Plant-based meal delivery for your (wanna be) vegan life
What is It?
Plant-based meal delivery companies are a dime a dozen these days, popping up like mushrooms to meet America’s insatiable demand for convenience food. Packaged in single-servings, Splendid Spoon’s bowls, soups, smoothies, and wellness shots jumped right into the plant-based mix.
Meals arrive frozen, packed in ClimaCell-wrapped dry ice to minimize carbon impacts with all packaging recyclable. The company is working towards 100% sustainability, admirable if not immediately achievable.
Bowls are of three types: Beans, quinoa, or grain-based bowls, rice noodle bowls, and soups. Smoothies are pumped up with superfoods like spirulina, açai and baobab. Petite, three ounce shots are immunity boosters.
How does it Taste?
Frozen foods can be fussy once defrosted. While the taste experience was positive overall, some flavors fared better than others.
Plant-Based Meals, Soups and Noodles
Soups are designed to be light, buzzed for smoothness (though there are some chunks). Fennel Consommé was sweetly aromatic with just a hint of dill. Parsnip Apple Puree carried the peppery tang of the root vegetable balance with allspice and cinnamon. Butternut Turmeric tasted too strongly of turmeric, it’s bitterness unappealing. Pumpkin Pear Bisque was too think to be creamy. Cauliflower Potato Chowder, though boosted with navy beans and coconut oil, was also too thin to warrant a reorder.
Noodles were all brightly colored and universally appealing. Kale Pesto Noodles came together nicely, the kale and cashews whizzed to easily blend with the umami-packed nutritional yeast. Red Curry Noodles, with lemongrass, makrut lime and galangal, popped with bright citrus flavor balanced by warm chile heat. Made with textured soy protein, Vegan Meatballs and Marinara was a hit with my veggie-leaning son who savored the meatballs for their herbaceous flavor. Green Curry Noodles had plenty of broccoli and a cool, chile-flecked heat. We added even more broccoli for additional crunch.
Plant-based Smoothies and Wellness Shots
Wellness Shot straight from the freezer
Defrosting can cause the smoothies to separate. Once defrosted, give them a shake to restore them to their intended consistency. That said, the “thicker” shakes were less successful overall. Mint Chip with cacao and almond butter (thicker) did not glide smoothly over the tongue and did visually separate after defrosting. Mango Guava with camu camu and flax, did not. (Hit!) AB&J with baobab and pea protein (thicker) separated and did not glide. Carrot Ginger Chia with flax and pea protein did. (Hit!)
Buh-bye green tea–Wellness Shots are my new mid-morning pick-me-up. The 3-ounce size is two mouthfuls perfect. Though I found the oregano oil in Wellness to be overpowering the first time I tried it, by the third trial, I was hooked on its ginger-orange-lemony goodness.
The Sustainability Issue
I live in a place with pretty decent recycling. (How is the recycling near you?) But Splendid Spoon’s bowls are all packaged in #4 plastic, which I cannot recycle. Into the landfill it must go. Shot and Smoothie bottles and all of Splendid Spoon’s shipping containers can be recycled. I am calling that a huge win and a definite advantage over the competition. I eagerly await the news that this plant-based meal kit brand is 100% sustainable.
*I received a free sample of this product.
