All-vegetarian Burger King pop-up restaurant opens

ONE WOULD not normally associate a name like 'Burger King' with a vegetarian and vegan restaurant, but one of the planet's best-known fast-food brands has launched just that: A branch with all its usual menu items as well as new ones, but with no meat, or even fish.

Sadly, only one is in place at the moment and will only be open for a month, although in addition to Burger King's existing veggie options, it is likely more of these, including the ones on sale until November 19, will start to become mainstream at 'standard' outlets.

The pop-up restaurant on the central Paseo del Prado in Madrid includes new recipes already – one of Burger King's biggest sellers, the 'Long Chicken', now comes in a meat-free version.

Known as the 'Long Vegetal', the chicken substitute is made from soya and wheat protein, created by the firm The Vegetarian Butcher and, like the non-veggie version, comes in a roll with lettuce and mayonnaise.

To make it a vegan version, just ask for it without mayonnaise, says the firm, since none of the other ingredients are of animal origin such as dairy or eggs.

The Whopper Vegetal, or meatless adaptation of the original 'Whopper', and the Nuggets Vegetales, or chicken nuggets without the chicken, are now on the chain's permanent menu in its established branches, so vegetarians out with carnivorous friends who get a craving for a Burger King no longer have to just stick to chips.

Anyone who will be in Madrid in the next month will be able to spot the veggie Burger King fairly easily, since it uses the firm's standard logo and typeface, but entirely in green and white.

Managing director of Restaurant Brands Iberia Spain and Portugal, Borja Hernández de Alba, on behalf of Burger King, says the company wants to 'reach both those who base their diet on foods of plant origin' and also those who are not vegetarian but 'want to cut down the amount of meat they eat'.

All vegetarian and vegan items on the menu in Burger King's branches are clearly marked as one or the other, as are the new varieties at the Madrid pop-up restaurant.

They all carry the internationally-recognised 'V-Label', which guarantees that their ingredients are entirely of vegetable or plant origin – not including extras like mayonnaise, which are listed on the menu in any case – and also proves they have not been in contact with meat of any description.

“V-Label products are cooked in the fryer that's only otherwise used for chips,” Hernández de Alba explains, meaning they do not share frying oil with burgers or chicken.

Recent research shows that around 13% of people in Spain follow a mostly or entirely vegetarian or vegan diet – about 8% are completely vegetarian and about a quarter of these are vegan – with many describing themselves as 'pescatarians', who eat fish, albeit occasionally, but not meat, or 'flexitarians', who eat meat, fish, dairy and eggs but whose consumption of the first two is very rare.

Vegetarian and vegan options are often the first choice for meat-eaters who either want to cut down, or who are consciously seeking a healthier diet with a greater proportion of nuts, seeds, pulses, fruit and vegetables, and also for weight control.

Some care needs to be taken where the aim is the latter, though; vegetarian options frequently use cheese as a protein source, and butter, oil and other high-fat ingredients mean a consumer is no more likely to lose weight than if they ate meat and even less so than if they ate lean, grilled meat or fish, and vegan diets may be higher in saturated fats given that many food product substitutes are made with coconut oil.

But meat-eaters are often pleasantly surprised when they try vegetarian or vegan burgers, sausages and soya mince, with many preferring the texture and declaring there to be more flavour in these than in their meat equivalents.