Meal-kit delivery services remain one of the easiest ways to start healthier diets, especially prepared meal services that don’t require cooking skills. With Mosaic, you can enjoy many tasty vegan and vegetarian dishes, perfect for you or your whole family, that ship frozen to your doorstep. Editors’ Choice pick Fresh N Lean has a prepared meal delivery service that serves wider palettes, but Mosaic is a strong contender in its plant-based turf.
How Much Does Mosaic Cost?
Mosaic is technically a subscription-based service, but you have so much flexibility that you won’t feel locked in. You simply need to get your box up to the $70 minimum requirement, by either picking meals or letting Mosaic pick for you. Honestly, you could buy one box a la carte and then cancel, or choose to have boxes delivered every two, three, or four weeks. That’s $70 per month or $70 per week depending on how much you want to commit. Boxes costing more than $100 receive free shipping, otherwise shipping costs $7.99. Mosaic delivers throughout most of the nation, except for some gaps in the southwest according to a representative. Enter your zip code to confirm your region is covered.
To fill your box, you choose from Mosaic’s selections, which come in many shapes, sizes, and price points. Oat bowls cost $4.99, while soups cost $7.99. Veggie bowls cost $8.99, while premium Mosaic Plus Bowls cost $10.99. Finally, family meals cost $19.95, and, as the name implies, they’re meant to serve up to four people.
Mosaic’s Menu
As mentioned, Mosaic’s food comes in five categories: Oat Bowls, Soups, Veggie Bowls, Mosaic Plus Bowls, and Family Meals. As a vegan and vegetarian-friendly meal service, Mosaic does a good and creative job finding fresh uses for these otherwise ordinary ingredients. Oat bowls range from Cranberry Cinnamon Oats to Veggie Sausage and Gouda Oats.
The veggie bowls make up the most substantial single serving offerings. With more than 20 to choose from, the bowls typically feature a base, such as curry or noodles, and an appetizing layer, such as Ginger Sesame or Beet Bourguignon. The handful of Mosaic Plus Bowls, while not as numerous, feature premium dishes like a Veggie Kebab Platter or Green Mac and Cheese. These meals even highlight the chef who concocted them.
Most interesting, though, might be the huge family meals. Sure, other meal kits will let you get a veggie bowl, but Mosaic also lets you order a whole veggie pot pie or a lasagna primavera. Mosaic’s veggie bowls, unique as they are, can start to blend together after a while. But family meals inject exciting variety into your box, even if only as tomorrow’s leftovers.
As someone with a peanut allergy, I sometimes struggle with vegan and vegetarian dishes, but Mosaic’s filters and nutritional information let me order plenty of meals I could safely eat. The website includes a blog to help guide you on your vegetarian- or vegan-eating journey. Of course, none of this does you any good if you also want meat. Our Editors’ Choice pick for plant-forward meals, Green Chef, has meat options. It comes down to personal taste, not a knock against Mosaic.
Mosaic’s Packaging
Mosaic’s packaging is light and completely recyclable, something we expect for vegetarian meal-kits given their focus on health and environmental sustainability. Dry ice keeps your food frozen until you move it into your freezer, where you should keep it until ready to cook. No thawing necessary.
Cooking and Eating With Mosaic
Mosaic’s meals take a little bit more prep compared to Editors’ Choice pick Fresh N Lean and other prepared meal-kits; you can’t just pop these into the microwave. Still, if you follow the packaging’s instructions, the process is far more convenient than traditional meal kits, such as Editors’ Choice picks Blue Apron and HelloFresh.
For soups and bowls, you can run the containers under warm water just enough until you can cleanly dump the contents into a pan or pot. Add some oil to the veggie bowl, or some water to the soup, and stir until the heat brings the food back to colorful life. The larger family meals, while not difficult to prepare, require more planning than meal-kits typically asked for busy customers. After preheating the oven, I had to cook my pot pie for more than a hour. Fortunately, these methods produced appealing results.
As for the food itself, despite the very different meals we tried, my partner and I were equally satisfied once we cleaned our plates. The Pozole Verde soup was more like a glorified sauce, like something I’d put on a taco, than a meal in its own right. That said, I really enjoyed the taste. The Ginger Quinoa Veggie soup also could’ve used noodles or something to offer more substance, but it soothed me. It would’ve been perfect when I was recovering from a certain unnamed disease, earlier this year.
The veggie bowls captured the regional flavor they advertise on the box, even if Mosaic in general is a bit mild in the ways meal-kits tend to be. The mango added nice sweet notes to the Chipotle Burrito Bowl, while the Jerk Lentils and Plantains had noticeable African and Caribbean flavor. The veggie bowls portions also felt more filling compared to the soups, as well as similar prepared vegan service Veestro, despite calorie levels still hovering around the 500 range.
And the Veggie Pot Pie? It was big enough to feed multiple people for a few days. The flaky crusty was fantastic, while the vegetables blended together into a comforting Thanksgiving flavor.
Delicious Design
The more vegan and vegetarian meal-kits that hit the market, the more reasons you have to eat in a way that’s better for your body and planet. With its diverse and delicious prepared meals that you can store right in your freezer, Mosaic makes it easier than ever to go green.
With its varied and affordable menu for all diets, Fresh N Lean is still our Editors’ Choice pick for prepared meals. More Editors’ Choice picks for meal-kit delivery services include Hungryroot, for its robust grocery options, and MisenBox, for connecting you with quality, local restaurants.
