With the number of vegan Britons quadrupling in the past four years, and one in three of us in the UK reducing the amount of meat we eat, the competition for our festive sandwiches is heating up. Marks & Spencer just released its first ever offering – with marinated fake meat – and most other high-street brands have got something in the mix. We tested seven for your lunchtime feasting.

Winner

Paul, ’Tis the Vegan Sandwich, £4.25

Filling Hummus, grilled sliced carrots, grilled yellow peppers, fresh spinach, cranberry sauce, roasted pumpkin seeds.

Bread Sesame baguette – frankly, on the bread alone, this wins hands down.

Smells Of seeds and roast veg.

Flavour Subtle use of hummus, lots of vegetal sweetness and savouriness built into the bread.

Texture Great crunch from well-cooked carrots and lots of pumpkin seeds, and that excellently chewy bread.

Festive factor It might be as British as saying sorry, but this year the Christmas sandwich is incontournablement French.

Runner-up

Starbucks, Vegan Winter Sandwich, £2.99

Filling Roasted carrot and butternut squash with smoky chipotle slaw, spiced pumpkin stuffing, cranberry and brussels sprout pesto, spiced pumpkin puree, kale and rocket leaves, pomegranate arils, toasted pumpkin seeds.

Bread Pumpkin bread, soft and flavoursome, and lightly orange in colour.

Smells Like fresh carrot and kale.

Flavour There is almost too much going on here, which results in the pomegranate getting completely lost. The hit of heat from the chipotle, though, sets it apart, as does the use of bolder greens (spinach, raw and cold, really tastes of nothing at all).

Texture Pleasingly moist, crunchy, soft and dense.

Festive factor A whole Christmas Day spread in one neat parcel.

Third

Pret, Very Merry Christmas Lunch, £3.50

Filling Grilled carrots, crispy onions and baby spinach with a festive vegan stuffing and port and orange cranberry sauce, finished with pecans.

Bread Unspecified. It tastes good, though, brown and a little nutty, and nicely moist.

Smells Like lunch – fresh and savoury.

Flavour Herbacious from the stuffing, and a beautiful balance between sweet and savoury.

Texture Almost too crunchy – perhaps grilling is not the best method for a carrot?

Festive factor I’d eat that stuffing in anything.

Fourth

Boots, Parsnip Fritter and Butternut Squash, £2.75

Filling Parsnip and carrot fritter, butternut squash, cranberry sauce, vegan mayonnaise, hummus, chickpeas and chestnuts with spinach.

Bread Malted bread.

Smell Like fried hummus.

Flavour Tastes like it too, Like fried hummus with lots of sweetness from the cranberry – the filling is delicious, but it is let down by dry, tasteless bread.

Texture Crunchy from grated, barely cooked carrots.

Festive factor The combo of sugar and fat definitely brings the word feast to mind, even if what it all comes sandwiched in does not.

Fifth

Sainsbury’s, Festive Falafel and Hummus, £2.30

Filling Falafel with chickpeas, cinnamon and clove, hummus, cucumber, mint vegan dressing, Moroccan-style spiced chutney, carrot, pickled red cabbage and spinach.

Bread Tortilla wrap.

Smells Mostly of mint and cucumber.

Flavour The pickle and spiced chutney do all the work here, set against the characteristic blandness of cold, floury tortillas.

Texture A good melding of fresh crunch (from the veg) and heft (the falafel).

Festive factor While the herbs, cabbage and spice are seasonal nods, this mostly feels like a year-round kind of wrap.

Sixth

M&S, No Turkey Feast, £3.90

Filling Marinated roasted soya protein with onion and sage dressing, cranberry chutney, fried onions and spinach.

Bread Soft, malted – but not very tasty – brown bread.

Smell Mostly of bread.

Flavour Creamy and bland with a subtle fruitiness from the cranberry. The sage stays in hiding until well after you’ve swallowed your bite.

Texture Pleasingly, fake-meatily chewy.

Festive factor The only candidate to reference the traditional festive roast but, flavourwise, it just doesn’t cut it.

Seventh

Co-op, Vegan Bubble and Squeak, £2.65 (pictured top)

Filling Sweet potato, cabbage and sage fritter, vegan sage and onion mayonnaise, spinach, red cabbage, spiced fruit chutney and steam-roasted pickled beetroot.

Bread Very dull malted bread.

Smells A lot of sage, but little else.

Flavour Could do with more salt, fat and savouriness. If I hadn’t read the label, I’d never have guessed they had fried anything. Having both beetroot and red cabbage, though, is a good call.

Texture Crunch from the red veg, but not moist enough.

Festive factor All the sage is a decent festive mark, but it’s nowhere near enough.