The best healthy and vegan meal box subscriptions on test

Some brands provided a whole day’s worth of food along with snacks, while others focus on your main meal of the day, with dishes suitable for lunch or dinner. All of the boxes required little or no food waste and made an effort to use sustainable packaging.

When it comes to cost, recipe boxes and pre-prepared meals can quickly add up, especially when compared to bulk buying staple ingredients, picking up produce from local markets or timing your supermarket trip to snap up price-reduced items at the end of the day.

Excess packaging and transport emissions are an environmental cost to consider, too, although many brands are doing their bit to reduce the impact of their services, and the reduction in food waste may be welcome in some households.

The main factors to take into account when choosing a healthy food subscription service are value for money, health credentials, menu options (particularly important if you follow a free-from diet or prefer a vegetarian or vegan menu), convenience, environmental impact and the terms of subscription when you sign up.

For more, visit our reviews section and find over 400 buyers' guides offering unbiased advice on which foodie products and services are worth spending money on. Plus, we have thousands of simple recipes for everyday mealtime inspiration.

Best healthy and vegan recipe boxes at a glance

Best healthy recipes boxes

• Best all-rounder: Gousto recipe box, from £18.99 per box
• Best for adventurous cooks: HelloFresh, from £29.99 per box
• Best for those looking for low-carb or keto options: Natural Ketosis, from £243 per plan

Best vegan recipes boxes

• Best for gluten-free and dairy-free diets: Mindful Chef, prices vary
• Best for adventurous vegan cooks: Grubby, prices vary
• Best for vegan variety: Allplants, from £25 per box
• Best for microwave meals in minutes: Tastily, prices vary

Best healthy and vegan recipe boxes 2024

Gousto recipe box

• Available from Gousto, from £18.99 per box

Best all-rounder

Industry giant Gousto received top marks from us for their health-focused boxes filled with Healthy Choices. These include ranges such as the new Calorie Controlled, Lighter and Joe Wicks’ Picks – designed with a focus on fuelling workouts. This means every week you could be tucking into the same high protein dishes as The Body Coach himself.

You can choose from 60+ recipes each week. It’s easy to find recipes that suit you with the search filters, allowing you to browse vegetarian or plant-based (vegan) dishes, as well as gluten-free and dairy-free recipes.

The menu includes sweet chilli chicken with veg-packed rice, pan-fried salmon with creamy pesto veg and meat-free sausage and kale salad with honey mustard dressing.

Inside the box are recipe cards (helpfully hole-punched in case you want to file them for future reference) with easy-to-follow, illustrated instructions, along with nutrition and allergen information. If you misplace your cards, don’t worry, you can find the recipes clearly laid out on the Gousto website, alongside images to guide you through each step.

Ingredients are separated by recipe, and most don’t require any special equipment to cook, although you’ll need to add oil, salt and pepper from your storecupboard.

We found the dishes easy and quick to prepare, and the finished plates were colourful and appealing to the eye. Portions were generous and included plenty of vegetables, with a good balance of carbohydrates, lean protein and healthy fats. There is also UK delivery, seven days a week.

Chilled ingredients such as meat, fish and dairy products are kept cool in an Eco Chill box, which is made from cardboard, making it 100% recyclable. Inside, there are plastic ice packs which can be drained and recycled at larger supermarkets. There are some fresh vegetables such as spinach leaves and tenderstem broccoli which, understandably, are wrapped in plastic.

One thing to note, when you open an account, you’re signed up for subscriptions automatically. However, the terms are very flexible, allowing you to pause or skip deliveries, change the size of your box, delivery day and address.

Read our full Gousto review.

Available from:

• Gousto (from £18.99 per box)

HelloFresh

• Available from HelloFresh, from £29.99 per box

Best for adventurous cooks

HelloFresh offer 37 recipes to choose from every week, with boxes to suit different needs, such as 'healthy', 'family' and 'rapid' options to truly cover all bases, with vegetarian meals available, too. There are even some Weight Watchers approved recipes on their menu.

Most recipes appear to be a good balance of proteins, fats, carbohydrates and fresh vegetables, making HelloFresh a healthy option, if you want it to be.

Inside the delivery box are clear recipe cards and paper bags of fresh, high-quality ingredients, with plenty of time on all the best-before dates to cook throughout the week. Pleasingly, HelloFresh have attempted to combat excessive packaging by switching to paper sachets for small quantities of ingredients, such as herbs and spices, rather than plastic tubs. Chilled items (such as meat and dairy) come in a large, chilled pouch made of recycled plastics.

We chose turmeric-marinated sea bass, one of the Weight Watchers recommended healthy dishes. It was delicious. The fish was fresh and good quality, while the side of rice with caramelised onions, Sri Lankan spices and fried courgette used ingredients in a clever way to pack in big flavours. As a minor note, we would quibble that, for a healthy dinner recipe, we’d like more than one portion of veg – some frozen peas wouldn’t have gone amiss.

Timings were accurate, perhaps off by 10 minutes or less. And the portions were generous – we ordered for two but some dishes felt like they could have stretched to serve three.

If you’re struggling to cook for yourself and instead relying on ready meals or processed foods throughout the week, or struggle to think of healthy ideas beyond salads, these meals would be a step in the right direction. It’s best for people who want to eat fresh food but don’t have time to plan recipes or go food shopping to buy the ingredients. Due to the variation of different meals for specific people, such as families and those on the go, it’s useful for a wide range of households.

Subscription terms are flexible – you can skip a delivery or cancel at any time, and you’re not locked in for any amount of time.

Read our full HelloFresh review.

Available from:

• HelloFresh (from £29.99 per box)

Mindful Chef

• Available from Mindful Chef, prices vary

Best for gluten-free and dairy-free diets

Health-focused food box company Mindful Chef centre their menus around high-quality, nutritious ingredients, and a gluten- and dairy-free way of eating. Their recipes contain no refined carbs, refined sugars or cheap fillers – only the good stuff.

Pre-measured ingredients come in paper bags, sorted by recipe (eliminating the extra few minutes you might spend hunting for spices in your kitchen cupboard), along with an insulated cool bag containing meat, fish and other chilled ingredients.

There are 20 recipes to choose from each week – a box contains ingredients for up to five. The cooking time and macronutrient information (fat, carbs and protein) are easy to see online and also in the helpful recipe booklet which comes in the box.

Recipes are nutritionist-approved, gluten-free and dairy-free, with some vegan options to choose from. Mindful Chef don’t encourage calorie counting, instead they promote nutritional value and a balanced approach to eating. However, the calories in each dish are given, in case you’d like to know.

All the recipes are easy enough for novice cooks. Although we noticed that cooking times are a bit ambitious – we found 30 minutes a push, despite having our chopping boards, knives and pans ready to go before we started.

Mindful Chef believe great meals start with the best ingredients and that shines through in their recipes. Meals are tasty, with top quality meat and fish and lovely fresh vegetables. We tried edamame and chickpea coconut curry with brown rice, and salmon with potato, olive, tomato, and caper sauce – both of which were delicious, with very generous portions.

Packaging is kept to a minimum, although as with all recipe kits, the individually portioned ingredients result in a small amount of waste. You’ll enjoy the exceptional quality of the ingredients, the nutritional benefit of the recipes and convenience of delivery. Deals are sometimes available for people interested in trying Mindful Chef for the first time, which make it more affordable.

Subscriptions are flexible and easy to update – you can skip, pause or cancel deliveries at any time, as well as schedule extra one-off boxes as desired. Deliveries can be made once a week, every other week or every three or four weeks, and you can order up to eight weeks ahead.

Read our full Mindful Chef review.

Available from:

• Mindful Chef (prices vary)

Grubby

• Available from Grubby, prices vary

Best for adventurous vegan cooks

Grubby’s vegan recipe boxes offer nutritious and interesting recipes for those who want to get creative in the kitchen without the hassle of shopping for ingredients.

Each week, there are six recipes to choose from. We tried cauliflower katsu curry, Mexican bean burgers with carrot slaw and potato wedges, and mushroom gyros with vegan tzatziki and oregano fries. All were filling and so delicious, we found it hard to pick a favourite. Highlights were the crunchy cauliflower coating, made with breadcrumbs and oat cream, and the vegan tzatziki, made with coconut cream, garlic, lemon and cucumber.

Inside the box, ingredients are separated into paper bags for each recipe. Packaging is almost all recyclable, biodegradable or compostable with as little unnecessary plastic as possible.

Instructions are printed on handy A5 cards with nutritional information and a lovely recipe image, so you know what you’re aiming for. The equipment required for each recipe is listed, too, making it easy to have everything on hand before you start cooking. We particularly enjoyed the Grubby Spotify playlists, which can be accessed by scanning a QR code on each recipe card with your phone camera, so you can have a dance while your dinner cooks.

One thing to note, if you’re mindful of calories, some recipes do rack up – the katsu came in at 885 kcal per portion. While the focus of Grubby is to nourish our health and care for the planet by encouraging more people to choose vegan, anyone looking for lighter meals might want to consider another option.

Grubby offers a no-commitment subscription – you can skip a delivery or cancel at any time after your first delivery.

Grubby has a higher price point when compared to other recipe boxes, however the quality of the ingredients is high. We also had a few store cupboard ingredients, like sesame oil, left over.

Available from:

• Grubby (prices vary)

Best pre-prepared healthy and vegan meal services

Allplants

• Available from Allplants, from £25 per box

Best for vegan variety

If you think eating plant-based has to be complicated, think again. Allplants’ ready-made meals offer a massive variety of recipes to choose from and rank highly on the convenience scale – simply stash in your freezer and cook from frozen when needed. A great choice for newbie vegans, plant lovers and flexitarians looking to add more meat-free meals into their weekly rotation.

Choose from 50 main meal options (you need to select six to fill up your box), then add up to nine extras, including sides, smoothies, puddings and breakfasts.

As you choose your meals, you can peruse the nutritional information for each dish, many of which have extra points for being good sources of plant-based protein, iron and vitamin C, as well as providing two or more portions of veg. Impressively, all meals are 100% free from palm oil, as they’re frozen immediately after cooking.

Our favourite was the protein power bowl with chickpeas, edamame and tofu - clocking in at 530 calories and providing three portions of your five-a-day. Also on the menu – a clever, cheeseless mac and greens, comforting green ricotta lasagne and a spicy smoky soul chilli bowl with black beans, sweet potatoes and mini corn breads.

Arriving in a cheery yellow branded box, all the meals are individually portioned and frozen, surrounded by innovative insulation made from upcycled excess denim fibres. You’ll also be provided with a free returns label to send back a few boxes’ worth of eco-friendly liners, where they’ll be reused by Allplants up to 10 times.

You can filter to exclude soy, nuts or gluten, and opt for recipes that can be heated up in the oven or microwave (we had good results using both methods of heating, but some recipes, such as the lasagne, are obviously best crisped up in the oven as the packaging made clear).

Subscriptions are flexible and managed through the account section of the website, and you can make changes to order dates, portion sizes and delivery frequency, or cancel your subscription if desired.

Available from:

• Allplants (from £25 per box)

Natural Ketosis

• Available from Natural Ketosis, from £243 per plan

Best for those looking for low-carb or keto options

The ketogenic diet is a very different approach to food than many standard diets so it can take some time to adapt to. However, if you’re interested in this way of eating, a subscription service such as Natural Ketosis could be a fuss-free way to ease you into it.

Each delivery includes shelf-stable pouches of food which can be stored conveniently in your cupboard instead of the fridge, along with low-carb snack bars and tubs of granola and porridge. It’s worth noting that the delivery doesn't include everything required to follow the plan – you’ll still need to shop for a few perishable items, such as milk, yogurt and berries, plus extra fresh vegetables if wanted.

The box includes booklets with extensive and clear information on following the plan, including how to prepare your food, substitutions and extra items you can include, plus what to expect from ketosis (headaches, lethargy and metallic breath are unfortunate side effects). We’d recommend checking with your doctor before starting any weight loss diet.

There’s no getting around the fact that this is diet food and the portions are on the small side, but the food was satisfying and flavoursome (if a touch oily for our taste). We particularly enjoyed the creamy Thai chicken and hearty chilli bean soups, and the breakfast options, such as granola with yogurt and berries. If you like lots of variety each day, this might not be the ideal meal plan for you, but it does take the stress out of deciding what to eat each day and calculating nutritional targets such as net carbs, which can be particularly difficult on a keto diet.

You can sign up to the 14-day kickstart plan, which contains breakfast, lunch, dinner and one snack, with other options available (e.g. under 20g carbs per day). Vegetarian and vegan boxes are available. Purchases are one-off, meaning you’re not tied into any rolling contract or recurring payments.

Available from:

• Natural Ketosis (from £243 per plan)

Tastily

• Available from Tastily, prices vary

Best for microwave meals in minutes

Tastily are a ready-meal delivery service run by a team of food lovers and expert chefs. Their aim is to make healthy food easy and accessible for everyone.

What makes Tastily different from the ready meals you see in the supermarket? They use a wide range of ingredients to make sure each dish is nutritionally balanced. Giving you a healthy amount of protein, carbohydrates and at least two servings of veg in every dish. Pretty impressive stuff. And each dish is available in a regular or large portion, for anyone worried they might be hungry when switching to a healthier regime.

On opening the box, we were impressed to find colourful packaging made from untreated kraft, so it can be easily recycled, plus food trays made from 85% recycled plastic.

We tried the teriyaki-glazed salmon with quinoa, long stem broccoli, edamame and pak choi; mushroom brown rice risotto with parsley; lemon and garlic gremolata with kale, green beans and peas; and paneer and pea curry with wilted spinach and spiced rice.

The meals can be cooked in three minutes in the microwave or in 20 minutes in the oven. They can also be frozen for another day. Each tray is split into sections for the main and the side – something we appreciated because who wants soggy quinoa? Not us.

We tested the meals on busy weeknights and we can’t deny there’s some enjoyment to be had in popping a portioned meal into the microwave and having dinner prepared in just three minutes – with almost no washing-up.

However, if what you’re looking for is fresh ingredients and an element of creativity, Tastily isn’t for you. Although we did add a good pinch of salt, a squeeze of lemon and splash of chilli oil to the salmon. Think of it as if you had leftovers in the fridge or freezer that were tasty the first time round. You can also choose your delivery date and whether you want your meals weekly, fortnightly or monthly.

There’s a feel-good element to Tastily, too. With every box ordered, you can fund a child’s cookery course with Chefs in Schools, a charity that believes food education is of vital importance to young people.

Available from:

• Tastily (prices vary)

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