Meatless Meal Kits: Flexitarian & Green Eating

Short answer: If you want to eat less meat through a meal kit, Gousto is the strongest budget pick — meals start at just £3.52 per portion, and its menu regularly includes vegetarian options. If you'd rather have vegetarian and vegan meals built in for you, Green Chef runs dedicated Vegan and Vegetarian plans, and Grubby is a fully plant-based kit with a 100% vegan menu every week. Prefer to cut back gradually within a familiar, affordable kit? HelloFresh has a dedicated Veggie plan among its menus, starting at £3.75 per portion.

You don't have to go vegan to eat greener. Most UK households who cut back on meat do it as flexitarians: less meat, more plants, without hard rules. A meal kit can make that easy — if you pick the right one. In this guide, we look at what "meatless" actually means in the subscription world, what UK dietary guidance recommends, and which kits make a greener everyday routine the simplest. We lean on each provider's actual menu structure — dedicated veggie/vegan plans versus occasional vegetarian recipes — so you can choose based on what's really on the menu, not on marketing.

"Meatless" covers a spectrum, and it's worth knowing the difference before you order. Vegan means completely free of animal products — no meat, fish, eggs, or dairy; whether that's realistic with a meal kit is something we dig into in is a vegan meal kit possible?. Vegetarian skips meat and fish but typically still allows eggs and dairy — there are more real options here, which we round up under vegetarian meal kits. Then there's flexitarian, the most common approach for UK households: you still eat meat, just less of it and less often.

Most of the major meal kits aren't built meat-free from the ground up. Instead, they give you tools to dial it back: a dedicated veggie meal plan, a handful of plant-forward recipes in the regular menu, or a kit with noticeably less meat per portion overall. That means you can cut back on meat without switching to a dedicated speciality kit — but it also means some kits make it far easier than others. The key is looking at how much meat a portion actually contains, and how much room is left for vegetables alongside it.

The NHS Eatwell Guide is clear on this: fill at least half your plate with fruit and vegetables, and choose a variety of protein sources — including fish, beans, peas, and lentils — rather than leaning on red and processed meat. The guidance also calls for regularly working more legumes into the week, since they're a source of both protein and fibre that many people fall short on. The overall direction from major UK nutrition bodies is consistent: a more plant-forward plate, with meat as one part of the mix rather than the default.

The reality, though, is that most people eat more meat and fewer vegetables and legumes than recommended. A meal kit with a built-in veggie plan or an easy way to swap in plant-forward recipes can be a simple lever for closing that gap, without requiring a full diet overhaul. Curious how healthy meal kits are more broadly? We cover that in are meal kits healthy?

Looking across the major providers, the clearest pattern is that budget and value-focused kits tend to lean more plant-forward, while classic culinary and organic kits skew heavier on meat by default. Here's how the six kits in this guide compare on their approach to meatless and plant-forward eating:

The difference in approach is meaningful. Green Chef runs dedicated vegan and vegetarian plans, and Grubby is fully plant-based by default, so you don't have to hunt for meatless options on those menus. Want to understand our full testing approach? It's laid out on our how we test page.

If the goal is a greener everyday routine without having to rebuild your own recipes, Gousto is the obvious pick. It's the most budget-friendly of the major meal kits, with prices starting at just £3.52 per portion, and its rotating menu of around 200 recipes a week regularly features vegetarian options alongside the meat-based ones. As the UK's homegrown value-and-choice leader (around 34% market share), Gousto keeps costs down through scale and menu breadth rather than by trimming extras.

Because Gousto is priced so far below the rest of the market, it's an easy way to build a few plant-forward dinners into your week without paying a premium for it. Customers on Trustpilot (around 3.6/5 from roughly 50,000 reviews) tend to praise the value and choice, with some complaints about occasional ingredient substitutions. There's no long-term commitment, and new customers typically get 50%/40%/20% off their first three boxes. If you want to go greener without overthinking it, this is where you get the most for the least effort — just know the menu leans convenience over premium ingredients, unlike pricier organic options such as Green Chef.

You don't necessarily need to switch to the greenest kit on the market. Several major providers let you dial back meat from within their regular menu. HelloFresh — the UK's biggest recipe box, with around 43% market share — runs a dedicated Veggie meal plan alongside its other menus, so you can pick plant-forward recipes week after week — handy if the rest of the household still wants meat some nights. Pricing starts at £3.75 per portion, plus a £4.99 delivery charge, and there's no subscription commitment, so you can experiment freely.

Prefer something already done for you? Grubby is a 100% plant-based kit with a fully vegan menu every week, starting around £5.75 per portion. One simple tactic works regardless of provider: deliberately order a couple of meatless recipes each week and let the vegetable- and legume-forward dishes fill in the rest. Because none of these kits require a long-term commitment, you can adjust up or down as it suits you — more on that in meal kits with no commitment. Use a few meatless weeks to test whether flexitarian eating works for your household before settling on a regular kit.

If you don't want to give up meat entirely but want to eat more ethically and sustainably, an organic recipe box is a good middle ground. Riverford is the standout here — a B-Corp certified, organic recipe box with roots in veg-box delivery, not a budget kit like HelloFresh or Gousto. Pricing runs from around £6.40 to £9.00 per portion, with FREE delivery on every order and £15 off your first order. Keep in mind that Riverford's menu still leans meat- and fish-forward by design, with only occasional vegetarian recipes, so it's more a path to eating better meat than to eating less of it overall. Trustpilot rates it 4.8/5 from around 20,000 reviews — the highest of any kit in this guide.

On the diet-specific side, Green Chef is also worth knowing: it's organic, HelloFresh-owned, and runs dedicated Vegan, Vegetarian, Keto, and gluten-free plans built into the menu, so plant-forward eating is genuinely easy here rather than occasional. It runs from around £6.30 to £9.50 per portion plus £4.99 delivery, which is the trade-off for organic ingredients and diet-specific menu planning. The takeaway: an ethical or organic profile and a green profile don't always line up — a premium option can still be meat-heavy while costing more than a value kit with a similar plant-forward focus.

There's no single right answer — it depends on how green you want to go and what your budget allows. Want the most budget-friendly plant-forward option with the least effort? Gousto is the clear choice: lowest price per portion (£3.52), with vegetarian recipes in regular rotation. Want to cut back on meat gradually within a flexible, familiar kit? HelloFresh's Veggie meal plan gives you that control starting at £3.75.

Want it easy and mostly done for you? Grubby is 100% plant-based by default, while Green Chef delivers dedicated Vegan and Vegetarian plans if you prioritise certified-organic ingredients over price. And if you just want to eat more ethically and sustainably without going fully meatless, Riverford's organic, B-Corp recipe box is a well-reviewed middle ground. Whichever you pick, none of these providers lock you into a long-term commitment — so you can start green, test it for a few weeks, and adjust as you go. Still not sure? Walk through how to choose a meal kit or check our overall rankings on best meal kits. Use each provider's actual meatless options as your guide, not the marketing copy.