Pizza Today - March 2021 - 49

T

he plant-based
movement has
arrived if you
haven't noticed.
" Plant-based "
has now replaced
" vegan " as the
primary new
term describing a
diet that is animal product free. Being
vegetarian can mean a number of things
but just to set the record straight vegan
or plant-based means eating nothing
from an animal. (That includes eggs.)
When Burger King, White Castle and
others start adding plant-based " meats "
to their menu, somebody important in
the corporation has realized that this
market cannot be ignored. Restaurants
are quickly realizing the potential of
this exploding market. Customers are
demanding these options more and
more. The growing demand for plantbased products is an extremely positive
trend forcing the food industry to
offer these options. It's a win/win for
everyone. Customers get their options
and corporations are able to serve a new
market. The movement shows no signs
of abating. For example, according to
the Good Food Institute the market for
plant-based has grown 29 percent in the
last two years. The plant-based segment
is the fastest growing sector of the food
industry.
Let's rewind a bit to understand why
a plant-based diet is becoming more
popular. Health and climate concerns
are the chief motivating factors of the
movement's popularity. According to
a study by The America Journal for
Public Health, obesity has become a
health crisis in the United States. This
medical condition is linked to many
diseases causing those suffering to look
for alternative options to mainstream
diets. Plant-based meat is much less
damaging to the environment since
emissions of greenhouse gasses are
reduced by up to 90 percent when
compared with conventional meat.
Water pollution and nutrient pollution
are also nearly entirely eliminated in
many cases thanks to plant-based meat.
So, as you can see there are many
reasons why your customers are now

048_PIZ_0321_IKvegan.indd 49

more and more demanding plantbased options. As I always say, there's
a vegan in every family. This is an
important point for our restaurants.
These " influencers " often make the
decision about where the family eats. If
a restaurant has good vegan options, it's
entirely likely that this establishment
will be chosen over one that has no
vegan options.

Let's talk about plant-based
pastas. Pasta is one of the best foods

for someone to make a transition from
a " meat " centered diet to a " plant-based "
centered diet. It's also one of the best,
easiest and cheapest ways for a food
establishment to offer vegan options to
its customers. Everyone loves and eats
pastas. It's one of the first solid meals
given to children. The most famous
pasta dish, spaghetti and red sauce is
vegan by default. At its basic level a
plant-based diet is based on simplicity
and cleanliness.
The first step to vegan pasta is to
avoid pasta that contains egg. Obviously,
egg while controversially vegetarian is
not vegan. Most pastas do not contain
egg but it's better to make sure. A
restaurant does not want to make the
mistake of serving a non-vegan pasta
dish advertised as vegan or plant-based.
I will explain my three go-to vegan
pasta dishes which are easy to make,
delicious and quite deceptive in the
sense of being hard to detect that there
are no animal products in these dishes.
They are:
* Spaghetti Bolognese. This is a
version of the classic Italian Bolognese
traditionally done with Tagliatelle.
Tagliatelle contains egg. Spaghetti does
not. The first ingredient you need is a
plant-based " meat " crumble. There are
many options and brands now a days
like Gardein, Nightlife, Morning Star,
Beyond Meat, Hungry Planet, Be Hive
and others. The simplest way to make it
is sauté the meat crumble in garlic and
olive oil until done, then add tomato
sauce and simmer for about half hour.
You can make the tomato sauce yourself
or use ready-to-serve products. Then
add the sauce to the spaghetti with
some dried oregano, mix it well and

serve. This was a crowd hit at the Pizza
Expo. People were blown away by how
good it was and they couldn't believe it
was vegan. To add some complexity and
texture sauté chopped carrots, onions
and celery in with the vegan ground
" beef " .
* Penne Pesto. The second pasta is
making a traditional pesto sauce but use
nutritional yeast instead of Parmesan in
your recipe making it just as flavorful
without the dairy. Nutritional yeast can
be purchased at grocery stores. Your
food supplier should be able to get a
hold of it or they may even carry it
themselves. These days, so many vegan
products are available through large
food distributers. This wasn't the case
just seven years ago when I started my
first pizzeria. For the pesto pasta, I like
penne pasta but really any pasta can be
used.
* Canestri Cacio e Pepe. It's a
vegan take on the classic Roman dish.
It's just pepper and " cheese. " I prefer
Canestri pasta (similar to a large elbow
pasta). This is hard to find so you can
use spaghetti or any other pasta for that
matter. There are many ways to make
this vegan. I'll give the quick and the
long version. The quick version is to use
just some of the pasta water, olive oil
and a ton of nutritional yeast, then add
cracked black pepper and salt. (You can
also use vegan butter instead of olive
oil. The long version is to use cashew
cheese. Put raw cashews, olive oil, salt,
lemon juice, water and garlic in a food
processor and blend to a creamy texture.
Use water to control the texture. Add
mixture to pasta then add pepper and
nutritional yeast (optional).
The beauty of plant-based foods is
that it gets chefs and restaurant owners
to think creatively while at the same
time they are doing something that is
very positive for human health and the
environment. They also taste pretty good
by the way. Good luck!

SCOTT SANDLER is owner of Pizza
Head in St. Louis, Missouri and a frequent
speaker at Pizza Expo and Pizza and Pasta
Northeast.

2/10/21 1:34 PM
Pizza Today - March 2021

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