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Demand for plant-based recipe and food boxes continues to “soar,” according to recipe box company Gousto. Nearly a quarter of all recipes ordered by Gousto customers in 2023 were plant-based.
“2023 has continued the growing trend which has seen the number of people ordering our vegetarian and plant-based meals double over the last four years,” Jordan Moore, Senior Food Development Manager at Gousto, told Plant Based News.
Londoners are the hungriest for home-cooked plant-based meals of all Gousto’s customers, according to the company’s inaugural annual Food Trends Report. Analyzing trends in 110 major UK towns and cities, the report found the top ten places where plant-based recipes were proving the most popular.
Plant-based recipe boxes accounted for a third of all Gousto’s deliveries in the capital in 2023. Harrow and Brighton come a close second and third, with 31 percent and 30 percent of orders in those cities being plant-based, respectively.
Healthier choices
London customers are managing to pack more fruits and vegetables into their diets through the plant-based recipe boxes.
Based on their choices of recipes, Gousto found that they are 30 percent more likely than the average customer to order meals containing at least three of the recommended five daily portions of fruits and vegetables. Residents of Harrow and Brighton are 20 percent more likely to order these healthier meals.
“It’s great to see our customers eating more plant-based meals and being more conscious about upping the fruit and veg in their diet,” said Moore. Gousto offers 12 vegan recipe options, such as Vegetable Biryani and Roasted Sweet Potato Laksa.
According to a 2021 report by The Food Foundation, 77 percent of UK adults eat less than the recommended amount of vegetables each day. In fact, more people are eating little to no vegetables in a day than a decade ago.
Increasing the proportion of fruits, vegetables, and legumes that make up people’s diets is important for improving public health. Research shows that it could significantly reduce the risk of developing a number of diseases including several kinds of cancers.
The rise of recipe and food boxes
Recipe boxes have become hugely popular as people seek to take the effort out of cooking at home. Covid lockdowns also helped drive up demand as eating out was restricted and supermarkets felt like virus danger zones. Many big recipe box companies such as Gousto and Mindful Chef offer vegan options. But there are also a number of totally vegan recipe box companies to choose from.
Grubby often tops lists of best vegan subscription and meal boxes, offering dishes such as Leek and Broccoli Lasagne and Crispy Tofu Bahn Mi. It has more than 200 recipes to choose from, each containing six types of vegetables on average. For each box sold, Grubby also donates a meal to a child living in poverty.
Planthood is a vegan meal kit company which provides ready-made sauces and mains alongside fresh veg. This makes it even faster and easier to cook a healthy meal at home. Choices include a Sticky Teriyaki Tofu Bowl and Black Bean Chilli Enchiladas with Cashew Cheese.
Planty makes vegan frozen ready-meals with healthy ingredients such as Cauli Korma and Mac ‘No’ Cheese. With each meal made as a single portion, Planty also aims to help reduce food waste.
