Meatless steaks have become a big deal in the food world: Questlove hosted a pop-up dinner featuring a meatless Questlove Philly Cheesesteak, Beyond Steaks finally made its Canadian debut, and thanks to plant-based steak innovator Chunk Foods, New York City's JaJaJa has added meaty chimichangas and birria tacos to its menu this summer.
Plus, there's plenty to celebrate, from National Donut Day to Pride.
Food News
The fluffier plant-based eggs have arrived on breakfast menus this week, after Eat Just announced that it's tweaked its popular Just Egg recipe, improving it in a number of ways.
Just eat
How do we know these eggs will be great? The new formula has already been endorsed by culinary master Andrew Zimmern. “More than 10 years ago, I was one of the first in the world to taste the original version of Just Eggs,” Zimmern said in a statement.
Zimmern describes the texture as “fluffier and lighter” and the flavor as “eggier.”
In addition to improved flavour and texture, the new Just Eggs also offer improved functionality, and the Vegan Eggs have improved binding and breathability, making them an even more suitable alternative to animal-based eggs in baked goods.
“You can't tell the difference between this and regular scrambled eggs,” Zimmern said. “It's just unbelievable.”
Look out for mung bean-based eggs packed in more environmentally friendly cartons from Eat Just at stores like Whole Foods Market, Sprouts and Target.
Beyond Meat is just making breakfast a little better in Canada's northern neighbour with the expansion of Beyond Steak, which combines with Just Egg to create a hearty plant-based steak and egg breakfast.
Currently available in 2,000 Albertsons stores across Canada, Beyond Steak is made to replicate the taste and texture of steak, but using only simple ingredients like fava beans.
Beyond Meat
The expansion comes as a recent survey found that 67% of Canadians are considering reducing their red meat consumption, but nearly half (49%) would rather give up social media for a month than eat red meat, plus two-thirds believe steak is the hardest meat to recreate with a plant-based version.
“We know that when it comes to food, it's all about taste, and our survey results show that 61 per cent of Canadian respondents agree that taste is what they'll miss most when reducing their red meat consumption,” said Heena Verma, senior marketing director at Beyond Meat.
Reducing cholesterol is a top motivation for Canadians who want to quit eating animal meat, and the good news is that Beyond Steak and other plant-based meats are cholesterol-free.
For sustainable summer indulgence, turn to Juiced Generation, the cold-pressed juice company celebrating its 25th anniversary with an innovative new product line: Juiced Gelato.
Juiced Generation
The company worked with Italian gelato expert Cristiano Rossi to develop a new plant-based gelato made with cold-pressed juice and sweetened with a touch of agave syrup. A pint size is on the way, and Juiced Generation currently sells seven flavors of gelato at two locations in New York City: Watermelon Dragon, Carrot Apple Ginger, Super Dupa Green, Get Your Green On, Citrus Super C, Spicy Lemon, and Celery.
“From our roots providing fresh, raw juice to the people of New York, we've always sought out new ways to inspire healthier living,” said Eric Helms, Juiced Generation founder and CEO, “Juiced Gelato is our latest expression of that.”
If green juice in frozen dessert form just isn't enough for you, Juiced Generation's gelato is a vegan crunchy cone made from recycled cold-pressed juice pulp, enhanced with chickpea and lentil flour.
For more sweet food news, we head across the ocean to the UK, where OGGS Mini Vanilla Cupcakes have become the best-selling branded cupcake in British grocery stores.
Oggs
These plant-based cupcakes outsold popular brands like TGI Fridays, Cadbury, and Galaxy, bringing in more than £1 million ($1.3 million) in sales, according to Nielsen data.
“Consumers are always looking for great tasting products, but increasingly they are demanding that their supermarket purchases are as ethical as possible,” said Hannah Carter, founder and CEO of OGGS.
“Our range of cakes is the most ethical in store, proving that our favourite treats are better for animals and the planet, without compromising on quality or taste,” Carter said.
The milestone comes as OGGS rebrands its bakery products from “plant-based” to “cruelty-free” in line with growing consumer demand for ethical products.
Restaurant News
If you're planning on dining out in New York this summer, try the new meat dish at Jahaja Mexicana, brought to you by plant-based steak maker Chunk Foods.
Chunk Food
Across all four locations, the restaurant serves birria tacos stuffed with chunk steak, coconut queso, cilantro and onions, and chimichangas stuffed with chunk steak, Spanish rice, black beans, coconut queso, pico de gallo, lettuce and sour cream.
“We're thrilled to partner with Jahaja Mexicana to bring our steaks to even more New Yorkers,” said Amos Golan, founder and CEO of Chunk Foods.
“We have developed a unique fermentation technique to create whole meat that looks, cooks and tastes just like beef. Our product is very easy to work with and if you can cook beef, you can cook the chunks too,” Golan said.
If you're looking for something new for Pride Month, both Next Level Burger and Veggie Grill have new offerings coming in June.
Next Level Burger will be launching the Peach Passion Pride Shake, made with organic soy or coconut soft serve ice cream, organic peaches, passion fruit, whipped cream, natural rainbow sugar and vegan rainbow gummy bears.
Veggie Grill is serving up Bananalicious Celebration Cake, a fluffy organic banana cake topped with vegan cream cheese frosting and rainbow sprinkles.
Both brands will be supporting local LGBTQ+ nonprofits through donations throughout the month.
Additionally, to coincide with World Oceans Day (June 8), Next Level Burger will launch the Ocean Blue Banana Shake, featuring organic soy or coconut soft serve, fresh organic banana, whipped cream and vegan gummy fish.
This holiday season, Veggie Grill will feature plant-based Baja fish tacos with crispy fish, jalapeño slaw and pico de gallo.
Next Level Burger
Every order of either an Ocean Blue Banana Shake or Baja Fish Tacos supports the Ocean Blue Project, which removes plastic from the ocean.
Here at VegNews, one of our favorite holidays is National Donut Day, and this year PETA compiled a list of the top restaurants across the country that serve the tastiest vegan donuts.
Highlights include Level 5 Donuts in Madison, Wisconsin, featuring treats like Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp and Boston Dream Donuts with Custard; Yellow Rose Vegan Bakery & Cafe in Maplewood, New Jersey, offering daily rotating favorites like Krispy Kreme-style Glazed, Crème Brûlée and Rosewater Pistachio; and Little Vessels Donut Co. in Honolulu, Hawaii, offering flavors inspired by the owner's childhood, like Guava Cookie Mac Nuts, Lemon Black Sesame and Miso Caramel Furikake.
Cloudy Donut Company
This list, combined with VegNews' top doughnut shops, will keep you busy trying new treats until the next National Doughnut Day.
Event News
Amir “Questlove” Thompson is a Grammy Award-winning musician best known for his work with the legendary band The Roots. But lately, Questlove has been in the spotlight for his love of food — and a lot of it plant-based, in the interest of the planet.
Questlove, an early backer of Impossible Foods, is now on a mission to reimagine the Philly cheesesteak. He began his journey in 2019 with the launch of Questlove's Cheesesteaks made with Impossible plant-based meat through Goldbelly. Last year, the musician revealed he was searching for the perfect plant-based cheese to replace dairy in his meatless cheesesteaks, and he's still on the hunt for the best one.
Stella Artois
On June 1, Questlove kicked off “Let's Do Dinner: Summer Series,” a multi-city event organized by Stella Artois, with a meatless Philly cheesesteak. The sandwich was the centerpiece of Questlove's Cheesesteak Diner, the first pop-up dining experience at The Roots Picnic in Philadelphia's Fairmont Park.
Guests enjoyed his signature cheesesteaks and lemon pepper popcorn before wrapping up the evening with a performance from the festival's headliner.
Stella Artois
If you're planning a trip to New York this summer, be sure to stop by the Vegan Night Market, which just returned for its second season in Central Park on the first Tuesday of every month through October.
Held against the stunning backdrop of Columbus Circle, the event will offer a lively evening of plant-based food and community celebration where visitors can enjoy an incredible lineup of food vendors, including Gracey's Culinary Specialties, Pinche Vegana, Emeye Ethiopian Cuisine, Passion Fusion NY, RastaRant, Well Charged NYC, Culiraw, Matcha n' More, Veegmyeats and Jugo Juice.
And another New York City mainstay, Cinnamon Snail, is back — well, sort of. Adam Sobel, founder of the famed vegan restaurant and food truck business, has launched a new venture: Galactic Megastallion.
Sobel closed Cinnamon Snail due to overwhelming hardship and the impact of the pandemic, which left him burned out and stifled his creativity. The lockdown forced him to close shop, sell assets and pay off debts, leaving him with valuable experience but nothing material.
Adam Sobel
During the early months of the pandemic, Sobel took time to recharge mentally and spiritually, reflect on his career and grow disillusioned with the modern foodservice industry, which led to the creation of Galactic Megastallion, a seasonal pop-up restaurant with a new theme each year and a new menu each week.
Sobel designed a versatile mobile kitchen out of a repurposed falafel cart, where he now serves up sattvic vegan fare. “I loved the freedom of expression within the constraints of typography when I did graffiti art as a kid, and this business has a lot in common with that,” Sobel wrote in a blog post.
Sobel has been running his business in secret since 2023 and has purposely avoided social media marketing. In fact, the pop-up restaurant breaks all the rules of a traditional restaurant, including not accepting credit cards, delivery or takeaway packages, all in an effort to foster a screen-free community.
Adam Sobel
Inspired by Sobel's travels in Southeast Asia, Mega Stallion serves up creative takes on traditional dishes such as Malaysian Spiced Peanut French Toast with clove ganache, whipped pandan butter and lemongrass palm sugar syrup.
“This was a bit of an experiment for me to answer an important ontological question that came to mind during the pandemic: Can a food business thrive without playing by any of the rules of modern foodservice?,” Sobel wrote. “Let's find out.”
This summer, you can meet mega stallion Sobel and her daughters at the Farmer's Market in Red Bank, New York, where Cinnamon Snail was first born in 2008.
Anna Starostinetskaya is the Senior News Editor at VegNews, keeping a close eye on all things vegan in her hometown of San Francisco, California, and everywhere else.
