If you have ever looked into signing up for a meal kit delivery subscription, you have most likely seen a name such as Sunbasket pop-up. Working like any other company in the meal kit industry, it delivers everything necessary to cook your meals straight to your door.
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However, what makes Sunbasket a favorite for many, are their healthy and delicious meals, sustainability, and USDA Organic label. You can find loads of reviews and posts on this delivery service after a quick google. But this Sunbasket review is from a vegan perspective. Is it considerate of people on a plant-based diet? And if so, is it worth it? We are here to find out!
What is Sunbasket about?
Getting started with Sunbasket is incredibly easy, as the website is very user-friendly. When signing up, you’ll be asked about your dietary preferences – you are shown all the available meal options based on that. You can opt for the meals that seem the tastiest to you and add any extras that you want.
As the meal kit delivery service works with trusted and local farmers, most of the recipes offered are largely made from seasonal ingredients. Sunbasket also carries the USDA Organic label, which promotes sustainability and prohibits chemical pesticides, GMOs, irradiation, sewage sludge, and artificial ingredients. As a certified organic handler, Sunbasket meal kits are a brilliant solution for those who care about the environment and their health.
If you are worried about all the packaging that comes with any meal kit service, you’re glad to know that Sunbasket has you covered. Most of the company’s packaging is recyclable or compostable, from paper bags to insulation boxes. Sunbasket is all about reducing waste!
Sunbasket vegan meals
When signing up to Sunbasket, you will see several meal plans for different dietary restrictions and lifestyles. Here is a complete list of them.
- Paleo
- Vegetarian
- Lean & Clean
- Gluten-Free
- Carb-Conscious
- Mediterranean
- Diabetes-Friendly
- Pescatarian
- Fresh & Ready
Where is the Vegan option? After reading through the list twice, we were sure there really was not a vegan option. So obviously, we went for the vegetarian one and filtered out everything that contained dairy, eggs, or anything other non-vegan.
What does Sunbasket say about Vegan options?
We reached out to Sunbasket to ask about their vegan meal options, and this is the quick answer we received:
“Unfortunately, we do not provide a vegan meal plan however we do provide vegan meals.
We do have a vegetarian meal plan that does consist of vegan meals all our fruits, vegetable, and protein are 99.9% organic and plant-based.”
So, were there any meals left after excluding all the recipes containing animal-based ingredients? Not many, but still a few. There seem to be around three to five vegan dishes on the menu each week, plus a couple more vegetarian ones. To give you an idea of what a weekly menu might look like, here are all the options available for the upcoming week:
- Lemongrass soup with baby bok choy and Daring plant-based chicken.
- Black-eyed pea fritters with arugula and spicy chile-mango sauce
- Zesty black bean–quinoa bowl.
- Kung pao bowl with Daring plant-based chicken, cashews, and brown rice.
- Sweet potato and black bean chili with avocado.
Sunbasket vegan add-ons
Sunbasket does not just offer you handy kits for your dinner but also several extras you can choose to add to your weekly order. This isn’t uncommon with meal delivery services such as Sunbasket, Blue Apron, or Hungryroot.
Keep forgetting to pop by a supermarket on your way home from work to stock up your pantry? Sunbasket lets you add simple breakfast and lunch options such as egg bites, granolas, pizzas, and bread to your weekly subscription. And let us not forget the small bites to snack on throughout the day.
There are loads of options, but how many of them are fit for people who choose to live a cruelty-free and plant-based lifestyle? Fortunately for us, quite a few! You can find plenty of vegan-friendly items to add to your basket. To name a few – different flavored oatmeal cups, brownies, grab’n’go bars, bread, crackers, and smoothies. And the list goes on. You can always head to their menu page and search through their available options. Furthermore, they are all organic food!
Sunbasket review – our picks
It’s one thing looking through the recipes and dishes on Sunbasket’s website, yet something else trying them out. We subscribed to Sunbasket for two weeks, trying out five different meals altogether. And we have decided to share our genuine thoughts and impressions of the meals we picked.
Smoky tempeh nachos with cucumber-grape salsa and chipotle cashew sauce – Tempeh is something that people either adore or strongly dislike. We love it when it’s done right – we were satisfied with the tempeh here in this dish. Since the salsa was not overly spicy and the chipotle sauce only had a slight kick, we topped it off with a generous amount of jalapeno. The nachos turned out perfectly crispy, hot, and full of flavor – such a classical Mexican-themed meal.
Black-eyed pea fritters with cabbage-carrot slaw – We were not too excited about this dinner as it seems like such a modest dish. The cabbage-carrot slaw tasted like most other cabbage-carrot slaws, nothing mind-blowing. Inspired by a popular African street food acara – the black-eyed pea fritters are delightful, and the crust was heavenly crunchy! A touch of sambal oelek added a nice touch of heat to it.
Creole barley veggie bowl with corn and spicy red pepper sauce – Since Sunbasket doesn’t have too many weekly meal kit options, we decided to try out a couple of ready-to-eat meals too. This veggie bowl was one of them. The mix of veggies, wheat berries, raisings, and zingy sauce went well together. A quick and filling meal.
Saigon noodle bowls with five-spice tofu and cucumber-radish salad -. Rice noodles and tofu are such a good starting point to bring together something great, and this dish did not disappoint. The tofu was well spiced and turned out delightful – tender inside with a little crunch outside. The radish-cucumber salad tasted farm-fresh, the mint gave it a nice touch, and the dressing was tasty.
Chickpea and eggplant tagine with dried apricots and spiced almonds – This chickpea stew inspired by North Africa is another Fresh & Ready meal by Sunbasket. This ready-to-eat meal bursts with so many different notes of flavor that your taste buds are off for a ride. But hey, that in the best possible way!
All the given dishes arrived with easy-to-read recipe cards and were simple to make, thanks to the largely pre-prepped ingredients. We were slightly worried that the fresh veggies would go off during the journey, but they arrived in excellent condition!
The costs
Most services in the meal kit industry have a set price for a weekly subscription – the cost depends on the size of the box you opt for. Usually, the bigger the meal plan, the cheaper the serving.
However, when it comes to Sunbasket, the price per serving can vary quite a bit depending on the specific dish. How much is SunBasket offers? Meal kits start at 11.49$ per serving, and fresh ready meals at 9.99$. For example, this sweet potato & black bean chili costs 11.49$ per serving, while this lemongrass soup with plant-based chicken has a price of a whopping 16.59$ per serving.
Delivery is always free on your first order. However, a shipping fee of 7.99$ will be added to your deliveries after that. That is a bit of a bummer.
Delivery area
The San Francisco-based meal kit delivery company is set on providing its services to folks living in North America. So, if you live in Canada, Australia, France, Japan, or any other part of the world and are thinking of trying out their meal kits, you are lucked out.
But can anyone living in the US subscribe to Sunbasket? Well, no. While the meal kit provider ships to most zip codes in the US, there are some exceptions – Alaska, Hawaii, Montana, North Dakota, and parts of New Mexico. You will see whether your address is covered when signing up -your zip code is required during the signing up process. Alternatively, you can contact Sunbasket’s agents and enquire about the delivery area. Their customer service is lovely.
Pros & Cons
You already know how to make decisions – weigh both the positive and negative sides. Whether the pros outweigh the cons depends on your needs and expectations, but here is our takeaway.
The main things that impressed us about Sunbasket are the following.
- Delicious healthy meals.
- Creative, non-repeating recipes.
- Organic food.
- Easy-to-follow introductions.
- Reviews of Sun Basket are mostly positive.
While we absolutely loved Sunbasket and thought that the meals were probably the best we have gotten from any meal kit service, there were a couple of downsides. The first one bummed us out the most and is why we would not subscribe to the meal kits for a longer time.
- Limited vegan menu options. They are focusing on vegetarian meals instead of plant-based.
- No set price for a serving – the price can noticeably vary depending on the dish.
- No free delivery.
Sunbasket – is it worth it?
The seasonable recipes, farm-fresh and often local ingredients, and Sunbasket’s promise to sustainability make it a favorite for many eco-conscious folks. Additionally, Sunbasket is a brilliant service for those who are not fans of regular grocery store visits yet appreciate home-cooked, healthy meals. The dishes are simple to cook, thanks to the easy-to-follow instruction cards that come with your order, making the cooking process fun and easy for even complete amateurs. And we cannot get over how good everything tasted!
While we appreciate how Sunbasket caters to many dietary restrictions and lifestyles, we have to admit that the 100% plant-based options are a bit limited. So, if you want more freedom to pick your meals, you might want to try out some other services, perhaps something like Purple Carrot, or one of those on your list.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Sunbasket?
Sunbasket is one of the many available meal kit delivery services available for people living in North America. Catering to several different dietary restrictions, the company brings sustainably sourced fresh ingredients straight to your doorstep for you to cook your meals.
Is Sunbasket worth it?
The meals provided by Sunbasket really stand out when compared to most other meal kit services we have tried. However, the options are limited for vegans. As with any service on the market, whether it’s worth it depends on your needs – try it out for a week and decide for yourself!
Is Sunbasket cost more than other meal services?
Well, I would say, it is a little bit cheaper than most of the meal delivery services..
How much does Sunbasket cost per month or per week?
The prices for meal kits start at 11.49$ per serving and 9.99$ per serving for ready-to-eat meals. The total weekly cost depends on the size of your meal box and the specific meals you choose.
How long are Sunbasket meals good for?
If you refrigerate everything in your meal kit as soon as you take them out of its box, all the ingredients should stay good for at least 5 days. Sunbasket advises you to use up your seafood within 3 days of receipt and all other meats within 5 days, but that does not concern vegans.
Can you freeze Sunbasket meals?
You can freeze some Sunbasket Fresh & Ready meals, but not all of them – always check the packaging! If they are freezable, just pop them into the freezer and eat them whenever you feel like it. You will just have to heat them up slightly longer than you would if they were fresh.
How to skip a week on Sunbasket?
Go to your Sunbasket schedule to skip a week or two of your meal deliveries. As long as you make the change the Wednesday before your delivery by Noon PST / 3pm EST, you won’t be charged anything.
What are the 4 free gifts from Sunbasket?
A while back, Sunbasket had an offer for new customers, adding 4 small gifts to all first orders bigger than 65$. The gifts were their favorite grab’n’go breakfast and snack items. This promotion seems to no longer be available. However, Sunbasket often has generous offers for new customers – check their website!
