Recently I’ve been hearing a lot about Splendid Spoon – a vegan meal delivery service that offers fully cooked plant-based meals to health-conscious people with busy schedules. After reading about them online, I knew I had to check them out. So today I’m going to share my own Splendid Spoon review.
Want to find out how Splendid Spoon works? KEEP READING.
Want to jump straight to reading about my own experience with Splendid Spoon? CLICK HERE.
To navigate through this post, feel free to use the Table of Contents.
What is Splendid Spoon?
In short, Splendid Spoon is a meal subscription service that makes it easier for busy people to eat healthy vegan meals without spending any time in the kitchen.
A lot of meal delivery companies send out meal kits that you still need to cook. Splendid Spoon is different: their food is fully cooked and ready to be eaten as soon as it arrives on your doorstep.
Just heat up the meals (grain bowls, soups, and noodle bowls) in the microwave or on stovetop, or drink (smoothies and wellness shots) straight out of the bottle.
All of Splendid Spoon meals are plant-based, gluten-free, non-GMO, with lots of soy-free and nut-free options.
Better yet, the huge selection of chef-created and dietician-approved meals at Splendid Spoon (over 50 as of right now) guarantees that you won’t feel like you’re eating the same thing over and over.
Plus, they add new flavors every season to keep things interesting (like Pumpkin Spice smoothie and Roasted Brussels Sprouts grain bowl in the fall).
Depending on your needs, you can select a subscription plan only for the food you need (i.e. breakfast only, or breakfast + lunch, etc.), and set your own delivery schedule (every week, every other week, once a month, etc.).
All of the food is made fresh in two Splendid Spoon facilities in the US. From there the meals can be delivered anywhere within the lower 48 states. All subscriptions include free shipping.
Want to try Splendid Spoon yourself? They’re running a special offer: if you sign up over here, they’ll give you $15 OFF your first delivery!
What Kind of Meals Does Splendid Spoon Offer?
Any subscription meal delivery service is only as good as its meals. Here’s what Splendid Spoon currently offers:
Smoothies
The wholesome, low sugar smoothies arrive in individual bottles, and are ready to drink right away. These smoothies make a great on-the-go breakfast, or a healthy snack any time of the day.
Each of the breakfast smoothies by Splendid Spoon includes a variety of ingredients that can help you stay full until lunchtime (because nobody likes getting hungry half an hour after breakfast):
- Protein sources like almond or cashew butter, organic pea protein, organic spirulina, etc.;
- Healthy fats from avocados, coconut, flax seeds, chia seeds, hemp seeds, etc.;
- Carbohydrates from organic fruit puree and juices, coconut nectar, etc. (no added sugars).
Currently Splendid Spoon offers 18 smoothie flavors to choose from.
All smoothies are made with no added sugars. They are gluten-free and soy free, plus there are a few nut-free options. The ordering process makes it easy to exclude or include ingredients like tree nuts, coconuts, bananas, etc.
A few Splendid Spoon smoothie flavor examples: Strawberry Chocolate, Mint Chip, Orange Hibiscus, Dragon Fruit Berry, Pumpkin Spice, etc.
Grain Bowls and Soups
Plant-based grain bowls (a.k.a. dishes) and soups by Splendid Spoon are the “backbone” of this subscription service.
These meals are packed with healthy ingredients – veggies, grains, legumes, nuts (in some bowls), and seeds. They make a great on-the-go lunch or dinner.
I love the variety of available flavors – classic comfort food American, Italian, Middle Eastern, Mexican, Indian, and everything in between.
See the currently available grain bowls (dishes) over here.
See the current selection of soups over here.
The base of most grain bowls is (you guessed it) various whole grains and their combinations: brown and wild rice, quinoa, buckwheat, sorghum, and even RightRice (higher protein, lower carbs than regular rice).
All bowls and soups are gluten-free. If you have food allergies or sensitivities to nuts, soy, etc., you can find plenty of options without those.
Like I said above, all Splendid Spoon grain bowls and soups are ready to eat – just reheat in the microwave or on the stovetop.
I put my meals into a regular bowl to heat them up at home (you’ll see what that looked like below).
However, you can also microwave them right in their containers if you don’t have a spare bowl available (like at work). The containers are made from microwave-safe, BPA-free plastic.
Noodle Bowls
Splendid Spoon added noodle bowls into their rotation fairly recently, but I sure am glad they did.
Just like their grain bowls and soups, Splendid Spoon noodle bowls are made with a variety of whole food, plant-based ingredients. The base of each bowl is red lentil pasta (penne shape) or rice noodles (fettuccine pasta shape).
As of the time I’m writing this, Splendid Spoon offers 7 noodle dishes that lean towards classic comfort food in flavor, but stay healthier thanks to their plant based vegan ingredients.
A few noodle bowl flavor examples: Creamy Mushroom and Spinach, Vegan Meatballs & Marinara, Creamy Green Curry noodles, Green Carbonara Pasta, etc.
Wellness Shots
Want a quick boost of nutrients but don’t have time or desire to juice a mountain of kale? That’s where the small immune-boosting wellness shots by Splendid Spoon come into play.
Currently Splendid Spoon offers 5 varieties of their shots in individual 3-ounce servings – Wellness, Detox, Digestion, Recovery, and Immunity.
Each variety contains a combination of superfood juices (ginger, lemon, orange, kale, cherry juice, etc.) and other antioxidant-rich, nutrient-dense ingredients (turmeric, spirulina, moringa, aloe, oregano extract, etc.). The resulting flavors are bold but pleasant, and not overly sweet.
By the way, keep in mind that right now you can get $15 off your first delivery when you sign up through my link over here.
How Does Splendid Spoon Work?
Since I originally published this post, Splendid Spoon has simplified their subscription plans to make it easier for their customers to get exactly what they want.
Now there are 3 plans available based on how much food you’d like to receive: 7, 14, or 21 items per box (the 14 and 21 item boxes come with free shipping).
➡️ Only want dinners to last you a week? Pick the 7-meal box option, and add whatever soups, pastas, or bowls you like.
➡️ Want to sample a few smoothies, and get a few meals to eat for lunch and/or dinner? Pick the 14-meal box, select your smoothies, and fill the rest of the box with meals of your choice.
➡️ Want to have all of your meals figured out for a week? Get the 21-meal box. Fill it with 7 smoothies and 14 soups, pastas, or bowls.
➡️ Want to try Splendid Spoon just once? Pick any plan above, then skip or cancel your subscription by the next “Edit by” date.
Once you selected your meals, you’ll be prompted to pick the delivery frequency (every 1, 2, 3, or 4 weeks) and your first delivery date. The meals are delivered on Wednesdays or Thursdays.
When you receive your package, open it up and put the food into the refrigerator if you’re planning to eat them in the next few days, or in the freezer to store for up to 3 months.
The smoothies and shots need to be stored in the fridge, and consumed before the “Enjoy By” date on the bottle.
Build your first box over here, and get $15 off your delivery!
What Diets Does It Work For?
Like I said above, Splendid Spoon is a completely plant-based meal subscription service. It works for vegan, plant-based, vegetarian, and gluten-free diets, as well as for Whole30 (some meals) and for Weight Watchers.
If you avoid nuts or soy, a lot of nut-free and soy-free options are available to choose from.
On top of that, all food is non-GMO.
Each meal lists its ingredients and nutritional information, so you can see what’s in it before you order.
Is Splendid Spoon organic? Their website says that 95% of the ingredients they use are organic. The rest they select following the Dirty Dozen guidelines.
Is Splendid Spoon Packaging Eco-Friendly?
Packaging has always been a weak spot for most meal subscription services. Whichever way we slice it (no pun intended), food has to be packaged and kept cold until delivered. And all that packaging is often far from environmentally-friendly.
Splendid Spoon has opted for being as close to eco-friendly as possible. They removed all non-recyclable waste from its packaging in 2015, and have since been using curbside pickup-friendly materials. (In other words, the packaging is 100% recyclable.)
Here’s the breakdown of all packaging used in Splendid Spoon meal delivery:
- Smoothies are packed in curbside-recyclable #1 PET plastic bottles with #1 PET plastic lids (BPA-free). The smoothies arrive chilled, not frozen.
- Meal bowls are made from #5 PP plastic; lids are made from #4 LDEP plastic (both are BPA-free). The meals are flash-frozen before delivery to make sure they stay cool as long as possible.
Flash-freezing keeps the nutrients from breaking down = your food will be as healthy when you defrost it as before it was frozen.
- Dry ice is used as a cooling agent to keep the food cold. A lot of meal delivery services have used frozen gel packs for that purpose, but those aren’t easy to recycle = way less environmentally-friendly.
Dry ice, however, is made from frozen carbon dioxide, which turns into gas and leaves no residue when it defrosts. It’s possible that you won’t find any dry ice in your Splendid Spoon box – most likely it just evaporated.
- ClimaCell insulating panels are used to maintain the cool temperature inside the box from the moment it’s packed to the moment it arrives at your doorstep. ClimaCell recyclable insulation panels are made from brown paper filled with non-toxic cornstarch-based insulating foam. It makes a more environmentally-friendly alternative to traditionally used Styrofoam that’s made from petroleum and can’t be recycled.
According to the manufacturer’s website, the entire ClimaCell panel is recyclable (but not household compostable).
TL;DR: If you participate in the curbside recycling program, you can put ALL OF THE PACKAGING of your Splendid Spoon boxes into your recycling bin.
Note: Some materials (like #4 and #5 plastic) are harder to recycle than others (like cardboard) since they aren’t accepted at some recycling facilities. To help with that, the company refers you to a website where you can search for recycling options in your area based on your ZIP code.
My Personal Experience with Splendid Spoon
When the folks from Splendid Spoon told me about their new seasonal menu additions (Pumpkin Spice smoothie anyone?), I knew I had to check them out.
My box arrived on an unseasonably warm Wednesday afternoon. The shipment date showed that it had been shipped on Monday – not that long but enough time to test how cool the food had stayed in transit.
I didn’t notice the box right away, so it sat at my doorstep for a little while. This is what it looked when I brought it inside:
Once I opened the box, I found that the food was tightly packaged in two layers. The top layer had five bowls:
- Kimchi Fried Quinoa grain bowl;
- Super Green Vegetable and Quinoa grain bowl;
- Vegan Meatballs and Marinara noodles;
- Creamy Mushroom and Spinach pasta;
- Lentil Kale soup.
The food was cold to the touch but not frozen. I knew that Splendid Spoon freezes their meal bowls before shipping them out, but since the shipment had been on the road for 3 days, I knew that it was OK.
This is what the bowls looked like in the package:
Note that there’s a small wet spot on the back insulation panel. That was the bowl with Lentil Kale soup. I checked out to see if the container was leaky.
I found that the sealed top layer (what you see when you remove the lid) was intact. But there was a small hole in the side of the bowl itself. Not sure how it got broken since there wasn’t a lot of wobble room for bowls to hit each other in transit.
The plastic containers with meals sat on a square piece of cardboard with a few holes. This was the divider that separated the bowls from the smoothies and wellness shots.
Once I removed this piece of cardboard, I saw five 16-ounce bottles of smoothies and four 3-ounce superfood juice shots. The smoothies were very cold to the touch; some of them felt partially frozen.
I didn’t find any dry ice in the box, but since the food was noticeably cold, I figured that there had been a layer of it on the bottom of the box (since the smoothies were colder than the bowls). It most likely had evaporated in transit.
Here are the smoothie flavors I received:
- Coffee Frappe smoothie;
- Coconut Lime smoothie;
- Raspberry Cacao smoothie;
- Chocolate Strawberry smoothie;
- Pumpkin Spice smoothie ( this one got frozen almost solid – you can see that the bottle had traces of ice in the picture below. It was totally fine once it fully defrosted.).
Lastly, the box had four small bottles with superfood juice shots:
- Wellness Shot (the bottle with an orange cap in the picture below);
- Recovery Shot (red cap);
- Detox Shot (green cap);
- Digestion Shot (yellow cap).
I kept all food in the refrigerator, and ate/drank everything in the course of the following week.
The meal bowls became my lunches on weekdays (we weren’t home at lunchtime during the weekend).
I drank the smoothies and the shots throughout the day for a few days. (Thanks Splendid Spoon for saving me from dirtying up my blender to make my own smoothies! ?)
Keep in mind that Splendid Spoon is offering $15 OFF your first delivery if you sign up over here.
Now’s for the part I’m sure you’re most interested in: how did the Splendid Spoon food taste?
The Soups, Noodles, and Dishes
In short, I liked most of the food. The flavors and texture were good. They didn’t skimp on veggies: there was a good amount in each bowl. Nothing was mushy or tasted like it was about to expire.
One thing I didn’t like: some of the bowls tasted a bit too salty, while others seemed not to have enough.
For example, the Kimchi Fried Quinoa bowl was quite salty (they probably salted everything as usual and then added salted kimchi). The Lentil and Kale soup definitely stood to have more salt added.
(At the same time, they have low sodium menu options, so maybe that’s what I got.)
My favorites were the Vegan Meatballs and Marinara noodle bowl (the sauce was amazing) and the Creamy Mushroom and Spinach Pasta (apparently it’s one of their bestsellers).
In case you’re wondering about the meatballs, the package and the website disclose that the company uses pre-made vegan meatballs by Dr. Praeger’s brand for these bowls.
I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, I would’ve liked to see something more whole food-based for their meatballs rather than using a pre-packaged food brand available in most grocery stores.
On the other hand, I understand that it can be tricky to make proper plant-based meatballs that don’t fall apart. By using pre-made meatballs, Splendid Spoon saves themselves the effort of formulating and making something that could potentially turn into mush.
Plus, Dr. Praeger’s food is apparently healthier than some ultra-processed meat alternatives.
You probably know that the glamorously styled pictures of food on websites and food container covers usually look nothing like the actual food we find in those containers.
This is what my Splendid Spoon meals looked IRL (I took them out of the plastic bowls they were packaged in, and microwaved in my own bowl):
By the way, I don’t think that the food looks bad – I just wanted to show what you can expect from Splendid Spoon in real life.
See the currently available meals on the Splendid Spoon site:
Smoothies
Splendid Spoon smoothies have clearly been well thought out. Each smoothie I tried had a nice flavor, and was filling enough to fill me up.
The bottles had all ingredients listed on the front label. The majority of ingredients were whole food plant-based. The only thing I saw that wasn’t whole food (but still plant based) was pea protein. I’m not sure if they add it in form of protein powder or something else.
The smoothies varied by thickness. The Coffee Frappé smoothie was the thickest. I like thicker smoothies, but I noticed that a lot of this smoothie was left on the walls of its bottle. Kind of wasteful.
Pumpkin Spice smoothie was the thinnest. I was OK with that because I could drink it like juice (it was thicker than juice though).
This smoothie wasn’t super filling, but I enjoyed its flavor – it resembled the taste of pumpkin pie thanks to just the right amount of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, allspice, and cloves.
The other smoothies (Coconut Lime, Raspberry Cacao, Chocolate Strawberry) were nice too. One thing I didn’t completely enjoy was the very detectable flavor of pea protein powder in some smoothies.
(Looks like they do use pea protein in powder form after all. There, I answered my own question ?)
Superfood Juice Shots
Full disclosure – the “superfood juice” part in this name was added by me because I couldn’t find a word on the Splendid Spoon website to describe all of the shots together.
On the website, each of the five shots has its own descriptor – Wellness, Detox, Recovery, Digestion, and Immunity.
Obviously these shots are food, not medicine; so if you need to recover but drink the Digestion shot instead, nothing bad would happen 😄
Each shot had a strong, prominent flavor thanks to stronger-tasting ingredients like ginger in Wellness and Digestion shots, and beets in the recovery shot.
I’m pretty adventurous when it comes to food flavors, so I liked these shots just fine. If you prefer your food on the blander side flavor-wise, you might find these shots a bit overwhelming.
All of the shots were sweet, but not overly so. In a way the whole experience with these shots resembled drinking mildly sweet juice with a fairly strong flavor.
Splendid Spoon Pros and Cons
PROS:
1. The food is undeniably healthy – perfect for those of us who want to eat more fruits and veggies.
2. The food is ready to eat out of the box – much easier than meal kits that you have to cook yourself from the ingredients they provide.
3. Splendid Spoon is convenient – definitely saves a lot of effort and time. No need to go to the grocery store, prep all the food, then cook it.
4. Splendid Spoon packaging is environmentally friendly – you won’t be left with a mountain of non-recyclable trash after unpacking the box.
CONS:
1. It’s quite expensive. The prices for the meals start at $9. However, if we want to eat organic, and have the workers get paid fair wages, we can’t expect things to be cheap. (Plus, if you sign up through my link over here, they’ll give you $15 off your first delivery.)
2. The whole box is meant for one person. So if you want your whole family to eat Splendid Spoon together, you’ll have to order a box for each family member ?
3. Some of the packaging is harder to recycle. Most recycling facilities accept plastic #1 (smoothie bottles and lids), but not #5 PP and #4 LDEP (meal bowls and lids). If you want to recycle those, you’ll have to search for a place that accepts them.
4. You’ll have to remember to go on their website to select your meals every week. Easy to forget if you’re very busy.
Who Does Splendid Spoon Work Best For?
Splendid Spoon is a great meal delivery option for busy people who want to eat healthy vegan food but don’t have time to cook it themselves.
For busy professionals, this is a convenient way to bring a packaged lunch to work.
A subscription for Splendid Spoon can also make a good gift for people in your life who are going through tough situations: new moms who just gave birth; those who lost a family member; those who are moving or have just moved into a new place and are too busy to cook, or don’t have their cooking supplies available.
It’s a healthy option for people who are new to plant-based diet, or are just thinking about going plant-based or vegan. With Splendid Spoon they can get enough healthy meals for five days.
Splendid Spoon is also good for people with food sensitivities: all of the food is gluten-free, plus there’s a lot of soy-free and nut-free options.
Finally, this is a good option for people who just want to eat healthier. It works both for non-vegans who want to clean up their diet, and for vegans who want to cut down on processed food.
Final Thoughts
Overall, I enjoyed the food that the folks from Splendid Spoon had sent me. I found that the recipes were creative – it clearly looks like a lot of thought goes into developing them.
The flavors and textures were good. Even though some ingredients were used in more than one dish (like quinoa or kale), I didn’t feel like I was eating the same dish but in a different package.
I realize that the higher price point can be a turnoff. But if you think of how much time and money you’ll save by not having to go to the grocery store (buying organic produce for five meals can be pricey), then do food prep and cook a new meal every day – that price tag for a Splendid Spoon subscription doesn’t seem too bad. (Plus, right now you can get $15 off of your first delivery if you sign up through my link over here.)
As you’re scouring the internet for Splendid Spoon reviews, I hope that my post gave you enough clarity to know what to expect from this vegan meal delivery service.
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