Every type of meal kit you can sign up for in 2024
Cooking a meal from scratch five to seven nights a week can be a tiring ordeal. Meal delivery services can offer some serious convenience in the kitchen by replacing grocery runs and pricey takeout meals with alternatives like pre-portioned meal kits.
If you want to find the best meal kit for you and your family, it's important to know the different types of meal kits available. Read on for more info on meal kits that cater to fast-paced lifestyles, dietary restrictions, and more.
Every type of meal kit you can sign up for in 2024
Whether you want affordable meal kit prices, diet-friendly meals, or new recipes to add to your collection, we have you covered below. Browse the different types of meal kits to find what works best for you and your diet.
Prepare it yourself with at-home meal kits
Traditional meal kits like HelloFresh or Blue Apron offer a quick and easy way to put interesting and nutritious meals on the dinner table throughout the week. Most meal kits follow the same formula to make your cooking experience more convenient: you build a meal plan based on what you like to eat (or have to eat -- more on dietary restrictions below), select from a number of lunch and dinner meal options, and wait for a box of pre-portioned ingredients to land at your door.
These meal delivery services can help to cut down on cook times, introduce you to new cuisines and interesting recipes, and even save you money over a trip to the grocery store.
Premade meals for dinner on the go
Sometimes you just need a lunch or dinner that's ready in minutes -- no kitchen cosplaying required. There are plenty of meal kits that offer premade meals in addition to meal kits. Some meal delivery services focus on premade meals altogether.
Trifecta Nutrition is one of the best meal kits out there for athletes and fitness-friendly eating. It offers a number of nutritional, protein-packed meals each week that are ready in ten minutes or less. Find ready-to-eat dinners that cater to different diets, such as Paleo or Keto, as well as breakfast add-on items, to build a healthy diet perfect for an active lifestyle.
Diet-friendly meal delivery services
With so many meal kits available today (there were nearly 300 meal kits to choose from in 2022), it can be daunting to find the meal delivery service that's best for you. Thankfully, there are plenty of meal kits that cater to specific dietary needs.
Here are some of our favorites:
- Best meal kits for vegans and vegetarians: Purple Carrot
Featuring farm-fresh ingredients and dozens of weekly meals to choose from, Purple Carrot has everything you need to enjoy a nutritionally balanced diet. This fully plant-based meal kit lets you customize each order with your choice of traditional meal kits, premade meals, and individual add-ons courtesy of Purple Carrot's "plantry" menu. Thanks to an ongoing New Years sale, new subscribers can pay as low as $5.50 per serving for their first five boxes.
- Best gluten-free meal kit: Green Chef
Cross-contamination can be an issue for eaters with serious gluten allergies or sensitivities, which is why we love Green Chef for gluten-free meal deliveries. The gluten tolerance group has labeled this meal delivery service as a certified gluten-free safe spot, which means proper food safety practices in addition to a wide variety of diet-friendly meals. Sign up today and save $430 across your first nine boxes. - Best meal kit for a dairy-free diet: Daily Harvest
With a full menu of dairy-free selections, Daily Harvest is a great place to look for the perfectly accommodating meal delivery service. Its weekly menus offer smoothies, harvest bowls, gluten-free pastas, and more. Plan options include small, medium or large, letting you pick between 9 and 24 items per delivery. Save up to $65 by opting for larger plans by using promo code DH65 when signing up.
Don't forget about grocery add-ons
For shoppers looking to fill their pantry in addition to their fridge or freezer with meal delivery services, there are meal kits like Hungryroot that offer a bevy of add-ons and individual grocery items.
In addition to traditional meal kits like grain bowls and pasta dishes, Hungryroot aims to cut out trips to the grocery store completely by offering grocery items such as fresh produce, individually packaged protein (including plant-based), snacks, beverages, and other pantry items.
Hungryroot prices start at $9 per serving, with grocery add-ons ranging from seven to ten dollars apiece.
