Image: itsu
“As a brand we have always tried to provide our customers with a huge range of vegan options.”
This month, popular asian food restaurant, itsu, is extending its range of frozen supermarket gyoza to include the UK’s first ‘vegan meat’ version of the classic dish.
Joining the best-selling line-up, which includes consumer favourites such as ‘Aromatic Duck Gyoza’ and ‘Vegetable Fusion Gyoza’, the new addition is called ‘Teriyaki Chick’n Vegan Gyoza’.
Katherine Austin, itsu’s senior NPD manager, spent many months combing through options for meat alternatives and figuring out the correct ratios for the desired result. The final product is a combination of ‘vegan meat’, teriyaki, carrot, spring onion, and kale.
This product joins itsu’s ever-growing vegan range, which accounts for 40% of their dishes. Julian Metcalfe, CEO and founder of itsu, says: “As a brand we have always tried to provide our customers with a huge range of vegan options.”
Eat it your way
Just like their other gyoza varieties, the new vegan addition can be steamed, simmered, or fried. They can be served as an appetiser, side dish, or snack, and can be added to any soup or stir-fry.
The Teriyaki Chick’n Vegan Gyoza only take around four minutes to prepare from freezer to plate, so they are a quick and easy meal option for those who are short on time.
‘Not just made for vegans or vegetarians’
Metcalfe says that this option was not added just for the sake of their vegan and vegetarian consumer base: “With a rise in sales for our plant-based products, it seemed the perfect opportunity to launch the UK’s very first ‘vegan meat’ gyoza …though, this is a product not just made for vegans, or vegetarians, it’s made for everyone – we’re incredibly proud of the final recipe, and can’t wait for people to try it.”
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