Mock meat finds real takers in Bengaluru
BENGALURU: After about a year-and-a-half of being vegan, city-based Kannan Mehta tried meat again. No, the graphic designer didn’t have a change of mind or give in to any temptation. Since the dish comprised plant-based meat, it came with a guilt-free indulgence, she says. Now, Mehta cooks plant meat or ‘mock meat’ dishes once or twice a month. And she isn’t the only one in the city experimenting with this type of meat.
So what exactly is mock meat? “It’s a plant-based product with a meaty texture that could take on different forms according to the way it is flavoured,” explains Susmitha Subbaraju, co-owner of Carrots Restaurant, which whips up mock meat burgers, wraps and starters. The restaurant serves seitan, a type of mock meat with a wheat gluten base. They receive 20-25 orders a day for these dishes, the most popular being Sloppy Joe Burger.
This growing popularity also motivated Good Dot, an online vendor for mock meat, to start supply in Bengaluru in mid-2018. According to Abhishek Sinha, co-founder and CEO, the products have picked pace over the last seven-eight months, with 15,000 orders being dispatched across India daily and Bengaluru ranking in its list of top five cities. Good Dot is also planning to open brick-and-mortar stores in the city in the next couple of months.
Karan Singh, who has tried Good Dot’s mock meat, reveals why vegans like him find the plant-based meat appealing. It’s not because they have cravings for the animal counterpart, he says, adding, “Sometimes we have less tandoor options. Mock meat helps us get more texture in food.”
Mehta too said while meat in itself doesn’t have much taste, it’s the marinade and added flavours that make the dish more appealing. “For example, I add smoked paprika, maple syrup and liquid smoke to replicate the taste of traditional pork dishes,” says Mehta, who has also tried making a mock bacon dish. “This also helped my husband transition to veganism because he didn’t feel like he was missing much,” she adds.
According to Roma Roy Choudhury, founder, House of Seitan, which opened in January this year, customers can choose to add seitan to their salads or sandwiches. “Those who are heavily into fitness or vegans seem to know the most about seitan. Vegetarians still don’t know much but that is why we’ve kept the texture of our seitan between soya and meat, so those with a mental block could be more comfortable in trying it,” she says.
Agrees Aditya Kothari, an entrepreneur and a regular diner at House Of Seitan. As a vegetarian, Kothari was on the lookout for protein substitutes that would complement his workout. He found his answer in seitan, and eats it once in two days. “Seitan has almost 40-70 gm of protein per 100 gm, which is great for vegetarians,” he explains. Kothari has influenced others too to try out seitan but says it requires some effort. “Maybe if the name didn’t have the word ‘meat’ in it, more people would be willing to try it,” he says. “It takes some amount of explaining before they get comfortable with giving it a shot.”