Soylent runs a website with thousands of DIY recipes.
I spent over an hour searching for one with 100% real food ingredients (no gums, fillers, additives, sugars, etc.).
I couldn’t find a single one.
So naturally (pun intended), I decided to make my own.
In my Soylent review, I answered the question, “Is Soylent good for you?” (spoiler alert: the answer was no).
In this post, I’ll show you how you can create your own healthy DIY Soylent recipes.
Let’s get started …
My 4 Criteria for “Healthy”
1. 100% organic, plant-based, real food ingredients.
2. No added sugar.
3. A balanced macronutrient profile (carbs, fat, protein).
4. 400-500 calorie range.
Quite the challenge to pull off, right?
Here’s how I did it … and how my DIY recipes compare to Soylent.
INGREDIENTS
For carbs, I used oat flour, maca, real fruits and fruit powders, and other high fiber, real food sources.
Soylent uses maltodextrin, a GMO corn-based thickener and other processed starches you can barely pronounce. Just look at their ingredients label, you guys: Soylent is a science experiment gone horribly wrong … not real food.
I used higher quality, healthier sources of fat like olive, coconut, and avocado oils in my recipes. Soylent uses sunflower, canola, and algal oil powder. These oils are high in Omega-6 fatty acids (the kind that promote inflammation).
For protein, Soylent uses soy protein, which has some pros and many cons. All 3 DIY recipes use Pure Food Protein. Yes, it’s (obviously) the protein I sell. Yes, I think it’s the best plant based protein powder on the market for many reasons.
But use whatever protein powder you want, especially if cost is your biggest concern (more on this below). The type of protein powder type doesn’t make or break the recipe … just watch out for the ones that use chemicals and cheap additives though.
COST
At $1.54/serving, Soylent is cheap. Like, so cheap I have no idea how they make money. So if you’re looking for a cheap meal replacement and don’t care about ingredients/nutrition, Soylent is a great deal at least!
These healthy Soylent alternative recipes are much more expensive at $3-6/meal. Couple things to note about that though:
1. I used all organic ingredients, so you can probably save a couple bucks if you don’t buy organic if cost is a concern.
2. To knock the price down even more, buy whole fruits and seeds instead of the powders I mention below (for example, in DIY Soylent recipe #1 I wanted to create a full powdered version so I used banana powder but in recipe #4 I used a whole banana, which was much cheaper).
I recommend a high-powered blender like a BlendTec or Vitamix if you go that route. This is the Vitamix I have. It’s a couple years old but saves you a few hundred dollars compared to the new models.
Although I’ve included links to ingredients that are the best deals I found on Amazon, Costco is another great place to get deals on many of this stuff (except Pure Food … we’re only available on Amazon and here on our website … for 20% cheaper if you Subscribe & Save, I might add, which decreases the cost/serving substantially).
So long story short, if you don’t have time to cook a full meal, scoop up the awesome ingredients below and try my homemade Soylent recipes.
Healthy Soylent Recipe #1
Ingredients:
- 1 scoop (32g) Pure Food Cacao Protein Powder
- 2 T organic banana powder
- 2 T organic oat flour
- 1 T organic coconut oil
- 1 T extra virgin olive oil
- 2 cups of water
- Ice (start with a small handful and add more depending on how thick you like it)
Nutrition:
- Calories: 496
- Fat: 34 grams
- Carbs: 33 grams (7 grams of fiber, 6 grams of sugar)
- Protein: 20.5 grams
Price:
Healthy Soylent Recipe #2
Ingredients:
- 1 scoop (32g) Pure Food Vanilla Protein Powder
- 2 T organic oat flour
- 2 T organic flax seed powder
- 1 T avocado oil
- 1 T organic noni fruit powder
- 2 T organic cinnamon
- 2 cups of water
- Ice (start with a small handful and add more depending on how thick you like it)
Nutrition:
- Calories: 522
- Fat: 25 grams
- Carbs: 52 grams (17 grams of fiber, 2 grams of sugar)
- Protein: 25 grams
Price:
Healthy Soylent Recipe #3
Ingredients:
- 1 scoop (32g) Pure Food Vanilla Protein Powder
- 2 T organic chia seed powder
- 1 T organic maca powder
- 2 T organic banana powder
- 1 T organic coconut oil
- 1 T extra virgin olive oil
- 2 cups of water
- Ice (start with a small handful and add more depending on how thick you like it)
Nutrition:
- Calories: 494
- Fat: 33 grams
- Carbs: 30 grams (12 grams of fiber, 8 grams of sugar)
- Protein: 24 grams
Price:
$5.40/meal (494 calories)
Healthy Soylent Recipe #4
Ingredients:
- 1 scoop (32g) Pure Food Cacao Protein Powder
- 1/4 cup organic quick cook steel cut oats (cooked or soaked overnight)
- 1 banana
- 1 T organic coconut oil
- 2 cups of water
- Ice (start with a small handful and add more depending on how thick you like it)
- Dark chocolate shavings (optional)
Nutrition:
- Calories: 506
- Fat: 20 grams
- Carbs: 60 grams (10 grams of fiber, 14 grams of sugar)
- Protein: 26 grams
Price:
$3.13/meal (506 calories)
Final Thoughts
I think Soylent is a brilliant idea. I love the concept of a meal replacement drink that meets all your nutritional requirements. But Soylent’s ingredients and nutrition facts are garbage. Their last batch of powder actually got recalled because a bunch of people experienced vomiting and diarrhea (yikes!).
I’ll be updating this post in the coming weeks with more DIY Soylent recipes as I work on my new real food meal replacement product … join my email list if you’re interested in getting new recipe updates or getting a free sample of the new product when it’s ready. I’m experimenting with many of the ingredients you see in this post!
(This is the 2nd of a 2-part series. Read the first post for my full Soylent review.)
