Plant-based and vegan diets have become more popular in recent years. Between the health benefits, environmental benefits, and the rising cost of meat, it makes perfect sense that more people are turning toward this lifestyle. Plant-based meal services like Veestro and Splendid Spoon help to make it fun, easy, and delicious to eat healthy food.
With more vegan and plant-based meal delivery services entering the market, it’s important to know how they compare. We’ve looked at Veestro and Splendid Spoon, comparing them side by side in the most important areas. Here’s how they stack up against each other.
About Veestro and Splendid Spoon
Veestro and Splendid Spoon are both meal delivery companies that specialize in vegan meals. They offer meals designed to fit beautifully into your plant-based diet, or even if you’re just looking to reduce the number of animal products in your diet but aren’t at the point where you want to give them all up for good.
Splendid Spoon was one of the early companies on the scene to offer exclusively plant-based meals. They were founded in 2013 and started out offering only soups to a local market. Eventually, Splendid Spoon decided to take their meal delivery service online, and that’s when things really started to grow for them.
Fast forward to today, and Splendid Spoon has become one of the most favorite plant-based meal delivery providers. Don’t worry. They still offer their famous soups, but they’ve also expanded their menu to include more healthy favorites, like grain & noodle bowls.
Veestro is also a plant-based meal delivery service. Veestro started as a brother and sister team that grew up in Costa Rica, where fresh, nutritious food was abundant and enjoyed with passion. However, once they entered the rat race, they realized just how easy it was to settle for fast, less healthy, convenient options. Their goal was to make it not only possible but delicious to eat healthy vegan meals, even if you’re super busy and always on the go.
Table of Contents
Veestro
Pros
- The menu features seasonal selections
- A la carte plans are extremely flexible
- Additional plan designed to help achieve weight loss
- Reasonable pricing
- Mostly organic and non-GMO
Cons
- Fewer options for dietary preferences than Splendid Spoon
- Cross-contamination of gluten and other ingredients is a concern
Splendid Spoon
Pros
- Offers a dietary reset program
- Quick, easy grab and go smoothies and juices
- Mostly organic
- Plantry items can be added on
- On-Demand boxes to stock up on your favorites
Cons
- Not a lot of flexibility with meals
- Costs a bit more than Veestro
Dietary Options
Veestro
Diets
- Vegetarian
- Vegan
- Paleo
- Keto
- Whole30
- Mediterranean
- Gluten-Free
- Dairy-Free
- Diabetic-Friendly
- Weight Loss
Splendid Spoon
One of the nice things about going with plant-based meal delivery is that you can be sure that your meals with dairy-free, which is perfect if you’re allergic or dairy just doesn’t sit well with you. But, there may be other dietary preferences that you’re looking for from meal delivery.
Veestro offers customers the chance to filter the meal choices into categories such as high protein, gluten-free, nut-free, soy-free, kosher, and low-calorie meals that are perfect for weight loss. Speaking of weight loss, if losing weight is your goal, and calorie counting is part of it, Veestro lists the caloric value of each of their meals in big, bold print so you can easily see how the numbers add up when choosing your meals.
Splendid Spoon also does a decent job of appealing to people with different dietary preferences. Of course, all of their meals are dairy-free, but their menu is also full of entirely gluten-free meals. Unlike other companies that offer gluten-free options, you don’t have to worry about gluten cross-contamination with Splendid Spoon.
Splendid Spoon also offers a nice list of dietary preferences to filter your meals by. Some of the filters you can choose with Splendid Spoon include high-fiber, high protein, low fat, low sugar, low carb, and low calorie for weight loss. There are also low sodium and blood sugar-friendly options.
Dietary Options Winner
Meal Prep & Variety
Veestro
Splendid Spoon
One of the key advantages of subscribing to a meal delivery service is that you don’t have to worry about the time-eating hassles of meal planning and grocery shopping. There are meal delivery services that offer meal kits with everything you need to craft a delicious meal, and then there are those that offer fully prepared meals. Both Splendid Spoon and Veestro fall into the prepared meals category.
The most effort you’ll have to make with fully prepared meals is tossing them into the microwave or oven. So, with both services, the meal prep is about as simple as it can possibly be. Both Veestro and Splendid Spoon offers frozen meals that are given the cold treatment at the peak of freshness to preserve flavor.
Splendid Spoon offers good variety on their menu. Their meal categories include breakfast smoothies (which are also great for a snack), soup & grain bowls, noodle bowls, and a few extras like cold-pressed juices and wellness shots.
There are about twenty or more menu choices for the smoothies and soup & grain bowls. The selection of noodle bowls is smaller, but with eight to ten choices every week, we can’t really complain. Splendid Spoon offers not only dinner but breakfast and lunch options as well.
Veestro offers an a la carte-style menu filled with four dozen or more meals that work great for either dinner or lunch. They also offer a handful of meals that will fill you up at breakfast. The wide variety of meals means you’re not likely to get bored, and there’s something for everyone.
Meal Prep & Variety Winner
Ingredients
Veestro
Diets
- Non-GMO
- Organic
- Grass Fed
- Wild-Caught
Splendid Spoon
Ingredient quality is everything when it comes to successful meal services. If the quality of their ingredients just isn’t there, then hungry customers won’t like their meals. We looked at Veestro vs. Splendid Spoon to see how the quality of their ingredients stacked up.
Splendid Spoon leans heavily on mostly organic ingredients for their smoothies, juices, and meals. They aim to hit the 95% organic ingredient mark and hit it most often with their smoothies and juices. Even when they can’t commit to being 100% organic, they always prioritize the EWG’s list of Dirty Dozen foods.
If you’re unsure of whether or not an ingredient is organic, all you have to do is check in on the nutritional information for each meal. All of the organic ingredients are clearly marked. Splendid Spoon’s ingredients are also non-GMO.
If cleaning up your eating habits means including more organic foods in your diet, then you’re going to love Veestro. While other plant-based meal delivery companies like Splendid Spoon aim to be 95% organic, Veestro takes it over the edge and says that their meals are made with at least 96% organic ingredients.
Veestro doesn’t use any preservatives directly in their meals, but if you are looking to avoid preservatives altogether, you should know that some of the ingredients that Veestro uses in their meals do contain preservatives.
Ingredients Winner
Taste & Sample Meals
Veestro
Splendid Spoon
If you like playing around with unique flavors, Splendid Spoon’s menu is a lot of fun. If we start by looking just at their smoothies alone, we see flavors like a Blue Majik smoothie with dates and cinnamon, Coffee Frappe, Coconut Lime, and Dragonfruit Berry, just to name a few.
The next biggest section on Splendid Spoon’s menu is their selection of soup & grain bowls. This category also includes five-light soups that are perfect for Splendid Spoon’s dietary reset days. Flavors of the light soups include Butternut Turmeric, Garden Minestrone, and Cauliflower Potato Chowder Soup.
Combined with the other selections on Splendid Spoon’s menu, they offer a nice variety of good-tasting meals with plenty of unique flavors to keep your taste buds happy.
Veestro offers a large menu with flavors that range from vegan versions of classic comfort foods to a bit of the exotic. We like that Veestro puts a customer star rating on each of their meals, so you can read what actual customers thought about each dish. Some Veestro meals that get the highest star ratings include Chik’n Nuggets (a favorite for snacks and for those with families), Country Fried Chick’n, Red Curry with Tofu, and Carrot Osso Bucco.
Veestro also offers a few selections that would work well for breakfast. Try the oatmeal breakfast pie, a Spanish torta, or savory croquettes to start your day. If you’re interested in weight loss, Veestro also offers a menu of weight loss meals that are low in calories but high in taste and nutrition.
Taste & Sample Meals Winner
Pricing
Splendid Spoon
PLAN | WHAT'S INCLUDED | PRICE PER MEAL | TOTAL COST |
On-Demand Box | Range of Bundles | $8.00 - $11.00 | $85.00 - $175.00 |
Breakfast | 5 Smoothies (16 oz) | $14.00 | $70 |
Lunch | 5 Soup & Grain Bowls (16 oz) | $14.00 | $70 |
Breakfast + Lunch | 5 Smoothies + 5 Soup & Grain bowls | $10.00 | $100 |
Breakfast, Lunch + Reset | 5 Smoothies, 5 bowls, 5 light soups | $9.33 | $135 |
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner + Reset | 5 Smoothies, 5 bowls, 5 noodles, 5 light soups | $9.25 | $185 |
Meal service is only good if it fits your budget. Of course, with these types of delivery services, part of what you’re paying for is the convenience of having meals delivered to your door. Still, the costs can add up quickly if you don’t know what you’re signing up for.
Veestro’s idea of meal plans is offering an a la carte system where you choose to order either ten, twenty, or thirty meals per week. Like most similar meal delivery companies, you get a discount with Veestro when you order the larger boxes. The prices per meal with Veestro range from a little over $11 to well into the $12 range, depending on how many meals you choose.
Veestro does also offer a meal plan that’s specifically designed for weight loss. This meal plan includes three meals per day that add up to approximately 1.200 calories over the day. You can choose the five-day plan (15 meals) or the seven-day plan (21 meals). With this plan, the price per meal doesn’t really change between the two options, and each meal averages a little under $12 per serving.
Splendid Spoon offers several different vegan meal plans that are built around which meals you want to enjoy, Splendid Spoon, and whether or not you want to participate in the Reset Day. With Splendid Spoon, you can choose between meal plans that cover breakfast, lunch, dinner, + the reset day, or you can choose the breakfast and lunch reset plan. If you’re not interested in the Reset day, you can order a plan that covers just breakfast and lunch, or just breakfast or just lunch on their own.
Splendid Spoon also offers an on-demand box to stock up on your favorites outside of the structure of their meal plans. Splendid Spoon also prices their meals on a scale where you get a larger per serving discount with larger orders. On average, you’ll pay anywhere from $9.25 to $14 per serving with Splendid Spoon.
Pricing Winner
Packaging & Recycling
Splendid Spoon
Veestro
The best meal delivery companies tend to use the best packaging. This doesn’t necessarily mean the most packaging, but rather the most environmentally friendly packaging that protects your meals and keeps them at optimal temperature during shipping.
Splendid Spoon uses packaging materials that are 100% recyclable, with almost all of their packaging being compatible with curbside recycling programs. Splendid Spoon has also made a move to use dry ice instead of less eco-friendly freezer packs to keep your meals cold. Make sure you read all the instructions on how to handle the dry ice so that you don’t hurt yourself. Also, make sure to keep the dry ice out of reach of small children who might get curious and want to touch it.
Veestro has a similar approach to environmentally friendly packaging. They also use dry ice, and all of their packaging are 100% recyclable, and this includes the box, meal trays, and plastic pouches that are also BPA-free. One interesting thing that Veestro does is to use starch insulation in their boxes. Instead of recycling it, all you have to do is pour water over it, and it dissolves.
Packaging & Recycling Winner
Winner
Veestro
In the battle of Veestro Vs. Splendid Spoon, Veestro emerges as the winner. We chose Veestro for the quality, variety, and taste of their meals, along with being reasonably priced. Still, both companies are among the best meal delivery services for plant-based healthy lifestyles. Just because we chose Veestro doesn’t mean that Splendid Spoon isn’t the best choice for you. Here are a few things to consider before you decide.
Choose Veestro If:
- You like a lot of variety in your meals
- You want more flexibility with your meal plan
- You are interested in losing weight with Veestro meals
- Appreciate organic, non-GMO ingredients
Choose Splendid Spoon If:
- You like the convenience of grab and go smoothies
- Enjoy extras like wellness shots and cold-pressed juices
- You like the Splendid Spoon’s dietary reset day
- Like lighter meals instead of heavier portions