Purple Carrot vs. Green Chef: How These Healthy Meal Delivery Services Compare

If you've ever experienced decision fatigue around planning dinner, you're likely familiar with the temptation to toss out your grocery list and opt for takeout. Meal kit delivery services combine the best of both worlds, offering a healthier solution for people who want to enjoy homemade meals but don't want to spend all day planning, shopping, and prepping. As a registered dietitian who's tried a number of the healthiest meal delivery services, I'm here to tell you everything you need to know about two of the most popular options: Purple Carrot and Green Chef.

Purple Carrot is a plant-based meal kit delivery service offering weekly vegan recipes and pre-portioned ingredients that are shipped directly to your door. While other companies like Green Chef offer vegan menus, Purple Carrot is one of only a handful of options that excludes animal products altogether.

With a Purple Carrot subscription, you'll select the number of recipes per week and servings per recipe you want to receive, with the ability to input preferences including high-protein, less prep, or gluten-free. There's also an option for prepared, single-serve meals. The best part? With enough notice, you can skip weeks and cancel your subscription for no extra cost.

Once you sign up, you're prompted to select recipes for your first delivery. Even if you added a dietary preference, you will have access to choose from the brand's full menu, with optional lunch or breakfast add-ons, as well as vegan pantry ("plantry") items.

Your food arrives in boxes with proper insulation and ice packs. Ingredients for each meal are packaged together within the box, along with a recipe booklet.

When I tried Purple Carrot, the ingredients in my box were fresh, and the produce was ripe and had no bruises. The bulk of the brand's non-produce ingredients (tofu, chickpeas, etc.) are organic, but not all produce is. Most meals take about 20 to 40 minutes to prepare, with easy-to-follow directions and very minimal cleanup. Since I was cooking only for myself, I did have leftovers, which kept well in the refrigerator for two to three days.

Green Chef is a certified-organic meal kit delivery service (and one of our favorites, at that). The process of signing up and choosing meals and the flexible subscription is very similar to Purple Carrot, including the ability to skip or cancel at any time.

Next, you'll need to specify the number of recipes per week and servings per recipe. Each week, you'll have the option to add recipes for breakfast or lunch, snacks, or extra proteins, such as wild-caught sockeye salmon filets or pork tenderloin. Unlike Purple Carrot, Green Chef does not have a plan for prepared meals.

Green Chef meals arrive similarly, in insulated boxes with recipe ingredients packaged together. Instead of receiving a recipe booklet, the brand sends recipe cards for each meal you've chosen.

The ingredients in my box arrived fresh and lasted for the advised two to five days in the refrigerator. Most produce came pre-measured and prepped, and the sauces and spice blends were premade. With all this prep work done for you, Green Chef recipes can typically be whipped up in 30 minutes or less.

The produce and eggs from Green Chef are certified organic, whereas the meat and other animal proteins are sourced from farmers that meet the company's animal welfare standards (however, I couldn't track down what those standards are).

The cost of each meal delivery service depends on the number of recipes you choose and the number of servings per recipe. In general, the more recipes and servings you order, the lower the cost per serving.

Ultimately, the brands are priced similarly. Per serving, Purple Carrot nets out between $11 and $14, while Green Chef lands around $12 to $14 per serving. Here's a breakdown of the cost of specific plans from each:

With Green Chef, you'll have to pay a flat shipping fee of $10 per box. Purple Chef stands out in this arena, with the shipping cost already factored into the meal price. Neither plan has a cancellation fee.

Green Chef and Purple Carrot each have a rotating menu, meaning there's a new batch of recipes to choose from each week (don't worry: some beloved fan-favorites stay the same). Green Chef offers a more robust menu of 30 recipes per week, whereas Purple Carrot has around eight dinner options and two lunch options each week. That said, Green Chef's vegan lineup only consists of five recipes per week, while Purple Carrot's menu is entirely vegan.

I tried a one-week subscription from each service. With Green Chef, that meant three dinner recipes and one breakfast. For Purple Carrot that was two dinner recipes. To set the stage, I'm a pretty adventurous eater but a habitual chef. I have no food allergies or intolerances, nor do I follow a specific eating pattern. Rather, I aim to eat a balanced plate filled with veggies, lean protein, healthy fats, and complex carbs.

Here's a rundown of everything I tried.

While I did try one vegan recipe from Green Chef (the Cauliflower & Couscous Bowls), the meals could not have been more different. The three other Green Chef meals were either keto recipes or very low carb (15 to 17 net grams of carbs per serving) and often contained multiple animal products (eggs, meat, dairy)—a stark contrast to Purple Carrot's vegan meals.

Green Chef is more suitable for a broad range of dietary preferences, including keto, paleo, Mediterranean, vegetarian, and calorie-conscious in addition to vegan.

Purple Carrot is best for those who follow a strictly vegan diet or are determined to eat more plant-based foods. Whereas if you follow a keto or paleo diet, Green Chef or other meal delivery services with specialized keto and paleo recipes would be a better fit.

While not specifically designed for weight loss, both brands' recipes could support healthy weight loss. Purple Carrot meals tend to range from 500 to 800 calories per serving. Most Green Chef meals are in a similar range, but some exceed 1,000 calories.

Green Chef proudly claims that it is the No. 1 Sustainable Meal Kit on its website, as it offsets 100% of its direct carbon emissions and plastic packaging. Purple Carrot promotes not only eating plants for your health but for the planet as well. Its website cites a popular 2019 study1 that found meal kits average lower emissions than grocery meals and are associated with less food waste. However, it's not specified whether Purple Carrot meals were used in this study.

Both companies ship their food in recyclable boxes, with mostly recyclable food packaging, ice packs, and plastic (be sure to check each of the websites to see what's curbside recyclable in your area).

In my case, Purple Carrot ingredients came with less packaging than Green Chef—which could be due to there being fewer meals and Purple Carrot recipes having fewer ingredients overall. Even so, the minimal plastic use by Purple Carrot was impressive, especially since all produce arrived in pristine condition.

Whether you live life on the go or just don't love shopping and chopping for your meals, healthy eating can be tricky for some. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) only 1 in 10 adults2 get enough fruits or veggies in their diet.

Both Purple Carrot and Green Chef provide a delicious and convenient way to cook healthy meals at home. The main difference between the two is that Purple Carrot only provides vegan meals. Green Chef also offers weekly vegan meals and recipes for other dietary preferences like keto, Mediterranean, and vegetarian (both provide gluten-free recipes) and has a much larger menu selection.

Both services are on the pricier side; people who don't mind grocery shopping could likely prepare these meals for a much lower cost.