The chief weakness of ready-made meals is that they’re low on fresh veggies, which is not surprising given that rice and couscous maintain their consistency for days; the same cannot be said for lettuce and eggplant.
Freshly is out to change that with a new line of plant-based meals, geared toward keeping pace with produce-heavy meal kits from services such as Purple Carrot and Hungryroot; the homepage of the latter displays “fresh produce” like broccoli, spinach, and seven-veggie stir-fry (though most of those ingredients are shipped fresh, not in ready-made meals). All of these services are competing for the roughly 5% of Americans, mostly women, who are vegetarians, and the many more who often eat vegetarian meals.
The plant-based menu focuses on plant proteins, including a plant burger, chickpea curry, Buffalo cauliflower mac and cheese, and falafel.