Purple Carrot

For anyone who has read my previous blog post about meal prep you should already know that I came to the conclusion that meal prep is not  for me.
I always see advertising for meal delivery services so, I decided to try one out. Purple Carrot is a local meal delivery service that offers vegan prepped meals. The meals are delivered to your door pre-portioned , with recipe cards , step by step instructions and pictures.

I went online to sign up. It’s $72.00 per week for three meals that serve 2 people each. For your first time you get a discount. So I ended up paying $52.00
Regardless of the fact that I’m a chef, and vegetarian, I am super picky, and I have food allergies. I decided to skip the first week because I  wasn’t in love  with the menu. My first delivery came mid month. It was delivered in the pretty purple and white box. I opened it up and there was an ice pack to keep everything cold. I took a look at the recipes and put everything in the fridge..and it sat there for a week.I don’t advise leaving pre-portioned food in your fridge for a week but being a chef I’ve smelled plenty of rotten food, and I know when it’s time to dispose of it.
I didn’t want my experiment to go to waste so I forced myself to make the curry mango dish.
I love coconut and curry flavor combinations, but I am not a huge fan or fruit in my savory, weird.
I timed myself it took me under 30 minutes to prepare everything and it tasted pretty good. The only thing i wasn’t crazy about were the  garbanzo bean dumplings. Garbanzo bean flour has a really potent flavor that I’ve never really been a fan of, otherwise everything was great.

So, two weeks since my delivery, and the other meals are still in the fridge. At this point I really need to check and make sure they are still good. One of the dishes is a tofu banh mi… I have tried over and over again to like tofu, and I just can’t do it. The texture is quite terrible, and it has no flavor, well it takes on the flavor of whatever you put In it, but it it’s natural state it taste like nothing. I really need to make that meal in attempts to conquer tofu.

Overall, if you are not too picky, and you are trying to make healthy meals quick and easy I would suggest giving them a try.
Things to look out for; when I was originally charged they did not give me the discount so I had to send in an email and ask for help. Customer service was prompt, friendly, and helpful. When I went to cancel my subscription I had to google how to  end subscription. You have to send in an email, and then fill out a form.

Moral of the story meal delivery services are cool, but meal prep doesn’t work for me. I would like to try hello fresh, and blue apron, but I know that I won’t use the service as intended. Maybe  I’ll just try them out for my readers, but not really for me.

Update: an additional two weeks later… the other meals are still in my fridge.