Purple Carrot is a plant-based meal kit delivery service offering weekly vegan recipes and pre-portioned ingredients that are shipped directly to your door. While other companies like Green Chef offer vegan menus, Purple Carrot is one of only a handful of options that excludes animal products all together.
With a Purple Carrot subscription, you’ll select the number of recipes per week and servings per recipe you want to receive, with the ability to input preferences including high-protein, less prep, or gluten free. There’s also an option for prepared, single-serve meals. The best part? With enough notice, you can skip weeks and cancel your subscription for no extra cost.
Once you sign-up, you’re prompted to select recipes for your first delivery. Even if you added a dietary preference, you will have access to choose from the brand’s full menu, with optional lunch or breakfast add-ons, as well as vegan pantry (“plantry”) items.
Your food arrives in boxes with proper insulation and ice packs. Ingredients for each meal are packaged together within the box, along with a recipe booklet.
When I tried Purple Carrot, the ingredients in my box were fresh, and the produce was ripe and had no bruises. The bulk of the brand’s non-produce ingredients (tofu, chickpeas, etc.) are organic, but not all produce is. Most meals take about 20 to 40 minutes to prepare, with easy-to-follow directions and very minimal cleanup. Since I was cooking only for myself, I did have leftovers which kept well in the refrigerator for two to three days.
The Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition (ISSN) takes that recommendation a step further and says active people looking to build or maintain muscle should eat 1.4 to 2.0 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight2. If you’re keeping score, that would be 105 to 150 grams of protein per day for a person weighing 165 pounds.
Resistance-trained individuals eating in a calorie deficit may need even higher protein intakes (2.3 to 3.1 g/kg/d) to minimize muscle loss during weight loss.
So what happens if you don’t eat enough protein? Larson says you may experience symptoms like “a slow-healing injury, getting sick frequently, feeling more fatigued than normal, losing muscle mass, or seeing problems with your hair, nails, and skin.”
Okay, onto the good stuff. Here’s a full review of each Purple Carrot meal I tried. Note: The serving sizes were appropriate for me, but may not be satiating enough for someone with higher energy needs.
Tofu Peanut Stir-Fry with Charred Broccoli + Midnight Grains (Less Prep) (540 calories, 16 g fat, 63 g carbohydrate, 36 g protein per serving)
I don’t often cook with tofu, and I always appreciate recipes that bring me outside my habitual cooking routine. This “Less Prep” Tofu Peanut Stir-Fry did just that.
The crispy tofu was surprisingly easy to whip up, as was the charred broccoli. I was most surprised by how much I enjoyed the Midnight Grains blend—especially because I was initially taken aback by the blend’s dark hue. The grains added a great contrasting flavor to the tofu and brought a delicious texture to the dish. Immediately after tasting it, I found myself searching for a copycat blend online.
The peanut sauce arrived already prepared and ready to pour over the finished plates, cutting the prep time down significantly and earning this dish its “Less-Prep” sticker. It also packed a hefty punch of flavorful plant-based protein. My only note on this meal is that the tofu and the broccoli could have used more seasoning to supplement and further enhance the flavor of the peanut sauce—but this is something that can easily be remedied at home by digging into your own spice rack.
Romesco Chickpea Sandwiches (720 calories, 26 g fat, 93 g carbohydrates, 27 g protein per serving)
The Romesco Chickpea Sandwiches was another simple, low-prep meal. The veggies only needed a quick roast in the oven, during which I was able to mash the chickpeas with the provided vegan mayo and ready-made Romesco sauce.
I’m a big fan of sandwiches when they’re prepared well, and this sandwich truly held its own as a main dish. Pro tip: Instead of using the arugula for a side salad as intended, I added it to the sandwich—and its peppery bitterness balanced the sweetness from the tomatoes and onions well.
While I’m not one to shy away from carbohydrates, the carb content of this meal was quite high compared to what I typically eat.
Let’s learn how to use simple spices to make your meals awesome!
Maybe you’re just getting comfortable cooking in the kitchen.
Or maybe you’ve been eating the same chicken and broccoli for weeks and it’s time to spice it up.
Either way, you’re in the right place.
Not only do we program workouts in Nerd Fitness Coaching, but we also discuss low-calorie recipes that are delicious (we use them ourselves!). Today, we’ll share our tips for making any meal delicious, using only a handful of common spices.
Remember those diagrams of the tongue that you learned about in school?
They told you the tongue tasted different flavors depending on the section. The back tastes bitter, the front tastes sweet, and the sides taste salty and sour.
1. Bitter 2. Sour 3. Salt 4. Sweet
Most of us now know this is wrong.
Your whole tongue tastes all flavors, and it’s not just your tongue! The roof of our mouth and your nose help out too! In fact, there are more than just the four flavors we learned about in school.
There is another lie that has been circulating in the fitness world for years. It’s a lie that says healthy food is boring and bland.
It drives me crazy.
And in this nerd’s opinion, it’s one of the most damaging lies told about getting healthy.
We know diet is 80% of the battle when it comes to achieving our health and fitness goals. And when we tell ourselves eating healthy food is boring, flavorless, and downright gross, we put ourselves on the fast track to failure! Just like exercise can and should be fun, cooking meat and veggies should be delicious.
Today we’re going over some basic skills that will allow you to see maximal benefit for minimal effort.
How? Simple flavors.
Here are 6 foolproof spice combinations to help you level up your cooking skills, explore the world with your tongue, and (hopefully) get you out of your food rut!
Tons of rebels looking to level up their cooking have asked about re-creating their favorite dishes from around the world. I’ve got good news for you! It’s not as difficult as most people think.
Regional dishes taste the way they do because they are made from the spices and ingredients local to that community. Your ancestors didn’t need Super Processed Stir Fry Sauce™ to make dinner. They used whole foods to create delicious dishes, and we’re going to do the same.
Here are 6 simplified spice combinations that you can use to take your healthy meals from bland to bold. Each is measured for a pound of food:
#1) Mexican:
Chili powder: 1 Tbsp (15ml)
Lime (Juice from 1 lime)
#2) Greek:
Oregano: 1 Tbsp (15ml)
Olive Oil: 2 tbsp (30ml)
Lemon juice: 2 tbsp (30ml)
#3) Italian:
Oregano: ½ Tbsp (7ml)
Garlic: 3 Cloves (½ tsp or 2.5ml powdered)
Basil: ½ tbsp (7ml)
Tomatoes: 1 diced can
#4) Indian:
Cumin: ½ Tsp (2.5ml)
Curry: 1 tbsp (15ml)
Coriander: ½ tsp (2.5ml)
#5&6) Chinese/Japanese (this makes a marinade or stir-fry sauce):
Ginger: ¼ tsp (1ml)
Tamari: ¼ cup (59ml), can also use coconut aminos or soy sauce
Rice Vinegar: 2 Tbsp (30ml)
Garlic: 3 cloves (½ tsp/2.5ml powdered)
Dash Red Pepper Flakes
Sugar (Honey): 1 tbsp (15ml)
Bonus flavors!
#7) Thai (this makes a marinade or stir-fry sauce):
Coconut milk: 1/2 cup (118ml)
Tamari: 1/4 cup (59ml) (coconut aminos could also be used)
Fish Sauce: 2 tbsp (30ml)
Green or Red Curry Paste: 1 Tbsp (15ml)
Cilantro: Handful of fresh chopped
For the complete set, add these to your shopping list (herbs and spices are dried):
2 limes
2 lemons
Can or jar of diced tomatoes
Coconut aminos or soy sauce
Rice vinegar or apple cider vinegar
Chili Powder
Oregano
Basil
Parsley
Red Pepper Flake
Garlic Powder (or fresh bulb of garlic, your choice)
Curry powder
Cumin
Coriander
Ginger powder
If you go to the store and buy these 15 items, you’ll be set to make a wide variety of dishes from all over the world.
These spice combinations can be used for chicken, fish, eggs, beef, or pork; roasted, sauteed, steamed, or microwaved veggies; stir-fries, and more!
For a very minimal monetary investment and one trip to the grocery store, you can have a different dish from around the world every day of the week!
We’re going to take one of your favorite recipes and put your new spices to the test! Grab one of our many recipes and take one of the above spice combos and put them together.
My suggestion is that you omit the suggested spices from the original recipe posts and replace them with the ingredient measurements above. Remember, the above suggestions are by the pound, so if you’re using two pounds of chicken or veggies, double the spices!
Here are just a few examples of how you can these spices for almost any dish:
Roasted veggies – Anyone up for some Mexican chili lime or Indian curry-spiced veggies?
Chicken Stir Fry – Try the Asian spices out to level up this classic!
Shepherd’s Pie – Indian curry shepherd’s pie sounds like an unexpected and delightful combination.
Lettuce Wrapped Burgers – Make some Italian spiced burgers, and top with fresh mozzarella, tomato, and fresh basil!
Scrambled Eggs and Veggies – Try a different spice combo on plain old scrambled eggs each morning this week to see how the flavors differ!
Easiest Chicken Ever – Toss the chicken in some Greek spices, lemon, and olive oil instead of the spices prescribed in the original recipe.
After a while, you’ll learn which spices you like in a dish and which ones you can live without.
Maybe you like cinnamon in your curry or maybe you can’t stand the taste of ginger. That’s totally cool! Your food is YOURS!
Soon you’ll be able to spice your dishes without having to measure them every time. Be sure to use your nose and mouth to smell and taste what you’re making as you go! (Unless it’s raw meat. Never taste raw meat.)
So you’re heading to the store, or you already have your spices. Awesome! Here are some tips to make shopping and cooking a little bit easier.
1. Does buying individual spices and mixing them sound intimidating? The spice companies make this easy for us. Check out the spice aisle in your grocery store. Lots of companies make pre-mixed spices for regional dishes:
Italian Seasoning
Greek Seasoning
Herbs de Provence
Taco/Fajita seasoning
Curry powder
Chinese 5-spice powder
To experiment with these, buy a couple and try a new one every time you cook something. Put it on something basic like eggs or baked chicken so you can begin to taste the difference between spices from different areas of the world.
2. Salt and pepper don’t do the same job.
Salt makes your food taste MORE like what it is. It enhances the flavors of the food that are already there. If you over-season with salt, of course it will make your food taste salty, but that’s not salt’s function in the culinary world.
If you’re feeling adventurous and have a little extra cash, buy some fancy looking sea salt. There’s Hawaiian pink sea salt, fleur de sel, coarse sea salt, fine sea salt. There’s even weird stuff like truffle salt, grey sea salt, and black pyramid salt!
The best advice for pepper is to buy whole peppercorns and a pepper grinder. They even sell disposable ones with peppercorns already in them at the grocery store. You don’t have to get fancy. This is what I have. Fresh ground pepper makes all the difference in the world. If you like pepper on your food, this is the way to go!
Sometimes the most simple combination of coarse sea salt and coarsely cracked black pepper is all I use to season a steak, and it’s freaking delicious. Never discount simplicity.
3. Buy a pre-stocked spice rack. I might get some flack for this tip from seasoned (pun intended!) cooks. But when you’re first starting out, instead of buying all your spices individually, sometimes it’s nice just to have it all done for you. Spice racks are relatively cheap, they give you a lot of spices and herbs that you may not have thought about picking up at the store, but you’ll be glad you have it when a recipe calls for paprika and voila! You already have it!
Admittedly, spices and herbs that come in a pre-stocked spice rack from a department store may be older and therefore less flavorful, but it’s better than having no spices at all!
4. Get acquainted with acid. By acid, I mean vinegars and citrus juices. You’ll be amazed at how much adding a little bit of vinegar to a plate of sauteed veggies or your paleo spaghetti sauce makes it pop.
Acids brighten the flavors in your food and help minimize some of the bitter flavors in certain foods (like dark leafy green veggies). An acid can also help you bring down the heat if you added too much red pepper flake to a dish.
5. Fry the spices first. This is called “blooming” your spices. When your oil is heated in your pan, add your spices to the oil first and mix them around for 3-5 seconds, then add your veggies or meat or whatever you’re cooking in that oil. This is a quick and easy way to deepen and intensify the flavor of your spices.
We’ve all heard people say eating healthy food is boring and bland. If you ask me, the people who are telling you this are doing it wrong.
When we force ourselves to eat the same foods over and over (like plain baked chicken and steamed veggies with minimal seasoning), it can deplete our willpower bar if we crave more flavors and variety.
Companies design Frankenfoods to make us crave the sugars and chemicals they’ve created, so they can profit off of us indefinitely.
How can we fight against that?
By mastering the art of using spices and sauces!
Healthy eating doesn’t have to be boring. Armed with these basic concepts and combinations you can defeat cravings and actually enjoy and look forward to your healthy meals!
Just roll up your sleeves and get going!
If you want some more help, Nerd Fitness is here for you.
We have three options on how to continue with us. Pick the option that best aligns with your goals:
Option #1) Our 1-on-1 Online Coaching program: a coaching program for busy people to help them make better food choices, stay accountable, and get healthier, permanently.
All the coaches from our videos today are part of the program, and they’re ready to help you level up your kitchen skills, apocalypse or no apocalypse.
You can schedule a free call with our team so we can get to know you and see if our coaching program is right for you:
Option #2) If you want an exact blueprint for how to eat better and get in shape, check out NF Journey. Our fun habit-building app helps you exercise more frequently, eat healthier, and level up your life (literally). We even have quite a few “How to Cook” adventures.
Try your free trial right here:
Option #3) Join the Rebellion! We need good people like you in our community, the Nerd Fitness Rebellion.
Sign up in the box below to enlist and get our Rebel Starter Kit, which includes all of our “work out at home” guides, the Nerd Fitness Diet Cheat Sheet, and much more!
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Alright, now I want to hear from you:
What flavors are we missing?
Are there any other spices in your cabinet that you have NO IDEA what to do with?
Let us know in the comments! Maybe we can help!
-Noel
PS: Make sure you catch the rest of our Cooking 101 series:
One of the first smoothie delivery services on the scene, Daily Harvest now offers quite the variety of dishes, such as soups, oat bowls, nut milks, and harvest bakes. It is a subscription service, but instead of committing to one type of food, you choose a small, medium, or large box and curate it with whichever smoothies, drinks, or foods you’d like.
Daily harvest’s meals arrive frozen and preportioned out into single-serve containers. For the smoothies, you’ll add your liquid of choice, blend, and can pour it right back into the cup to enjoy. The soups are also ready-to-heat (just add water or broth). Not all ingredients are organic, but the majority are—and the entire menu is vegan.
Our commerce editor, Carleigh Ferrante, is a huge fan of Daily Harvest—so much so that she’s been known to order an entire large box of just the chocolate blueberry smoothies. Her rec? Blend in your favorite whey or plant-based protein powder, along with an extra handful of greens, to make the smoothies more filling and nutrient-dense.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed all three dinner options. Each meal was very veggie-forward and easy to prepare. While I had to use multiple pans for each, cleanup was still fairly quick. The recipe instructions detailed what to do and when, so all meal components were ready to be assembled and served at the same time.
Not all meal kits have pre-portioned components, but with Green Chef the ingredients were diced, chopped, and measured, saving me significant prep time. I was also impressed by the sauces that came with some of the meals. The lemon crema sauce for the chicken was rich and tart, keeping the chicken breast moist (which isn’t always easy). The miso-tahini sauce offered a nuttiness to the cauliflower & couscous bowl and left me wishing I could buy a bottle to have on hand.
The Sunny Southwest Beef Patties tasted delicious, with flavors I never would have thought to combine. This and the Roasted Chicken meal were relatively low on net carbs, each with the carbohydrate component coming from root vegetables. I’ve been (albeit somewhat unintentionally) eating lower-carb meals for dinner and was pleased to find that the recipes didn’t rely on grains as a base.
Each dinner recipe was still just as tasty when reheated for lunch the following day, which is good news for anyone who is deterred by the thought of having leftovers.
I’m usually a big pancake lover, but the Keto Cinnamon Ricotta Pancakes just didn’t do it for me. The ricotta cheese and creme fraiche made the pancakes quite dense and the almond flour didn’t allow for as smooth a batter as I prefer. Someone following a strict keto diet or who is more accustomed to baking with almond flour may enjoy this recipe more than I did.
The HelloFresh menu does not account for many dietary preferences. There is a Veggie menu plan, but many of those meals have animal products (such as cheese), and the fully-vegan options are limited. The Fit & Wholesome meals offer lower-calorie menu items—but, depending on your calorie needs as well as your other food intake throughout the day, a 650-calorie dinner may still be more than what you want to allot to a single low-calorie meal. Most meals range from 700 to 1,200 calories per serving.
HelloFresh is not suitable for people who follow a ketogenic or low-carb diet. There are some carb-smart choices, but according to the nutrition breakdown, it still looks like meals still contain 30 to 40 grams of carbohydrates per serving. Recipes are tagged when they align with the Mediterranean diet, although there are typically only two to three recipes per week with that tag.
While HelloFresh discloses common allergens and gluten for each recipe, there are no dedicated allergen-free or gluten-free menus.
HelloFresh seems most suitable for people with flexible eating patterns, like myself, and for families with kids, who will likely enjoy many of the menu items. If you’re looking for keto, paleo, Whole30, gluten-free, or vegan-specific meal kits, you’re better off looking elsewhere.
