Hungryroot vs Purple Carrot – Key Features Compared!

Not a lot of meal kit delivery services offer a personalized experience the way Hungryroot does. On the flip side, not many meal kit services are as committed to a plant-based diet the way Purple Carrot is. So, deciding between both of these popular situations can be tricky because they each offer their own unique benefits.

Hungryroot’s meals have an advantage because the meal selection process is a lot like shopping for groceries in a supermarket. Its interface is simple and options endless!

The difference between grocery shopping and Hungryroot is that with the latter, what you see is based on what you like and dislike as far as food preferences and dietary needs go. That’s like having an entire supermarket personalized just for your needs.

Purple Carrot features a different breakfast, lunch, dinner, and pantry menu. It’s a plant-based meal subscription service with classic and gourmet-style selections perfect for homecooked meals on a budget that are also nutritious and delicious.

As a vegan company, it provides plenty of exciting and satisfying portions packed with flavor, which is something to look forward to if you’re a plant-based health-conscious eater.

What Are Meal Kit Delivery Services?

Meal kit delivery services are subscription-based food delivery services for meals, like lunches and dinners, with ingredients that are preportioned and premeasured. The recipes are already put together, and in some cases, even the meals are already cooked (these are prepared, microwaveable, or ready-to-heat-and-eat meals).

Meal kits delivered to you once a week make way for quick, easy cooking in the kitchen. There’s no need to do any kind of meal planning, prepping, etc. You just cook the food, follow the clear step-by-step instructions provided, and that’s it. Fresh ingredients are delivered, so your homecooked meals are healthy and delicious too.

What Is It Like to Use Meal Delivery Services?

Signing up, for example, on Hungryroot and Purple Carrot, is incredibly easy. You just choose the meal plan you find the most suitable for your diet and then select the meals that cater to your food habits, needs, and preferences.

This is also when you choose how many meals per week and how many servings per meal you want, for instance, 3 meals per week and for 4 people, so that would be 12 servings in total.

Once your weekly meal box arrives, all you have to do is follow the instructions printed on the recipe cards accompanied with the meal kits. You can indeed improvise, which means removing or adding any ingredients you like.

Why Use Meal Delivery Services?

Opting for a meal kit service is as simple as these two reasons.

#1 To Discover New Recipes and Cooking Methods

Not all meal kits require the same cooking technique. Likewise, not all recipes are of the same kind. The best meal delivery services have a wide-ranging menu with both classic recipes and exotic, global cuisine-inspired meals.

Along the way, you get to know about these types of dishes and enhance or develop your cooking skills.

#2 To Save Money

At first, the cost of meal deliveries might seem a bit much, which is completely normal. But compared to ordering takeout or dining out, the total price of a weekly meal box is certainly more budget-friendly.

On top of that, when you have ingredients all prepped and ready to go in your refrigerator, you’re less likely to eat unhealthy food and more likely to actually prepare fresh, homemade meals.

Meal kits save food waste as well by sending well-portioned ingredients based on how many servings per meal you select.

Who Should Be Using Meal Delivery Services?

Best for Fitness Freaks and Diet Enthusiasts

Let’s assume you’re on a weight-loss diet. In that case, you’d want meals that are high in protein and low in carbs and calories. In addition to that, meal kits also encourage portion control. So, these high-protein, low-carb meals perfectly fit into a weight loss regime and actually help in shedding a few extra pounds.

Likewise, there are meal plans and kits that accommodate a variety of diet plans, such as keto, paleo, vegan, Mediterranean, and more.

Best for Parents

Do you remember the last time meal planning and prepping for yourself and your kids were quick and easy? Been a while, hasn’t it? If you can relate, then allow the convenience and simplicity offered by meal kit delivery services to save the day – literally.

Also, services like Hungryroot and Purple Carrot feature meal kits as well as premade (or frozen) meals, and there’s no shortage of kid- or family-friendly recipes!

Hungryroot vs Purple Carrot – Sign Up and Meal Plans

Hungryroot

The journey of subscribing to Hungryroot’s meal plans begins by taking a quiz to find which recommended plan is perfect for you.

The sign-up process is very simple and efficient because Hungryroot asks you a few questions about your needs and preferences to make personalized suggestions.

You have to answer all the following questions during sign-up:

• Who are you feeding?
• What are some of your goals with Hungryroot? (to improve health, grocery shop less, eat more plants, lose weight, and save money and time)
• What’s most important to you when you go grocery shopping? (low prices, natural/organic options, healthy products, good value, variety, quality produce, convenience, taste)
• About how much do you spend on groceries each week?
• Do you have any dietary needs? (vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian, dairy-free, gluten-free, soy-free, nut-free, egg-free, shellfish-free)
• What kinds of meat do you like?
• What kinds of seafood do you like?
• What kinds of plant-based proteins do you eat?
• How do you usually eat throughout the mornings and afternoons for snacks?
• Do you eat sweets?

You’ll be given a bunch of options to select from under each question. When selecting preferences for dietary needs, protein, and cost, you can select multiple choices at a time.

Based on these answers, Hungryroot puts together your food profile to recommend groceries that they think you’ll love. The food profile includes an entire menu that is crafted for you. Based on these recipe recommendations, you can quickly add groceries to the cart without wasting time figuring out what you want.

Hungryroot categorizes groceries through recipes, so every item of grocery you see on the menu belongs to a specific recipe that you can make for yourself. Sounds simple, right? It is.

If you don’t want to take the quiz, that’s fine too because Hungryroot features two types of menus for first-timers to browse through before signing up.

The Groceries Menu and the Recipes Menu offer a wide variety of selections categorized by the type of grocery or recipe, ingredients, spice level, protein, and dietary preferences.

You can also search for specific groceries and/or ingredients that you want in your weekly box.

For example, if you want to add more veggies to your diet, you can avoid conventional pasta ingredients by selecting the “Grains + Pastas” category and just eat more ingredients like riced cauliflower, rice broccoli, beet noodles, brown rice, chickpea pasta, lentil noodles, etc.

Along with filtering the groceries menu by ingredient, diet, and protein, you can filter the recipes menu by serving size, protein, spice level, cook time, nutrition, and dietary needs. Multiple options can easily be selected at a time.

The recipe menu also features different types of cuisines like main + sides, grain bowls, pasta, tacos, stir-fries, salads, wraps, sandwiches, etc.

I will get into each filter and subcategory in the next section of this article, but as you can see, Hungryroot provides you with so many varieties and possibilities of recipes.

Eating whole foods that suit your specific needs and ordering them right to your doorstep are simpler and faster than ever thanks to Hungryroot’s extensive grocery and recipe menus.

Purple Carrot

Getting to know Purple Carrot before signing up is straightforward and quick. They offer two different types of menus – for meal kits and prepared meals. These are not sample menus but the actual current week’s menu that Purple Carrot is serving.

The meal plan pricing page has the accurate cost per serving for everything you can order through Purple Carrot. You can even see the prices without signing up.

Purple Carrot does not feature a quiz or questionnaire the way Hungryroot does, but you can answer a few quick questions for Purple Carrot to personalize their menu for you.

Questions such as what type of meals you want to eat, how many meals per week, and when you want your delivery are going to be asked. You can pick your meals for the first meal box after selecting the number of servings per meal and the number of meals per week.

If you want to know why Purple Carrot also serves plant-based ingredients, you can read about it here. In a nutshell, Purple Carrot shares multiple studies on how a plant-based diet is good for cholesterol, weight loss, diabetes, and overall heart health.

Also, it’s a good way to reduce the carbon footprint in the atmosphere, something that Purple Carrot prioritizes to be pro-planet and sustainable.

Their meal kits menu features multiple categories based on the time and serving size. You can select dinner, breakfast, lunch, and pantry as your go-to options. Plus, the meals are served in either 2 or 4 servings per recipe.

Each recipe card features the name of the recipe; main ingredients; dietary labels such as high-protein, nut-free, low-calorie, etc.; and the cooking time next to the calories per serving.

On the prepared meals menu, there are no meal customization filters – all the meals are single-serve and contain satisfying portions of lunch or dinner. There are 8 different meal options with the heating time and calories per serving mentioned on the recipe card itself.

Purple Carrot makes it very clear that you can customize your weekly meal box with a mix of meal kits and prepared meals. The prices of each are different depending on the number of meals you order every week.

To order your first meal box, you simply have to sign up and start adding meals to the cart. Purple Carrot features over 15 different meal selections for dinner, lunch, breakfast, and pantry recipes combined.

Hungryroot vs Purple Carrot – Discounts

Hungryroot

For new customers, you are presented with a gift in the form of fresh produce, a special recipe, or premium protein for the week. So, in your first delivery, a gift of your choice will be included along with all the groceries you add to the cart.

You can select any special veggie for the week from sweet potatoes, zucchini, to leafy greens and more. Hungryroot also recommends the Most Popular recipes that you can add to your weekly box.

The gift can also be something sweet like Almond Chickpea Cookie Dough. You don’t have to make the dough from scratch. Simply spoon the pre-prepped and mixed dough onto a baking tray.

The last option is to add proteins to your weekly box – extra servings of premium protein like meat, beef, seafood, or plant-based protein that works for you.

Even if you change your mind about the gift you want halfway through the meal selection process, you can easily go back and edit it. The meal selection and editing process are very flexible and convenient.

On top of the gift, first-timers get a 30% discount on the final bill amount. The discount will get added automatically at checkout. You don’t need to copy-paste any discount code separately.

Purple Carrot

Purple Carrot serves two types of meals including Meal Kits and Prepared Meals. The price varies based on the number of servings and meals per week you order. The cost per serving starts from $11 to $13 per serving.

However, for first-time customers, you get a First Week discount of $25 on the final bill amount. You get two meals’ worth of discount, which means you can either add two more meals to your diet or save $25 for the same meal size.

After the first week, the prices go back to the default pricing plus any shipping costs.

Hungryroot vs Purple Carrot – Prices

Hungryroot

Hungryroot is a more personalized meal kit delivery service than Purple Carrot. It will recommend meals based on your cooking habits and preferences.

This is a good thing for people because then, all your cooking and food needs are met. Whether you’re a beginner or an intermediate, Hungryroot saves time and money and lets you cook according to your cooking style. There’s no room for compromise or error.

Hungryroot’s pricing is very flexible based on how you like to shop for groceries and the number of meals you want each week. The pricing varies according to grocery items and diet plans. However, the starting price for a meal is $8.5 onwards.

Fortunately, Hungryroot does not charge a shipping fee on orders above $70. However, a $6.99 shipping fee is charged for orders below this threshold.

The more meal kit servings per week you order with Hungryroot, the lesser you’ll pay per week. The approximate cost-per-serving value is between $8.5 and $10 per serving, and the meal plans vary from 6 to 12 servings per week.

Ordering from Hungryroot is indeed very similar to grocery shopping, but only Purple Carrot makes the process easier and faster for most people. You order groceries based on the meal recipes you want to make at home every week.

Plus, unlike conventional grocery shopping, you don’t have to individually pick out ingredients. They are displayed in bundles and grouped by different recipes, saving you time in meal planning.

The price difference between ordering groceries through Hungryroot and buying groceries in a supermarket yourself is surprisingly not very steep. You are expected to pay between $5 and $20 more for Hungryroot if you want convenience and personalized food recommendations.

Purple Carrot

The meal pricing on Purple Carrot’s website is much easier and quicker to access than on Hungryroot. The price varies according to the type of meal you select and the number of servings you want to order for the week.

Meal kits and prepared meals have different weekly prices.

For meal kits for 2 people and 2 servings per meal:

• 3 meals per week – $13.25 per serving
• 4 meals per week – $13.25 per serving

For meal kits for 4 people and 4 servings per meal:

• 2 meals per week – $11 per serving
• 3 meals per week – $11 per serving

For prepared meals with a single serving per meal:

• 6 meals per week – $13 per serving
• 8 meals per week – $13 per serving
• 10 meals per week – $13 per serving

Does Purple Carrot provide free shipping on all orders? Yes, they do. So, all the meal kits and prepared meals you order won’t cost you a dime for shipping or delivery. It’s completely free, even on the smallest meal order.

Hungryroot vs Purple Carrot – Menu

Hungryroot

Picking groceries and meal kit bundles on Hungryroot may feel overwhelming because of the different options. The assortment of groceries is endless from breakfast to dessert items.

You can view the chef-crafted meal recipes on one side and also head over to their grocery menu to browse through individual grocery items ranging from fresh produce, sauces, meat, grains and pasta, snacks, bread, dairy items, sweets, to much more.

The different recipes on Hungryroot’s menu are categorized by type of dish, serving size, protein, cook time, nutrition, and dietary needs.

You can select multiple options, and the menu personalizes the list of recipes according to what you choose.

Under each meal recipe, there is a group of ingredients you need to buy to make them. So, for example, if you select the Whole Grain Hummus Chicken Wrap recipe, items like seasoned grilled breast chicken, sweet potato wraps, bell pepper onion sauté pack, and lemon garlic hummus will get automatically added to the cart.

A great thing about Hungryroot’s meal recipes is that they also display the nutrition info of all the recipes and ingredients displayed on their menu – nutrition information such as the ingredients list and the macros of the recipe or ingredient. The menu also displays the cooking time and cooking instructions for the meal recipe.

Hungryroot includes different types of meals such as the following:

• Main + Sides
• Grain Bowls
• Pasta
• Tacos
• Stir-Fries
• Salads
• Wraps
• Sandwiches
• Burgers
• Bakes
• Flatbreads
• Soups + Stews
• Roast + Ready
• Veggie Bowls

If you want to filter the menu by protein, you can select the following options:

• Beef + Bison
• Poultry
• Pork
• Fresh fish
• Lamb
• Smoked fish
• Tofu + Fish
• Beans + lentils
• “Meat” alternatives
• Shellfish

If the diet is on your mind and you want to select recipes that meet different dietary needs, you can select from the following options:

• Vegan
• Vegetarian
• Pescatarian
• Dairy-free
• Gluten-free
• Soy-free
• Tree Nut-free
• Peanut-free
• Egg-free
• Shellfish-free

Here are other filters that you can use to find new recipes on the menu:

• Spice Level – No heat, mild, medium, or hot
• Cook Time – 5 minutes or less, 10 minutes or less
• Nutrition – 500 calories or less

You can select as many options as you want. There is no restriction or limit to the number of filters you can apply to fine-tune the menu.

As for the different foods or groceries on Hungryroot’s menu, you have a bunch of filters and categories to browse different items with. It’s just like roaming the aisles of a supermarket where you are presented with different types of groceries to pick from:

• Produce
• Sauces + Condiments
• Meat + Seafood
• Plant-Based Proteins
• Grains + Pastas
• Bread + Bakery
• Snacks
• Dairy + Eggs
• Sweets Pantry
• Beverages
• Ready to Eat

The different customizations on Hungryroot’s recipe menu apply to the grocery menu as well, such as the choice of protein, spice level, and dietary needs.

New filters that are exclusive to the grocery menu are Breakfast, Organic, and Newest Additions. All the rest are the same.

The various grocery items on the menu come with different dietary labels, nutrition, and suggestions regarding what recipe they can be used for.

For example, the White Corn Tortillas are good for tacos, salads, wraps, bakes, and flatbreads. Hungryroot provides all this information for free once you click on the item you want. It also displays the ingredients list, dietary labels, serving size, and some tips.

Purple Carrot

Purple Carrot, in comparison to Hungryroot, has a basic and standard menu for meal kits and prepared meals. On their Meal Kits menu, they have separate meal categories for you to pick from, just like a restaurant features different items on the menu categorized under the type of cuisine:

• Dinner
• Breakfasts
• Lunches
• Pantry

All the meals are served in either 2 or 4 servings. Each recipe card comes with dietary labels, the number of calories, and cooking time.

The Dinner menu features dishes like tacos, burgers, ramen noodles, sandwiches, healthy bowls, and curries. Meals high in protein and are soy-, nut-, and gluten-free are also included. There are around 8 different dinner recipes on Purple Carrot’s current menu – all plant-based and healthy choices for good nutrition and balanced caloric intake.

The Breakfast menu is limited to only 2 new recipes per week -Strawberry & Cream Cheese Toasts and a Tofu Scramble. Both breakfasts are low in calories and healthy to eat, with a cooking time of 5-15 minutes approximately.

The Lunch menu is the same as the Breakfast menu with only 2 recipes ready to go. Nutritionally speaking, lunches are meant to be light and balanced like healthy bowls or sandwiches, and that’s exactly what is on Purple Carrot’s menu.

You can either select the Coconut Ginger Congee or the Smoky Tempeh BLTs sandwiches. The serving size for each meal is 2 servings, and the cost per serving is less than what you would ideally pay for Dinner because the portion size is slightly less as it is a lunch item.

Lastly, the Pantry or “Plantry” menu features several different types of snacks and dips like pesto sauce, goat cheese, cookies, and crumbles for tacos. Each has a different serving size and price as it is a pantry item.

You can add as many pantry items as you want to the cart. The final amount will be displayed during checkout where you can add some more or remove items from the cart based on the total bill.

The menu features several different dietary labels although you cannot filter the recipes based on their diet categories, such as Quick and Easy, Less than 600 calories, Nut-free, Gluten-free, Soy-free, High-Protein, and Chef’s Choice. The diet labels apply to all the menu categories, dinner, breakfast, lunch, and pantry.

Purple Carrot also features a Prepared Meals menu that is all single-serve with the same $13 cost-per-serving value. Noodles, healthy bowls, fried rice, and meat-inspired dishes are included. Some of the recipes are also gluten-free and contain less than 600 calories per serving.

You can read about the prepared meal’s ingredients list and other helpful tips on the meal’s page. For example, their Quinoa Burrito Bowl takes less than 2 minutes to heat in the microwave. It also contains 530 calories per serving, which is considered a low-calorie meal.

Unfortunately, I see no nutrition info about each prepared meal such as their macros. Plus, some of the prepared meals contain ingredients like calcium chloride, gluconate, and other processed ingredients that I imagine aren’t very healthy.

Hungryroot vs Purple Carrot – Is It Diet-Friendly?

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to subscribe to a meal kit delivery service that offers meals that don’t taste like diet food but actually are?

Hungryroot and Purple Carrot differ in the types of diet-friendly meals they offer. Hungryroot comes out at the top for its health-conscious and highly flexible meal plans, while Purple Carrot offers a handful of categories that are not diet-focused.

Hungryroot

Hungryroot’s meals are personalized very carefully and craftily. They offer several dietary options, and you can customize the menu based on different diets such as vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian, and low calorie. They do offer organic and allergy-friendly recipes too where you can exclude or include recipes with dairy, gluten, soy, tree nut, peanut, shellfish, and eggs.

You can filter the grocery and recipe menu with these different dietary needs. If your diet is centered around the proteins you consume every day, Hungryroot has something for that as well.

You can filter the menu by the kind of protein you want in your weekly box – beef, poultry, pork, fresh fish, lamb, smoked fish, plant-based proteins such as tofu, tempeh, beans, lentils, and meat alternatives.

The grocery menu features a separate Organic filter that lets you pick only organic recipes from the entire menu. There are plenty of options available no matter which filters you select. Hungryroot guarantees hundreds of recipes and grocery items for you to select from.

Purple Carrot

Purple Carrot is a 100% plant-based meal subscription plan. The meals are cooked with whole foods and no animal by-products such as cheese, milk, eggs, etc.

Plant-based alternatives made with lentils, beans, chickpeas, tofu, tempeh, and peas are used in place of cheeses, meat, and other meat-based ingredients used in conventional meals.

Meal customization on Purple Carrot extends to the number of servings that you can select and the type of cuisines such as dinner, breakfast, lunch, and pantry.

They do have enough meal options when it comes to basic dietary categories such as low-calorie, gluten-free, high-protein, soy-free, and nut-free. The only drawback to this is that you cannot change the meals by selecting these dietary options.

There are meal kits and prepared meals with some dietary labels, perfect for those looking for a balanced and nutritious meal delivery plan.

For a custom-tailored meal subscription plan for allergies or diets, Hungryroot is the more flexible and adaptable choice. Purple Carrot’s meals are all plant-based, so it does cater to a vegetarian diet plan, but other than that, their meal plans are fairly basic.

Hungryroot vs Purple Carrot – Packaging

Hungryroot

All the ingredients come in a large cardboard box with smaller packages of ingredients grouped by recipe and kept in an organized fashion with the help of ice packs, insulation, and liners.

The ingredients are individually packed, which increases the use of plastics. But thankfully, more than half of the plastic used for Hungryroot’s packaging is recyclable, while the rest are single-use plastics that you need to throw out right away.

Nonrecyclable plastics like soft packages, liners, and seals cannot be recycled at all. And to many, this is a huge drawback to a meal kit service that still uses such non-eco-friendly materials.

Hungryroot also makes use of rigid plastics like containers that are recyclable and/or compostable. Some plastic is qualified for curbside pickup, while the rest you have to drop off at a special recycling facility that’s closer to your home.

Compared with the amount of plastic you’ll end up with after going grocery shopping at a supermarket, Hungryroot doesn’t feel very excessive. Some grocery shops use only non-recyclable plastics and seals. With Hungryroot, you can take care of some of the plastics in an eco-friendly manner.

Purple Carrot

Purple Carrot packs its meal kits the same way Hungryroot does with some, if not all, recyclable plastics. Fresh produce, such as whole fruits and vegetables, are kept as they are without the use of plastics. Insulation and liners keep them away from packets.

The recyclable plastic used is the large bags, smaller containers, and the heat-and-eat meal single-serve containers that you can easily keep for curbside side pickup.

Some of the containers provided by Purple Carrot are even reusable if you don’t mind washing them well and keeping them out to dry to avoid any residue.

Some plastic pieces will have to be dropped off at a special facility, while the plastics that are not labeled are generally non-recyclable. It’s a shame how you have to throw out non-recyclable plastics in the trash. However, Purple Carrot limits the use of plastic wherever it’s possible.

The support materials offer easy access and productive storage solutions to people who have ordered a higher number of servings per week. Unlike single-serve prepared meals, meal kits make use of more plastic to store every individual ingredient separately while avoiding spills, leaks, and any such accidents.

Hungryroot vs Purple Carrot – Delivery

Hungryroot

They deliver to all 48 continental United States, and customers can easily pick their delivery days from the options available to them based on their delivery location. About making edits to orders before delivery, all meal orders have a cutoff date, which is usually every Monday and Thursday before the delivery week. The cutoff time is at 7 pm EST.

Let’s say your order is due to arrive on Tuesday and you want to make some changes to that order. The cutoff day would be on Monday or Thursday before the delivery week begins.

Up until the cutoff, you can modify the orders however you want – add or remove meal kits, swap ingredients for some meal kits, choose a different version of the same recipe with different proteins, etc.

When it comes to substitutions, not all recipe meal kits allow that. You can swap the ingredients of meals that offer different proteins, but it mostly depends on the recipe you pick.

Purple Carrot

Purple Carrot caters to the same areas as Hungryroot, and it delivers across all 48 United States. The best thing about subscribing to Purple Carrot is that you don’t have to pay for any shipping, even on the smallest order.

But the drawback about their delivery is that you don’t get to choose the delivery day. It will always depend on where you live and the size of your order.

The delivery days are all on weekdays. You can request live tracking via text or email by mailing Purple Carrot your order details after the order has been placed.

Meal order customization is not a problem at all as long as it’s done before the deadline. Changing, adding or removing, and skipping meals for a few weeks is easy to do. You can even cancel your membership and pick up from where you left off. Purple Carrot remembers you so you don’t have to go through the signup process all over again.

Each order has its own unique cutoff time, which you will be able to see right away next to your order details.

Hungryroot vs Purple Carrot – Vegan and Vegetarian

Hungryroot

Hungryroot is not a plant-based meal subscription service the way Purple Carrot is. It does, however, include many vegan and vegetarian options as a separate diet category. You can filter all your meals to find only vegan and vegetarian meals and groceries.

Overall, the meals are delicious as they are nutritious and healthy. Packed with fresh produce, even the nonvegetarian meals include lots of veggies and whole foods – no GMOs, processed ingredients, or preservatives.

To complement a vegan and vegetarian diet, you can also filter the recipe and groceries menu according to the type of protein you want. Hungryroot offers multiple exciting and wholesome options like tofu, tempeh, beans, lentils, and plant-based meat alternatives.

The ingredients used in vegan and vegetarian meals are made of whole foods, even items like cheese, sauces, dips, and pasta.

I found the plant-based protein category on Hungryroot’s groceries menu with so many different healthy food options, such as different types of beans, plant-based patties, chorizo, tofu spiced, lemongrass tofu nuggets, zucchini falafel, plant-based chicken tenders, white bean salad, green veggies burger patties, tempeh strips, etc. These are some excellent foods you can add to your diet to boost your protein consumption.

The Grains and Pasta category also features many plant-based alternatives to rice, noodles, and pasta such as riced cauliflower, beet noodles, lentil, and quinoa rice, green lentil lasagna noodles, chickpea pasta, and wild mushroom risotto.

Nearly all of the ingredients you’ll find on Hungryroot’s menu are either vegan, vegetarian, or both. Considering all this, picking Hungryroot to follow a strict and consistent plant-based diet is a good idea.

Purple Carrot

All the meals delivered by Purple Carrot are vegan and plant-based. This includes the snacks and dessert items too. If you’re following a completely vegetarian diet, you won’t have a limited palette to work with on Purple Carrot’s menu.

It prioritizes healthy and high-protein vegetarian meals with fewer carbs. Some of the meals are even nut- and gluten-free.

If you’re following a paleo or a ketogenic diet, you should know that it includes meat, so picking Purple Carrot is not a good idea. Anything that is based on a complete veg-based diet, including vegan meals, pairs perfectly with Purple Carrot as all its meals and snacks are naturally vegan and made with plant-forward foods such as lentils, beans, chickpeas, leafy greens, tofu, and tempeh.

Hungryroot vs Purple Carrot – Protein Recipes

Here’s what I chose to compare the high-protein recipes of Hungryroot vs Purple Carrot. I will say, however, that because there are so many recipes on Hungryroot’s menu, it was at times confusing to select just one, but it’s mostly exciting because it means you never have to repeat a recipe 2 weeks in a row.

I imagine that given the sheer quantity of meal recipes on their menu, some people might find it a bit too overwhelming to keep browsing. But it’s never a bad idea to have too many options, especially when it comes to nutritious and pre-prepped foods.

With Purple Carrot, on the other hand, the choice was easy because they offer a limited number of meal kits each week. Compared with Hungryroot, it was easier to narrow down the meals I wanted without spending too much time browsing.

For vegetarian meals:

 For non-vegetarian meals:

Since Purple Carrot has vegetarian and plant-based meals only, I have included a meat-inspired recipe by Purple Carrot.

Hungryroot Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Affordable meal kits and an easy sign-up process.
• Takes away the hassle of going grocery shopping every week.
• Diet-friendly and has hundreds of different meal options.
• Plenty of delicious and healthy protein choices.
• It supports different diets such as vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian, and omnivore.
• The cooking and prepping process are very quick and efficient.
• The food quality is fresh, organic, and consistent.
• All the meal kits are backed by proper nutrition.
• Lots of options for vegans and vegetarians.
• Best service for trying out new foods every week.
• The delivery is quick and accessible.
• The meal kits are packed very well with recyclable plastics.
• Meal and order customization is possible with last-minute edits.

Cons:

• Slightly more expensive than buying groceries.
• Shipping charge on orders below $70.
• Some of the purchases are credit-based, which might be confusing.
• Picking from hundreds of recipes may overwhelm some people.

Purple Carrot Pros and Cons

Pros:

• All the meals are vegan and vegetarian.
• Lots of healthy plant-based protein options.
• The ingredients are fresh, organic, and nutritious.
• The cuisines are inspired from all over the world.
• The portion size is very satisfying and filling.
• The menu is divided into dinner, lunch, breakfast, and pantry.
• Recyclable packages and very consistent deliveries.
• Shipping is completely free, even on small orders.

Cons:

• Limited food options when compared with Hungryroot.
• The cooking time is longer than usual.
• Some of the recipes are complicated to cook for beginners.
• You cannot select the delivery day.
• No mobile app for making quick edits on the go.
• No diet or allergy filters are included.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. How Can You Cancel or Skip an Order with Hungryroot and Purple Carrot?

With Hungryroot, you can go to your Account Settings and find the option to expand your Account Details. Once you select that option, the Cancel feature will be accessible. Here, you’ll be given three options to pick from – pause for 4 weeks, 6 weeks, or 8 weeks.

To reactivate after you’ve paused or canceled your subscription, log in to your Hungryroot account, and select Resume Deliveries or Resubscribe. Pressing this automatically reactivates your membership, so you can start ordering meal kits right away.

With Purple Carrot, head over to the Upcoming Delivery page, and there you’ll find the Skip button at the side of every order. You can select the duration of skipping the meals easily.

To cancel an order, go to Account Settings and select Change which is next to the Subscription Status option. The page you’ll be taken to next is where you can cancel or pause your account for up to 10 weeks.

As long as you make these changes before the cutoff time, they will apply to all your upcoming orders. But once the order has been shipped, the changes will apply after the pending order has been delivered.

2. Are Hungryroot and Purple Carrot Organic?

Hungryroot promises that majority of the ingredients on its menu are vegan and vegetable-based. However, only some ingredients are organic due to shipping constraints and other limitations.

Hungryroot has several organic ingredients like organic fruits and vegetables, packed salad kits, dips and sauces, and organic meat. The organic ingredients are labeled, plus Hungryroot gives you the option to filter the entire menu with Organic ingredients only.

The same applies to Purple Carrot as it features some organic ingredients. But Purple Carrot does not feature a separate menu filter for Organic food the way Hungryroot does.

All the ingredients packed are GMO-, preservative-, additive-, and filler-free. Purple Carrot’s menu is completely plant-based and vegan. Food items like tempeh, tofu, and beans are not organic, but more than most of the fresh produce is organic on Purple Carrot’s menu.

3. How Can I Get in Touch with Hungryroot and Purple Carrot?

With Hungryroot, their FAQs page has everything you need to know. But they also feature a live chat box on the bottom right side of the page where you can type your question and get the most relevant response in return.

The customer service is friendly and offers you multiple ways of getting in touch with them – by email, text, and phone call between 10 am and 6 pm EST.

With Purple Carrot, their customer service is very responsive. You can contact them via email or text through the live chat box on their website. Unfortunately, they do not have a mobile app yet, so you have to log in through their website to get access to all the features and the helpful FAQs page.

Their Contact Us page includes commonly asked and answered questions, a search box, an email address, a chat box, and a phone number with the working hours right under it. This way, you can contact them asap regarding any inquiries and/or requests.

Final Verdict

Hungryroot caters to those who hate going grocery shopping but appreciate the variety of options that you normally have in a supermarket. Customization-wise, Hungryroot is the winner because it accommodates so many different diets, ingredients, and allergy-friendly meals.

Purple Carrot is an ideal choice for pure plant-focused eaters, busy students, and singles who want a break from meal planning. Purple Carrot’s meals are delicious and cater to all the meals of the day, starting from breakfast. It’s one of the best plant-based meal delivery services.

The choice between Hungryroot and Purple Carrot is a difficult one, but you can simplify it by asking yourself what you prefer in a meal subscription service. If you appreciate variety over everything else, go with Hungryroot. However, if you don’t want to spend too much time deciding your week’s meals, Purple Carrot will work for you.