While Burger Fuel has offered a taste of vegan for some time with its V8 Vegan burger based around a crumbed pumpkin, carrot and chickpea patty, it has now teamed up with the Alternative Meat Co to launch the Alternative Muscle Burger – based on its American Muscle Burger – with its “juicy, 100% plant-based, ‘beefy’ patty created to look, cook and taste like real meat.”
The Alternative Muscle Burger is advertised as only being available for a limited time, however. On the other hand, pizza chain Dominos has made a real commitment to the vegan revolution by introducing a separate vegan menu. While I’ve yet to sample Burger Fuel’s latest offering, on a recent weekday I headed out to Dominos’ Mt Eden headquarters to sample said wares and get the lowdown from their head of communications, Yvonne Thynne.
They whipped up vegan/plant-based versions of the Taco Fiesta and the Loaded Burger (actually both pizzas), both of which were delicious. Yvonne explained that the non-dairy cheese used is an Australian brand called Follow Your Heart, which doesn’t melt quite as convincingly as some vegan cheeses, but is consistent and tasty. The ‘meat’ was extremely convincing with the texture of minced beef and a pronounced barbecue flavour. They won’t reveal exactly what’s in their meat substitute, for commercial reasons, but apparently it’s a soy-based concoction.
And this month, Dominos will be adding two new meaty flavours, plant-based pepperoni and plant-based ham, along with four new pizzas: Plant-based Hawaiian, Plant-based Supreme, Plant-based Pepperoni and Plant-based Ham and Cheese.
Confusingly, what Dominos calls its plant-based range of pizzas are actually vegetarian, so while they contain no meat they do use dairy products. It’s important for vegans, therefore, to specify ‘vegan plant-based’ when ordering.
I’ll leave the ongoing debate over meat substitutes to another column. The fact is that the demand for vegan meat continues to rise as many meat eaters come to the conclusion that if it’s close enough to the real thing and doesn’t involve killing a cow then it must be alright.
Pricing? Well, let’s say it will be a while before we’ll get $5 vegan pizza deals. The two I sampled were $16.79 (Vegan Plant-based Taco Fiesta) and $16.89 (Vegan Plant-based Loaded Burger) respectively, and that’s for pick up (delivery extra). While it’s not a bargain, it’s also still fairly affordable.
And let’s not forget that fast food isn’t designed as an everyday healthful food. Anyone committed enough to go vegan should be eating mostly whole foods and preferably home-cooked foods
a good proportion of the time. It’s great news, though, that the likes of Burger Fuel and Dominos can fill a hole in those times when we’re unable to cook and want something simple, tasty and guaranteed to be free of flesh of animal. (GARY STEEL)
Gary Steel is an Auckland-based journalist who runs online vegetarian resource www.doctorfeelgood.co.nz
He can be contacted via beautmusic@gmail.com