My honest thoughts on Planthood plant based meal delivery service

Having now tried 10 meals from Planthood I thought it was time I wrote about them. I am really enjoying the food, but it's worth reading all of my review to decide if they are worth trying for you and some tips to get the most out of it. 

I am paying for the subscription myself and I haven't been incentivised or asked by them to write this review (in other words I am a customer and this is not an advert). The photos are of some of the dishes I have cooked, they are quick snaps as I was focusing on getting food on the table to eat rather than beautiful presentation or photography. They might not be pretty, but they are an honest representation of what you can expect the food to look like.

Delivery day

Everything You Probably Want To Know About Planthood Vegan Meal Delivery Service

What is Planthood?

Planthood is a subscription based meal delivery service which delivers to most of the UK. When you go to the website you have to put your postcode in, which confirms if they can deliver to you (so I assume there are a few places they wont deliver to).  

There are many meal delivery services in the UK so what makes Planthood different? Firstly the meals are all plant based (vegan). I am not vegan, but I wanted to add some more vegetables and variety in to my diet. I kept seeing adverts for Planthood on social media for meals that looked really interesting so I decided to give it a try.  

They are a good balance between a recipe kit and ready meals. You get a combination of prepped sauces and portioned ingredients delivered so there is cooking involved, but you aren’t doing it all from scratch. The sauces are prepared by their chefs and don’t contain artificial additives or preservatives so they taste like the they would if you made them at home.

Depending on which meal you choose it takes about 15 to 45 minutes to prep and cook. You generally need to prepare the vegetables, mix ingredients together and heat the food following their instructions. 

Although it’s a subscription you can change or cancel deliveries online easily. 

Choosing the Meals

When you set up the subscription you decide if you want 3, 4 or 5 meals delivered, for 2 or 4 people, on which delivery day (Monday or Thursday), and how often you want your meals delivered (eg every week, fortnight or at a longer interval). You have the flexibility to change these. For my first delivery I went for 5 meals because I was using a discount code for the first box. For the next delivery I switched to 3 meals and on a Monday. I had problems selecting the date I wanted, but after messaging them they quickly sorted it out on their end. 

For each delivery there is a choice of about 10 meals to choose from. You need to choose which ones you want before the cut off date (eg Thursday at midnight for a Monday delivery) or they will auto select for you.  

When you are choosing your meals they have an image of the cooked meal, a title and some key facts about the meal eg “High Protein”, “gluten free” or “whole grains”. If you click on the title you get more details about the meal including: a spice rating, a description, a list of what you get in the box, nutritional information and a list of the overall ingredients.   They also tell you how long each one should take to prep and cook. I would take these as a rough guide though as I have had one that took a fair bit longer and generally it will depend on your kitchen skills.

After selecting your meals there are a few other vegan food products you can add to your basket. These include some juices, milk, peanut butter and chocolate. I have bought a few of the oat pots, but the branded products aren't ones I would generally buy unless on offer at the supermarket. 

Black bean smash burger tacos with cabbage, carrot, apple and walnut slaw

Is there a good choice of meals?

I have looked at meal delivery services before and found them overwhelming because of the amount of choice. I think the number of options each time at Planthood is just right. I found it easy to find meals I wanted to try, without having so much choice it took ages and put me off.

Over the 4 orders I have made so far I haven’t seen any repeated meals yet so there is enough variety over time not to get bored. 

While I can eat some forms of cooked dairy I find other food services difficult to navigate because dairy free options can lead to a limited choice, as all the meals are vegan this isn't a problem with Planthood as I can eat all the range. I would also expect cross contamination to be low as non of the food they are making contains dairy. 

Do they do Gluten Free meals?

You can filter the available options to show which meals are gluten free. About half the options (so 5 or more) each time are gluten free. Having said that though there is a warning on the ingredient and allergen section about cross contamination so it will depend on how sensitive you are to gluten as to whether this is a safe option for you.

Charred cauliflower steaks with chimichurri and pine nuts over creamy butterbean mash

How Are The Meals Delivered?

Meals can be delivered on Mondays or Thursdays. They are sent via same day delivery and packed with ice packs which should keep the food cool until you can put it in the fridge. Mine was delivered by DHL. As they don’t contain meat, fish or dairy I feel much more comfortable about this than some other meal delivery companies where you can get a bit worried if the ice has melted. 

They come in a cardboard box, with insulating paper and icepacks which are made from a lined paper with a gel inside (made from a food-safe biodegradable gel). 

Each meal comes in a large brown paper bag with the ingredients inside. Sauces come in plastic bags (polyethylene), beans come in tins, some ingredients like nuts in a greaseproof type of paper bag and most other ingredients are in plastic. Whole fruits and vegetables are loose.

Overall there is a fair bit of packaging, but it’s a sensible amount for what they provide.  It’s the difficult balance of ensuring food stays fresh as long as possible, convenience and trying to not have too much waste. You should be able to recycle most items at home, but they also have a service where you can return packaging to them if you want.

Each meal bag has a sticker on with which meal is inside and the use by date. Meals should last 4 days from delivery (this doesn’t change even if you go for 5 meals). 

I have found the best before dates overly optimistic where some of the ingredients are concerned for instance some sprouts and purple sprouting broccoli had yellowing leaves 2 days before the use by date and they would not have been ok to eat on the final day. I also had some pomegranate seeds I didn’t use as they smelled off.

My recommendation is to unpack the box as soon as it arrives, check the fresh ingredients and plan the order you will eat the food based around them.  Leafy greens and cut fruit or vegetables tend to need to be eaten earlier, whereas root vegetables and squash can often last much longer.

I take the tins out of the bags to help with space in my fridge, but you might want to make a note on the bag if you are storing ingredients elsewhere. On the cooking instructions you can see what should be in the bag in case you forget. 

Sesame miso noodles with sugar snaps, edamie, cashews and radish (also came with a chilli crunch cucumber salad)

Cooking Planthood Meals

Based on my experience the bags contain pretty much everything you need to cook the meals. You will also need oil, salt and pepper for some dishes. One of them recommended adding plant milk to make a batter, but said you could use water if you didn’t have any. Essentially if you are cooking at home you should have everything you need, if you were taking them away (to a self catering holiday for instance) then you would need to read the cooking instructions in advance for what you need to take (but at a minimum oil and salt).

At the beginning of the instructions it tells you what you need eg baking tray, frying pan, mixing bowls etc. This is really helpful to make sure you can prep the food as quickly as possible. 

I found the instructions easy to follow, but I cook regularly. I might have to get my children to have a try and see how easy it is for beginners. You do have to know how to prep veg though, these meals aren’t just assembling eg one meal had a coleslaw so those ingredients needed finely chopping, I had one with butternut squash where that needed peeling and cutting (always a bit of a faff). Otherwise it is generally opening and mixing the ingredients together, heating them and assembling the dishes with the included garnish.

Crispy tofu 'parm' over creamy tomato beans with garlic basil gremolata, roasted tenderstem broccoli and cherry tomatoes

Are the Planthood Meals Tasty? 

I think Planthood meals taste great. They are full of flavour and well balanced. There are lots of fresh ingredients giving the dishes a complexity of flavours and textures, but what really elevate the dishes are the pre-made, but fresh sauces. The sauces don’t taste artificial so the end result is just like home cooked food, actually scratch that, I rarely make anything that complex at home, they are like restaurant dishes. The downside is you can’t easily recreate the dishes yourself because you don’t know how they make the sauces.

The dishes look great too. They tell you how to serve them so you have stuff sprinkled on top etc, it really feels like several steps up from the standard fair I cook at home and it’s way less hassle than planning, shopping and cooking from scratch.

I have enjoyed every meal so far, although there are some I’m not sure I would choose again. There are a few I definitely will choose next time they come up as they were so good. I have shared the meals with my partner and my children, although for my youngest has just had tasters as he isn’t very adventurous. My middle daughter loves food and new flavours. For her some meals have been hits and some misses. I tend to cook an additional protein or carb dish to go with the meal to make it go further when splitting 3 or more ways. For 2 people though they are a good size meal.

Red lentil pasta bake with butterbeans and cheesy miso bechamel (broccoli added later)

How Do I Rate the Planthood Meals Overall?

The Negatives

• The meals are designed for 2 people (or 4 if you double up) which isn’t ideal if you are cooking for just yourself. While some dishes you could save half of to eat the next day, this wouldn't work for all of the meals.
• The fresh fruit and vegetables don’t always last until the use by date.  Ultimately fresh food is fresh food, it’s not that they are sending out bad food, just that fresh fruit and veg doesn’t last indefinitely. 
• You can order 5 meals, but this is only suitable if you are having multiple meals per day to ensure you eat them in date. They do say this on the website, but I suspect people get caught out.
• They take up quite a lot of fridge space (but you can repack them to save space).
• They aren’t a low budget choice, with each meal costing around £15 (this will vary depending on if you are paying delivery and the size of your order). That’s quite a lot for a vegan meal at home for 2, but you need to factor in the convenience and the quality. 

The Positives

• The dishes are really tasty, they are a definite step above anything I would normally make myself at home.
• They are a good size and generally pretty filling. 
• They are a great way to get a wide variety of nutritious food into your diet with meals including pulse, beans, nuts, vegetables and grains.
• There is a good variety of options to choose without it being overwhelming. 
• It's easy to change the level of subscription or cancel, but customer service was very good when I needed help. It doesn't feel like they are trying to trick you like some services

I am currently receiving 3 meals every two weeks. Because they need to be eaten on the days straight after delivery I find I miss the flexibility and freedom I am used to when choosing my meals.  The fortnight window I have chosen between deliveries gives me enough time to look forward to having some tasty meals I didn't have to plan so I look forward to the deliveries. 

You can use my referral code to get £15 off your first order. This is a great way to try a few meals with a discount, however if you are wanting to order the 5 meals, or for more than 2 people you might be better off looking for their discount codes on social media which are percentage based so will work better for large orders.