Thistle vs. Daily Harvest: Who Wins?
When we’re too busy to cook, we often settle for low-quality, unhealthy take-out meals.
Recently, there have been more and more meal services that deliver convenient, healthy meals right to our doors. But which one is the best? No one has the time to research and background check them all…except for us. 🙂
We found Thistle and Daily Harvest to be two of the most popular healthy meal delivery services in the space. Here’s our review:
Key Similarities
- Subscription-based deliveries you can pause or cancel literally at any time
- Offer healthy, delicious meals along with smoothie/juices, snacks, and sides
- Both let you choose your meals each week, and change them up based on your preferences
Key Differences
- Daily Harvest’s meals arrive frozen – Thistle is all fresh, plant-forward ingredients that are ready to eat, or can be heated for 2-3 minutes
- Thistle requires zero to minimal prep – Daily Harvest requires some prep
- Daily Harvest is vegan – Thistle has plant-based plans OR meat and seafood options
- Thistle plans start at $42 per week – Daily Harvest plans start at about $89 per week
Thistle Review
If you’re looking for delicious sustainably-sourced ready-to-eat, fresh meals delivered right to your door, Thistle’sgot ya.
They offer breakfast, lunch, and dinner along with snacks, wellness shots, and cold-pressed juices on a subscription basis for 3 to 6 days per week. You can customize your whole plan and pause, skip or cancel at any time.
Thistle’s menu emphasizes plant-forward, dairy-free, gluten-free, and organic ingredients, with meals that do contain sustainably-sourced meat, such as chicken, turkey, pork, or shrimp for those not transitioning to a completely plant-based diet.
Thistle’s in-house nutritionists and chefs come up with a new globally-inspired menu every week, ensuring each meal is perfectly balanced and nutrient-packed.
There’s also a ton of flavor with dishes like Saffron Sofrito Beans with Tomato Paprika Aioli, Pineapple Pachadi Curry Bowl, and Southwest Tofu Scramble, not to mention Pumpkin Cheesecake Mousse and 24-Carrot Gold Muffins.
Once the meals are delivered you can store them in your fridge, eat them cold, or heat them up in minutes.
Daily Harvest Review
Daily Harvest started by delivering frozen cups of fruit to be blended into smoothies, and now they offer harvest bowls, flatbreads, soups, and snacks to cover you all day. All their meals are vegan and are delivered weekly or monthly depending on your subscription.
Your meals come frozen and pre-portioned in Daily Harvest cups. The directions are on the side telling you if the contents need to be soaked overnight in milk, blended with milk, or heated with water before they’re ready to eat.
They have an impressive array of recipes, such as the Tomato + Bell Pepper Soup, Broccoli + Cheeze Harvest Bowl, and Strawberry + Peach Smoothie. Each one is packed with superfoods like chia seeds, turmeric, and flax seeds.
Depending on the number of cups you order, the weekly cost can vary; 9 cups for $69.75 a week, 12 cups for $89.88 a week, and 24 cups for $143.79 a week.
Overall Verdict
First off, everything we tried was delicious. However, we were left somewhat hungry during the week we tried Daily Harvest, but perfectly satisfied with the Thistlemeals and snacks. The Daily Harvest portion sizes are smaller and without as much protein, not as filling.
Thistle also wins on nutritional value and taste. There’s a greater variety of superfoods and nutrient-dense meals and they’re always fresh, not frozen. With zero to minimal prep, Thistle gives us back much more time in our day. With Daily Harvest, if we’re cleaning the blender every day, why not just whip up a smoothie with frozen fruit from the grocery store?
Want to give Thistle a try? Our friends at Thistle are extending an exclusive offer to our readers! Follow this link to get $100 Off over your first 4 weeks!