Is Sunbasket the best gluten-free meal delivery service?

Because I have a few dietary restrictions, I often get stuck in what I call the “safe zone” when it comes to cooking — I have the tendency to make the same dishes over and over again because I know they align with my gluten-free, pescatarian diet. Even when I’m sick of them, I’ll revert back to the handful of recipes I know best, especially because it makes grocery shopping easy. Meal delivery services always seem like an ideal solution, but I was discouraged after trying a few and feeling limited by their two or three “special diet” options. That is until I tried Sunbasket.

Sunbasket develops its dishes for people with dietary restrictions like me — it has over a dozen gluten-free, paleo, vegan, dairy-free and soy-free meal kit options to choose from each week. I tried the meal delivery service for a week and found myself feeling empowered to cook with flavors I do not typically gravitate toward, plus I was less stressed about cooking dinner overall. 

Below I’ll share my experience trying Sunbasket, including what to know about pricing, delivery schedules and menu options.

SKIP AHEAD What is Sunbasket? | How much does Sunbasket cost? | How I tried Sunbasket | My experience with Sunbasket | Who is Sunbasket best for? | How does Sunbasket compare to competitors?

Sunbasket is a meal delivery service that caters seasonal-ingredient focused meals to those who follow specific diets like gluten-free, paleo and diabetes friendly. The company offers meal kits and prepared meals (which it calls fresh and ready meals), both of which you can add to your weekly delivery. You aren’t tied to hitting a quota for either — for example, there’s no rule about choosing at least one meal kit per delivery. The meals ship fresh inside a box with ice packs so they stay fresh in transit.

• Meal kits serve two or four people, depending on which ones you select, and include options like seared salmon with artichoke-olive tapenade and fettuccine bolognese with garlic-sauteed baby broccoli. Meal kits come with pre-portioned ingredients, including some organic produce and seasonings, and recipes that walk you through the cooking process.
• Fresh and ready meals are single-serve prepared dishes you pop in the microwave or oven before eating them. Options include huevos rancheros with spiced pinto beans and brown rice, and beef and cheddar chili mac, for example.

Sunbasket also somewhat functions as an online grocery store. It sells a la carte products like meat, seafood, pre-packaged snacks, soups and bottled smoothies you can add  to your order, helping you cross a few items off your grocery list that you might usually shop for at your local market.

Sunbasket operates on a subscription-based model. It delivers meals weekly and most customers can schedule delivery on any day from Sunday to Thursday, but there may be restrictions based on your zip code. By Wednesdays at 3 p.m. ET, you have to select the meals — either meal kits, prepared meals and/or a la carte grocery items — you want to receive for the upcoming week.

You also can skip weeks at any time or change your delivery address from one week to the next. For instance, if you want to have meals delivered at your home one week and a family member’s home while you’re there for the holidays, you just have to update your delivery address before the Wednesday deadline. It’s free to cancel your subscription at any point.

Meal kits start at $11.49 a serving, and fresh and ready meals start at $9.99 per serving, but each one is priced differently. That means instead of paying a flat fee each week, you’re charged based on the individual prices of the meals you choose — each order has a $45 minumim. Meals with meat or seafood are typically a few dollars more than vegetarian and vegan meals. Shipping is free for your first box, but costs $9.99 per box for subsequent orders.

To try Sunbasket, the brand sent me three meals: two meal kits, salmon with pistachio-herb dressing and warm potato salad and blackened sole with turmeric cauliflower and artichoke-spinach dip, and one fresh and ready meal, sichuan glass noodle bowl with plant-based Impossible beef. I tried everything over the course of a week. I cooked the meal kits for dinner in my small New York City apartment kitchen. I warmed up the premade meal for dinner in my microwave. Since I don’t have a dishwasher, I hand-washed all my dinnerware, cookware and kitchen utensils by hand.

I follow a gluten-free, pescatarian diet and chose Sunbasket dishes that align with it. I live alone, usually just cooking for myself, and am confident in the kitchen from my many years of cooking experience. I typically meal prep a low-effort dinner for the work week on Sunday or Monday nights, and cook something a bit more elaborate at least once during the weekend.

From start to finish, or, in other words, from selecting my meals all the way through cooking and actually eating them, my experience trying Sunbasket was seamless. Here are some of my main takeaways from each part of trying the meal kit delivery service.

The week prior to receiving my Sunbasket shipment, I chose what meals I wanted to receive via the company’s website. As someone with dietary restrictions, I expected this process to take a while. With other meal delivery services, I usually have to scroll through the menu, click on each meal individually and read through its ingredient list to make sure it didn’t include any meat or gluten. This was a straightforward process thanks to the website’s detailed filters. I selected “gluten-free” from a dropdown menu so I only saw meals that matched the specific diet I follow, and I could easily tell which ones had seafood or were vegetarian based on the pictures and names of each dish. I also used the “under 20 minute” filter to find dishes that don’t take much time to cook, which helped me identify options I could quickly whip up after a work day.

I browsed through the two dozen-or-so options, and I clicked on ones that looked appealing to get a summary of how many people it serves, how many calories it contains and how long it takes to prepare. All of these details helped me select my meals quickly.

My Sunbasket box arrived on a Wednesday afternoon, just as I expected it to. The box was insulated and packed with dry ice, so all the food inside was cold to the touch when I opened it. Meal kits came packed in individual labeled brown paper bags with recipe cards. The bags made Sunbasket’s meal kits easy to store and organize in my refrigerator, and it kept the ingredients for each dish separate so I didn’t mix them up. I appreciated that the seafood for each meal kit was not included inside the bags. Instead, it came packed underneath the bags, closest to the dry ice, keeping it the coldest out of everything in the box. Sunbasked packed my fresh and ready meal separately from the meal kits — it looked like a prepared meal I’d grab from the grocery store.

Cooking usually feels like a production since it can involve so many steps and pans, including  prepwork and cleaning. But Sunbasket’s meal kits made cooking feel hassle-free and doable even after a long day.

The recipe cards each meal comes with have specific directions for every step of the process, and I found them easy to follow. It felt like they were written for home chefs of all levels — Sunbasket recipes didn’t use technical language or ask me to do any complex slicing and dicing. There’s also a section of the recipe cards that told me what ingredients I’d need to grab from my pantry (usually just salt, pepper and olive oil) and what kitchen gadgets I should have handy. This served as a checklist for me and I made sure I put everything on my counter prior to cooking so I didn’t have to go searching for it later on. Recipe cards also provide estimated cook times for each dish, which I found to be accurate for both dishes I made.

The ingredients that came in my meal kits were fresh and in great condition. Everything was pre-portioned, so I didn’t have to measure a single ingredient, which was one of my favorite parts of the Sunbasket experience. Not having to use measuring cups or a kitchen scale saved me time and reduced the number of dishes I had to clean afterward. It also meant I could cook with ingredients I love but don’t always want to buy a full container of at the grocery store. For example, the salmon dish I made came with just enough capers for the dish but didn’t leave me with extra that would go to waste. Some of the ingredients I used came pre-prepped, too. The salmon dish, for instance, came with roasted pistachios so I didn’t need to roast them myself. This eliminated a step of the cooking process, saving me a lot of time and making the recipe much simpler. Fresh and ready meals

Both dishes I cooked were delicious, flavorful and were filling — each one was portioned for two servings. The particular recipes I chose forced me to use ingredients that aren’t in my regular rotation, like turmeric and artichoke dip, and make foods that aren’t typically top of mind for me, like potato salad. I live alone, so I ate one portion the night I cooked and saved the second portion to eat the next day. The meals I made reheated well, plus not having to cook two days in a row was an added bonus.

I didn’t know much about Sunbasket’s prepared meals prior to trying the meal delivery service, and they ended up being what I was most surprised by. Their main perk is convenience — all I needed to do to get dinner on the table was peel off the container’s lid, transfer the prepared food to a bowl and microwave it. My meal was ready in less than five minutes, and knowing that it was waiting for me inside my refrigerator made me less stressed about the evening ahead. I did not dread coming home, standing over a pot for half an hour and then spending double the amount of time cleaning up like I sometimes do.

There’s a smaller selection of fresh and ready meals for customers to choose from compared to the meal kits, but still plenty of options for those with varying dietary restrictions. I opted for a noodle bowl with Impossible Beef, which in the past I’ve felt intimidated to try because I do not know how to cook with it. Since Sunbasket did the cooking for me, it felt more accessible and allowed me to try a food I probably wouldn’t have otherwise.

My noodle bowl came in what looked like a paper takeout container with a sealed lid. It wasn’t greasy, heavy or oily like some prepared meals can be, and felt better than ordering takeout because its container had a detailed nutrition label on the back, ensuring I knew exactly what ingredients it was made with. The label also directed me to eat the dish within three days; knowing this was helpful so I could plan when to eat it. While I ate the noodles for dinner, I could have easily thrown the container in my lunchbox and microwaved it at the office for lunch.

Based on my experience, Hands down, Sunbasket is best for individuals or two-person households with dietary restrictions. You can easily filter meals by your specific dietary preferences, which makes choosing options quick and easy. Since the dishes are largely centered around seasonal produce, anyone looking for a meal delivery service that has healthy options and hassle-free cooking would benefit from a Sunbasket subscription.

If you’re just feeding yourself, you can go with the single-serve prepared dishes or select meal kits that make two servings so you have leftovers for the next day. If you’re feeding yourself and one other person, the meal kits make enough food for two filling portion sizes. You can double up on meal kits if you need to  feed four people instead of two, but that makes your weekly delivery double the price.

When it comes to cost, Sunbasket pricing can be on the more expensive side compared to competitors like Purple Carrot, Blue Apron and HelloFresh. The price per serving for meal kits is about $11.00 for Purple Carrot, $10.99 for Blue Apron and $9.99 for HelloFresh — with Sunbasket, the price per serving for meal kits can be anywhere from $11.49 to $24.49. If you’re shopping on a budget, you can be particular about which dishes you choose by paying attention to the price listed under each meal’s name on the menu.

Zoe Malin is an associate updates editor at NBC Select who covers the food and beverage space, including stories on chocolate, salt, olive oil, honey, nonalcoholic wine, nonalcoholic spirits and coffee subscriptions. For this article, she tried Sunbasket’s meal delivery service for a week. The brand sent her three meals to try.

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Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com