Don't cry for meat, Argentina: Moo Cantina launches bleeding vegan steak for World Vegan Day
The restaurant’s plant based steak is made from a mixture of beetroot, chickpeas, gluten free oatmeal, garlic and spices. The addition of beetroot juice to the recipe is supposed to make the steak ‘bleed’ when it is cut open, in a similar way to the Beyond Burger - albeit with less complex or scientific ingredients.
The new steak dish is available from the Argentinian brand through Deliveroo only, to postcodes in the areas of Pimlico and around Brick Lane. It is available from midday today (1 November), priced at £9.95.
Deliveroo says the steak was created with its customers in mind following a huge increase in vegan orders through the app over the past year. The delivery company has seen a rise of 213% in vegan orders year on year.
“We’re proud to offer Brits some of the best vegan food available in the country,” says Joe Groves, head of consumer communications at the company.
“For World Vegan Day, we wanted to offer a realistic ‘fake steak’, something delicious but completely free of animal products,” says Groves on the decision to partner with Moo Cantina.
“Who better to get the look and taste right than the experts at Argentinian steak house Moo Cantina?”
Increasing demand for vegan meat substitutes has seen the market grow considerably over the past year. Vegan fried chicken shop ‘Temple of Seitan’ recently announced the location and launch date for its, second location, and the US based ‘Beyond Burger’ will launch in the UK in early 2018.
According to a recent survey by the Vegetarian Society, the number of people switching to a vegan diet has almost quadrupled over the past 10 years.
The trend for vegetarian foods that mimic the look, taste and eating qualities of meat is being led in the US by Beyond Burger and Impossible Foods’ Impossible Burger. The Beyond Burger is made with a pea protein isolate, cellulose from bamboo, methylcellulose and potato starch, among other ingredients, that give it the eating qualities of meat.
