My Honest Hungryroot Review as a Vegetarian Food Blogger

I’ll be honest: I’ve always been a little skeptical of meal kit services.

As someone who develops recipes for a living, I tend to think I can just… cook. I know my pantry, I know my techniques, and I’m not exactly starved for dinner ideas. So when Hungryroot reached out to partner, my first instinct was “do I really need this?”

After a week of actually using it — five recipes, one very opinionated fiancé, and a visiting mom who didn’t know she was a taste tester — I have thoughts.

The short version: I get it now.

Five plated meals with vegetables, grains, and plant-based proteins are arranged on a wooden board in front of a Hungryroot delivery box on a kitchen counter.

Disclosure

Hungryroot compensated me for this review, but (as always) all opinions are my own. I’ve tested multiple boxes over the past few months, cooked through tons of their recipes, and used the groceries in my own everyday cooking.

If you want to try them, you can get 40% off your first delivery + a free gift here.

What Is Hungryroot?

Hungryroot sits somewhere between a grocery delivery service and a meal kit, and that hybrid model is genuinely what makes it interesting.

Here’s how it works: you fill out a food profile, and Hungryroot curates a weekly box of groceries and recipe cards tailored to your preferences.

But unlike traditional meal kits where every ingredient is portioned out for one specific dish, Hungryroot sends you real grocery items. It’s less “follow this recipe exactly” and more “here are great ingredients, here’s what we suggest, go from there.”

They also let you customize based on dietary needs, which for a vegetarian food blogger is obviously a big deal. My entire box was vegetarian, and several recipes were vegan-friendly.

A hand holds a bowl of salad topped with falafel and sauce, with plates of various fresh dishes and a Hungryroot box in the background.

What Did It Cost?

Let’s talk numbers, because I know that’s what you’re actually wondering.

Total order cost: $176.91
Number of recipes: 5
Total servings across all recipes: 18
Cost per serving: ~$9.83

For context: a takeout order for two in most cities is going to run you $40–60 before tip. A grocery run where you’re buying specialty ingredients like Japanese BBQ sauce, pre-marinated tofu, and plant-based chorizo adds up faster than you’d think (and you’d still have to do all the thinking yourself).

When I frame it that way, $176.91 for five full dinners (with leftovers, in most cases) feels pretty reasonable.

The Meals We Made

Four packaged food items on a wooden surface: a Southwest salad kit, pico de gallo black beans, black bean veggie balls, and cauliflower sea salt tortilla chips.

A plate of salad topped with several baked veggie balls and drizzled with red sauce, set on a wooden surface with a green plant in the background.

Southwest Chopped Salad with Black Bean Veggie Balls

11 min · 1,080 cal · 4 servings

The salad kit is from Josie’s Organics, and it’s genuinely good. I don’t always love pre-made salad kits, but this one had real crunch and a creamy dressing that tied everything together. The black bean veggie balls on top were the move. They added heft and made it feel like an actual meal rather than a side salad.

Southwest flavors are very much my thing, so I may be biased. But this one was one of my favorites!

Five food items on a wooden surface: pickled onions, Mexican street corn white rice, plant-based chorizo, organic ranch dressing, and an avocado.

A plate with seasoned rice and corn, sliced avocado, pickled onions, plant-based ground meat, and a drizzle of creamy sauce. A fork rests on the plate beside the food.

Craveable Chorizo Street Corn Grain Bowl

8 min · 750 cal · 2 servings

This was my favorite recipe of the box!

The plant-based chorizo from Abbot’s got beautifully browned in a skillet in about five minutes. The Mexican street corn rice from Somos was microwaved separately and came out fragrant and slightly sweet. Pickled red onions on top, sliced avocado, a drizzle of vegan ranch…the whole thing came together in genuinely eight minutes and tasted like something I would have ordered at a fast-casual restaurant.

A cucumber, savory spiced tofu bites, a lime, Japanese chili powder, an avocado, and a package of organic white flour tortillas on a wooden surface.

Two soft tacos on a white plate filled with diced tofu, cucumber slices, avocado, and sauce, served with lime wedges; a hand touches the plate, and a green plant is nearby.

Japanese BBQ Tofu Tacos with Cucumber, Avocado + Fresh Lime

6 min · 600 cal · 4 servings

Six minutes. Six.

The Hungryroot spiced tofu bites heated up fast in a skillet, and once you tossed them in Bachan’s Japanese BBQ sauce, they were hard to stop eating. I kept sneaking bites before they even made it into the tortillas.

True confession: my avocados weren’t ripe enough when I made these. I cut them anyway, and the tacos were still really good, but I think they would’ve been absolutely epic with perfectly ripe, buttery avocado. Lesson learned: check ripeness the night before and plan accordingly.

Packaged southwestern black bean veggieballs, a container of refried red beans, cilantro lime white rice, and a small cup of green sauce arranged on a wooden surface.

A bowl with refried beans, brown rice, guacamole, and several vegetable fritters, placed on a wooden surface.

Guacamole Black Bean Ball Burrito Bowl

12 min · 540 cal · 4 servings

This one won over the whole household, including my fiancé (a big meat eater) and my mom, who was visiting and didn’t know she’d been recruited as a taste tester.

I air-fried the black bean balls, and that was the right call. They came out crispy on the outside with a satisfying, dense interior (not mushy, not falling apart). Piled on top of cilantro lime rice with refried red beans and a dollop of guacamole, it was cozy and filling and really well-balanced.

At 540 calories for a pretty generous bowl, this is also the most nutritionally balanced recipe of the bunch. High fiber, no added sugar, and a solid hit of plant-based protein from the beans and veggie balls.

A container of sesame ginger sauce, a red onion, a cucumber, and a package of teriyaki tofu are arranged on a wooden cutting board.

A plate with crumbled tofu and a cucumber salad with red onions and sesame seeds, placed on a wooden surface with a pair of chopsticks and green leaves in the background.

Teriyaki Tofu + Gingery Cucumber Salad

8 min · 400 cal · 4 servings

I was not expecting this one to be as good as it was.

The cucumber salad was zingy and crunchy. The Hodo Soy teriyaki tofu browned up nicely in the skillet and had great flavor on its own. This is one of those recipes where the components are individually strong enough that you could easily riff on them in future meals.

Under 500 calories, high protein, and genuinely delicious. That’s a hard combination to pull off.

What I Loved About This Box

The time savings are real. Every recipe in this box came in under 15 minutes. When Hungryroot says 8 minutes, they mean 8 minutes because so much of the prep (chopping, marinating, seasoning) is already done.

The ingredient overlap is smart. The cucumbers, avocados, tofu, and black bean balls all pulled double or triple duty across multiple recipes. Nothing felt siloed to one dish, which means less waste and more flexibility.

The quality of individual products is high. Bachan’s Japanese BBQ sauce, Hodo Soy tofu, Calavo guacamole. These aren’t generic pantry fillers. They’re brands I’d actually buy at a specialty grocery store.

It works for mixed households. My fiancé eats meat and he was fully on board with the burrito bowl. My mom tried everything and loved it. Vegetarian food that genuinely satisfies non-vegetarians is always a win.

What Could Be Better

Avocado timing is tricky. Hungryroot ships avocados that may need a day or two to ripen after arrival. The recipe cards do mention this, but it’s easy to miss. Build in ripening time or you’ll end up with tacos that are good instead of great.

The calorie counts are high on some recipes. The Southwest chopped salad clocks in at 1,080 calories for one serving, which feels significant. To be fair, it’s a very large serving and probably works as two lighter portions, but worth keeping in mind if you’re tracking.

The Verdict

I came into this skeptical and I’m leaving genuinely converted, especially for the weeks when life is full and cooking from scratch feels like too much.

Hungryroot isn’t trying to replace cooking. It’s trying to make weeknight dinner feel less like a project, and it does that really well. The ingredients are good quality, the recipes are actually fast, and for a vegetarian household (or a mixed one), the options are solid.

If you want to try it, they’re offering a Hungryroot coupon for our community: 40% off your first delivery with my link + code LIVEEATLEARN40.