My favorite meals focused on multiple textures and various ingredients to make a truly dynamic salad-type dish. The Corn and Poblano Chile Salad With Adobo Pinto Beans was a solid, Mexican-inspired meal that was the perfect lunch to eat on the first warm spring day of the year. Roasted poblano peppers, sweet corn, cabbage, brown rice, and pinto beans worked well together with the mild spinach backdrop and a roasted jalapeno vegan ranch dressing that I could’ve drank straight from the ramekin.
I still dream of the Lemongrass Shirataki Bowl, a cold noodle salad dish that hit all the right elements of savory-spice and varied texture. The chilled rice noodles came with a lightly spicy marinated mince of sautéed vegetables and pea protein crumbles. The crisp cucumber, spinach, ginger, lemongrass, and peanuts added a crunchy texture, but the yummy salty, slightly tangy housemade vegan “fish” sauce truly brought this all together. This sauce used dynamic ingredients like coconut aminos, date syrup, rice vinegar, lime juice, tahini, mushrooms, and seaweed to get that same great super-umami flavor of fish sauce but without the suffering. Sigh, I wish I could eat it again.
Photograph: Molly Higgins
I’m not a breakfast person, so Thistle’s small, fruit-forward choices were perfect for me. A dense, dry polenta almond cake was saved by a bright, sweet raspberry chia jam. A smoothie bowl with blackberry and hibiscus topped with crunchy coconut granola was the perfect start to my day. The Super Seed & Berry Muesli overnight oat dish had good texture variety, and its bright-blue coconut and vanilla spirulina “mylk” was a fun addition, although I wish it had a little more fruit to add a fresh element.
The heated dinner meals were good but didn’t feel as complex as the hearty salads. A chimichurri sauce was the stand-out on an otherwise one-note pasta dish with beans, artichoke, spinach, and sun-dried tomatoes. A Latin-inspired black bean, spinach, rice, and plantain dish needed more acid or spice to liven it up. Other snacks, like a charcuterie-type plate, fell a little flat with veggies that were beginning to dry out and a funky vegan cheese with a grainy texture. (Later that night though, I had Thistle’s vegan take on cheesecake with a tahini tres leches mousse that was perhaps the best vegan dessert I’ve ever had, so all was—pretty much—forgiven.)
Nothing Is Perfect
Besides the high price point—except for right now with 40 percent off (seriously, if you’ve been curious about this meal kit, I’d recommend you try while it’s heavily discounted)—I don’t have many gripes with Thistle.
When you sign up for a plan, you receive texts with updates on your delivery and they notify you when the delivery has been dropped off. I got the text notification that it was dropped off Sunday night, but when I checked nothing was delivered. The next day, I found out the delivery person ended up dropping it off at my neighbor’s instead. I had to wait a whole week, until the next Sunday, to get another delivery. It was a bummer because I had to last-minute grocery shop for the week ahead on a busy Sunday night, which I hadn’t budgeted for—time- or moneywise. In the future, I may opt to meet the delivery person face-to-face so I can guarantee I’ll be fed that week.