Check our our full review of Purple Carrot
The best gluten-free meal kit for wellness heads: Sakara
Pros
- Healthy, nourishing meals
- Appealing to vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free diets
- Curated menu means all the planning is taken care of for you
Cons
- Premium price point might not fit into a lot of people’s budgets
Tested and reviewed by: Emma Laperruque
About Sakara: Sakara takes a “food as medicine” approach to meal delivery. The fully prepared meals that make up their Signature Nutrition Program are nutrient-rich, plant-based, dairy-free, and gluten-free across the board, designed to promote a balanced gut microbiome, increase cellular energy, and improve skin clarity, among other claims.
How seriously does Sakara treat its gluten-free claims?
All of Sakara’s meals are gluten-free, but the company does note on its website: “While we follow strict food safety protocols, we do not recommend our meal program for anyone with a severe allergy, as we cannot guarantee the absence of cross-contamination in our facility or from our vendors.”
Emma’s review of Sakara
The ordering process: “Sakara rolls out set weekly menus and, as part of their Signature Nutrition Program, you can pick a program that includes lunch and dinner, or breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The options are limited in that sense—the five lunches for the week are the five lunches for the week, and there are no substitutions allowed. But considering that meal kits are meant to simplify your life, I thought that was a benefit. All the planning and curation is taken care of for you.
You can also choose between ordering a weekly subscription, or prepaying for 1, 4, 8, or 12 weeks at a time.”
What she loved: “All of the meals I received were straightforward and quick to prepare. A lot of them required no heating at all (for example, a parfait for breakfast or a salad for lunch). Some were marked as heating optional. There were a few heating recommendations that I adjusted to speed things up; for example, instead of reheating a taco in the oven as suggested, I just zapped it in the microwave for a minute and that worked great.
The breakfasts were typically sweet—think muffins, scones, parfaits, or granola. That said, these were not sweet sweets—they were super balanced, which I appreciated. I especially enjoyed the pumpkin pie parfait with a maple-cinnamon granola and the coconut praline granola with cacao mylk.
Sakara’s salads are excellent—a reliable delight to dig into in the middle of a busy workday. They’re generously portioned, so you have enough fuel to power you through the afternoon, and they’re thoughtfully designed with a range of textures and colors. Just about every dressing I wished I had a full bottle of to keep in the fridge for future meals. I especially enjoyed the beet salad with cashews and carrot-ginger dressing, and the technicolor quinoa salad with pumpkin-seed tofu and cashew-tamari dressing. I also enjoyed the dinners on the whole. I’m still thinking about Sakara’s “chile-kissed” pinto beans and wishing I had them canned.
I’m someone who bakes with wheat flour often, so I found the gluten-free baked goods—such as a “chocolate love muffin” or “power pita”—more hit or miss. That said, those who follow a gluten-free diet will appreciate how creative these treats are, the wide range of options, and the fact that they’re designed to pack in additional nutrients.”
What she’d leave: This may not be the best meal delivery service for people who favor savoy breakfasts. Besides that, “the main downside to Sakara is the price,” says Emma. “At $140–$465 per week (per person!) depending on your plan, it’s the priciest option on this list. But if you’re someone who is gluten-free and sees food as a source of nourishment and well-being, you’ll like what you get.”
Check our our full review of Sakara
How we tested gluten-free meal kits
Here at Bon Appétit, we’re constantly testing and retesting meal kits—so we had a lot of intel to draw from in determining which are the best options for gluten-free eaters. We took into account how each kit fared in our Best Meal Delivery Services story, the breadth of gluten-free offerings they have, and the degree to which they take any GF claims seriously in selecting which ones to include on this list.
