You’ve seen the commercials, you’ve seen the ads on Facebook, you’ve heard your married friends talking about them, and now you want in on that action. We’re talking about meal kit delivery services, and you’ve been missing out because you think they’re only for people trying to feed a whole family, and you’re just one person.
We’ll let you in on a few little secrets. They do have meal kits that offer individual portions per meal, so you don’t have to feel left out of the fun because there are single sized options. It could also be better for you and your budget to subscribe to one of those services that send two servings per meal, which is the majority of the services you’re already familiar with.
Best Meal Delivery Service for Singles (One Person)
Best Overall for Singles: Blue Apron
“Blue Apron is a fresh ingredient and recipe delivery service that helps chefs of all levels cook incredible meals at home.”
Best for Singles on a Budget: EveryPlate
“While meal kits are normally associated with luxury and a premium price tag, with EveryPlate, it’s not the case. Dinners are only $4.99 each.”
Best for Busy Singles: HelloFresh
“This 1-person plan includes ready-to-eat meals with 2 servings to split as you please.”
Best for Singles with Dietary Restrictions: Green Chef
“We offer a variety of menus to cater to different lifestyles and dietary preferences. Our plans include Balanced Living, Plant-Powered, and Keto preferences.”
Best for Vegans: Purple Carrot
“The convenient way to cook up tasty, healthy plant-based meals that will leave you wanting more.”
Here’s why it’s beneficial to consider a service that has a two serving minimum per meal: When a family orders a meal kit, they’re pretty much only receiving family dinners for the week. This means, unless they pay extra, they’re not getting breakfasts or lunches for the week, so they still have to go out and spend extra money on those meals.
However, as an individual, you can take the extra serving and eat it for lunch too. You’re spending the same amount of money on the meal kit delivery service as your married friends, but you get lunches and dinners for the week. This saves you time and money. Your lunches are accounted for, and now they’re conveniently heat-and-eat meals too.
Meaning, you shouldn’t rule out subscribing to a meal kit delivery service that sends a minimum of two servings per recipe because there are more benefits to them when you’re single. And by not ruling out these kits, you have a ton more options, so you can find a meal kit delivery service that suits all your needs and wants because there’s something for everybody.
Now that you feel inundated with options, let’s discuss the six best meal kit delivery services for singles to try in 2022 to figure out which is best for you.
Compare Meal Kits for Singles
Meal Kit | View Plans | Best For | Price Per Serving | Delivery Cost | Plans | Availability |
Blue Apron | Best Overall | Starting at $8.99 | FREE! | Signature (Meat & Veggies), Vegetarian | 48 states (excludes Alaska and Hawaii). | |
EveryPlate | Best for Singles on a Budget | Starting at $4.99 | $8.99 | Meat & Veggies | Most of the continental US. | |
HelloFresh | Best for Busy Singles | Starting at $7.49 | $7.99 | Meat & Veggies, Vegetarian, Family Friendly, Calorie Smart, Quick & Easy, Pork Free, Pescetarian | 48 states (excludes Alaska and Hawaii). | |
Green Chef | Best for Singles with Dietary Restrictions | Starting at $9.99 | $8.99 | Keto & Paleo, Balanced Living (Meat & Veggies), Plant Powered (Vegetarian & Vegan) | 48 states (excludes Alaska and Hawaii). | |
Purple Carrot | Best for Vegans | Starting at $9.99 | FREE! | Vegetarian & Vegan | 48 states (excludes Alaska and Hawaii). |
Best Overall: Blue Apron
Blue Apron calls themselves “America’s Most Popular Meal Kit,” and there’s a reason for that. We’ve named them the best overall meal kit for singles.
Regardless of the plan, Blue Apron is designed to teach you how to cook new recipes you may not have tried before, introduce you to seasonal, farm-fresh ingredients and reduce food waste. Per meal, they may not be the absolute cheapest, but they’re also one of the only meal kits that offer free shipping, which goes a long way to save you money.
Something else that sets Blue Apron apart from other meal kits is that they offer an app. Not every service offers an app. However, on Blue Apron’s app, you’ll be able to easily manage your account on the go and have access to beneficial how-to videos.
While Blue Apron doesn’t cater to specific diets like keto or vegan, they’re perfect for someone that genuinely loves high-quality restaurant quality meals. They even offer some recipes created by food celebrities like Amanda Freitag (a notable judge on Chopped) and Chrissy Tiegan.
You can choose from an ever-changing mix of meat, fish, Beyond Meat™, WW Approved, diabetes-friendly recipes, and health-conscious offerings on their Signature, Vegetarian and Signature for Four plans.
Because of all this, we highly recommend Blue Apron as the best meal kit delivery service for adventurous eaters.
Please note: Blue Apron meals have a minimum of two servings each.
Read our full Blue Apron review for more.
Best for Singles on a Budget: EveryPlate
One of the only downsides to being single is that you’re in a one-income household situation. This means you may be dealing with a tight budget. If that’s the case, we have the perfect recommendation for you.
EveryPlate is one of the most affordable meal kit subscription services available today. They claim that you get filling, classic, home-style recipes and fresh ingredients at an everyday budget of $4.99 per meal, right to your doorstep.
When we tried EveryPlate, we were delighted. The food was delicious, the produce was ripe and fresh and the price was excellent. One of the only downsides to EveryPlate is that they don’t cater to specific diets. However, they do have vegetarian options as part of their eleven weekly recipes.
When we tried EveryPlate, we couldn’t help but think how similar they were to HelloFresh, one of the most popular meal kit delivery services out there. After a quick bit of research, we learned that HelloFresh and EveryPlate are owned by the same company.
While every place is slightly less fancy, they are significantly more affordable than HelloFresh. If you can deal with this little trade-off, EveryPlate is an excellent option for singles on a budget.
Please note: EveryPlate meals have a minimum of two servings each.
Read our full EveryPlate review for more.
Best for Busy Singles: HelloFresh
HelloFresh calls themselves “America’s #1 Meal Kit”, so if you’ve ever heard of these meal kit services, this is probably the one you’re most familiar with. However, their popularity is not why we selected HelloFresh as the best meal kit delivery service for busy singles to try in 2022.
We choose HelloFresh as the winner for the “best for busy singles” category because they rolled out something new. They now offer a 1-person plan. It comes with ready-to-cook meals with two servings each for you to split as you please. This plan is ideal for individuals who meal prep, occasionally cook for others, or enjoy having leftovers. You can order between two and five recipes per week with this plan.
Plus, HelloFresh doesn’t just offer “regular” dinners and vegetarian dinners — they have a wide variety of plans. However, when you first subscribe to HelloFresh, they only give you the option to select from:
- Meat and veggies: Their widest variety of meat, fish, and seasonal produce.
- Veggies: A wide variety of meals full of seasonal, naturally produced veggies.
- Family-friendly: Kid-tested recipes that make quick, easy-to-cook meals.
- Calorie smart: A wide selection of dietician-approved meals that are around 650 calories each.
But after you’re an active subscriber, you can personalize your plan further by selecting from the following options in the “Plan Settings” menu:
- Quick & easy
- Seafood free
- Pork-free
- Beef free
- Pescetarian
Furthermore, this service now offers around 23 recipes per week to choose from when customizing your order. This is a significant increase in variety from their original 15 recipes per week.
The choice is yours with HelloFresh’s meal kit delivery for singles. Apart from having your weekly meal kits delivered, you can also add extra meals to any week’s order in case you’re cooking for more than one, change your delivery day or menu preferences, skip a week, or cancel anytime.
Read our full HelloFresh review for more.
Best for Singles with Dietary Restrictions: Green Chef
You may have noticed a trend among the most popular meal kit delivery services; nearly all cater to a “regular” diet (meals have meat and veggies). Only some have vegetarian options. However, when it comes to anything more complicated than that, you have slim pickings.
But fret not; if you have dietary restrictions, you’re not entirely out of luck. Some services may be right for you. Our top pick for the best service for singles with dietary restrictions is Green Chef.
For starters, Green Chef is a certified organic company. Plus, their ingredients have no GMOs, toxic pesticides, irradiation, sewage sludge, antibiotics, growth hormones or steroids. If you like to eat clean, Green Chef has you covered.
Additionally, Green Chef offers three different menu options that accommodate some of the most complicated diets. Green chef’s plans include:
- Keto & Paleo – Each individual serving will range anywhere between 600-800 total calories and contain less than 20 net grams of carbohydrates.
- Balanced Living – These meals include meat and veggies and are designed to be healthy, satisfying, and nutritionally balanced.
- Plant-Powered – Vegetarian and vegan-friendly meals.
Please note: Green Chef meals have a minimum of two servings each.
Read our full Green Chef review for more.
Best for Vegans: Purple Carrot
Are you vegetarian or vegan? Did you know they have entire services dedicated to delivering you plant-based ingredients to cook up delicious dinners that leave you wanting more!?!
If you are interested in trying out a vegan diet or are already vegan, Purple Carrot is worth trying. It’s one of the few entirely vegan meal kit delivery services available that takes the guesswork out of this dietary lifestyle because everything you need to create a scrumptious vegan dinner is sent right to your door.
This means you don’t have to worry about label reading to check for animal products/by-products or to try to meal plan a dinner menu that fits your lifestyle. And, as a bonus, dinners aren’t the only food available from Purple Carrot.
With Purple Carrot, you get to pick a plan (High-Protein, Gluten-Free, Quick & Easy or Chef’s Choice) and customize your order every week. Your box will include all the ingredients you need to prepare your dinners (and breakfasts and lunches, if you so choose), and the ingredients come labeled for easy use. Plus, you also get the weekly recipe booklet that will contain all your recipes for the week.
Per meal, Purple Carrot isn’t the cheapest. Their meals start at $9.99. However, they’re one of the few meal kits that offer free shipping, so they’re more affordable than most meal kit delivery services. So, if you’re looking for the meal kit that’s best for vegans, don’t hesitate to try Purple Carrot.
Please note: Purple Carrot meals have a minimum of two servings each.
Read our full Purple Carrot review for more.
Top Picks Recap: Single-Serve Meal Options Great for Solo Diners
- Best Overall for Singles: Blue Apron
- Best for Singles on a Budget: EveryPlate
- Best for Busy Singles: HelloFresh
- Best for Singles with Dietary Restrictions: Green Chef
- Best for Vegans: Purple Carrot
Final Thoughts
You might have thought you were out of luck if you were a single person that wanted to try a meal kit delivery service. What would one person do with a family-sized box of food? Could you even afford one of these luxury services on one income?
Thankfully, meal kit services seem to be getting a lot more affordable. Some are even cheaper than fast food. The only thing to do is decide if you want a service that offers individual portions or if you’re okay with receiving two portions of each meal. This sets you up for a delicious heat-and-eat lunch the next day.
To help you decide, we’ve put together this list of the six best meal kit delivery services for singles to try in 2023 to help streamline the decision making process.
At GrillCookBake, we independently research, test and recommend only the best services for you. Each service was tested and hand-selected with your individual needs in mind. Do you eat vegetarian? Check out Purple Carrot. Are you an adventurous eater? Check out Blue Apron. Are you on a budget? EveryPlate costs less than $5 per serving.
Still can’t decide? Check out our full-length reviews and side by side comparisons of all of these meal kit delivery services.
FAQs
Which food delivery service is best for one person?
We’ve rated Blue Apron as the best overall meal delivery service for one person. With fresh ingredients and portions you can split, it’s a great option for singles.
Is there a meal plan for 1 person?
Yes, there are several meal plans for one person. Freshly, EveryPlate, Blue Apron, and others all offer plans for one person.
Can a single person use HelloFresh?
HelloFresh offers a 1-person plan. It comes with ready-to-cook meals that have two servings. With the two servings, you can eat and split what’s best for you.
Can a single person use Blue Apron?
Yes, a single person can use Blue Apron; however, note that meals have a minimum of two servings each. So, a solo-diner may need to split some meals to make the best use of them.
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