Grubby vs Mindful Chef: Honest UK Comparison 2026

Last updated: 13 October 2026

By Stiv · Design, technology and personal finance

If you are choosing between Grubby vs Mindful Chef, you have already made the bigger decision: you want a recipe box. Good. Both services deliver fresh ingredients to your door. Both promise healthier midweek dinners. However, only one of them is fully plant-based, and that single difference shapes everything else, from recipe creativity to how committed the kitchen team feels about vegan food.

I have been getting Grubby boxes for over a year. I also tried Mindful Chef for around three months to compare them properly. Honestly, both are decent services. They are simply aimed at different people. So if you are specifically after plant-based meals, the answer is fairly straightforward.

Disclosure: CoolCuration uses a referral link with Grubby, which means we earn a small commission if you sign up through our link. We have no relationship with Mindful Chef. This comparison reflects genuine use of both services and my honest assessment.

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What is the actual difference?

Here is the simple version. Grubby is a fully plant-based recipe box. Every recipe is vegan. There are no meat options, no fish options, and no dairy. By contrast, Mindful Chef is a mixed recipe box. It offers vegan, vegetarian, meat and fish recipes side by side. It launched in 2015 as a health-focused meat and fish box, and the vegan options came later.

That is the fundamental split. If you want a service built around plants from the ground up, Grubby is it. If you want flexibility to mix vegan dinners with the occasional chicken or salmon, then Mindful Chef gives you that. The two are not really competing for the same customer, even though they keep showing up in the same search results.

It is also worth knowing that Mindful Chef has been majority-owned by Nestlé since 2020. The three founders, school friends from Devon, still run the brand, and it remains B-Corp certified. However, ownership matters to some plant-based shoppers, so it is worth flagging up front.

Grubby vs Mindful Chef at a glance

Feature	Grubby	Mindful Chef
Fully plant-based	Yes, every recipe	No, mixed menu
Price per portion	From around £5	£4.50 to £15.00 at full price
Recipes per week	10 to 20 (all vegan)	28 (around 6 vegan)
Portion sizes	2 or 4 people	1, 2 or 4 people
Delivery	Mainland UK, free first box	Mainland UK, £5.99, free first box
Trustpilot	4.6 out of 5	4.6 out of 5
B-Corp certified	Yes	Yes
Allergen flexibility	Gluten-free options labelled weekly	Mostly gluten-free, with a filter
Intro discount	Up to 60% off first box plus free dessert	30% off first four orders

Recipe quality

This is where Grubby vs Mindful Chef stops being a tie. Grubby recipes are designed plant-first by chefs who only think about vegan food. The flavour profiles are inventive, the spice blends genuinely punch, and the recipes rarely feel like vegan versions of meat dishes. Instead, they feel like their own thing. A smoky harissa chickpea stew. A teriyaki tofu lettuce cup. A creamy korma that does not need cream.

Mindful Chef vegan options are good, but they feel like a subset of the wider menu. When the same kitchen is also developing chicken traybakes and salmon bowls, the vegan recipes do not always get the same creative energy. A few felt like a base recipe with the meat swapped for tofu. They were fine, just less imaginative.

Honestly, when plant-based is all you do, the quality ceiling is higher. Grubby wins this category clearly.

Variety and menu size

On paper, Mindful Chef looks more varied. It offers 28 weekly recipes compared with Grubby's 10 to 20. However, the comparison flips once you filter for vegan only. Mindful Chef typically has around six plant-based options each week. Grubby has the lot. So if you are eating fully plant-based, Grubby actually gives you more vegan recipes to choose from in any given week.

Both services rotate menus weekly. Mindful Chef states it does not repeat a recipe within 12 weeks, which is generous. Grubby occasionally brings back firm favourites and partners with vegan brands like THIS and Mildred's for limited-edition kits. That collaboration angle keeps things interesting.

Ingredients and sourcing

Both brands take sustainability seriously. Grubby sources from UK suppliers where possible, uses around 90% recyclable or compostable packaging, and partners with Hived for fully electric London deliveries (bike, car or van). Outside London, Grubby uses carbon-neutral courier networks where available. Every box sold donates a meal to a child in poverty in Uganda through 1moreChild.

Mindful Chef leans into British farms, 100% free-range chicken, grass-fed beef and sustainably sourced fish. It uses Natureflex compostable wraps and donates a school meal for every box sold via the One Feeds Two scheme. For vegan ingredients specifically, the sourcing is solid but not the heart of the proposition. Grubby's whole supply chain is plant-based by design, so there is no animal-product overlap to worry about.

Price

On raw price, the two services are close. Grubby starts at around £5 per portion on a 4-meal box for 4 people, rising to about £6.50 per portion on a smaller box. At full price, Mindful Chef family servings cost £4.50 to £8.00, and two-person servings £6.90 to £9.98. Mindful Chef is the only major UK recipe box that offers a single-portion option, which is worth knowing if you live alone. It is the dearest way to eat it, though, at £11.85 to £15.00 a serving.

Discounts make the bigger difference for new customers. The Grubby referral offer currently gives up to 60% off your first box plus a free dessert worth £6.50, which makes those first few boxes notably cheaper. Mindful Chef offers 30% off the first four orders and free delivery on the first box. That spreads the saving but never goes as deep on the first delivery. If you are saving on your regular shop, the introductory pricing matters.

Delivery and flexibility

Both services deliver across mainland UK, both let you skip weeks, and both let you pause or cancel without phone calls. Grubby delivers Monday to Friday, with a cut-off the week before for changes. The catch is that you do not get a narrow time slot. Instead, you need to be in for the day on your chosen delivery date. So if you work from home, that is fine. If you do not, plan around it. Mindful Chef offers similar flexibility with one to four deliveries per month and standard courier slots. Neither locks you in.

One small Grubby caveat: it does not currently deliver to Northern Ireland, the Isle of Wight, the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands. Mindful Chef has slightly broader UK coverage. Check your postcode before signing up.

Who each is best for

So who wins the Grubby vs Mindful Chef question? It depends entirely on you. Grubby suits anyone who wants fully plant-based meals: committed vegans, Veganuary experimenters, flexitarians who want every dinner to be plant-first, and households that want creative vegan cooking without filtering through a menu. Mindful Chef suits flexitarians, mixed households where some people eat meat and some do not, and anyone who wants mostly gluten-free meals, with a filter that shows only those.

Importantly, if you are looking specifically for vegan recipes, Grubby is the better starting point. The recipes are more inventive, the kitchen is fully focused on plants, and the price stacks up well once the discount kicks in.

What I would choose (and did)

I chose Grubby. I have stuck with it for over a year now. Plus, it is the box I keep recommending to friends who are curious about eating more plants. The recipes are properly creative, the commitment to plant-based food shows in every box, and with the current discount code it is genuinely affordable to try.

For my full hands-on test of five Grubby meals across a week, read my full Grubby review. For the wider category roundup, see my full vegan meal kit comparison.

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What about other vegan recipe boxes?

Grubby and Mindful Chef are not the only options. Grubby sits alongside services like Planthood, allplants (whose recipe IP Grubby acquired in 2025) and Green Chef, which all offer plant-based meals to varying degrees. Gousto and HelloFresh include vegan options on their wider menus, but you have to filter for them each week. If you are looking for BBQ-friendly inspiration outside a recipe box, my vegan BBQ recipes guide covers that too.

Disclosure: Grubby is a referral partner of CoolCuration. My opinions remain editorially independent regardless. Meal kit prices, menus and discount terms change regularly. Always verify current pricing directly with the provider before signing up. For comparative pricing context, see the MoneySavingExpert recipe box comparison.

FAQs

Is Grubby better than Mindful Chef?

For plant-based eating, yes. Every Grubby recipe is vegan and the kitchen is fully focused on plants. Mindful Chef is broader and offers meat, fish and vegan options, but the vegan recipes are a smaller subset. So if you specifically want vegan, Grubby wins.

Is Mindful Chef fully vegan?

No. Mindful Chef is a mixed recipe box. It offers around six vegan recipes each week alongside meat and fish dishes. Most recipes are gluten-free, though a few family recipes have contained gluten since April 2026. Some also use dairy, such as feta or paneer. The menu is not 100% plant-based.

How much does Grubby cost per portion?

Grubby meals start at around £5 per portion on a larger box, rising to about £6.50 on a smaller two-meal box for two people. Free delivery on the first box, and the current referral offer gives up to 60% off plus a free dessert.

How much does Mindful Chef cost per portion?

On 13 October 2026, a family box cost £4.50 to £8.00 a serving at full price, and a single portion cost £11.85 to £15.00. New customers get 30% off their first four orders and free delivery on the first box. After that, standard delivery is £5.99 a box.

Can you skip weeks with Grubby?

Yes. You can skip weeks, change recipe count, switch box size, pause for up to four weeks, or cancel anytime through the Grubby account dashboard. Just make changes before the cut-off the week before your delivery.

Which vegan recipe box is best UK?

For a fully plant-based experience, Grubby is the strongest UK option in 2026. It combines creative recipes, B-Corp credentials and competitive pricing once the discount applies. For the full category breakdown, see my best vegan meal kits UK roundup.

Is Mindful Chef worth the money?

If you want healthy, mostly gluten-free, nutritionally balanced meals across a mixed diet, Mindful Chef earns its premium. If you are eating fully vegan, you are paying for breadth you will not use. In that case, a dedicated plant-based service like Grubby is better value.

Does Grubby cater for allergies?

Grubby labels gluten-free and nut-free options each week, so you can filter recipes accordingly. Recipes are also free from meat, fish, dairy and eggs by default. If you have severe allergies, always check the latest ingredient labels on the recipe card before cooking.

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