.E. onions). Not worth the $.

Too Long Didn't Read: Great if you want to expand your cooking skills and repertoire, eat at home more often, and eat healthy and delicious meals that don't cause animal suffering, and not have to go grocery shopping. Recipes are sometimes complex and time consuming and portions are on the small side but are probably enough. It's around $11/meal per person - a good deal for the quality/complexity of recipes. We've been subscribing to The Purple Carrot (dinner for two people three times a week) for five months and plan to keep going for the foreseeable future. My husband and I signed up because we are both vegan, my dad is a fan of Mark Bittman's NY Times recipes, and because we had been eating out almost every night of the week and had a very limited cooking repertoire. When we did buy groceries to cook, the leftovers would often go to waste. The Pros of The Purple Carrot -Expanded repertoire/education: I've learned how to use several ingredients I had never even heard of before including pea shoots and chickpea flour and tried some recipes I never would have ordered at a restaurant only to find they are new favorites like an Egyptian dish called Koshari. I also finally learned the perfect combo of sauces to throw on the pan at the end of a stir-fry. -Less grocery shopping: The ingredients come exactly proportioned, with no extra. I like how we get one entire garlic clove, and by the end of the week's three recipes, it's used up. That never used to happen for me and the packaging is pretty minimal. -Weight loss: The portions are on the small side but if you wait for the food to reach your stomach it usually turns out to be just enough. My husband and I both lost a few pounds after the first week. Only a few times has he needed some extra calories after because he's 6'3" and works out. -Savings: Eating TPC three times a week saves us money because we otherwise would be eating out. The meals are interesting and complex, a little on the fancy side - worth more than $11/person if you were to order them at a restaurant. -Customer service: calling the number is a pain, no one answers BUT the e-mail customer service is great -they get back to you in a day and are very helpful -Packaging: they are constantly tinkering with the packaging to make it more environmentally friendly and have fewer pieces. Since we shop mostly at grocery stores anyway, we'd still be getting packaging either way, so I don't feel like it's much worse for the environment except the shipping part and it's all vegan so the producing of the foods themselves are better for the environment. The Cons of The Purple Carrot -Time consuming/complex recipes: We signed up for TPC for convenience but found that the recipes are pretty involved. Most recipes claim to take 35-45 minutes but they always take longer than the estimate. At first they used to take me sometimes more than twice as long but as I've gotten more used to them I've gotten faster. If you are a professional chef you can probably complete the recipe in the given estimate but then you're probably not ordering a recipe delivery service. -Sometimes requires specialty equipment: One recipe called for an oven-safe skillet. I spent around 10 minutes researching whether our skillets were oven-safe. They were not. I ended up having to use a big dutch oven, it's all we had. Occasionally a recipe will call for a food processor though I've noticed lately they add that you can chop by hand but to make sure the size is uniform. Recipes sometimes require both oven and stove top. -Rarely but sometimes there are careless omissions in the instructions that can be quite stressful if you're halfway through a recipe and realize you don't know what temperature to set the oven at. read more

I wanted so badly to like this service. I love to cook. I was vegan for years and I've tried almost every meal kit service out there. Unfortunately purple carrot is one of the worst. The first meal I made was awesome (falafel hash) the next five ranged from bland to disgusting. I'm not very picky but cauliflower covered in tomato sauce is gross. Also their website is terrible. There are no options to pick alternative meals, you can only see ears a week in advance and can only skip a week in advance unless to completely pause your account. And their customer service is terrible. They keep trying to charge me for a box I did not order and never received. I have talked to four different customer service people and none of them seem to be able to fix it. Two months ago I thought one guy had handled it and then they charge my card again and now won't respond. I may have given them a second chance on the mediocre food but the bad customer service put me over the edge. Unfortunately this service will likely perpetuate the idea that vegan food is boring and bland. read more

I am not a vegan and my wife insisted we try this. Without one doubt, this is the best meal service we have ever had. Not just that, I have eaten some of the best meals I have ever had with this service. The meals take about 30-45 mins to make and require your attention, but are not so hard as to deter. I have become so much more familiar with cooking as a result of the instructions and new cooking styles. I cannot say enough about how much, even as an avid meat eater, I enjoy these meals. read more

I really love the idea of this but the execution was poor. Packaging was often not very good, i.e. Metal cans were put in the same bag as produce and the produce would be damaged. Sometimes I would open the box and lentils or some ingredient would be strewn all over since the bag wasn't properly sealed. A couple of times there was an extra ingredient that wasn't listed in the recipe so I didn't know what to do with it. Herbs would be slimy. I never knew what to expect when I opened the box. I've had 6 Purple Carrot deliveries and 12 meals and only once was there no issue with the packaging. Purple Carrot was great when I called after the first time it happened, really good customer service. I never bothered to call when it kept happening because they obviously weren't changing anything. I could definitely forgive the packaging if the meals were really good, but they just weren't. I'd give the flavors a 3 out of 10. It was disappointing. I'm vegan and my kids are used to eating vegan meals, but whenever I said we were going to have Purple Carrot for dinner they would just groan. We gave it the old college try, but out of 12 meals only two were flavorful or memorable at all. I really wanted to like this service, I love the idea and love having everything pre-proportioned. The food just really wasn't worth it in the end. read more

Importantly, most of the produce is conventional - not organic. While I respect their attempt to have a vegan home-delivery service this type of cost cutting is not acceptable as it is not ethical, environmental, or healthful. Icing on the cake is they use Eden-brand canned foods. When I notified Purple Carrot about Eden's unethical background, representatives assured me that they would seek an alternative brand but never honored such promises. In light of the above I cancelled my subscription. 50% of the dishes were very good (usually the ethnic ones) whereas the other 50% were horribly bland and fulfilled the stereotype that vegan food is flavorless. Not a happy customer here. read more

This is my second week of Purple Carrot TB12 and I love the meals. They smell divine while cooking and are bursting with flavor. The prep time is way longer than I thought, but the cooking instructions are relatively easy. The food is not what I'm used to but I'm determined to eat healthier at least three days a week. This makes clean eating way easier because I don't have to think about it and again the flavors are amazing. Lots of fascinating combos. I feel light after eating (no bloat or gluten coma) and energetic. I'm sticking with This service above any others I've tried. read more

I loved the recipes for PurpleCarrot, but the delivery never worked. I live in a building with a receiving area for packages, but still every week they were either days late (filled with rotten food) or discarded completely by OnTrac. Really wanted this to work and gave it so many chances. read more

I got my first box last night, and I'm in the process of trying to get a refund. The ingredients that were supposed to be frozen were completely thawed out. Some ingredients were missing. And the ingredients that were there were not organized (like Sun Basket does, which makes everything very simple). I don't think they've figured out a good system yet. Super disappointed. read more

We have tried other vegan meal kit services and Purple Carrot is vastly superior. That said, we have also encountered some of the same problems other Yelp reviewers have mentioned, such as broken containers, missing ingredients, and "robotic" customer service. But if you're a hardcore vegan who loves delicious food, Purple Carrot is far and away the best service. We are constantly amazed at how good their dishes are. Yes, they may have some issues, but I get the sense they are actively working to overcome them and to improve. Let's face it, they're in one of the most difficult businesses with a limited market. As a vegan, I'm grateful they exist and am rooting for them to succeed. The only reason we tried another service was because Purple Carrot discontinued their 3-4 person plan. With our adult child at home with us this year, the 1-2 person plan didn't cut it for us. When we discovered that another service was simply sending two boxes instead one to accommodate larger households, we returned to Purple Carrot and opened up a second account in order to receive the second box. Why the option of two boxes isn't built-in to their website is a mystery, but we're very glad we were able to find a way to keep ordering from them. read more

The recipes are so good! The dishes have so much flavor. I never knew plant based foods could taste so good! Love Purple Carrott!!!

Great recipes but horrible, nonexistent customer services and they can't get it shipped to California. Don't bother wasting your money or attempting to use this service! read more

This is the first Yelp review I've ever written, however, I felt compelled to share my experience because it was so exceptionally bad. While the meals tasted fairly good, they were surprisingly light on the veggies and heavy on carbs. That aside, I ordered meals from Purple Carrot for about six weeks. During this time, they NEVER delivered the meals to the correct address even though explicit delivery instructions were communicated multiple times and in multiple ways. When I didn't receive a particular week's meals, customer service told me I was out of luck--which meant that I had to then make time to go purchase food for the week. When I did track down and receive the meals, they were always missing at least one ingredient. Customer service was difficult to deal with. They almost never answered the phone during their stated normal business hours and seemed to prefer to answer questions/issues via email. They also shifted blame, telling me that the delivery issues were the fault of their carrier. To their credit, they refunded the cost of meals not received or issued a partial refund when ingredients were missing. However, the typical reason one chooses to order a meal delivery service is CONVENIENCE. You're paying for the convenience of not having to go food shopping, etc. I actually felt more stressed during my time with Purple Carrot as I didn't know if I would receive the meals and that, if I did, if all the ingredients would be there. The last straw occurred this past week when I didn't receive meals again. When I called customer service (it took 3 calls to get a hold of someone) they indicated that I had elected to "skip a week" which I most definitely had not. I cancelled my subscription and switched to Green Chef. My first set of Green Chef meals came to the correct address on the correct day with all the necessary ingredients (and everything is organic to boot!). Very happy with my decision to switch. read more

Like many others, I was gifted a "free week trial" only to have the next week automatically added to my credit card. I must have missed the fine fine print. When I responded to customer service, I got a pretty basic, form letter response. Pretty disappointed in the company. Regardless of the food, I wouldn't do business with them. read more

I was so excited to try Purple Carrot, and I was so disappointed with the experience. Our first delivery was uneventful, food was good, produce was fresh. Our second box was left upside down. When I turned it right side up, the box was OPEN! Liquid had leaked throughout one of the packaged meals, the recipe cards were missing and they had substituted garbanzo beans with kidney beans for a HUMUS recipe! Also, the eggplant was not fresh. I did receive a full refund, but only after sending several emails. There is no phone number for customer service. Most recently I was billed for a third delivery; 3 weeks later and we have yet to receive the food! I cannot recommend this food delivery service @ this time. read more

Poor customer service. I tried calling repeatedly to cancel an order as we had an out of town emergency (we were within the cancellation window for the week.) Due to Hurricane Harvey, they were not answering calls or emails in a timely manner. I understand, to a degree, that they were busy re-routing and canceling food orders, however, I was a customer, too. By the time they got around responding to me, it was the morning after the cancellation window. When they called they basically gave me a 'sorry not sorry' attitude and billed me $80 something bucks for food that perished on my doorstep because THEY were unable to handle their customer service calls in a timely manner. I really liked the meals they were sending, I thought they were extremely creative and interesting, but for the kind of money they charge for their meal boxes, you have much better options that wont treat you like a walking dollar sign. Atticus Grinder (Purple Carrot) Sep 8, 10:29 AM EDT Thanks for your message! Due to the hurricanes in the south, our response times have been delayed this week. We apologize for the wait and appreciate your patience! If you are writing in to cancel your subscription, log into your Purple Carrot account and follow this link. As a reminder, our order deadline is 11:59PM EST on Tuesdays, so if you'd like to make any changes to your account please make sure to do so before then to have them be in effect for the following week. if you have any follow-up questions or concerns please reply to this message, and we will respond as soon as possible. -Team Carrot Atticus Grinder CX Associate The Purple Carrot read more

Terrible packaging - cold packs totally melted when boxes arrived and food in bad condition. Recipes not so great. Go with Green Chef instead - always fresh and ORGANIC! read more

My wife and I enjoy cooking and trying new, healthy recipes. The Purple Carrot and lead Chef Mark Bittman provide everything we need to create three meals a week that we think taste great and help us eat less meat and dairy. This has been a life changer for us - no more grocery shopping. No more arriving home after work to wonder what we should cook for dinner. No more running to the store for that one last ingredient you need. Everything is there, fresh and pre-measured. At the very least it's worth the try and your first week is discounted too. read more

I would love to give them more stars for food but the communication is so bad, I can not do it. I do not like giving negative Yelp reviews as I think they are a place for nasty people to be passive aggressive but this is not the case here. With Purple Carrot, you must prepare to get charged for food you do not receive. This service sent my food to someone out of state, and did not refund me. I tried "skipping" some months when I traveled, and still got charged for food I did not receive. I then canceled my subscription after this went on for 3 months. The food is good! The recipes are pretty wonderful! But they do not take care of their customers and fix their mistakes.. DON'T SUBSCRIBE, unless you can afford to throw away money every month they make a mistake, which in my case, was several times... (and don't even think of getting a human on the phone) they force all customers to use email only with pre-scripted replies..horrible service. Bummer. read more

This is a terrible food delivery service. Food is mediocre at best and extremely over priced. I've tried repeatedly to cancel the service, but they continue charging my credit card and also they send random food boxes without my consent. So poorly run, this company will never survive. I've reported as fraud with my credit card company. read more

Terrible customer service. Difficult to manage meals weekly. I would suggest you use another company for weekly meal service, where they are friendlier, more helpful, and you are given more time to opt in/or out of the meals. I signed up thinking I would have a chance to opt in or out of my first week. I ask them how to see the menu and opt in and was told that menus are posted on Friday and that I would have until Thursday to make my selection. So i waited until Friday to opt out of the meal and received a confirmation that I was skippping the week. the following week I got an email that it was shipping! I emailed purple carrot and thought we were clear that I did not want the delivery but I found a box of rotting food and noticed I was charged later in the week. subsequent communication has been unhelpful, unapologetic and customer service will not give me a refund. I use blue apron all the time and find it easy to order and manage. Purple Carrot was all too complicated and wasted my time. Frankly, I would have given it another shot if they refunded me. But they did not. Never even tasted the food. read more

I hate leaving bad reviews because I love startups and think its great for cool new ideas like vegan meal delivery, but I got it as a gift for a few weeks and at least one meal a week came too rotten to eat, which is annoying because its rotten veggie that I paid $12 (or my gift giver did) to throw away. It's hard enough to be a vegan let alone a hungry and broke one. And when I called, nobody answered, so I voiced my concerns and left a number and email to have them contact me, and nobody reached out. I waited a week to allow them to contact me and at least explain why it may be an issue they're having, but nothing. This makes me think they don't call anyone, which makes me think they are not accepting constructive criticism, which makes me think they will never get better. For this reason, I advise you to not pay this company for their half hearted service. If anyone from the company reaches out to me, I will take this comment down. Until then, my experience tells me to just go grocery shopping. read more

Their recipes are really creative and good, but I paid for items I didn't receive, and four items I couldn't use. All three meal kits we're supposed to include a clove of garlic, but it was missing from all three. The peanut Buddha bowl meal kit also came with a small bag of edamame soybeans that were covered in slime, like they were outdated and too old to use. Yet the avocado for the same meal had the opposite problem- it was hard as a rock - and avocado that underripe it's hard to prep and not good to eat. I was able to improvise with other ingredients I already had on hand in the house, but that's not the point of a meal kit. read more

10/23/2018: Guess what everyone! My account is still open and I am still being charged and I received yet another box today. I am beyond pissed off!!! read more

Received a free week of 3 meals for 2 people. I am making the first meal now .. Stuffed mushrooms with roasted tomatoes and parsley salad. They sent 1 small Roma tomato for two people. Included in the package was tiny bag of parsley, no way it could feed two as a salad. There wasn't enough parsley to place under the mushroom. Tasted the filling... Not so great. This is a disaster. read more

I have been in a love-hate relationship with this company ... In the very beginning which was over a year ago everything was fine, with little discrepancies here and there about boxes not arriving about food not being fresh, about meat bleeding out of the packaging on to the rest of the food, and now to date I'm being charged for meals that I did not order and they are pushing another order on me because I didn't call by Tuesday to cancel it, however I did not order it and they are not doing anything except making up excuses. I am sending per my bank the last box back and I am going to refuse per my bank the next box that arrives, because this is the only way I can protect myself from these predators. When I ask to speak to a manager oh well "They're in a meeting"... "They'll respond to you within 2 days".... That is totally unacceptable, totally unacceptable. I don't care if you're vegan or what but when they send you food that you cannot eat that you did not order and they don't want to remedy it in any way then I am pulling out completely there's lots of other companies that we can discover, shame on you purple carrot for not taking care of your customers. Obviously you guys do not understand math and how much more it takes to get new customers than to retain the good ones that you have. I would imagine if they keep trending like this they're not going to be in business for long. read more

Do not sign up! As other reviewers have said, when you pause or cancel your subscription they keep sending you boxes and keep charging you! My first two boxes I received doubles and they charged me for doubles and denied it! Then I canceled because of this and they sent me boxes for the next three weeks and charged me! I've now resorted to reporting to my credit card company. Buyer BEWARE! read more

HORRIBLE! First of all, you have to sign up and they secure your credit card just to see the recipes. I went in and IMMEDIATELY skipped all of them. Then, charged $72! Guess what! Like other reviewers, they opted me back in. I reached out to them several times by email with no response then chatted with Jessie, who eventually said, "I apologize again for the inconvenience, Kim. We do stand firm by our policy as we can not cancel this shipment, for this reason, can not process a refund. We're unable to negotiate further on this issue. We hope you are able to share the box, and that you enjoy the rest of your week." It is Friday, I have tried to get a hold of someone since I saw the charge on Tuesday. No response. No package has shipped and she basically said, "too bad." I will be disputing the charge with my credit card company and reporting to BBB and Consumer Affairs. UPDATE: In response the business's response: I cannot show you the emails of my attempted contact because it went through YOUR WEBSITE. You do not publish a phone number; however, when Jessie finally gave it to me and I had to leave a message, you still did not reply to me. I understand subscription services because I have ongoing accounts with Hello Fresh, Blue Apron, Marley, etc. YOUR website is a scam and I not the first or only one to complain that they skipped deliveries but you still sent it. I urge everyone to check this company's records with the BBB and read the same problem before entrusting them with your credit card information. I will update this once I receive the box. Judging by others, I expect the quality to be highly lacking. read more

Very disappointed to write a bad review about a great concept. After joining, my first box did not come at all. They were "very sorry." The second week, my box arrived a day late. When you send an email saying a box of FOOD will arrive on a certain date, one would assume it actually will arrive by that date. How is one supposed to plan their meals for the week when the food does not arrive when it's supposed to? When my box finally arrived, the box was smashed and ripped open in one corner! The diced watermelon from the watermelon poke bowl had opened and sticky juice was spilled all over everything. I thought that maybe I could salvage the watermelon chunks by scooping them out from the bottom of the box but when I ate one, it was completely spoiled. Hopefully, I don't get food poisoning! The freezer packs were room temperature and most of the other produce was turning bad as well. I called the purple carrot to complain about the damaged packaging and the spoiled food but, they haven't gotten back to me and doubt they will this time, because I've complained twice already about my first box not coming, and the second one arriving a day late. I filed a dispute through my bank because I am certainly not paying $72 for a horrible service and spoiled food. read more

I tried this to learn ways to incorporate more veggies into my diet. I have to say I never would have ordered this meal if I read it in a menu. All of us were pleasantly surprised. The roasted sweet potato with cashew sauce is one of the most delicious meals I've had. We gobbled it up :) I really hope the next meal is just as good. read more

I'm sad to report that I just cancelled my subscription to Purple Carrot after experiencing terrible service. 1st off, it took over 2 weeks to get my 1st shipment. Even though I had placed the order on a Monday, I expected it the following Wed or Tuesday. Nope! Another week to wait. The meals were very tasty and I did not yet experience the "left out ingredients" that others have experienced, and yes, some of the ingredients were less than stellar after shipping. However, one little glitch and "too bad you're not getting your service next week" even though I had fixed the issue before the ordering deadline for the week. I was extremely responsive in their request to fix a payment issue due to my card having to be cancelled because of fraud. I don't blame them for not filling my order due to lack of payment if it had gone past 24-26 hours but it was fixed within 2-3 hours of my being made aware of the issue, and again, before the weekly deadline. They went silent and just decided I wasn't getting service for the following week. Even after calling they flippantly told me "I can assure you this won't happen again" but could't tell me how, or what they would do to fix my current issue. Yet you could tell by her response, this was not the first time she had encountered disgruntled customers due to service. If you want a reliable customer experience, this is not the place to be. I'm bummed but will try something else. read more

I loved purple carrot. Can't believe how much I enjoyed the meals. Even while making freeka with grape leaf rolls and marinated Lima beans with sumac carrots and lemon yogurt sauce ... I thought this won't be good. But it, like the 7 meals preceding it, was fabulous. Plus, I am not vegan, but I never missed the meat. read more

Love this service! Delicious meals. I've saved every recipe and out of the 30 I have made there are probably only two that I I would not make again. The meals take 35 to 40 minutes to make and I typically get three servings out of the two serving option. I was stuck in a rut with my cooking and this has renewed my excitement and love of cooking and eating. I feel it's a good value and money much better spent then in my previous weekly grocery trips. It takes out the planning piece of meal prep and, because I've purchased the meals and I am on a timeline before receiving my next box, I am sure to make them. If you are not vegan, don't hesitate to give this a try. The food is just healthy and delicious. The sauces are fantastic and you will learn many new ways of preparing food. Thank you to Mr. Bittman and the Purple Carrot crew!!! read more

I've been a die-hard Blue Apron fan for the past year and a half but wanted to get away from all the carbs. My sister-in-law mentioned Purple Carrot to me as an option and I decided to try it. The recipes looked interesting and I was excited to get back to plant-based eating. Well, what a disappointment! My first order came with soggy, thawed (yes, previously frozen) green beans for one of the meals. What? I thought that this company was all about fresh, appetizing vegetables. Wrong! The other two meals in the box were so meager that my husband and I had to look for something else to go with the dish. I know for a fact that you can be full satisfied eating vegan / plant-based dishes. This company is just too interested in their bottom line to include enough ingredients to make a decent meal for two. Give it a try if you like, but I think you'll find it too expensive for what you actually get and you'll need to add to it to make it enough for two people. read more

What a way to make a new customer feel appreciated! Days before my order was set to be delivered, they cancelled it saying they ran out of ingredients (If I was hoping to get $75 a week from a customer, I'd be marching my butt to the nearest grocery store to find the ingredients I ran out of. ;) ). When I called them out on that, they responded the equivalent of "we have too many customers so new customers get bumped". Cool...then you don't need my money! They didn't even offer to make it right--no free week to make up for it, no offer to switch meals to something they did have ingredients for...but you better believe they are still filling my email with spam advertisements for their company. It looked like a great idea...the recipes looked delicious. But their follow through is awful. Don't accept new customers you're not able to deliver to! First impressions are everything and my first impression of this company is they don't care about their new customers at all. read more