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.
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
- Packed full of veg
- Flexible subscription
- 150+ recipe options
- Fully vegan company
- Mostly organic British produce
Cons
- Bike delivery is only available in London
- Packaging could be more eco-friendly
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.
What is a Grubby box?
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).
When does Grubby deliver?
You can choose your Grubby food delivery for Monday, Tuesday, or Friday.
Is Grubby a subscription based service?
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.
Are Grubby recipe kits delivered by bike?
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.
How do I cancel Grubby?
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
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:
- Well-balanced
- Simple yet delicious
- Classic combo
Aubergine and green bean Thai curry
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:
- Variety of nutritious vegetables
- Brown rice would have added a further boost of nutrients
- Colourful and packed full of flavour
Harissa sweet potato, red pepper & lentil stew, balsamic dressing & avocado
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:
- Super nutritious
- Fresh and ripe vegetables
- A little too much plastic packaging for my liking
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
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:
- The meals I tried and came across on their website were nutritious and well-balanced
- All of the vegetables were fresh and mostly organic British produce
- The meals were simple and relatively quick to make but still complex in flavour
- Each meal had its very own Spotify playlist
- There are over 150 recipes to choose from and they're all vegan!
- The recipe cards have clear instructions on how to scale
- Each recipe has a carbon footprint rating
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:
- Continue striving toward competitive pricing - at £5.68 per person, they're not the cheapest recipe boxes on the market
- Roll out nationwide bike or electric vehicle delivery
- Continue to seek ways to improve their packaging and reduce their environmental impact
Don’t forget to use your discount code at checkout:
VEG40
