I’ve researched the very best meal delivery services in Minneapolis so you don’t have to! Meal kits and prepared meals are a great way to save time and money while enjoying healthy, tasty meals. I’ve made sure to include a range of services that suit every lifestyle and budget.
Factor wins my top spot for its variety of freshly prepared meals. It has a range of plans to suit even niche diets like keto and vegan. Plus, you can choose from different add-ons each week.
Every meal delivery service on my list has something to offer hungry Minneapolitans, so you can eat healthily and cut down on spending and food waste. Continue reading my review to see which one suits you best, and don’t forget to check my tips on how to do that by the end of the article.
Factor – Best prepared meal delivery service in Minneapolis
Green Chef – Best certified organic meal kits in Minneapolis
Blue Apron – Best meal delivery service for Minneapolis foodies
HelloFresh – Best variety of easy-to-follow recipes in Minneapolis
Home Chef – Best for customizable meals
Each dish made with premium ingredients
35 prepared meals each week
Dietary options include keto, high protein, plant-based, and more
Current deal: Get up to $130 off + free shipping on your first box. Code: WEB130FREE
Factor sends you single-serving fully-cooked prepared meals that are ready after just 3 minutes in the microwave. But you don’t have to sacrifice taste for convenience! We reviewed Factor ourselves and loved the meals.
Minnesotans on a diet will appreciate Factor’s Calorie Smart menu. The Shredded Chicken Taco Bowl pictured above uses Factor’s house-made taco seasoning to kick up the chicken, then throws in black beans and brown rice with a roasted corn salsa and creamy cilantro sour cream.
Fitness-conscious Minnesotans will find Factor an easy way to eat better. Factor meals are especially good for professionals who have limited kitchen equipment at work but want to avoid unhealthy take-out food for lunch.
Protein Plus Factor meals give you over 30 g of protein in each serving. The Shredded Chicken Taco Bowl is also a Protein Plus meal, with 47 g of protein in each serving. Factor’s Keto menu is especially good, with a wide range of meals that provide healthy fats and replace carb-heavy ingredients like rice with riced cauliflower and noodles with zucchini zoodles.
You can also order breakfast entrees and other items from the Factor market. Options include smoothies, wheatgrass juices, and healthy desserts like low-carb keto cheesecake.
Note that Factor doesn't allow individual ingredient customization in its meals. That's because it aims to uphold the nutritional balance of each dish, carefully formulated by expert nutritionists. If there are specific ingredients you wish to avoid, the only option is to skip the entire meal containing them.
Consume Factor meals fairly soon after delivery. Generally, its meals have a refrigerator shelf life of about 7 days, which I find way longer than most other meal deliveries. Also, note that the service advises against freezing its food, so ensure enough storage space relative to the size of your order.
New customers can book a free 20-minute consultation with a Factor dietitian. If you find that session helpful, you have the option to book additional consultations.
The service offers the following 6 plans but lets you choose any item on the menu:
Consume Factor meals fairly soon after delivery. Generally, its meals have a refrigerator shelf life of about 7 days, which I find way longer than most other meal deliveries. Also, note that the service advises against freezing its food, so ensure enough storage space relative to the size of your order.
Factor pricing varies by order size, with larger orders providing the best savings. For example, you can get 18 meals for $103.41 on your first order with our link.
Ingredients from sustainable sources
45+ recipes on the menu every week, plus add-ons
Dietary options include keto, low-calorie, and vegan
Current deal: Free Salads for Two Months + 50% Off Your 1st Box
Green Chef is the first USDA-certified organic meal delivery service. All produce and eggs in a Green Chef meal kit are organic, and all proteins are raised with high animal welfare standards.
We tried Green Chef at home and cooked some of the best meals we’ve tried from any meal delivery service. This line of organic meals also tops our list of the best keto meal delivery services. Its keto meals draw from a wide range of world cuisines and can keep you enthusiastic about your diet, which is vital if you want to avoid the temptation to cheat.
As the name suggests, Quick & Easy meals are lower in prep time. The Pesto Shrimp and Couscous Bowls (pictured) combine shrimp with artichoke hearts, kale, dates, and sunflower seeds with a dairy-free basil and garlic pesto for a taste explosion. It comes in at just 690 calories and is ready in just 25 minutes.
You can also order a high-quality selection of add-ons at Green Chef. Bulk packs of chicken, steaks, and other proteins bring you even more of humanely-harvested and antibiotic-free meats. And if you like the service’s dinners, you’ll love breakfast entrees and lunch items like Cheesy Artichoke Sandwiches and French Waffles.
Most meals on the Green Chef menu are also certified gluten-free and contain no more than 10 parts per million gluten. Green Chef meals that contain gluten (typically meals with pasta or bread) are prepared separately to avoid cross-contamination.
Green Chef’s Plant Based menu has an excellent selection of vegetarian and vegan meals. It was 1 of the first delivery services to offer a vegan menu, and it remains one of our top choices for a plant-based diet.
If you’re on a specialized diet, Green Chef is a great choice. You get 8 menus to choose from, but you’re always free to order any of Green Chef’s 45+ weekly recipes. Available plans are:
Keto: carb-conscious, high-protein recipes with no gluten, grains, soy, or legumes
Plant Based: vegetarian and vegan recipes with plant-based ingredients
Mediterranean: meals with lots of veggies and healthy fats
Calorie Smart: healthy meals under 650 calories
Quick & Easy: gourmet meals ready in 25 minutes or less
Gluten Free: free from gluten and soy
Protein Packed: satisfying recipes high in protein
Green Chef's food is usually good for consumption 5 days post-delivery. Seafood that lasts up to 3 days is the sole exception. You can freeze Green Chef's meals before their end dates.
The price per meal depends on the number of servings. It starts at $9.99 per portion when you order the maximum number of weekly meals. The minimum order is 3 meals of 2 servings each, and the maximum is 4 meals serving 6 people per week.
If you like a menu that offers a variety of world cuisines, you’ll love Blue Apron. Blue Apron’s selection of upscale international meals and healthy family favorites makes it a good choice for Minneapolis residents looking to improve their supper experience.
Wellness meal kits feature a variety of vegetables, fruits, and whole grains, with lean proteins from poultry, pork, fish, seafood, and tofu, and moderate portions of dairy. Wellness options include Carb Conscious meals with under 48 grams of carbs per serving, as well as meals Under 600 Calories.
Blue Apron’s Veggie menu is pretty good. The Mafalda Pasta pictured above combines sauteed zucchini and tomatoes with a dab of creamy mascarpone cheese. It cuts the richness with briny capers, tosses it over ruffly mafalda pasta, and serves it with toasted, cheesy Italian bread.
Blue Apron’s Prepared & Ready fresh prepared meals are great for busy nights. You can also choose from a selection of quick meal kits that require minimal preparation or prepared meals that you can simply pop in the microwave or oven. And Blue Apron’s Family Friendly menu features nutritious recipes with kid-friendly flavors.
Many recipes offer calorie-cutting tips, like replacing sour cream with nonfat yogurt or using a nonstick spray instead of olive oil. Blue Apron also gives you how-to videos and online demos. In our review, we found the Cook Along slideshow on Blue Apron’s website extremely helpful.
Blue Apron also allows you to make some entrees containing meat vegetarian. Look for the Make it Vegetarian label on Blue Apron recipes. And Blue Apron Customized, a new feature, also lets you add meat to some vegetarian entrees or swap proteins.
You can choose 5 different Meal Kits preferences that’ll help Blue Apron select suggested meals. But no matter which preferences you choose, you can order any Blue Apron recipe.
Chef Favorites: The Test Kitchen's top picks
Wellness: Nutritionist-approved recipes
Family Friendly: Kid-friendly meals the whole family will love
Fast & Easy: Quick prep options
Veggies: Plant-based meals
Blue Apron lets you order 2, 3, 4, or 5 meal kits for 2 or 4 people, and you can also order additional meals with each weekly order. If you opt for ready-to-eat recipes, you can order 4, 6, 8, or 10 dishes. Note that you can add extra Meal Kits and Prepared & Ready meals if you wish. Pricing starts at $4.00 per serving.
Family-friendly with plenty of options for kids
Over 100 unique recipes and market items per week
Dietary options include Carb Smart, Calorie Smart, and Veggie
HelloFresh is the world’s biggest meal delivery company and has the art of meal delivery down to a science. If you’re new to meal delivery services, HelloFresh makes everything from cooking to contacting customer service easy, thanks to its well-organized website and easy-to-use phone app.
HelloFresh organizes its menu into 6 categories that cover most mainstream diets:
Meat & Veggies: balanced meals
Veggie: meat-free meals with some vegan offerings
Family Friendly: recipes for all the family
Fit & Wholesome: weight-loss friendly meals with around 600 calories per serving
Under 20 Minutes: easy prep meals
Pescatarian: meals with seafood and veggies
The Fit & Wholesome plan is great for dieters, and you can look for Carb Smart and Calorie Smart tags. But while it has a good vegetarian selection, HelloFresh isn’t the best choice for vegans or people on specialized diets like keto – check out Factor for a dedicated keto menu.
Hall of Fame recipes are especially popular with HelloFresh customers. Trying new dishes can be a hit-or-miss affair, but you know that any dish with a Hall of Fame label has received rave reviews from your fellow HelloFresh members. The Chicken, Mushroom, and Chive Risotto pictured above is a Hall of Fame recipe.
HelloCustom lets you change proteins or swap sides on 12+ meals every week. You can double up on bacon, swap pork for beef, or trade broccoli for roasted potatoes. And HelloFresh subscribers get access to HelloMarket, which offers a curated selection of produce, protein, sides, pantry staples, desserts, and more.
HelloFresh also labels its recipes as Easy, Medium, and Hard so you can choose meal kits suited to your culinary skills. Most meals are rated as Easy or Medium. Other labels include Spicy, Easy Prep, Protein Smart, and Easy Cleanup.
Feel free to test your culinary limits, as the company’s meals are clear and easy to follow. We tested HelloFresh at home and found the meals to be universally delicious.
The service doesn't recommend freezing its dishes. Most meals have a shelf life of up to 5 days in the refrigerator. Note that seafood is optimally fresh for 2 days. Some ingredients are organic, but not most of them. If you prioritize such food, consider subscribing to Green Chef.
HelloFresh offers competitive pricing among meal delivery services. Larger meal boxes come at a higher overall cost but offer better per-serving rates, while smaller boxes cost more per serving. For instance, if you order 6 meals for 4 people, your first box costs $107.75 with our link.
Filters make it easy to find meals you want
30+ entrees each week, plus extras
Dietary options include calorie-conscious, carb-conscious, and vegetarian
Nobody beats Home Chef when it comes to customized meal kits. Some other meal delivery services let you swap proteins on a few entrees, but Home Chef’s Customize It feature lets you swap, double up, or upgrade the protein in almost every dish.
Alongside its more challenging recipes, Home Chef offers easy-prep menu options. Its 15-minute Meal Kits are great for busy nights. For nights when you don’t even have 15 minutes to spare, you can choose from a selection of Fast & Fresh microwaveable meals. Plus, you can choose among many extras like meal bundles, proteins, and desserts.
You’ll find various tags accompanying meals on the menu. Use them to find suitable recipes and avoid ingredients you don’t like. Some available options are tree nuts, eggs, milk, wheat, and soy.
The company has a great allergen filtering system, letting you exclude up to 9 common allergens from your mealtime. When you select Pick Your Meals, you'll find these allergen choices in Step 3. The ingredients you can eliminate from your diet are beef, poultry, pork, fish, shellfish, peanuts, tree nuts, sesame, and mushrooms.
The Culinary Collection offers premium ingredients and sophisticated cooking techniques. These meals cost a few dollars more per serving, but they’re great for date nights and special occasions. If you want to learn how to cook gourmet meals, the Culinary Collection is a great place to master your kitchen craft.
The company is a great choice for most people, but it’s not for everybody. While the filters let you avoid allergens and problem ingredients, all meals are prepared in the same facility, so there’s a risk of cross-contamination. Also, it has only 5 plans, while HelloFresh has 6, catering to a wider range of dieters.
We tested Home Chef for ourselves, and we found it to be a great value. Not only are the portion sizes generous, but the ingredients are high quality. The variety of protein options at different price points makes it suitable for many budgets.
Home Chef’s minimum order is 2 meals of 2 servings, up to 6 meals of 6 servings each. Since most services only offer 2-serving and 4-serving kits, Home Chef is a great choice for large families. Prices start at $9.99 per serving.
Physician-designed meals and dietary support
150+ breakfast, lunch, and dinner items – plus snacks
Dietary options include gluten-free, diabetes-friendly, heart-healthy, and more
BistroMD sends fresh, flash-frozen prepared meals to your door. Many diet meal services rely on unappetizing processed food. Bistro MD’s meals not only help you lose weight, but they also teach you healthier eating habits that are vital for long-term weight loss.
Every week BistroMD provides you with a weekly suggested menu. You can swap out any meals you don’t like. While there’s a selection of seafood recipes and a few vegetarian entrees (like the Lasagna above), BistroMD meals are designed with omnivores in mind.
Every BistroMD meal clocks in at under 450 calories. Dietitians design the menu to make sure you get the nutrients you need on a restricted-calorie diet. Chefs (including the founder’s husband, Ed) make sure your meals aren’t just nutritious but appetizing. The Lasagna with Garden Marinara pictured above is tasty and satisfying but has just 350 calories.
To prevent cravings during the day, BistroMD also offers Essential and Tasty Snacks. These “EATS” include not only the typical diet bars and protein snacks, but also desserts like cheesecake. The Women’s plan recommends 2 EATS per day, while men get 3 EATS.
BistroMD has different plans for men and women. The women’s plan offers meals averaging 1,200 calories a day, while the men’s program meals average 1,400. All plans include consultations with a dietitian who can help you with your weight and lifestyle goals. We tried and tested BistroMD and found it to be a solid service for those serious about weight loss.
Dr. Caroline Cedarquist, BistroMD’s founder, is a bariatric physician. She started the company in 2005 to give her patients an alternative to the diet meals that were then available on the market. Since then, BistroMD’s menus have expanded to cover other health conditions.
BistroMD offers 7 plans:
Signature: the basic BistroMD plan
Gluten Free: containing less than 20 ppm of gluten
Heart Healthy: containing under 600 mg sodium or less
Diabetic: containing under 25 g net carbs
Menopause: designed to help with hormonal changes
Keto Flex: a low-carb program
Vegan: introducing meat-free recipes
BistroMD’s smallest plan is 5 days of lunch and dinner per week (10 meals), and its maximum is 3 meals 6 days and 2 meals 1 day a week. For the remaining meal, you are free to eat anything you wish. Prices start from $6.59 per serving when you order the maximum number of meals per week.
Offers both meal kits and prepared meals
Dozens of entrees each week, plus plantry items
Dietary options include high-protein, gluten-free, and more
Every item on Purple Carrot’s menu is 100% plant-based. Minneapolis has a good selection of vegan restaurants, but when it comes to meal delivery services, the pickings are slimmer.
Purple Carrot gives you a selection of vegan recipes from around the world, as well as vegan takes on classic favorites. Instead of relying on soy substitutes, the Mac n’ Cheese pictured above combines Panko bread crumbs with pan-toasted walnuts and Cajun seasoning and adds in broccoli florets for a tasty and filling dairy-free meal.
Each week, you get a selection of meal kits and prepared meals to choose from. If you want to split the difference, look for Purple Carrot’s Less Prep meals. The Mac n’ Cheese pictured above is a Less Prep meal that requires just 25 minutes of prep and cooking.
Menu labels let you sort out the meals. These are High-Protein, Soy-Free, <600 Calories, Gluten-Free, and Nut-Free. Purple Carrot’s Plantry offers breakfast and lunch items, plant-based pantry staples, and some vegan desserts.
Even non-vegans can enjoy Purple Carrot meals. Purple Carrot’s motto is “Eat what you love, but eat more plants.” We tested Purple Carrot and found the meals suitable for even the most discerning meat-eater.
Unlike most other delivery services, Purple Carrot only shows the current week’s menu. I find looking at upcoming menus is a good way for prospective customers to decide if the service is right for them, and wish Purple Carrot would let you get a look at the next several weeks of meals like HelloFresh does.
Purple Carrot always ranks highly in our list of the best vegan meal delivery services for good reasons. While I’d like to see upcoming menus, after several years of watching Purple Carrot as a reviewer, I can say that their menus are fairly consistent and feature a good variety of vegan food each week.
The minimum weekly order of meal kits is 3 recipes for 2 people. You can order no more than 3 meal kits for 4 people from this service. The prepared meals come as single-serving portions and can be ordered in bundles of 6, 8, or 10 per week. Prices start at $11.00 per serving.
Top Plans | |||||||
Top Plans | |||||||
Our Rating | |||||||
Our Rating | 9.8 | 9.7 | 9.6 | 9.6 | 9.5 | 9.5 | 9.4 |
Best Offer | |||||||
Best Offer | $103.41 Per Box | $9.99 Per Serving | $4.00 Per Serving | $107.75 Per Box | $9.99 Per Serving | $6.59 Per Serving | $11.00 Per Serving |
Minimum Order | |||||||
Minimum Order | 6 prepared meals | 3 meals for 2 people | 2 meals for 2 people | 2 meals for 2 people | 2 meals for 2 people | 10 prepared meals | 3 meal kits for 2 people/6 prepared meals |
Meal Types | |||||||
Meal Types | Prepared meals | 10-45 minute meal kits | 5 - 60 min meal kits and prepared meals | Meal kits, speedy kits, prepared meals | Kits, speedy kits, oven-ready | Prepared meals | Meal kits, prepared meals |
Prep Time | |||||||
Prep Time | 2-3 min | 25-40 min | 5-45 min | 5-50 min | 5-50 min | 2-3 min | 3-40 min |
Active Deals | |||||||
Active Deals |
For those living in Minneapolis, there are plenty of meal delivery options. Here are some tips from an experienced meal delivery service critic to help you choose the perfect one.
Look for menu diversity: Many services here allow you to preview several weeks of forthcoming meal options. If you struggle to pick enough meals from a week's offerings, you may want to explore a service with a broad selection like HelloFresh.
Know your dietary requirements. You may be able to find 1 or 2 meals that fit your dietary needs with a generalized service. But you’ll be much happier with a service that offers a dedicated menu for your diet. Green Chef has several plans that cater to more niche diets, like keto and vegan.
Price is important, but it's not the most important factor. If you enjoy a service that costs $1 more per serving than another service, the difference is only $6 per week for a 6-serving subscription. Therefore, it is worth spending a little extra for a meal you enjoy.
Don’t be afraid to switch. It may take some time to find a service that everyone in your household likes. Luckily, all the services on my list have easy cancellation policies, so it’s easy to move to another service if one doesn’t work for you.
Factor is my top choice for the best meal delivery service in Minneapolis. It has an excellent selection of prepared meals made with high-quality ingredients. You can also order additional proteins, smoothies, snacks, and desserts.
Factor is my choice for the best prepared meal delivery service in Minneapolis. Factor’s meals are designed by dietitians and cooked by chefs, with options for a number of specialized diets, including Protein Plus, and Vegan & Veggie.
Green Chef’s organic and gluten-free certifications win my award for healthiest meal delivery service. Green Chef makes its meal kits with organic produce and humanely raised, sustainably harvested proteins.
BistroMD is my choice for people who are looking to lose weight. While many diet meal delivery services rely on heavily processed and unappetizing food, BistroMD sends you flash-frozen prepared meals that are low in calories but not in taste.