Green Chef vs Purple Carrot Compared

I’m an omnivore, but I’m always trying to incorporate more plant-based meals into my diet, both for health and environmental reasons. I’ve never been a strict “Meatless Monday” type of person, but I don’t eat meat every day.

I also try to stick with whole foods and prefer to source things locally and organically as much as possible (but let’s be honest, that’s often easier said than done). 

Recently, I’ve been relying on meal subscriptions for a lot of my meals since I’ve been busy with work and getting settled in a new home. I wanted to compare two popular healthy meal subscriptions, Green Chef vs. Purple Carrot, to see which made the most sense for my busy, not-always-healthy, “flexitarian” lifestyle. 

Green Chef vs. Purple Carrot Compared: Bottom Line Up Front

Purple Carrot kind of has a lock on the plant-based meal kit market, but I far prefer Green Chef—especially since they’ve recently added more vegan and vegetarian meals to their lineup. As an omnivore, I love the variety they provide. I also think their recipes are easier to follow than Purple Carrot’s. 

Main Differences

• Green Chef is USDA-certified organic, whereas Purple Carrot uses some organic ingredients. 
• Green Chef caters to diets that are keto, paleo, plant-based, low-calorie, high protein, and more, whereas Purple Carrot is 100% plant-based. 
• Green Chef offers nearly 50 meals to choose from each week, whereas Purple Carrot only has around 20. 
• Green Chef offers meal kits and add-ons, whereas Purple Carrot offers meal kits, prepared meals, add-ons, and pantry items. 
• Many of Green Chef’s meals are customizable, whereas Purple Carrot’s are not.

What is Green Chef?

Green Chef is a USDA-certified organic meal kit delivery subscription—it was actually the first meal kit subscription to receive an official organic certification. Each week, they send you a box of organic ingredients and recipes to make easy, healthy dinners at home.

Green Chef Meals

Green Chef’s meal kits are simple, flavorful, and perfect for weeknights. I really enjoyed all of the meals I ordered—I even recreated one of the recipes a second time! 

They have a rotating selection of almost 50 meals to choose from each week. They frequently add new meals to their roster, but you’ll also see some of their most popular meals on regular rotation. I would classify most of the dishes as “restaurant-quality comfort food.” They cater to a variety of palates and diets while remaining accessible to picky eaters. 

Many of Green Chef’s meals are customizable with different protein options or upgrades (such as the option to swap wild-caught sockeye salmon for farm-raised Atlantic salmon). They use fresh, organic ingredients that hold up remarkably well during transit and in your fridge for several days. 

In addition to their fresh ingredients, Green Chef’s pre-made sauces and spice blends that accompany many of their meals really set them apart from their competitors. They add a ton of flavor to the meals while keeping meal prep to a minimum. (Seriously, if they started selling bottled sauces, I would 100% buy them). 

Green Chef Subscriptions and Prices

When you sign up for a Green Chef subscription, you’ll be asked to select the number of servings and meals you want shipped each week. You’ll also be asked to set your dietary preferences. You can choose as many or as few as you’d like from the list below:

• Mediterranean – Check our best Mediterranean meal delivery services guide
• Calorie Smart
• Quick and Easy
• Plant-Based
• Protein Packed
• Keto
• Delicious Discoveries
• Gluten Free – Check our best gluten-free meal delivery services guide

The preferences you set will be used to determine which meals Green Chef shows you first each week, but you can always choose from their full menu when picking your weekly meals. 

Like many meal delivery subscriptions, Green Chef’s meals are priced on a sliding scale that depends on how much you order each week. I created the table below to display the starting cost of their available plans. 

Servings Per Meal	Meals Per Week	$ Per Serving	$ Per Week	$ Per Month
2	3	$13.49	$80.94	$323.76
2	4	$12.99	$103.92	$415.68
4	2	$12.99	$103.92	$415.68
4	3	$12.49	$149.88	$599.52
4	4	$11.99	$191.84	$767.36
6	3	$11.99	$215.82	$863.28
6	4	$11.99	$287.26	$1,151.04

Note that these prices don’t reflect the additional costs associated with premium “Chef Select” meals, upgrading proteins, or subscription add-ons. Shipping is $10 per order. 

Green Chef Delivery and Packaging

Green Chef delivers to the continental United States six days a week (Monday to Saturday), and depending on where you live, you can choose your delivery date (not all dates are available for all regions). 

My order was shipped in an insulated, recyclable cardboard box with gel ice packs. All of the ingredients for each meal (except the meat) were bagged into color-coded paper bags that correspond with a large, full-color recipe card.

This made it super easy to pop everything in the fridge and then grab what I needed for each night’s meal—I didn’t have to rummage around for ingredients or spend time sorting through which ingredient went with which meal. 

Cooking Green Chef Meals

One of my favorite things about Green Chef is how simple and thoughtful their recipe cards are. Everything is explained in a way that’s easy to understand, and I always knew why I was doing what I was doing. The front of the recipe cards shows a picture of the final dish along with a description and a list of ingredients. On the back of the cards, the recipe is broken down into around five to seven easy-to-follow steps, each of which is accompanied by a progress photo. 

Many of the ingredients were already prepped, which significantly cut down on my cooking time. I had bags of minced garlic, chopped broccoli, pre-toasted couscous, and those sauces and spice blends I mentioned earlier in my order. 

While preparing the meals, I ended up using a ton more dishes than I expected to. I like that Green Chef has you “mise” everything and have all your ingredients chopped and ready to go before you start cooking (I think this is especially helpful for inexperienced cooks), but I did end up using several extra dishes just to stash everything while I was prepping.

I was able to just throw everything in the dishwasher afterward, so I didn’t really mind, but I had to hand-wash all of my dishes at my last house and would have been pretty annoyed at the clean up—something to keep in mind if you don’t have a dishwasher! 

Of all of the meals I made, the most complicated was probably the falafel-esque Moroccan-Style Green Pea Fritters. The recipe recommended I use a food processor to combine the ingredients if I had one (I did not), and I ended up having to mash and form the patties by hand.

I certainly didn’t need the knife skills of a classically trained chef to do this, but the recipe was more involved and time-consuming than the others that I tried. 

Read our Complete Green Chef Review by clicking here.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• The entire company is certified organic. 
• Their recipes are easy to follow and might actually help improve your cooking skills. 
• Green Chef’s gluten-free meals are certified gluten-free and processed in a separate facility to avoid cross-contamination. 
• I thought that Green Chef’s portion sizes were perfect; they were generous but not huge. 
• I like how transparent Green Chef is about their sourcing and practices. 
• As an omnivore and an adventurous eater, I like the variety Green Chef offers. 
• Meal kits are customizable with different protein options. 

Cons

• Green Chef doesn’t offer prepared meals. 
• I used a lot of dishes when cooking. 
• Their pricing structure is variable and not as consistent as Purple Carrot’s. 
• Some meals labeled “Chef Select” come with an additional cost. 

What is Purple Carrot?

Purple Carrot is a 100% plant-based meal subscription service. They carry meal kits and prepared meals, and you can choose to subscribe to either one or both. 

Purple Carrot Meals

All of Purple Carrot’s meals are plant-based, meaning they contain no meat, eggs, or dairy and are suitable for vegans.

Their meals are tasty and colorful, but if you’re a very adventurous eater, you might not find them overly exciting—they use some worldly flavors, but for the most part, their menu is simple and comforting. It’s worth mentioning that a lot of the non-produce ingredients that they use in their meals are organic, but much of the produce is not. 

Each week, they offer a selection of around a dozen meal kits (some of which are quick “less prep” kits), eight prepared meals, four breakfasts, four lunches, and a selection of “plantry” vegan pantry items.

Unlike most meal subscriptions, you can’t browse multiple weeks’ worth of menus in advance. They do, however, offer a rotating selection of new meals and old favorites each week. 

Purple Carrot Subscriptions and Prices

When you sign up for a Purple Carrot subscription, you’ll first be asked if you prefer meal kits or prepared meals. Regardless of which you choose, you’ll be able to order both as part of your subscription.

Next, you’ll select the number of meals you want each week and the number of servings (if applicable) you’d like for each meal. Meal kits serve two or four people, and prepared meals are all single-serve. 

Prices are as follows: 

Type of Meal	Servings Per Meal	Meals Per Week	$ Per Serving	$ Per Week	$ Per Month
Meal Kit	2	3	$13.25	$79.50	$318
Meal Kit	2	4	$13.25	$106	$424
Meal Kit	4	2	$11	$88	$352
Meal Kit	4	3	$11	$132	$528
Prepared Meals	1	6	$13	$78	$312
Prepared Meals	1	8	$13	$104	$416
Prepared Meals	1	10	$13	$130	$520

Unlike Green Chef, Purple Carrot doesn’t have any more-expensive premium meals, but the prices above don’t include breakfasts, lunches, or other add-ons that you can add to your subscription. Shipping is $10 per box for orders under $99 and free for orders $100 and up. 

In some ways, their pricing structure is simpler than Green Chef’s, but it’s still a little weird. If you don’t mind leftovers, it’s actually more cost-effective for a household of two to order the four-serving, two-day plan and eat leftovers twice a week rather than order a two-serving, four-day plan. 

Purple Carrot Delivery and Packaging

Purple Carrot delivers to all 48 contiguous U.S. states. Delivery dates are determined by region and can’t be changed. 

Your order will arrive in an insulated cardboard box with non-toxic gel ice packs. Prepared meals are packaged in individual trays and can be refrigerated until you’re ready to heat and eat them. Meal kits will come as a collection of ingredients, all of which are bundled and labeled so that you know which go with what meal.

One thing that I’m not a huge fan of is the amount of plastic Purple Carrot uses. Their meal kits are primarily packaged in plastic, and while I understand that some plastic is necessary for food safety reasons, I feel like they could bundle their kits in paper bags like Green Chef. 

Cooking Purple Carrot Meals

Instead of recipe cards, Purple Carrot includes a booklet with all of the week’s recipe options in your order, even the ones you didn’t choose. I really like that they do this, especially since I’m a recipe-saver. It’s a great way to fight FOMO. If you were debating between multiple options, you can still make the other dishes using your own ingredients. 

Unfortunately, I don’t think Purple Carrot’s recipes are as easy to follow as Green Chef’s, especially for beginners. They’re written in a much more standard cookbook-style format rather than walking you through each step at a time—you’ll definitely want to read through the whole recipe at least once before you start cooking (though that’s always a good practice anyway). 

Green Chef’s recipes don’t list all of the prep steps in the recipe body, either. A lot of your chopping will actually be listed in the ingredients section.

For example, your ingredients might list “one garlic clove, peeled and minced” or “two carrots, peeled and sliced into rounds.” Unlike Green Chef, Purple Carrot will just add a whole bulb of garlic to your box (instead of a bag of minced garlic). That means you’ll have to pay attention to your ingredients list and prep any vegetables before you start cooking. 

Other than that, the recipes are pretty straightforward and easy to follow. They include in-progress photos of the recipes, but they’re printed under the image of the final dish rather than alongside their corresponding steps. 

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Purple Carrot is an excellent option for vegans. 
• I like that you can include both prepared meals and meal kits in your plan. 
• Many of their meals are gluten-free. 
• They have plans that serve up to six people. 
• I like that you get a booklet with all of the week’s recipes. That way, you can go back and try the ones you didn’t order. 
• They don’t try to sell you premium meals at a higher cost. 
• Their portion sizes are filling but not excessive. 
• Most of their meals are cheaper than Green Chef’s, especially if you don’t mind eating the same meal more than once a week. 

Cons

• Because they carry both meal kits and prepared meals, they have fewer meal options for each category than companies that only sell one or the other. 
• Many of their meals contain nuts. If you have a peanut or tree nut allergy, this might not be the right subscription for you. 
• Their meals are not certified organic (though a lot of their non-produce ingredients are organic). 
• Their meals and meal kits are not customizable. 
• I noticed that some meals were available when I selected two servings per meal but not when I selected four servings. 
• They use more plastic packaging than I expected. 
• I don’t like that they don’t include chopping and prepping vegetables in their recipe steps.

Alternatives to Consider

If you’re looking for other healthy meal delivery services, you might like one of these. 

Sunbasket

Sunbasket is a meal subscription service that uses 98% certified organic ingredients. They offer both meal kits and prepared meals. The company is committed to sustainable farming practices. You can read our Sunbasket review here. 

Hungryroot

Hungryroot is a subscription service that sells healthy grocery items and meal kits made from those groceries—they kind of feel like meal kits that a friend might put together from items they purchased in a local grocery store, rather than meal kits made in a commercial kitchen. You can read our Hungryroot review here. 

FAQs

Final Thoughts

I don’t dislike either of these meal subscriptions, but Green Chef is my favorite. It better suits my flexitarian lifestyle, is easier to use, and has better-quality ingredients.

Purple Carrot is still an excellent option, especially if you follow a plant-based diet, but the fact that Green Chef has added many more plant-based meals recently means that even in that regard, they’re giving Purple Carrot a run for their money. 

Continue reading:

• Best Keto Meal Delivery Options to Try Next
• The 5 Best Family Meal Delivery Services for All Parenting Stages
• Green Chef vs Sunbasket Compared
• Green Chef vs Instacart Compared