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Grubby review: the coolest vegan recipe box?

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Grubby review: the coolest vegan recipe box?

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GRUBBY Review

Tasty and eco-conscious plant-based food that doesn’t cost the earth?

It’s true, Grubby delivers (sometimes by bike) recipe boxes but without the harmful footprint that is often associated with convenience food.

But are these meals as simple, delicious, and nutritious as they claim to be? And what makes them special compared to the heaps of other vegan meal kit brands out there?

To find out, I was given the opportunity to taste and review a range of their plant-based recipe kits. Read on to find out what I really thought, in my Grubby review.

4.2/5

Summary

Grubby offers a wide range of recipes and the choices change every week. Not only does this keep things interesting, but it also ensures you’re getting a variety of vegetables and protein sources in your diet.

The recipes are simple and easy to follow, the ingredients are fresh (albeit sometimes in unnecessary packaging), and I love the thoughtful little touches  – the tailored Spotify playlists will have you boogying around the kitchen as you cook!

Pros

Cons

Get 40% off your first week’s box and 20% off the next three boxes using this code at checkout: VEG40

What is Grubby?

Grubby is a plant-based recipe kit brand based here in the UK. It works on a flexible subscription basis to deliver regular or family-sized boxes directly to your doorstep.

How does Grubby work?

Let’s go over some of your burning questions about Grubby food and how the vegan recipe kit delivery service actually works.

There are two types of Grubby box available to order:

  • Regular box = 2-3 people
  • Family box = 4-5 people

To build your box, you’ll be presented with around 10 different recipes to choose from each week.

For a regular Grubby box, you can choose up to 4 recipes. For a family box, you can choose up to 2 recipes.

Grubby food is 100% vegan.

Grubby also works with organic family-run farms to deliver fresh British produce, with some exceptions. Other ingredients you’ll receive inside your recipe box include branded products (e.g. Oatly cream) and dry store ingredients (e.g. nuts and spaghetti).

You can choose your Grubby food delivery for Monday, Tuesday, or Friday.

Yes, Grubby is a subscription service. It’s pretty flexible, giving you the option to skip weeks, change the dishes, number of recipes you’d like to receive each week, pause, or cancel your subscription whenever you’d like.

Changes need to be made at least 72 hours before the delivery day.

All of the above actions can be carried out through your Grubby profile on the website, which you can access after ordering your first box.

If you live in the London area, your Grubby meal kits will likely arrive by bike! Pretty cool 😀 🚲 we hope this delivery method spreads nationwide as the brand gets more popular.

For the rest of the UK, Grubby currently use carbon-neutral delivery via DPD, who are expanding their electric fleets on an ongoing basis.

It’s easy to cancel your subscription. Simply login to your account via their website, click on “Subscription settings” and scroll down to click on the “Cancel subscription” button. This will close your account and you will stop receiving Grubby meal kits.

You can also pause for up to 4 weeks or skip weeks whenever you like.

Which meals do Grubby offer?

Mostly just dinners (sometimes with enough leftovers for lunch) but sometimes they’ll feature something a little different, such as their festive fruit box.

I also got three vegan Pip & Nut peanut butter cups as a free gift – nice touch!

To review their food, I was able to try three of Grubby’s bestsellers:

Cashew, chestnut mushroom, and rocket carbonara

Ingredients for the mushroom carbonara Grubby meal kit laid out on a chopping board
A classic combination of ingredients

I really enjoyed this Grubby meal. I mean, you can’t really go wrong with cashews, Oatly cream, and mushrooms!

The recipe was super easy to follow, took very little time to make, and generated a very well-balanced, tasty, and nutritious meal.

Here are a few key takeaways:

Aubergine and green bean Thai curry

The vegetables and dry store ingredients necessary for Grubby's vegen Aubergine and green bean Thai curry, displayed on top of a wooden chopping board
A simple yet satisfying plant-based meal that's packed full of healthy veg

Loved the variety of veg packed into this one, although I would have liked some brown rice for an extra boost of fibre, vitamins, and minerals.

Nevertheless, the dish was delicious and the inclusion of a ready-made paste sped up the cooking process, perfect for those wanting a quick dinner.

The addition of finishing touches, such as the lime, coriander, and chilli, demonstrates that the Grubby chefs have really thought about flavour and aesthetics.

Here are a few key takeaways:

Harissa sweet potato, red pepper & lentil stew, balsamic dressing & avocado

A variety of fresh plant-based ingredients from a Grubby food box
There were generous quantities of fresh and cupboard ingredients

A nutrition powerhouse, this dish was packed with “vegan superfoods” and provided a whole host of essential nutrients, including fibre, healthy fats, protein, and heaps of vitamins and minerals. The vegetables were also super fresh and ripe.

But don’t let the healthiness of this dish put you off, this recipe was fun to cook and incredibly tasty. Harissa-flavoured stews always stimulate my tastebuds whilst leaving me feeling warm and comforted!

I just can’t help but feel uncomfortable with the use of plastic packaging. For example, many people have store cupboard ingredients at home (e.g. agave syrup, vinegar, soy sauce, etc.) and could opt-out of receiving tiny pots of what they already have.

Here are my key takeaways:

How much does Grubby cost?

The following prices are based on the regular box size (for 2-3 people).

A two recipe family box (2 recipes for 4-5 people) is the same price as a four recipe regular box.

For more information on how their pricing works, check out the FAQs on Grubby’s website.

Recipe box type

Weekly Price

Price per meal

Two recipe box

£26.00

£6.50

Three recipe box

£34.50

£5.75

Four recipe box

£45.50

£5.68

Grubby discount code

Get 40% off your first week’s box and 20% off the next three boxes using this code at checkout:

VEG40

Where can you sign up to Grubby?

You can start your Grubby food journey by browsing their recipes here on their online store:

The Vegan Sisters Verdict

Taste:
4.4/5
Convenience:
5/5
Eco-friendliness:
3.7/5
Nutrition:
4.1/5
Price:
4/5

Things I loved about Grubby

As a whole, I think the Grubby food delivery service is one of the most holistic I’ve come across. They’ve thought of everything, from nutrition and convenience to funky playlists to cook along to. The whole experience of ordering a Grubby meal kit was fun and easy.

They also run full carbon lifecycles on all of their recipes (from packaging, processing, farming, and transport), so every Grubby customer can see personalised dashboards of their tracked savings, along with the number of meals donated to their charity partner, and the total number of 5-a-day servings consumed.

Here are some of the things I particularly loved:

A recipe card for mushroom carbonara from my review of Grubby recipe boxes

Future opportunities

Whilst many of the items were sent in eco-friendly/recyclable packaging or without any at all, I hope that they look into using wood pulp/home compostable packaging for their herbs/salad leaves in the future (Riverford already use this).

They could also think about buying nuts and other dry ingredients in bulk and providing them in brown paper bags rather than non-recyclable plastic packets.

Here are some of the things I think would take Grubby to the next level:

Don’t forget to use your discount code at checkout:

VEG40

Alice Johnson

Alice Johnson

Writer, scientist, amateur mycologist | I write stuff for a living. Mainly about vegan things, science, fungi, and travel. Find out more at Alice's Cerebrum

A penny for your thoughts

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I may receive a commission if you make a purchase through some of the links on this page (see full disclaimer here). But don’t worry, I’ll use the money to fund more useful articles and resources, and of course, to buy more vegan snacks to keep me fueled up. I promise not to blow it all on vegan ice cream…I’ll save some for a cocktail or two. A girl’s gotta eat (and drink)!

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