“You can live on it, but it taste like… “
In the first months of 2019, we’ve already had new vegan (or at least dairy-free) offerings from Subway, Burger King, McDonalds Papa John’s, Pizza Hut, Pizza Express and even – wait for it – Toby Carvery. Not to mention of course, the game-changing vegan sausage roll from Greggs. Piers Morgan is still crying into his coco-pops over that one.
And while some of those new foods are a welcome change from the usual side-dish fodder that we vegans have to stomach during a meal out (Greggs aside…), it’s worth asking whether these chain restaurants really want our business or if they’re just jumping on the plant-based bandwagon.
What’s more, how much vegan fast food do we really want? Take the BK Vegan Whopper for instance. It has already been praised by the most unlikely of people: a meat lobbyist, who gave a glowing review on the product's likeness to real beef. Well, ok.
The vegan Whopper itself is made by Impossible Foods, (alarm bells, anyone?) a California-based company, who have found a way of recreating the flavour of meat by using genetically modified yeast to produce heme, a protein which tastes like real meat. Their burgers are also designed to 'bleed' as real beef would. Uhhh… yum?
Granted, it’s better than a dry bun with some lettuce, but personally, ‘genetically modified yeast’ isn’t speaking to me. If – like us – you want ‘real’ vegan ingredients, there are much better options out there. How about Itsu’s vegan sushi, quinoa burgers or vegetable fusion gyoza? Or Nando’s sweet potato and butternut pitta with chargrilled veg? Or even Wetherspoons’ chickpea and spinach curry? The vegan revolution is here, so there’s no reason to settle for low quality grub!
With that in mind, don’t forget our fudge is made with real fruit, real nuts, real dairy free chocolate and absolutely no genetically modified yeast…
