We Retested Each Meal Package Service. This Underdog Is Our New Favourite in 2026

Professionals

• Considerate recipes you will not discover in all places
• Even the fast recipes felt particular
• Extraordinarily recent substances
• Not lots of plastic waste

Cons

• On the costly facet while you think about delivery
• Market add-ons aren’t the most effective

Meal kits have been round for greater than a decade. HelloFresh, Blue Apron, and Home Chef have been probably the most seen, blasting adverts on social media and through your favourite podcast — however are they the most effective? 

After testing and retesting each meal kit service (here is how we do it), crafting dozens of those meals-by-mail in our personal kitchens, we have picked a brand new favourite for 2026, and it is not one of many “massive three.” 

Marley Spoon gives inventive and engaging meals, which can come as no shock while you be taught who the lady behind the recipes is: kitchen maven herself, Martha Stewart.

Marley Spoon caters to adventurous dwelling cooks and meals fanatics with inventive recipes that enchantment to each inexperienced persons and extra refined palates. In contrast to some meal equipment providers that focus on newcomers with easy, quick-prep dishes, Marley Spoon gives extra elevated fare that includes Martha’s personal recipes. Many come straight from her cookbooks or private assortment, but they continue to be accessible — you will not want superior methods or skilled coaching to tug them off.

Learn extra: Your Guide to Meal Kits: The Essential Tools You’ll Need to Get Started

Curious as we’re at CNET about all issues meal kits, we needed to know simply how good they’re — and whether or not they’re well worth the cash. We examined every week’s value of recipes for a 3rd time to convey you this evaluation of Marley Spoon’s meal equipment supply service.

How Marley Spoon works

Marley Spoon operates equally to most others within the class and gives each meal kits with recipes that you just cook dinner and prepared meals that solely require reheating.

After selecting between these two choices, you’ll then reply the query, “What child of meals do you want?” Meal equipment choices embrace on a regular basis selection, low calorie, low carb, fast and simple, vegetarian, pescatarian and Mediterranean for 2 or 4 individuals and you may select between two and 6 meals per week. The only-serving ready meal choices embrace on a regular basis selection, low calorie or low carb and you may select 6, 8, 10, 12, 14 or 18 meals per week.

Your field of meal equipment substances is delivered as soon as every week — until you skip every week, which is simple to do — and you may both manually choose recipes or let Martha Stewart personally select them for you. OK, simply kidding: She’s not your private meal concierge, however you’ll be able to let the model choose meals for those who choose a little bit thriller. You possibly can choose any day of the week for supply, and the containers will arrive between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. 

There are actually greater than 100 recipes every week, ranging in problem. Earlier than you select a recipe for supply, you may see all of the steps concerned, the estimated time it takes to finish, and detailed dietary data that will help you resolve.  

Ready meals are $12.99 every and delivery is $10.99 per field.

What are Martha Stewart & Marley Spoon meals like

As you may think, since Martha Stewart helped design the idea and created lots of the recipes, there are some actually fascinating, high-end and connoisseur dishes to select from. Fortunately, although, most are nonetheless pretty easy to make.

There are many wholesome recipes, together with dietary preferences to select from. Nevertheless, there are solely between 4 and 6 vegan choices every week so in order for you extra choices, Purple Carrot could also be a more sensible choice for you. Different providers that characteristic built-in eating regimen meal plans embrace Green Chef, Home Chef or HelloFresh.

At Marley Spoon, you may discover loads of warming consolation dishes like French onion hen breast and beef stroganoff, plus desserts you’ll be able to add on to your field, corresponding to baked gingerbread doughnuts and French-style cheesecake.

On the prepared-meal facet, the recipes are simply as inventive. Some meals embrace tilapia with smoky tomato sauce and black bean road corn and merlot hen meatballs with orzo pasta and inexperienced beans.

How simple are Martha Stewart & Marley Spoon meals to arrange?

Our meals ran the gamut from the tremendous easy to a bit extra difficult and time-intensive, however the excellent news is that it is actually as much as you on how tough you need the meals to be while you make your recipe picks.

The skillet hen Parmesan, as an illustration, had quite a lot of steps like getting ready the hen, cooking it, making the sauce and getting ready the pasta (which had its personal substances). For somebody with a good quantity of cooking expertise, this is not difficult, however some inexperienced persons won’t be prepared for such an concerned meal. Different meals, such because the butternut squash pizza, had been fairly easy, tasty, and excellent for a weeknight when you do not really feel like fussing a lot or taking time to cook dinner.  

Learn extra: Meal Kits Taught Me How to Cook. Now I Get to Test Them for a Living

What we cooked and the way it went

Beef picadillo pockets with bell peppers and cilantro chimichurri: This meal was not solely scrumptious but additionally enjoyable to make. It was the primary time I used uncooked dough in a meal equipment recipe, and the outcomes had been effectively well worth the effort. Though the empanadas had been filling, I nonetheless would have preferred it to have include a facet apart from the chimichurri sauce.

Butternut squash pizza with ricotta, almonds and scorching honey: I had by no means had butternut squash on a pizza earlier than this meal, however I can undoubtedly see myself making this once more. It was an ideal fall meal with the onions, squash, rosemary and almonds added on prime.

Seared salmon and citrus butter sauce with smashed potatoes and shaved Brussels salad: The Brussels sprout salad helped elevate this straightforward meal and take it to the subsequent stage. I cooked the salmon on the stovetop and the smashed potatoes in my air fryer.

Skillet hen Parmesan with casarecce and sautéed spinach: This recipe was good and really comforting, although it definitely had a wholesome share of carbs and energy. The pink sauce was quite simple and the hen cutlets weren’t breaded so it felt a little bit more healthy than regular hen Parm however not fairly sufficient to be actually, really wholesome. I had a number of leftovers, which was good. 

Honey miso salmon with roasted carrots and Brussels sprouts: This one was nice and wholesome, but it surely wasn’t significantly out-of-the-box. The salmon was high-quality and tasted tremendous recent.

Restorative hen soup with candy potato kale and quinoa: A really tasty and hearty soup I made and ate all week. The shredded hen was already cooked, which shocked me however I appreciated, because it was nonetheless moist and flavorful. This whole meal was easy to arrange and felt like nourishing medication, because of all these superfoods. 

Marley Spoon help supplies 

I discovered the recipes clear, concise and simple to comply with. There’s some good background on the substances, too: my salmon recipe, as an illustration, supplied context on miso for anybody unfamiliar with the fermented paste. The Marley Spoon app can also be useful with a number of details about every recipe and provides you the flexibility to order, pause, cancel or skip every week proper out of your cell system. 

What makes Marley Spoon totally different from different meal equipment providers?

One factor to love about this service is it does not attempt to be something apart from good. There isn’t any pandering to fad diets or giving customers an excessive amount of autonomy to alter recipes or swap out meats. The meal equipment service’s proposition is that the culinary workforce has give you considerate, largely wholesome recipes they suppose you may get pleasure from — and so they ask you to place your belief in them. I would not go as far as to name it stuffy or cussed, however there is one thing very Martha Stewart about it. 

In that respect, it jogs my memory a little bit of Sunbasket. That meal equipment service additionally tries to maintain the integrity of the unique recipes they’ve created and whereas it won’t please everybody, I feel it pays off in the long run for many who respect good meals.

Who’s Marley Spoon good for?

This is without doubt one of the greatest meal equipment providers for foodies and skilled cooks seeking to shake up their weeknight dinner rotation. If you happen to’re searching for fascinating new recipes which might be each connoisseur and approachable, Martha Stewart’s meal kits are an excellent choose. It is also a strong selection for a house cook dinner who’s seeking to hone new expertise or work with new substances. 

Quite a lot of the recipes are kid-friendly, so these meal kits would additionally work effectively for households of as much as 4 individuals. And with as many as seven plant-based recipes every week, it is a good meal equipment service for vegans, vegetarians or these attempting to sprinkle in a number of extra non-meat dinners per week.

Who’s Martha Stewart & Marley Spoon not good for?

If you happen to’re an especially choosy eater, a really new cook dinner, or try to maintain a gluten-free eating regimen, I might not counsel this meal equipment. It is also not an excellent meal supply service for those who’re merely seeking to get dinner on the desk every week and do not care concerning the cooking course of, since among the recipes are concerned.

Packaging and environmental friendliness 

I discovered Martha Stewart & Marley Spoon to be on the eco-friendly facet of the meal equipment spectrum. There was some single-use plastic waste, as there all the time is, however nothing extreme — and the substances weren’t individually packed in disposable baggage as of 2025. The containers, coolers and ice packs had been additionally recyclable.

Altering, skipping or canceling your meal equipment order

Between the web site and cell app, Marley Spoon makes it very simple to skip weeks, change out recipes or pause your subscription. Any adjustments have to be made six days previous to the supply date.

The ultimate verdict on Martha Stewart & Marley Spoon

Being a Martha Stewart-conceived meal equipment mission, I had lofty expectations for this service and it largely met them. Once I flip via the menu every week, it boasts one of many highest percentages of recipes that make me go “ooh, that sounds good” proper up there with Sunbasket. Most significantly, all of the recipes we made delivered on the promise of a tasty and fascinating meal. There wasn’t a lot blah issue, and we very a lot respect that.

The meal equipment service additionally consists of some considerate touches that others do not, like fast ingredient explainers for brand new cooks and totally different cooks behind among the recipes. The produce, meats and fish had been additionally among the freshest we might acquired from a meal equipment service and that goes a great distance in creating a really scrumptious dinner. The pricing is honest for what you get, and for those who’re cooking for a big group, it really will get reasonably reasonably priced per serving. The market add-ons have additionally grown over time.

If you happen to’ve been desirous to strive a meal equipment service with a spread of wholesome, hearty and comforting meals and you have already got the cooking fundamentals down, I would say give Martha’s meals a whirl.