Show caption Pret’s hummus wrap Taste test Taste test: the best and worst vegan lunches on the high street Taking part in Veganuary or just trying to cut down on meat and dairy this year? Here are the best wraps, salads, sushi and more Mina Holland @minaholland Thu 3 Jan 2019 05.30 EST Share on Facebook

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From Spam Appreciation Week in March to June’s National Fudge Day and Sourdough September, every day of the year seems to have an (often baffling) link to a foodstuff. On the Guardian food desk, we take this with a pinch of salt – and not just on National Salt Awareness Week (from 29 February) – lest your year in recipes and food articles becomes subsumed by commercial partnerships.

But Veganuary, the movement encouraging us to try cutting out animal protein and produce for the first month of the year (in the hope that we’ll keep it up), feels a bit less silly. If adopted by enough people, veganism presents a viable way to offset environmental damage. It hit the mainstream in 2018, with conscious cooks and eaters embracing meat, fish, dairy and egg alternatives – from jackfruit to pulses – in their thousands. The Vegan Society says the UK’s vegan contingent has grown fourfold in just four years, from 150,000 in 2014 to over 600,000 now, while last year Waitrose became the first supermarket to have a dedicated vegan section in 134 of its stores.

Going vegan does, however, demand a level of organisation and planning – and Veganuary is no exception. Where can you buy cashew cheese? What are the non-vegan ingredients everyone forgets about? Who writes the best (and easiest) vegan recipes? And, if you aren’t cooking and need a speedy feed al desko, where can you find the best vegan lunch to go? To answer that last question, I ate a dozen lunches from outlets near the office, and here’s what I found …

Pret a Manger hummus wrap (£2.99) and vegan chilli side soup (£2.35)



It may be hard to balls up a hummus wrap, but I do think this one is pretty good for the price – it hits the spot, ranking low on imagination, but higher on palatability. The vegan chilli is very good – in spite of my objection to the side-soup format (taking more than half the price of the full-size option from customers for what seems like less than half the volume), and despite my hankering for an unvegan dollop of sour cream on top of it.

4/5

Wasabi vegan sushi box (£6.60)

Sushi has an unfair advantage over other lunch options: douse with enough soy sauce, wasabi and ginger, and it always tastes good. This is as true of the vegan stuff as it is of fish, so I enjoyed this spread of rice, seaweed, vegetable and tofu concoctions, in spite of the whole premise of “takeaway sushi” somehow seeming wrong (given it is traditionally defined by the care, attention and precision with which it is made).

4/5

Leon’s Lebanese meze salad (£4.95)

A paltry boxful of autumn and winter hues, this is tasty, but not one for the hungry. It has four components, of which the kale and lentil salad is the high point. The curried squash is nice, the hummus fine (you can’t go wrong), but there are two dried-up falafel-brown orbs of vegetal dust. I’m generally very keen on Leon’s vegan offering, but this isn’t their strongest option.

3/5

Benito’s Hat five-a-day taco (£6.30)

Soft tacos need to be heated to stop them falling apart. These had a split second on the grill before being loaded with a dead weight of loveless roasted veg and guacamole, and seasoned with bitter disappointment (but no salt). At £6.30, this is at the dearer end of the spectrum, and that’s not including the (vegan) cereal bar I had to buy afterwards to cheer myself up.

1/5

Eat’s Mediterranean orzo (£4.95)

A generous box of orzo in tomato sauce, peppered with tired roasted veg and some arbitrary spinach leaves. This comes with an abundance of very sweet dressing which imparts flavour to something that would otherwise be bland – but it’s far too sugary. I sense the boxed pasta salad might have had its time; there’s something outdated about this – which perhaps says all you need to know about Eat, really.

1/5

Leon’s Brazilian black beans (£3.95)

So good. Leon manages to make its vegan boxes delicious and desirable in their own right – quite a feat. These beans, seasoned with hot smoked sweet paprika (the spice used in chorizo) have a “meatiness” and are served over brown rice for a result that is wholesome, filling and satisfying. For the price, you won’t find a better vegan feed.

5/5

Waitrose Mexican spiced butternut squash & beans wrap (£3.40)

A better Mexican than Benito’s Hat, ticking the vital boxes that lunch should tick: tasty, sustaining and affordable. The wheat tortilla is made of pumpkin, which, though doughy, has a little more chutzpah on the taste front than wheat wraps usually do. Filled with black bean paste, cumin roasted butternut squash, chipotle salsa, spinach and coriander, it tastes freshly made and has plenty of flavour. Might be interesting to try the filling with a corn tortilla, though, for something gluten-free as well as vegan.

4/5

Waitrose sweet potato, bulgur & couscous on red lentil hummus (£3)

Has the visual appeal of a molehill, but is better in the mouth. The red lentil hummus needs seasoning, but I like the fact that this is filling and has lots of different textures, colours and flavours to keep me interested. I’m disappointed by the packaging, which I’d expect to feel a little more sustainable.

3/5

Crussh jackfruit tinga fit bowl (£6.95)

Photograph: Crussh

I had to have some jackfruit at some point – it was the darling ingredient for vegans in 2018, and is said to be a plant-based answer to pulled pork. I thought this was delicious, but it needed the addition of zingy guacamole and crunchy coleslaw at the till – to accompany the sweetness of sweet potato mash and the spicy jackfruit curry. The ingredients are, however, largely cheap, so I would say this is £1 too expensive.

4/5

Marks & Spencer supergreen salad and Mexican-style rice and avocado (two for £4)



I like the M&S two-for-£4 deal – a bargain. I’m less impressed by the packaging – which not only sounds my eco alarm bells, but makes the food look so much less appealing. The Thai flavours in the salad (ginger and soy) are quite simply delicious, while the “meh” Mexican rice (I have decided all Mexican lunches need to come with extra lime for some zing) at least offers up the bulk I need. I was surprised not more of M&S’s options were vegan; they could do with a couple more.

4/5

Gail’s pumpkin and wild rice (£5)

I’m a big fan of Gail’s and this feels fresh, hearty and good for me, with lashings of roasted cabbage and pecan pesto dressing. I think it’s a bit underseasoned and could do with a more generous dollop of the pesto, on which it relies for its character. Were it not a vegan number, they would probably have thrown some crumbled feta over, but given the plant-based straitjacket, they need to make up for the flavour deficit.

4/5

Tesco rainbow curry bowl (£3.50)