Taking a slice of the pie

So, as Veganuary draws to a close, we come to our final ‘taste off’ of the month – Pizza Hut’s Vegan Pepperphoni Pizza vs McDonalds Veggie Dippers.

We’ll start with the Veggie Dippers.

Granted, McDonald’s do say this is only intended as a side, but you can’t help thinking that after all the publicity surrounding BK’s Rebel Whopper and KFC’s Vegan Burger, the fast food giant may be regretting not also producing something more substantial to coincide with Veganuary.

It is currently trialling a vegan burger in Canada which is called the P.L.T. short for plant, lettuce and tomato but there’s no word on when it will become part of worldwide main menu, so until then all we have ‘new’ are the veggie dippers.

So, what did we think of the veggie dippers? Well, they are just ok. They are made with red pepper, rice, sundried tomato pesto and split peas and surrounded in crispy golden breadcrumbs. They have even been vegan certified by the Vegetarian Society, which is more than BK, which has admitted its burger is cooked on the same grill as the meat version – but hey at least BK didn’t just provide a vegetable side dish for Veganuary right?

We joke of course, but anyway back to the dippers.

There’s a hint of spice in the dippers, which was unexpected, and the filling was moist, which was great, and the breadcrumbs are nice and light, so all in all, not a bad effort, but we were not blown away by any means.

McDonalds are selling this as a vegan meal with fries a soft drink, but we’re not convinced it will be a big seller this way. We think people are more likely to get them as a side to go with their burgers, which ok prevents the meal from being vegan or vegetarian, but there are not many vegans or vegetarians who will eat at McDonalds anyway – if you have every tried their vegetable deluxe you will know exactly why!

So perhaps we’ll return to the veggie dippers when ‘Maccies’ finally releases its plant-based burger, then we get them as a side to go with it.

On to Pizza Hut and the Vegan Pepperphoni. Well, we’ll just put this straight out on front street. It.Blew.Us.Away!

We had no expectations given any pizza’s primary ingredient is cheese and we established last week when we tried Subway’s Meatless Marinara that the cheese in that was tasteless, but hey, this pizza was on a different level.

First, let us commend Pizza Hut on the name of their pizza. Genius! The ‘pepperoni’ is made using compressed discs of pea protein that taste, yes you guessed it, just like pepperoni, and the cheese is a mix of vegan Cheddar and an orange/cheese sauce melted with the tomato sauce. And it all just works perfectly.

Open the box and if you didn’t know it, you would think you had ordered a normal pepperoni pizza. It looks the same, smells the same and tastes pretty much the same. We say pretty much because the pea protein doesn’t quote give the same heat/spice you get from meat pepperoni, but that’s about the only negative, and it’s a tiny one at that!

Unfortunately, you only have until 31st January to try the Pepperphoni, but the manager of the restaurant we bought ours from said it had been so popular that he wouldn’t be surprised if it returns as a permanent addition to the menu soon.

Hats off to Pizza Hut though because this is the chain’s seventh plant-based pie, and this shows they are obviously taking vegan food seriously and not just jumping on the Veganuary bandwagon.

So, after three weeks of taste testing the new vegan products from the fast food chains, who’s come out on top? Here’s our final rankings.

1. Pizza Hut Vegan Pepperphoni
2. Burger King Rebel Whopper
3. KFC Vegan Burger
4. Subway Meatless Marinara
5. Greggs Vegan Steak Bake
6. McDonalds Veggie Dippers

About Oliver Parkinson

Sous Chef of SK Foods.

Your food. Our Passion.

View all posts by Oliver Parkinson | https://www.skfoods.co.uk