"Splendid Spoon plans are designed to help you create easy and healthy eating habits. With over 50 ready-to-eat meals, you can kiss meal planning goodbye."
Splendid Spoon
Our volunteers had the chance to test out Splendid Spoon’s service early in 2021. We hope you’ll find the review below helpful, and that you’ll consider giving their service a try.
Each reader who signs up as a subscriber using one of the affiliate links in this post receives a $20 discount on each of their first three weeks ($60 altogether,) while at the same time creating an automatic $40 donation for Gentle World.
We’re very happy to have a potential partner in our fundraising efforts, especially one that can help make vegan living even more convenient, healthy, and enjoyable.
Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below.
For a home-delivered convenience food, our reviewers agreed that the Splendid Spoon offerings they sampled were better and fresher than most vegan foods marketed by major brands, tasting more like fresh, home-made food, with a good variety of dishes that were professionally-seasoned.
The combination of quality and quantity makes for good overall value, with prices that seem to be comparable with (or even possibly better than) those of their competitors, at under $10 for a 12 oz serving (depending on which plan you choose.)
All bottles and containers are recyclable and BPA-free, and the food is microwave safe. (One of our reviewers commented that they would have been happier to see them packaged in compostable cardboard, but understood that it might not hold up, especially for customers making use of the microwave for reheating.)
Scroll down for more info about the Splendid Spoon approach to sustainability.
All meals are low-sugar and low-sodium, as well as being free from both gluten and soy for those with allergies. All ingredients are non-GMO, and most are organic. Unfortunately, the ingredients that are not organic tend to be heavily sprayed, like almonds. Thankfully, the company makes it easy to know what is and isn’t organic, and the non-organic ingredients can be easily avoided. Compared to other similar services, Splendid Spoon makes a solid attempt at balancing reasonable pricing with organic ingredients, and this shows in their overall quality, taste and appeal. They also provide detailed nutritional information for each of their meals.
While the user can customize their meal plan, choosing which meals to receive and how often (weekly, every other week, or once a month) our reviewers did slightly lament the fact that there are no dessert options available! Presumably this is because Splendid Spoon is oriented toward healthy eating.
Overall, everyone agreed it was a real treat to not have to cook!
The service is designed as a subscription, but it’s possible to order just one week at a time, and the company makes it easy to place an order and then cancel, or to skip any week you like.
There are over 50 meals to choose from, and you can customize your order every week. You can also specify ingredient “avoidances” and select flavors you’d never like to receive. No spicy seasonings? No cilantro? No tree nuts? No problem. You can rate meals that you like and those you don’t, and you can even banish certain dishes from the menu if you don’t want to see them next time you order!
What about Sustainability?
From the Splendid Spoon website:
We are committed to the environment and lessening our waste. We won’t stop innovating until we are 100% sustainable, and we’re making big strides.
Since 2015, we’ve removed all non-recyclable waste from our boxes while reducing our transit carbon emissions by 80%. And now we can proudly say our packaging is 100% recyclable.
We replaced gel packs with dry ice to reduce waste by more than 800,000 pounds, which is the same amount of CO2 sequestered by 368 acres of forest in a year.
We reduced CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent) emissions by 70,000 pounds when we opened a new distribution center in Oklahoma City.
We switched to recyclable ClimaCell™ insulation, which removed 450,000 pounds of non-recyclable insulation from landfills.
The Splendid Spoon Pledge
One thing we really love about their website is the frank declaration they made to address issues of racial inequality within their own company, as well as their commitment to contributing toward food aid for those experiencing hardship.
We are actively revising our recruitment, hiring, and promotion practices to increase Black representation overall, and more specifically in management and leadership roles. We are reviewing our compensation structure to ensure that it is competitive and equitable, and we are researching new strategies to find talent and limit bias in interviewing for our next open role planned for this Fall.
In addition to tackling hiring, we will:
- Partner with more Black-owned companies and hire more Black freelance talent for our content, blog, creative and social needs.
- Provide paid half-days on election day for all team members to have their say in local, state, and federal elections.
- Observe Juneteenth as a paid holiday to create space for reflection, connection and activism in our communities.
Americans exist in a food apartheid where wealthy folks have easy access to healthy foods and poor, mostly brown and black folks, are limited in every which way. This is wrong, and we are frankly embarrassed that our ignorance and privilege has blinded us to our role in perpetuating these problems.We are committing to tackling the racial issue of food apartheid through our partnership with Food Love by Might be Vegan and looking at the accessibility of our product offerings.
To date we have contributed approximately 200 meals to Food Love and are committing to donate 600 meals each month either through monetary donations or in-kind meal donations.
But What About the Food?
Below are the honest opinions of our three reviewers (all of whom are pioneers in the plant-based food movement, and all of whom gave the Splendid Spoon service their official thumbs-up.)
SHOTS (3 oz)
These three immune-boosting shots provide a quick and easy dose of nutrients on-the-go. They are all low-carb and diabetes-friendly, with more varieties on the way!
Detox shot
All ingredients are organic and delicious (with no added water.)
“A cleansing elixir, with antioxidant-rich kale & aloe to flush toxins away.”
The detox shot is full of healthy ingredients including kale, moringa and spirulina, but it tastes like apple juice!
Wellness Shot
This is probably intended not so much for taste as for health… The first ingredient is fresh ginger juice, and it’s powerful. And organic!
“An awakening cure-all, with anti-bacterial and antiviral properties. To keep the metabolism strong.”
Spicy! The combo of citrus, ginger and oregano oil gives this 3 oz of kick start for the immune system. Any more and the burn would hurt; just the right amount.
SMOOTHIES
With 16 flavor options, these grab-and-go smoothies are intended to offer a careful balance of plant-based protein, fiber, and carbs, to boost energy levels and keep blood sugar stable.
Quality ingredients in interesting combinations with unique flavor profiles add up to healthy, tasty treats with good mouth appeal and stomach feel, though we thought some could use a little less water.
The fruity ones are fruitful and the nutty ones are almost like a milkshake!
With the addition of pea protein and nut butters they are all protein-rich and filling, so for lighter eaters, one smoothie could even replace a meal.
Chocolate Cherry
Ingredients: purified water, bananas, cherry juice, almond butter, coconut nectar, cacao nibs, pea protein, vanilla powder, Himalayan salt.
A filling, healthy beverage (with bits of cacoa nibs) that tastes like cherry-chocolate milk, this smoothie is the ideal blend of sweet and a little spice with a full-bodied mouth feel and good swallow follow, meaning it has the right blend of liquid and solid, water and oil.
It tastes like Trader Joe’s chocolate cherry chunk ice cream, though healthier and less sweet, and relying on the fruit flavors not the sugar content. A very sophisticated smoothie.
Raspberry Cacao
Ingredients: purified water, bananas, raspberries, coconut nectar, cashew butter, pea protein, beet juice, rose water, vanilla extract, cacao, Himalayan salt.
The last of our smoothies tried, this one exchanged cacao nibs for cacao so the consistency and flavor were different, smoother. Packed with organic ingredients, this one gets its creamy consistency from cashew butter.
This is the smoothest of their smoothies, with fewer cacao nibs. The addition of rose water adds an interesting rose flavor!
Cacao Almond
Ingredients: purified water, bananas, almond butter, coconut nectar, cacao nibs, pea protein, baobab powder, vanilla powder, Himalayan salt
This was delicious. Slightly sweet and tasty with crunchy little bits of cacao nibs. Except for the bananas, all ingredients are organic.
Uses fresh, wholesome and healthful ingredients; for a meal you can drink that gives you energy!
Mint Chip
Ingredients: banana, almond butter, coconut nectar, cacao nibs, baobab powder, pea protein, Swiss Chard juice, spirulina, peppermint, Himalayan salt.
Just delicious!
One of several smoothies that use cacao nibs to their benefit. Our only complaint is that can make the consistency a bit less like a smoothie!
A good blend of mint and cacao give it a minty chocolate flavor. The addition of almond butter and bananas add body and texture. Spirulina and chard juice add green color so you almost think you’re having chocolate mint chip ice cream.
BOWLS
With a whopping 31 flavors available, these represent an exceptional standard for home delivery.
The flavors vary, with excellent seasoning in three out of the four. The fact that so much of the product line is gluten-free is a bonus. Including organic ingredients places them above the norm. That said, truly health conscious consumers are looking to avoid glyphosate, and these bowls (unfortunately) use non-organic beans. Among other ingredients, beans are high on the list of foods that should be organic wherever possible. That said, while eating all-organic will hopefully one day be the norm, the fact remains that it is still a luxury at this time.
Coconut Curry Rice Bowl
This was a little on the spicy side, but not overwhelmingly so. Those who are sensitive to spice might disagree!
It boasts a fair mixture of rice and veggies, with the favorable addition of chopped kale.
Flavor was a little over-lemony, and could have used a little more salt (though of course that can be added, to taste.)
Kale Pesto Noodles
Rice noodles, kale, with abundant basil pesto sauce (made from almonds, hemp seeds and cashews) topped with roasted whole sundried tomatoes.
Very well-seasoned and it would have been delicious if not so peppery. There’s no hint of the spice in the title of the dish, nor the ingredients, so buyer beware!
If you don’t mind lots of spice, this one is yummy!
Vegetable Bolognese Bowl
Nice blend of quinoa, mushrooms, wild rice and veggies in a well-seasoned tomato sauce that is not overwhelmingly tomato-y. The mushrooms and wild rice give it a chewy consistency.
Just be sure to give it enough time in the microwave or on the stove. One of our reviewers found the instructions hard to read on the container, and suspects she might have under-cooked it.
SOUPS
Splendid Spoon’s five light soups, designed in partnership with chefs and nutritionists, make up their ‘Reset’ package, which aims to rebalance your digestive system in just one day.
Beans and Greens
One of our favorite dishes, this hearty soup was restaurant quality out of the freezer, filled with pinto and black beans, greens, carrots, tomatoes, and seasonings.
Whoever is seasoning these dishes is a pro!
In soups, beans can often be either overcooked and mushy, or undercooked and hard to digest. These beans were perfectly cooked, as were the (delicious) carrots.