Add Plant-Based Dishes to Your Menu

There is a persistent notion that alternative diets like veganism and vegetarianism are a Western phenomenon, but this couldn’t be further from the truth: the Asian market has experienced exponential growth over the last few years, and is projected to grow by 200% by 2025.

In Singapore in particular, the statistics show that 58% of consumers have a diet other than a meat-based one. 40% are either vegan, vegetarian, or flexitarian. Flexitarians are people who still eat meat from time to time but try to incorporate plant-based food into their diet. 

There are plenty of reasons why people would avoid eating meat. One of the most significant and rapidly growing ones is a concern for the environment. Meat consumption leaves a massive carbon footprint, and as more people become aware of this, demand for plant-based alternatives is increasing. 

How to Incorporate Plant-Based Dishes

It’s crucial to treat plant-based customers as a priority and not as an afterthought. Restaurants need to create meals that are both attractive to their customers and sensitive to their dietary needs. In light of this, here are some practical tips on how to incorporate plant-based options into your offering.

Let’s start with the low-hanging fruit. Make sure that food you label vegan or vegetarian actually qualify as such. While you might think that a particular recipe is completely plant-based, you’d be surprised at the number of innocent-looking ingredients that are actually non-vegan or non-vegetarian. Some kinds of wine, bread, sugar, etc. all contain animal products, so be careful before labelling your food as plant-based. 

Next, make sure that your dishes are actually appealing. Don’t add a vegan/vegetarian option just for the sake of it. This means no soggy, tasteless salads, no dry falafels, and no low-quality vegan meat. Use this article for reference on what not to do. 

One of the pet peeves vegans and vegetarians have when going out is the fact that plant-based dishes in restaurants don’t have enough protein. Despite popular belief, there are plenty of plant-based sources of protein out there. Soy, tofu, lentils, and quinoa are just some examples. Remember, vegans don’t go around eating grass. 

Finally, if you’re worried about how adding plant-based meals to your menu might clash with your brand image, consider the fact that many burger restaurants are beginning to add vegetarian patties to their offering, and what, on the face of it, could be more antithetical to veganism than burgers?

The days are quickly fading when a restaurant could get by without serving food that satisfies a wide variety of dietary requirements. Today, adding vegan and vegetarian options to your menu gives you an advantage. Tomorrow, it might be necessary to your survival. 

Localisation in Asia

Many modern dishes that are marketed as vegan or vegetarian are based on Western cuisine. From beyond burgers to vegan sausages, the West has so far driven the alternative diet culture. A lot of this is reflected in what we see on social media. 

However, as plant-based dishes grow in popularity in Asia, many companies are taking advantage of the opportunity. In China, an alternative meat called Hero Protein has taken the market by storm. Closer to home in Singapore, many establishments are going fully plant-based, and a large portion of these are Asian restaurants. 

There is clearly a demand for localised plant-based food. 

If you’re a restaurant serving Asian cuisine, you probably already serve dishes that are vegan or vegetarian, whether you market them as such or not. Tofu, soybeans, and multiple variations of fried rice, udon and Chinese dumplings are all plant-based. 

The lowest hanging fruit is advertising food that is already vegan or vegetarian as such. As an Asian restaurant, you can also consider creating plant-based versions of dishes that do contain meat. 

It is abundantly clear that plant-based diets are here to stay. While the F&B industry has been catching on to this fact, adopting a vegan- and vegetarian-friendly approach is still a huge competitive advantage. Because many restaurants either don’t care enough or don’t know enough about plant-based diets, they either don’t have a plant-based option at all or come up with things like this.