Today I'm doing a meal kit review of Splendid Spoon, a plant-based meal kit. I'll talk about taste, quality, and pricing. I also give you my pros and cons list so you can objectively evaluate if Splendid Spoon or another meal kit might be best for you.
Before I go into the meal kit review itself, let's talk about what makes a good meal kit in general.
The theory of a meal kit is that when you have your meals delivered to you, you will save time and improve your diet.
Time Savings
It doesn't make sense for you to spend EXTRA time when you're using a meal kit. Hopefully, the average meal kit will deliver you pre-cooked meals and that will save you time.
You also want to think about the time you might save or spend going to the grocery store. Will you still want to make regular trips to the grocery? Probably. So don't discount the fact that you still have to buy snacks and such.
Actually Healthy Food
One of the purposes of a meal kit is to help you eat a little better than you did before. The ingredients in the meals should be actually good for you. Hopefully the ingredients are good quality - organic, non-GMO type foods. They should also be overall healthy, so more fruits and vegetables than processed foods.
Stay away from meal kits with lots of sugars, oils, or preservatives. These things might make the food taste a bit better, but they're really just harming you.
Good Price
Meal kits might be convenient, but you don't want to pay a fortune for them.
Start by calculating how much you typically spend on food during an average week. This should include your weekly grocery bill, any fast food or restauant expenses, your morning latte. Everything.
Then compare your weekly or daily costs to the weekly or daily cost of the meal kit. If you rarely go out to eat, you might find that a meal kit seems expensive. Personally, I rarely eat out, so I find most meal kits to be way too expensive to be worth it for me. That said, I enjoy cooking, so it serves as a source of fun and relaxation as well as functionally producing food to eat.
If you eat out a lot, or are used to spending money on lots of packaged/prepared foods, a meal kit might be less expensive than your weekly grocery spend.
Either way, it's good to do a price comparison so you know what you're getting yourself into.
Something you'll actually stick to
This is probably the most important one. The purpose of a meal kit, again, is to save you time/money and help you eat healthier.
This looks different for everyone. For example, I have TONS of healthy recipes that are quick, easy, and inexpensive. But you may not have the time or energy to cook every week.
If you order a meal kit and you actually stick to it then (as long as it's pretty healthy) you are doing a good thing!
Commit to sticking to the meal kit, for at least a week or two and see how it affects you. You won't see any results if you don't give it a real chance.
Okay, so, now the real reason we're all here. I tried Splendid Spoon and I'm going to tell you ALL about it.
FULL DISCLOSURE: Splendid Spoon reached out to me and sent me some product to try. I didn't pay for anything and they asked if I would write a blog post with my review. The below is my honest opinion.
Splendid Spoon is a plant-based meal kit company. ALL of their meals are plant-based and gluten-free. They offer smoothies, bowls, soups, and detox juices.
Depending on your preferences, you can choose the plan you'd like. They have several combinations of plans to choose from. Each plan is a combination of breakfast, lunch, dinner, and reset.
So for example, you could get just breakfast. Or you could get breakfast, bunch, and reset.
I think that this is a great method, because different people want different things. Or some weeks you might be super busy and want to get breakfast, lunch, and dinner, while other weeks you might feel like cooking more and just order breakfast. The flexibility is nice.
Like I mentioned, all of their food is plant-based and gluten-free. Which is GREAT. It's so nice to see companies that understand the best ways to nourish our bodies.
Detox Shots
Splendid Spoon sent me two 'detox shots'. One was immunity-focused and one was gut-focused. I think the idea is that you drink these in the morning before you eat. But I'm not really sure.
I've been on a seltzer water kick lately, so bought some club soda and used the juices as flavoring. It was pretty good. And the juices by themselves were delicious too.
I liked that there were good-for-you ingredients and that Splendid Spoon is prioritizing these ingredients in their meals.
Breakfast
For breakfasts, Splendid Spoon does smoothies. They have tons of different flavors.
Of the flavors that I tried, my favorite was definitely Mint Chip. It had ingredients like banana, almond butter, coconut nectar, cacao nibs, baobab powder, pea protein, swiss chard juice, spirulina, peppermint, and Himalayan salt.
When you read the ingredients you don't necessarily expect it to taste great, but it actually did! I seriously thought it tasted like a liquid thin mint. That good.
The other smoothies I tried were good too. They had a variety of healthy ingredients. Which I also liked. It was nice that the smoothies weren't the same ingredients with slightly different flavor. There was actually a wide assortment of ingredients.
Having a variety of ingredients is good because your body doesn't get used to eating one specific thing. And you also make sure you get the nutrients that come from different foods.
Something that I didn't like personally was the pea protein. Pea protein is good and good for you, but I have some digestive issues and pea protein is one of the foods that makes me feel bad. I had to sip on the smoothies that had pea protein slowly over several days to avoid eating too much. That said, most people don't have a problem with pea protein, so don't worry about that.
Lunch/Dinner
I think Splendid Spoon has similar offerings for their lunches and dinners.
They sent me five bowls to try. All of them were very easy. I literally had to do no cooking. The plastic bowl is microwavable, so all I did was pop them in the microwave and they were ready to go.
My thoughts on each bowl I had:
Pro: Everything was pretty tasty. I looked forward to eating the smoothie or the bowl each day.
Pro: The flavors and ingredients are very unique. It was SO great to see a variety of ingredients and flavors. And they have tons more flavors that I didn't try, so you'll never be bored of eating the same things.
Pro: The ingredients are high-quality. Matcha, baobab powder, kale, shitakes... these are all really healthy, good ingredients. You have to pay a lot for these types of foods at the grocery store.
Pro: No added sugar. None of the smoothies or bowls that I tried contained added sugar, which is AMAZING. The smoothies were sweet enough with just fruit and the bowls didn't rely on added sugars for flavor.
Con: The bowls used oil. I personally don't like to consume oils, and I don't cook with them. (Which is why all my recipes are oil-free!) So it was a bit disappointing to see oils in every lunch/dinner I received.
Pro: Each product listed all the ingredients and nutrition facts. There is complete transparency, so you know exactly what you are eating.
Con: The smoothies and bowls ALL had two servings per container. So a bowl might have a serving that's 240 calories, but with two servings, you double that to 480. I'm not suggesting that the calorie counts are high or low, but I am worried that it could be deceiving. Unless you take the time to read the serving size, you may end up eating twice as much as you think you are.
I can't help you much here, because I received these products for free, so I didn't calculate the cost for any of them.
But I CAN help you if you'd like to try them for yourself. You can get $25 off your first order.
You're going to hate me, because I'm not going to give a yes or no answer.
I think Splendid Spoon is a great option if you're looking for plant-based and gluten-free meals with absolutely no prep required. You may want to add in some extra veggies, just to make sure you're getting enough greens each day.
If you care about added oils, the Splendid Spoon lunch and dinner options probably aren't for you. But the smoothies don't have oil!
And if you try, just be mindful of the serving size. As always, eat until you're full -- don't base your consumption on a package suggestion.
Bottom line: If you're curious or you think it could work, try it for yourself.
P.S. Looking for easy, prepable recipes? Try some of my favorites:
*I was not compensated for this review. I did receive free product to try. **This post contains affiliate links, for more information see my disclosure here.
a daughter of the Lord who eats lots of plants. I’m glad you’re here! On The Plant-Based Catholic I bring you nutritious, plant-based (vegan) recipes, explore the relationship between food and faith, and share my unique lifestyle.
.jpg){kind=small}
Receive new recipes as soon as they come out!
Leave a comment