Vegan Meals Information of the Week: Improved Unattainable Burgers, 7-Eleven's Musubi, and Extra

Plainly each week on the earth of vegan meals information is extra thrilling than the final and this week isn’t any exception. We’re firing up our grills for Unattainable’s latest burger, made extra indulgent to fulfill the meatiest of meat-eaters. For seafood cravings, we’re turning to PLNT Burger’s latest limited-time providing: the New Bay Crab Cake Sandwich spiced, after all, with a sprinkling of Outdated Bay. And when you’ve already booked a trip to Hawaii this summer season, cease right into a 7-Eleven for crispy Katsu Musubi layered with OmniFoods’ vegan Spam. Learn on for extra. 

1Extra indulgent Unattainable Burgers

Whereas consuming a plant-based burger is all the time a greater thought than meat, it’s not likely speculated to depend as a salad—as a result of it’s a burger in spite of everything. This week, Unattainable Meals leaned deeper into that notion with a brand new Unattainable Indulgent Unattainable Burger. 

“Our burger put us on the map and it’s the core of our enterprise. However we’ve heard from our followers they’d like one thing larger and even juicier, so we after all mentioned sure,” Peter McGuinness, president and CEO of Unattainable Meals, mentioned in an announcement. 

Each-third pound patty is juicier and bolder in taste, shrinks much less on the grill, and is made to higher compete with beef on each degree. 

Unattainable Meals

How does it stand as much as animal meat? In accordance with Unattainable, 82 p.c of customers surveyed say they prefer it higher than beef. Well being halo, be damned. 

The brand new burger joins Unattainable’s portfolio of plant-based meats, designed to be an ideal stand-in for animal merchandise for each event and palette. 

“Not solely do we’ve our authentic beef merchandise for versatile on a regular basis cooking, however we launched Beef Lite earlier this 12 months for extra nutrition-conscious customers who need a fair leaner different to animal beef,” McGuinness mentioned. 

“Our Indulgent Burger is the proper addition, giving customers extra choices and methods to try to purchase Unattainable,” he mentioned. “Making a extra differentiated portfolio permits us to higher meet customers the place they’re.”

The brand new Indulgent burgers can be found on the menu at Bareburger and Monty’s Good Burger, together with choose retailers, with wider restaurant and retailer rollout deliberate for the approaching months.  

2Hooray for vegan bacon 

Meal equipment companies Purple Carrot and Hungryroot simply received a significant vegan bacon improve. That’s as a result of Hooray Meals’ vegan bacon will now be provided as a part of each meal kits.

Hooray Meals

At Hungryroot, prospects can now make BLT sandwiches, mac and cheese, and extra utilizing its step-by-step recipes. Purple Carrot can also be providing Hooray’s merchandise in its curated grocery kits, permitting prospects to to make their very own vegan bacon creations. 

“It’s a pleasure to accomplice with Hungryroot and Purple Carrot on empowering customers to discover new culinary horizons and scrumptious plant-based choices,” Sri Artham, founder and CEO of Hooray Meals, mentioned in an announcement.

“This launch displays the rising demand for extra sustainable and moral meals choices, and we’re honored to be part of it,” he mentioned. 

Outdoors of those two partnerships, Hooray’s vegan bacon is on the market in North America at retailers similar to Complete Meals and Safeway. 

3Fish-free crab cake sandwiches 

This time of the 12 months, the craving all the time strikes for just a little seafood—of the plant-based selection, after all. Fortunate for us, celeb chef Spike Mendelsohn has simply the factor on his menu at vegan fast-food chain PLNT Burger.

From now till Labor Day, PLNT Burger’s seven areas within the DMV space (Washington DC, Maryland, and Virginia) are serving the New Bay Crab Cake Sandwich.

PLNT Burger

Seasoned with Outdated Bay and layered with crisp lettuce, the sandwich is made with a Thoughts Blown crab patty by The Plant-Based mostly Seafood Co.—which was based by Shelly Van Cleve and Monica Talbert, who’ve  20 years of seafood business expertise beneath the Van Cleve Seafood Co. situated in Chesapeake Bay. 

“I’ve been enthusiastic about partnering with Thoughts Blown since I first tasted their shrimp just a few years in the past,” Mendelsohn mentioned in an announcement. “As a chef, I count on plant-based seafood to style simply nearly as good as conventional, premium high quality seafood merchandise earlier than we are able to showcase them in our eating places.”

The mother-daughter duo ventured into vegan seafood to create options that take strain off the oceans and planet, with out sacrificing taste or texture. 

“We’re thrilled to accomplice with PLNT Burger to deliver our Thoughts Blown Crab Cake to life within the irresistible New Bay Crab Cake Sandwich,” Thoughts Blown CEO, Monica Talbert mentioned in an announcement. “I can’t consider a greater accomplice to launch this limited-time supply with and the timing couldn’t be extra good forward of World Ocean Month.” 

To additional save fish and the oceans, The Plant Based mostly Seafood Co. donates one p.c of its income to assist the essential work  of the Coral Restoration Basis.

4Banza’s chickpea bucatini

We’re followers of every little thing pasta and chickpeas however you set the 2 collectively, and our curiosity is piqued. Over at Banza, chickpea pasta is a lifestyle and its latest form, bucatini, is the primary gluten-free pasta of its form in the marketplace. 

Banza

Bucatini is sort of a grown-up model of spaghetti, with a gap working by the center to higher sop up sauces. In 2020, the form was briefly provide resulting from numerous elements, together with elevated pasta demand mixed with how arduous it’s to get that gap within the center. 

“Our mission is to encourage individuals to eat extra chickpeas and different beans, for his or her affect on human well being and the surroundings,” Brian Rudolph, CEO and co-founder, Banza, mentioned in an announcement. 

“When the good bucatini scarcity hit, we knew we needed to make this elusive form from chickpeas,” he mentioned. “Seems bucatini is a difficult form to provide, however gratefully we pulled it off. We couldn’t be extra excited to deliver bucatini to the Banza group.”

Banza’s new bucatini is completely obtainable at Complete Meals and joins its number of 17 pasta shapes and different merchandise (which incorporates vegan mac and cheese and pizzas)

5OmniFoods’ katsu musubi at 7-Eleven Hawaii

Earlier this 12 months, 7-Eleven pulled out all of the stops when it launched a vegan breakfast sandwich at 500 areas throughout Canada. This handheld was made with all of the plant-based MVPs: Simply Egg, Violife cheddar, and Unattainable Meals’ breakfast sausage. 

“Our mission is to supply scrumptious and sustainable plant-based options to the general public, and we imagine that this partnership with 7-Eleven Hawaii is a good step in direction of attaining our mission,” David Yeung ,Co-Founder and CEO of OmniFoods, mentioned in an announcement. 

This week, 7-Eleven has achieved it once more, this time in Hawaii the place a brand new vegan musubi made with OmniFoods’ plant-based OmniLuncheon (assume vegan Spam) simply launched. 

“We’re thrilled to accomplice with OmniFoods to supply our prospects a brand new plant-based possibility that’s not solely scrumptious but in addition more healthy for them and the planet,” Debbie Lee Quickly, Meals Innovation & Improvement Supervisor at 7-Eleven Hawaii, mentioned in an announcement. 

The brand new Katsu Musubi  is now at 66 7-Eleven shops in Oahu, Kauai, Maui, and Huge Island. Our summer season journey plans simply took a pointy flip right down to Hawaii. Who’s coming with us?

Anna Starostinetskaya is the Senior Information Editor at VegNews and is all the time maintaining a tally of all issues vegan in her dwelling metropolis of San Francisco, CA and in every single place else.