Now they're hoping to spread the gospel of vegan meats across the entire universe. Kind of.

The butchers were recently contacted by Josh Borchardt, a research scientist at the Minnesota-based Advanced Space and Technology Research Laboratory, about helping to create a vegan meal plan for a two-week simulated Mars mission with six astronauts in the Utah desert. If all goes well with the simulation, the astronauts could take Herbivorous Butcher meatless meals into space for real.

Borchardt approached the wizards of vegan eating because it's more practical to eat a plant-based diet in space.

So far they've made a set of six breakfasts and six dinners that will be frozen for one year. They're still figuring out how long the food can be frozen and then taste fresh after thawing and cooking. The breakfast is a frittata with vegan egg, bacon, and pepper Jack. The dinner is an enchilada with a wheat flour tortilla, vegan chorizo, and All American Breakfast Sausage, topped with red sauce and mozzarella (vegan, of course), and served with a side of rice, beans, and sweet potatoes and bacon. Both meals are also packed with lots of veggies to balance them out nutritionally.

In addition to developing astronaut meals, the butchers have been tasked with growing carrots and zinnias in Mars Regolith Simulant (space dirt). So far, so good. The zinnias sprouted in four days.

Keep an eye on the progress of this meatless mission by following the Herbivorous Butcher blog.

The Herbivorous Butcher

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