I Tried Thistle For One Week — Here's A Rundown Of Every Plant-Based Meal I Tested

In the past, I veered away from pre-prepared meals because they were often loaded with unnecessary ingredients that didn't make me feel great. Now that a plethora of healthier meal delivery options exist, I have the luxury of being extremely picky about filling my fridge with only the very best—like Thistle.

Touted by wellness enthusiasts and ingredient-conscious foodies, the nutrition-focused service delivers sustainably prepared meals right to your door.

Standing out in a sea of meal kits and prepared delivery services, Thistle strives to make eating nutrient-dense, plant-forward foods convenient and accessible. The meals are crafted to help you feel energized and nourished, with real, high-quality ingredients. 

What's more, the brand prioritizes sustainability, with the aim to improve not only human health but environmental health as well. Thistle meals are gluten- and dairy-free and made without artificial sweeteners, preservatives, additives, or dyes. 

One important factor: Thistle is not a meal kit—meaning you won't have to prepare a thing.

To get started with Thistle, you'll first enter your ZIP code to confirm whether you're in the brand's local delivery or shipping area. As a New Yorker, I was in the local zone.

Next, you'll select the number of meals you want per week. Thistle offers breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. The more meals you add, the lower the price per meal.

You can choose from plant-based, meat only (meaning all meals will have meat), or a mix of plant-based protein and meat. I chose fully plant-based.

In terms of allergies and restrictions, you'll be able to select from a list of ingredients to avoid (shellfish, fish, coconut, peanuts, soy, pork, and tree nuts). Thistle will either replace this ingredient or the entire meal.

Once you set those preferences, you'll be assigned meals. Thistle designs a new menu each week and you can swap, add, or remove meals as you prefer.

Depending on which plan you select, you'll receive either one or two deliveries each week. One convenient thing about Thistle is that you can set your delivery window and opt for text updates if desired. Many other meal services I've tested don't give much leeway in terms of delivery time, so this was a pro for me.

The brand also ships across other parts of California, along with Arizona, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Washington.

Unless you click "leave unattended" in the delivery details on your account, your meals will not be delivered without someone there to accept them. 

On the East Coast, Thistle delivers on Sundays and Wednesdays between 5 a.m. and 8 a.m. or 7 p.m. and 10 p.m., depending on which preferences you select. Just note: All preferences must be updated by Thursday at 11:59 p.m. PST prior to the delivery week. 

Local deliveries arrive in insulated, reusable tote bags with ice. Shipping customers will receive a (recyclable) cardboard box. 

Regardless of whether you receive local delivery or shipping, the brand recommends refrigerating the meals upon receipt. 

Sustainability is a key pillar for Thistle (another huge selling point for me). In terms of packaging, the cardboard shipping boxes are recyclable.

All insulation is made from recycled textiles and can be recycled or composted; the gel packs are also recyclable, nontoxic, and biodegradable. 

The food containers themselves are recyclable, too, and the salad dressing and nut mix containers are Greenware and compostable. 

For local delivery, the bags and cold packs are reusable. If you leave them outside your door, the brand will even pick the bag and cold packs up during your next delivery window.

Thistle also partners with local farmers and producers with transparent practices and uses certified organic farms to source ingredients whenever possible. The rotating menu has a large focus on seasonality, too, limiting the need to source ingredients from far distances.

As a brand, Thistle is working toward net zero carbon emissions. Its facilities run on carbon-free energy, and Thistle purchases carbon offsets for all customer deliveries. 

One reason I favor prepared meal services over meal kits is that I am deeply passionate about food waste. Thistle has halved its food waste in the last year alone.

Plus, simply using the service helps you avoid wasted groceries that could end up in a landfill (along with up to 40% of the food in the U.S. that currently goes to waste1).

Cost is a vital consideration in deciding whether Thistle is worth it. How much you'll pay will depend on how many meals you select. 

Selecting at least 16 meals total will get you the lowest cost per meal: $10.65 for breakfast and $12.83 for lunch and dinner. As you remove meals, the cost starts to go up. 

Thistle has a minimum order of three meals per week, which nets out to $13.65 for breakfast and $15.83 each for lunch and dinner. Snacks are always $6.53, no matter how many you order. 

You can continue to add more than 16 meals, but the cost per meal will stay the same. Local delivery costs $4.95 and shipping is free. 

If you choose to add meat, the cost per meal goes up $2.45 for those that have meat, no matter how many total meals you select. 

For testing purposes, the brand sent a bag containing an assortment of snacks, juices, breakfasts, lunches, and dinners. I tried a total of 12 items from Thistle's plant-based menu.

This was the perfect amount of food for me to spread out throughout the week while supplementing with some meals I cooked on my own. I'll note: I am training for a marathon, so I'm definitely consuming more food than usual.

That said, Thistle could certainly be a one-and-done diet solution for those who choose to order seven breakfasts, lunches, and dinners (plus snacks, if you're anything like me). The meals themselves were extremely filling, even for an always-hungry marathon runner.

Thanks to companies like Thistle, healthy food is more accessible than ever. Of course, that allows us the privilege of being way more selective. In other words, I won't spend money on meals that don't taste good.

I went into this Thistle review with an open yet skeptical mind. Could this meal delivery service really be as good as my Instagram feed was telling me?

The answer is yes, the food is that good. I grew up on a farm, so I'm no stranger to fresh, local food—and I can spot poorly sourced ingredients from a mile away.

Each Thistle menu item tasted fresh and flavorful, and the meals themselves are incredibly inventive. The chef in me tends to add spices to any prepared food, but I actually didn't open my spice cabinet once when enjoying my Thistle meals. 

If I need to pick favorites, the menu items that stood out the most were the Blue Lagoon Falafel Bowl With Chickpea Crumbles, Thistle Ragu Pasta Bowl With Lentil Bolognese, Mango Coconut Oat Bar, and Dandelion Baked Oatmeal With Tahini Caramel.

The Blue Lagoon Ranch sauce was actually bursting with flavor. I typically go light on sauces, but I kept going back for more (and I loved knowing it was made with fresh, real-food ingredients and no added sugar). 

I'm Italian and fairly picky about pasta alternatives, but I devoured the Thistle Ragu Pasta Bowl With Lentil Bolognese. It was perfectly prepared, and the lentil Bolognese made the meal extremely filling. 

Oh, and I'd order from Thistle any time the Mango Coconut Oat Bar is on the menu.

I don't say this lightly, but Thistle is without a doubt worth it. I've tried just about every meal delivery service under the sun: meal kit services, prepared meals, and grocery services. I'd easily put this one in my top three. 

I have a busy schedule (don't we all?), so I'll often find myself standing in my kitchen, reaching for the quickest option—which, of course, is not always the most nutritious. I truly loved the convenience of having healthy, nutrient-dense meals in my refrigerator all week. 

That, combined with the stress-free delivery experience, high-quality ingredients, and sustainability efforts brought Thistle to the top of my preferred meal delivery options. 

What's more, the meals were fresher and tasted better than other prepared meal services I've tried that are significantly more expensive.