May 10, 2022
There are plenty of meal-subscription services available today. Some deliver full meals, others focus on delivering one kind of meals, say vegan meals for example.
And there are still others like Splendid Smooth who only specialize in smoothies and soups. We are going to talk about Splendid Spoon in this review. Today, we are going to take a look at what Splendid Spoon is. We’re also going to understand what its pros and cons are, along with who would benefit the most from Splendid Spoon.
Splendid Spoon is a meal delivery service for plant-based foods. Nicole Centeno created Splendid Spoon in 2013. She was pregnant at the time and working a full-time job which limited her ability to cook nutritious food. Challenged by the sheer lack of options around her, she came up with the idea of Splendid Spoon where customers can have healthy meals on the go. She tested the service at several farmer’s markets and pop-ups in Brooklyn. As demand grew, she rolled out Splendid Spoon nationally in 2015.
With the service, you get a range of smoothies, soups, and noodle meals. There are no main courses.
They offer plenty of choices for meals. There are scores of different subscription plans all of which make it possible for you to easily have a varied plant-based diet.
Splendid Spoon has a very straightforward plant-based approach to eating. With colorful and nutrition-based recipes and meals, they offer the following:
All recipes are premade and can replace different meals of the day including breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks.
Instead of picking meal plans, Splendid Spoon offers you the chance to opt for meal boxes where you can add 7, 14, or 21 meals per box. There is no cap to the combination of recipes you choose. You can absolutely mix and match between different smoothies, soups, noodles, dishes, shots, and juices.
If you want a box full of smoothies with a few noodles thrown into the mix, that’s fine too. The pricing breakdown is per bottle/meal serving, so you pay for the convenience of having all your dishes preportioned and ready to eat.
Splendid Spoon’s menu caters to varied and modifiable meal plans. Health enthusiasts looking for a unique and refreshing way to plan their meals have the option to try new recipes each day of the week.
For example, their Raspberry Cacao Smoothie is a great blended smoothie to start the day with. Likewise, the Hidden Greens Smoothie can be a meal replacement for dinner when you don’t want to fill up on something heavy.
The first thing you should know about Splendid Spoon’s meal plans is that they are all plant-based, vegan, and GMO-free. You would also be pleased to know that the drinks and meals are gluten-free, dairy-free, and soy-free.
The majority of the ingredients used in the recipes are organic, but the ones that aren’t, Splendid Spoon makes a note to mention them accordingly.
Apart from the ingredient quality, Splendid Spoon supports multiple diet categories which you can casually browse through by using their “Dietary Needs” filters, which include the following:
Building up on that, you can also opt to avoid or eliminate specific ingredients like the ones below:
It doesn’t stop there, not only are the meals diet-friendly, but they are designed to match specific health benefits, such as the following:
Prepared to please even the most particular and finicky eaters, you can also filter the menu according to taste and texture preferences, such as the following:
That being said, it’s not mandatory to select meals with the help of these filters. They are optional, and you can customize your meal options as and when you like.
What’s so great about Splendid Spoon is that it lets you customize and pair different meal options with nourishing smoothies, cleansing juices, and hearty dishes like soups, bowls, and noodles. It’s a fantastic choice for someone looking to experiment a bit with healthy meals and drinks without having to commit to a strict diet plan.
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Splendid Spoon encourages a weight management and weight loss diet for people on a strict plant-based and vegan lifestyle. So regular exercise, coupled with meals from Splendid Spoon, can be of great help in losing weight.
However, considering that there are no animal proteins, the meal plans are a tad bit expensive. It isn’t for anyone on a tight budget or for someone who wants to follow restrictive diets like keto or paleo diets, either of which is also thought to be good for weight loss.
Splendid Spoon has a registered dietitian on board together with an experienced chef who designs menus with recipes that fit the bill for being nutritious and tasty.
The meals aren’t specifically designed for the calorie-conscious or for those who prefer low-fat options. But despite that, for every meal, you get a card specifying nutritional information such as the number of calories, proteins, carbs, and fats.
Plus, filters allow you to narrow down your meal options: higher fiber, higher protein, lower calories, lower carbs, lower fats, etc. The meals are under 500 calories per serving, with soups that have fewer than 150–200 calories.
There are no claims made about effective weight loss, but since the meals are mostly low in calories than average, most people may lose weight with a calorie-restrictive diet plan.
Research points out that plant-based diets can lead to weight loss. The same study shows that vegetarians are less likely to be obese. Plant-based whole foods like avocados, legumes, whole grains, sweet potatoes, carrots, tofu, tempeh, pea protein, nuts, and seeds are the focus for all Splendid Spoon meals.
Splendid Spoon aligns with this approach to healthy eating with meals that are rich in fiber, thanks to whole grains, fruits, and vegetables. Fiber leaves you with a sensation of fullness for longer. You’re unlikely to get cravings when you feel full.
All Splendid Spoon food is 100% vegan. The recipes are made of assorted fruits and vegetables featuring greens like spinach, kale, matcha, spirulina, avocado, mint, and moringa. 95% of the ingredients are labeled as organic with 100% of ingredients that are non-GMO.
There are plant-based meat replacements in the recipes, but these meat replacements aren’t made of soy. They use pea protein instead which is an isolate of ground-up pea, good for people with digestive problems like IBS.
Splendid Spoon is a plant lover’s paradise. Their recipes are unique, interesting, and inspired, having the option to eat dishes that you wouldn’t typically cook on your own like Green Tomatillo Chili, Red Curry Noodles, Roasted Cauliflower & Falafel, Dan Dan Noodles, and much more.
The coffee smoothie is made of cold-brewed coffee extract, rich coconut cream, and almond butter. It’s the perfect way to start your day with a hit of caffeine.
The coconut lime smoothie is a great fix for the summer. The ingredients in this smoothie are lime which is great for oral health, spirulina which is a well-known superfood great for energy, and avocado which helps the kidneys and detoxifies your body.
Packed with strawberries, chocolate, and protein, this smoothie can be your workout companion.
Pea protein is one of the highlights of this smoothie. It helps build your muscles. Cacao helps blood flow and lifts moods. Strawberries are rich in antioxidants and vitamin C.
It’s a filling bowl that has kimchi known for its positive effects on the gut and turmeric tofu.
Another ingredient is edamame which is high in proteins and essential amino acids. Kimchi is great for fighting inflammation and balancing the gut microflora. Quinoa is an energy booster.
The green tomatillo chili soup is colorful. It introduces a burst of flavors from the first spoon. It’s made of tomatillos, beans, and protein-rich tofu. Tofu is full of protein and keeps your stomach full for longer. Tomatillos are great for preventing cramps and bloating. Navy beans have a calming effect on blood sugar.
This roasted cauliflower grain bowl is both savory and sweet with chickpeas all resting underneath a rich tahini sauce.
Spinach is the star ingredient and is rich with iron and folic acid to provide you a burst of energy while also supporting cell function and repair.
Cauliflowers are rich in choline and enhance brain function. Sorghum is great for promoting nail and hair growth.
It’s a spinach dish with peas and mushrooms rich in vitamin D.
The shiitake mushrooms are another great addition. They’re ideal for boosting bone strength with vitamin C and are also rich in vitamin D. Peas are great for lowering blood sugar. Coconut has plenty of benefits and chief of which is providing you with clear skin and great hair.
It’s a noodle bowl with bok choy and tofu.
The main ingredients are tofu, Sichuan peppercorns, and bok choy. Tofu is protein-rich and keeps you full for a longer period. Sichuan pepper is a numbing berry picked from Western China that adds a unique flavor to the dish. Bok Choy helps sustain your gut flora.
It’s a colorful and light soup that warms you up. Tamarind gives a sweet and tangy flavor and is a great addition to soups. The tofu has protein to keep you full for longer. Thai basil is a purple herb-rich with vitamins.
Add-ons here on Splendid Spoon take the form of nourishing shots, besides smoothies like Power Greens Smoothie, Pineapple Passion Fruit Smoothie, or this bestseller Raspberry Cacao Smoothie.
As for the branded nutrition shots, there are detox, digestion, wellness, recovery, and immunity shot bundles. These have ingredients such as ginger, aloe, lemon, moringa, turmeric, apple cider vinegar, cherry juice, watermelon juice, elderberry, and plenty more.
Extras like plant-powered juices are also available – Lower Sugar Green Juice Bundle, Tropical Greens Juice with pineapple & spirulina, etc. You get 3-day, 5-day, 7-day, 10-day, 14-day, and more such packs where the price range can be anywhere between $20 and $65 per bundle; it depends on the type and number of shot, juices, or smoothies.
You have to take into consideration that Splendid Spoon is a meal delivery service that includes GMO-free, gluten-free, and vegan ingredients, which make matters a tad bit expensive. Then there’s also the amazing truth that Splendid Spoon food is premium quality as it’s all a part of specialty meal programs. This, too, costs extra in comparison to any run-of-the-mill meal service.
Speaking of their plans, the one that features breakfast, lunch, and reset meals works out at $9 per serving, while the meal plan that adds dinner as well works out at $9.25 per serving. As for just breakfast and lunch, the price per serving increases to $13.
According to logic, Splendid Spoon meals cost so much not only because they use premium, non-GMO, gluten-free, and vegan ingredients but also because the company offers free shipping. However, no shipping charges are applied only if your order contains 14 or 21 items. On the other hand, for the 7-item weekly box, shipping is $12.99 per box.
Delivery frequency is once a week, once every two weeks, or even once a month.
Now here are the individual prices for the different items available on the Splendid Spoon menu:
To get started on Splendid Spoon, you’ll need to first select your weekly box size:
Another way to go about it is to look at the weekly pricing through the various Splendid Spoon meal plans:
It’s either this or you build your own custom, on-demand box that includes 7, 14, or 21 food items.
Now you know how much you’d be spending for Splendid Spoon meals generally and on a weekly basis.
So, based on the weekly pricing breakdown of their meal plans, here are the average numbers for the monthly subscription:
| Meal Plan | What’s Included | Cost Per Week | Cost Per Month |
| Breakfast | 7 smoothies | $82.92 per week | $82.92 x 4
= $331.68 per month |
| Lunch | 7 soups/grain bowls | $100.42 per week | $100.42 x 4
= $401.68 per month |
| Breakfast, Lunch | 7 smoothies
7 soups/grain bowls |
$147.36 per week | $147.36 x 4
= $589.44 per month |
| Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner | 7 smoothies
7 soups/grain bowls 4 noodle bowls 3 dishes |
$226.79 per week | $226.79 x 4
= $907.16 per month |
Inside the package, you have the instructions for any item that needs reheating. The instructions are simple to follow. The website offers reheating instructions as well. No extra material. Just your meal and heating instructions.
The box is small. It’s misleading to imagine that the meals or smoothies are super-small. The design saves space. You will find a recycle bin lining, cooler packs at the bottom, and the smoothies and soups inside.
The soups sit inside microwave-safe containers. The containers too can be recycled. The smoothies arrive in recyclable plastic bottles. Just shake and drink. You can also put them in a blender to make the texture more juice-like.
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Splendid Spoon is a quick way to enjoy plant-based meals. No efforts are required.
Splendid Spoon is right for someone who wants to test the waters with a plant-based diet. If someone wants to add a plant-based diet but is unsure of how to cook the meals then Splendid Spoon is a good option. The service offers tasty and balanced meals that you’re not likely to be put off by.
However, there’s no cooking or prep time. You can make healthy meals with great ingredients from the comfort of your home. Plus the ingredients are all local. If you want to stick to organic foods this is a great option.
Several weekly meals featuring different herbs, vegetables, flavors of the season, seasonings, and sauces are available.
Splendid Spoon rotates its menu every week releasing at least 3 new recipes each season to excite your palate with new tastes.
The meals are plant-based, gluten-free, and vegan. All of which make for a very healthy diet.
If you’re on a diet, you can use the information to choose specific meals and plan what to eat.
Plus, there is an option for you to filter out certain ingredients. This is great if you have specific food preferences or allergies.
However, since the meals are produced at a place that frequently handles different allergens, it may not be the absolute best fit for someone who faces severe allergies.
The menu is completely plant-based. So while the recipes are great for vegans or vegetarians, those following keto diets or Paleo diets won’t find Splendid Spoon to be very useful for them.
The smoothies are made of organically sourced fruits and vegetables and make use of non-GMO ingredients.
They don’t claim that all their ingredients are 100% organic though.
For the grain bowls or noodles, most of the ingredients that are used are fully organic. Foods belonging to the “dirty dozen” which is a collection of fruits and vegetables most likely to come with pesticide or fertilizer residues are 100% organically sourced.
For anyone who wants organic fare, a list of ingredients for each meal shows the origin of the ingredients and shows which of the ingredients are sourced locally. The recipes are all derived from plants, have low sodium, are gluten-free, and come without added sugars.
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Everything about Splendid Spoon meals is preportioned, precooked, and packaged. The soups arrive frozen and must be kept in the freezer. Smoothies are partially frozen which gives you the freedom to either thaw the ingredients in the fridge before blending or store them in the freezer so that they last for weeks.
Noodles, dishes, and soups have to be reheated either in the microwave, oven, or on the stovetop. Clear heating instructions with prep time and cook time are mentioned for every meal. It’s a part of the packaging which makes unpacking and storage easy and quick.
Some dishes like frozen soups and smoothies may require defrosting before heating.
Smoothies, though they can be had out of the bottle, taste much better and more refreshing after reblending. You can add a splash of plant-based or nut milk to improve the consistency and texture of the smoothie.
Overall, I believe that the Splendid Spoon meals are minimal and easy to prepare, taking not more than 5– 7 minutes for reblending or reheating. Since they are all plant-based ingredients, they are much easier to heat up than meat which takes longer.
There is the Splendid Spoon new customer discount. How this discount works is you get $25 off if your meal box contains 21 items or $10 off for 14 items. The plan size discount and all other discounts are applied at checkout.
The Splendid Spoon sign-up process starts with you choosing any one meal plan from the five basic ones at your disposal:
This is the most fun part – picking your meals (smoothies, soups, grain bowls, noodle bowls, rice bowls, etc., along with sweet, savory treats) from the Splendid Spoon menu.
You can add 7, 14, or 21 items to your box if you want to create a more customized order. Otherwise, based on the meal plan picked by you, the same delivery will reach your doorstep each week.
After you select your plan and meals, you have to enter some personal details, for example, ingredients you’re allergic to or want to avoid. This is an option you get irrespective of Splendid Spoon meals already being gluten-free and plant-based; thus, bonus points for that.
Then finally, you input your payment details.
Important to note here is that only credit cards are accepted on Splendid Spoon, so that may be a little disappointing and inconvenient for many.
Here are the steps to take to cancel your subscription:
The Finish Cancelling My Account tab only appears after the first delivery is made.
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The Splendid Spoon menu is a vast space filled with a variety of dishes inspired by world cuisine. More than 65 options are on the menu every week, which includes family-friendly meals like grain bowls, noodle bowls, and rice bowls, although sandwiches and salads are lacking.
Plus, the cost per serving is on the steeper side, but then you’re paying extra for fresh, premium-quality ingredients and for the ultra-convenience of ready-to-heat meals. The food is unflinchingly better than cheap quality and sometimes even unhealthy store-bought frozen food. So, you and your family can still consume nutritious meals on busy weeknights.
The higher the number of meals added to your weekly box, the more inexpensive the price per serving. So, if you go for the 21-item meal plan, the cost comes down to $9 per portion.
Like other delivery services discussed on the Mealfan blog, Splendid Spoon is a meal subscription service. Once you choose a plan, the meals start arriving every week as per the specifications of the plan.
You can choose between four different plans. The lowest-priced plan delivers 5 meals/week, and the top-priced plan delivers as many as 20 meals.
The cost for each meal is about $9. After you zero down on a plan, pick smoothies, grain bowls, soups, and noodles depending on your subscriptions. All meals are delivered chilled, and they’re never frozen.
You get deliveries every Wednesday or Friday of each week:
Splendid Spoon delivers to all 48 states in the USA. Not everyone is on board with the idea of paying for recurring subscriptions.
For everyone who dislikes the subscription fees but still wants meals from time to time, there’s the option of on-demand boxes. These are one-time orders. Pick from different bundles that offer smoothies only, soups and bowls only, wellness shots, or mixed bundles that pick an item from everything.
Also, you can’t call the portions generous but they’re not tiny either. The smoothies contain 16oz fluid. It’s equivalent to two snack portions.
Before you choose any meal, you see the ingredient list and its nutritional information. You can filter the meals for your dietary needs, choose high-fiber foods, and if you’re calorie-conscious, go for low-carb foods.
A few different subscription plans list the meals you’re going to get for the day.
Splendid Spoon meals are vegan, low on sodium, and free of added sugar, sodium or gluten, and soy.
Splendid Spoon offers several choices for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. You can use these options to build a customized menu for your dietary needs.
They offer a rotating menu with over 50 different meals and smoothies that you can customize to your liking every week. Don’t want that many? Make a few tweaks to your profile to set filters for ingredients or flavors based on your likes and dislikes.
Breakfast choices include smoothies made of cacao, cherries, almond butter, or avocado with no added sugar.
Lunches are whole grain bowls and proteins like lentils and beans. There’s an assortment of vegetables to pick from.
For dinner, you can pick rice noodles with multiple vegetables and seasonings.
Plus, there’s an interesting concept on Splendid Spoon that doesn’t seem to have caught on with other similar sites – a reset day that has light soups for meals and snacks that you can relish the entire day.
You also get two wellness shots for an extra payment. Order these shots in odd-number packs of 1, 3, or 5.
The meals are prepared in New York and sent to 4 different fulfillment centers across the USA.
How do they keep these ingredients fresh? They flash-freeze soups, noodles, and grain bowls. As a result, they stay fresh for longer. The smoothies can stay refrigerated for up to a month in your home.
Smoothies are refrigerated and shipped with insulation made of recyclable materials.
They always come fresh off the pack. There are very few complaints regarding the freshness or quality of ingredients Splendid Spoon uses.
The meals rotate every week. However, the core focus is on smoothies, soups, and grains.
Splendid Spoon generates recommendations for you based on your profile. This simplifies things. You can change the meals just before the cutoff time. However, if you’re not able to choose a meal or smoothie, you can let Splendid Spoon pick an assortment of smoothies and soups for you.
Sunbasket looks like a more inexpensive version of a meal delivery service – a meal delivery service that delivers both meal kits and prepared meals, whereas Splendid Spoon does only prepared meals, plus it’s a little bit expensive.
Moreover, the meal plans available on Sunbasket include Diabetes-Friendly, Carb-Conscious, Gluten-Free, Mediterranean, Paleo, Keto, Lean & Clean, and more. There may be no dedicated or separate vegan plan, but many food items are plant-based.
On the other hand, the Splendid Spoon menu, which consists of just premade meals and not meal kits as well, mainly revolves around only low-carb, plant-based, and gluten-free dietary choices.
Now, Veestro and Splendid Spoon have a lot in common, such as both offer fully cooked meals; both offer weekly, bi-weekly, and monthly delivery options; and both have breakfast, lunch, and dinner meals. Most importantly, both are plant-based prepared meal delivery services.
A noteworthy difference you cannot overlook, however, is that Veestro’s per-serving cost starts from $7, while that of Splendid Spoon begins from $10. So, the former is more affordable than the latter. Also, Veestro is a very fitting option for weight loss diet programs as it features an individual weight loss meal plan. Splendid Spoon doesn’t.
Super satisfying and tasty plant-based meals are what Purple Carrot claims to provide, both meal kits and premade meals. Splendid Spoon gives you just prepared meals. But what Splendid Spoon also offers is a larger selection of meals on its menu, over 65 options per week. Purple Carrot, unfortunately, has less than 15 dishes every week.
Purple Carrot meals are also plant-based and gluten-free like Splendid Spoon. In addition to that, the Purple Carrot menu includes high-protein meals too.
As for the money factor, Purple Carrot is a slightly expensive plant-based, prepared meal delivery as well, but it’s still cheaper than Splendid Spoon.
You’re free to check out Splendid Spoon’s FAQs section, which consists of all commonly asked questions about important topics like meal plans, pricing, shipping, recycling, managing account, etc. In addition to that, there’s the search bar too.
The self-service type supper center has all the shortcuts required to take actions such as changing billing information, pausing the subscription, and more.
There’s a Contact Us page as well where it’s mentioned that customer service is available Monday through Friday between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m. (EST) and on Saturday between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. (EST). Expect a reply within two hours only.
You can also message them via Facebook Messenger where the response time is less than an hour.
You don’t have to be on some sort of dedicated health or fitness-focused diet plan to find Splendid Spoon’s smoothies, soups, and whatnot enjoyable week after week. The quality of ingredients and variety of the menu, no doubt, are very impressive. You’ll find just nourishing meals on the Splendid Spoon menu, which is packed with wholesome, colorful, and appetizing ingredients.
But you do pay a hefty price per serving, around $9–$13. After all, everything on Splendid Spoon is clean, GMO-free, gluten-free, and vegan! And also factor in the ready-to-eat convenience!
You have three meal plans to pick from with varying numbers of meals and varying prices. The starter plan costs $65/week and delivers 5 meals a week. The highest-priced plan costs $185 per week and sends you over 20 deliveries a month. There’s also the option of getting a single meal, soup or noodle bowl delivered.
The minimum you need to opt for is a week’s plan.
Plenty of people says the best thing about Splendid Spoon is the quality of its ingredients. However, you can cancel the subscription after the first delivery. The first delivery has been paid for and you won’t get a refund for the first delivery even if you choose to cancel after.
Depending on which plan you subscribed to, the delivery can contain smoothies, soups, and grain bowls packaged with recyclable packaging. They use dry ice instead of ice packs which again are fully recyclable. The cooler box is made of recyclable materials. It’s one of the best eco-friendly meal delivery options there is.
There’s very little cooking involved. The deliveries arrive in a ready-to-eat form. You can always pour the contents of the smoothie into a blender and give it a good stir for a better flavor.
How long you take to heat a Splendid Spoon meal depends entirely on your personal taste. Microwaving the meals takes less than 5 minutes per meal. On the stovetop, however, the heating duration gets a bit longer, maybe by 3–4 minutes. An even slower method is to use an oven to warm up a dish.
The highest quality standards are used to prepare your meals. A registered dietician and a chef work on all meals that you find on the site.
An interval of 6 days before the delivery date is at your disposal to modify an order as you see fit. Depending on the day you’ve chosen for delivery, the cutoff time varies from order to order. So, keep an eye out for your designated delivery days for cancelations and modifications.
Splendid Spoon does send you a prompt reminder email weekly and an email 3 days before your cutoff time for any last-minute changes.
Freezing your Splendid Spoon meals allows them to stay flavorful and fresh for a period of 1 to 3 months. But for the best taste experience, it’s recommended to enjoy any Splendid Spoon dish, noodles, and soups within 1 to 2 weeks after delivery.
The smoothies, dishes, noodles, soups, juices, and other recipes have an “Enjoy By” date on the packaging.
