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If getting told to eat your veggies makes you prickly, you haven’t tried Thistle yet. Fortunately for you, I have!
More than once, in fact, as part of the 20-plus meal kits I’ve tested over four years at the Post. I wanted to test Thistle meals again and give the full rundown of what to expect.
The meal delivery service is more than just a meal kit, providing freshly prepared food to your door, with a full spread for each square of the day, plus snacks, drinks and even healthy desserts — yes, I said healthy and dessert in the same sentence.
I’m an omnivore, so I know that salads and bowls aren’t for everyone. However, after trying Thistle for a week again I would argue that it can be for anyone who wants to at least incorporate more vegetables and whole grains into their diet.
Read on for the full scoop, and see for yourself if Thistle meal delivery is for you to try in 2025.
How Thistle Works
Thistle is more like a daily food delivery regimen than a meal kit and honestly, I loved that. They provide a breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack and dessert option for each day of the week, including weekends. You can swap out meals for allergy reasons or just personal preference. You can also add on more snacks, juices and other items to fill your fridge even more or schedule another delivery in the same week — something that other services don’t provide.
Thistle meal plans are not yet available in every U.S. state, so be sure to enter your ZIP code first. But, in states where you can participate, the customer service and ordering process is a breeze, with real-time delivery tracking, in-person handoffs and sustainable, reusable packaging. Simply order for the week, receive your delivery, and then when your next order comes, return the cloth bag the meals are delivered in to the delivery person.
Thistle Price
Because of its super fresh ingredients, hand-delivery for some areas and great packaging, Thistle is indeed on the pricier end of the spectrum when compared to the other meal kits and delivery services I’ve tried. However, when compared to getting a premade salad or bowl in a major city? Very reasonable.
The cost of Thistle meals ranges in price depending on whether a meal has meat or is vegan. Shipping vs. local delivery also impacts the final price. The most accurate way to know the price is by entering your ZIP code. On Thistle’s most recent FAQ page, I found the prices listed at the following:
“Prices per meal start at $16.32 (vegan lunch or dinner), $18.77 (meat lunch or dinner), and $14.14 (breakfast). Prices will go down as you increase the quantity of meals in your plan and custom orders, and the price per meal may also be less depending on your area, due to our sourcing from local farms and purveyors,” reads the FAQ.
Thistle Meals
While Thistle doesn’t have too much variety in its menu, it always provides a few things: freshness and flavor. It gives an option each day for breakfast, lunch, dinner and a snack, with a few customizations available for allergies, preferences, or if you’d rather swap out meat for faux meat proteins.
Otherwise, most of the meals are salads or bowls that can be eaten right from the carton or after a quick toss in a pan. The other bites include bars, drinks and some other bites, but the stars of the show really are the fresh veggies, proteins and sauces.
We’ve tried
Pitaya Smoothie With Coconut Hemp Granola
Persephone’s Salad
Peanut Butter Mousse Cup
Patatas Bravas Scramble
Golden Tahini Salad
Bibimbap
Chocolate Caramel Muesli Bar
Mocha Oats With Coconut Latte Cream
Curried Chickpea Salad
Jalapeño & Pinto “Bacon” Bowl
Mango Coconut Oat Bar
Smashed Sonoma Chickpea Snack Plate
Crunchy Thai Peanut Salad
Pros:
Many options for breakfast, lunch, and dinner plus snacks, desserts and drinks
Meals come in plastic take-out-style containers for easy lunch-packing on the go
Each item arrives fresh and has the eat-by date printed on the label for easy meal planning
Delivery is in-person and the folks are very nice — plus the deliveries can be tracked by phone and tell you how many stops are left before yours
Very sustainable packaging, with reusable cloth bag (give back to your delivery person) and recyclable jars and containers
Cons:
Some areas of the United States are not available for shipping as of the publishing of this review
Not a ton of weekly options to customize your box with
When it comes to fresh veggies and vegan meals, I can be skeptical that the produce will retain its crunch upon delivery or that the meat (or meat alternatives) will arrive a soggy mess. However, I was thrilled to find excellent crunchy roughage and freshness all around. Plus, the flavorful dressings for each salad and bowl were a highlight and made them more than just a bucket of greens.
The other thing to note beyond the freshness is the packaging itself. Thistle takes care to label each breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack with the day you should eat it. I ordered for Sunday thru Thursday, so it was easy to organize my fridge by day so I could simply eat down the line and not allow anything to go bad — a fear of mine when I buy produce at the market and forget about it in the crisper drawer… anyone else? Thistle is one of the rare meal kits that does delivery multiple times per week, so should you want more than three days’ worth of food at a time, you can simply schedule another delivery for mid-week. Amazing.
The final verdict
Thistle was a great way to get my greens in for a full week, while also not having to meal plan or prep a single meal in a whole week if I didn’t want to. It was perfect for me, in a single-person home, and I could easily bring the meals to work without worrying about meal prep.
If you are looking for burgers, Mexican, Asian or other cuisines, you won’t find them here, as the menu really is only made of salads, bowls smoothies, and the like. They do have some proteins like chicken mixed in, but nothing as substantial as a full steak or shrimp the way you’ll find in other kits. If that’s what you’re after, there are plenty of other options for you, such as Factor. Thistle also may not be for larger families or kids, unless they love healthy meal delivery kits to begin with.
How we tested
Ease of ordering: When looking at the menu, Thistle is simple to set up and order for each week. I always take into consideration how to customize the order, make changes and pause a membership when testing.
Prep, cook and cleanup time: A major selling point of meal kits is that they save time. Thistle’s meal prep is easy because everything comes pre-made, taking no time to cook. I still noted how long it took me to have a complete meal from unpacking to eating and recycling afterward.
Flavor and fullness: Meal kits are meant to remove all the guesswork from cooking, including seasoning. When testing Thistle I took into account if any of the dishes I ordered needed to be seasoned or altered to become more palpable. I also considered how satisfied they left me and for how long.
Sustainability: Not all meal kits are eco-friendly or use sustainable practices. To determine where Thistle stood on the eco-conscious scale, I reviewed its production policy and looked into how it sourced its ingredients. Other things I took into account were its packaging and whether it could be recycled.
Price: Meal kits typically run between $7 and $15 per serving, and Thistle falls between $14 and $18, so it is on the high end of the spectrum. I also take into account how many meals per week and how many servings you get for the price.
FAQ: What to look for when choosing a meal kit
Diet: Pay attention to the dietary options each service caters to, from vegetarian and vegan to Keto and paleo.
Household Size: Count the number of people in your family and then account for how much they eat to best calculate how many servings you need to feed everyone. Some kits detailed above have larger portions, while others are single-serve only.
Budget: Meal kits and services have a wide range of prices. Some offer free shipping, while others have a minimum spend. Specialty or health-related plans may cost more.
Time: Think about how long you want to be cooking for each night. Some meals require 30 or more minutes to cook, not including cleaning up. Others are microwavable and thus don’t require clean-up time, either.
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