EveryPlate’s Meal Kit Offers Affordable Vegetarian Options

Each week there are 36 meals to choose from, including about 10 vegetarian options per week (I skipped my veganism for the week because EveryPlate’s vegetarian choices rely heavily on butter and cheese). You can browse the next three weeks of selections, and each meal is labeled with things like “calories,” “sodium” or “smart carbs,” “quick prep,” “25 minutes or less,” and “vegetarian.” Although the recipes repeat over time, there are always new meals in rotation each week.

You’ll need to choose whether you want three, four or five meals per week, or portions for two, four or six people. (As mentioned earlier, my meals for two often spanned three or four meals for me as a single person.) You can also create a CustomPlate, which allows you to add or swap ingredients, like adding chicken breast or ground beef to a vegetarian pasta or rice dish.

Once you’ve set your meal preferences, you’ll create an account, fill out your shipping information, and choose a delivery date. The earliest available delivery date was four days later, and delivery was possible every day for the next first 15 days, between 8:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. daily. You will need to enter payment information to reserve your first box and you will be billed four days before delivery. EveryPlate, like most meal kits, is an auto-renewing subscription service model, but you can skip, cancel, or pause in advance without penalty before 11:59 p.m. PT five days before your next scheduled order.

Let them cook

Although I was happy to see fewer separate meals in single-use plastic, EveryPlate’s ingredients arrive together in a refrigerated box, with a one-sheet page for each recipe included inside. You will have to distribute the ingredients and combine them yourself with each recipe.

The recipe cards don’t hold your hand too much either, with one side for ingredients and the other for prep and cooking instructions. Below each ingredient image, parentheses indicate two quantities that indicate how much you will need for each serving. In many cases you will need a certain amount of spice for the recipe, but it comes in a packet with no quantity information. For this you will have to measure it yourself. Each recipe required you to supply pantry staples yourself, like salt and pepper, sugar, flour, butter, oil, mayonnaise, and eggs. This is also where you can understand why EveryPlate has a cheaper price.

Photography: Molly Higgins