Lifestyle guru embraces plant-based eating
It’s a good thing, lifestyle guru Martha Stewart says of consuming a more meatless diet
Guests at Martha Stewart’s holiday party last December were unwittingly served a platter of meatballs. Plant-based meatballs, that is.
“I served these meatballs at my Christmas party, and people loved them,” she says of the Beyond Meat meatballs, which she promotes in a new commercial for the fast-food sandwich chain Subway Canada.
The meat-free meatballs, which are made primarily of pea protein isolate, brown rice and mung bean to form a complete protein, as well as ingredients such as coconut and sunflower oils to keep things together and influence the way the product cooks, were a hit, she says. And nobody noticed that they weren’t actually made of meat.
“I didn’t say anything. I just did it — little meatball tidbits — and I didn’t say a thing,” Stewart says. “And not one person knew anything, other than they were eating a tasty meatball.”
So, was this a bit of holiday season plant-based subterfuge on the part of Stewart? Not quite, she says.
“It was just an experiment on my part to see. Not one person said, ‘Ew, what is this?’ and put it down,” she says. “And I had plenty of other delicious foods.”
Innovative plant-based products that mimic meaty meals in flavour, appearance and texture like Beyond Meat and Impossible patties are changing the perception of and interest in plantbased foods in North America, the longtime food and lifestyle expert says.
“People are very interested, of course they are. Can technology marry with farming and create things that taste the way we are so used to eating and not be meat?” Stewart says. “They’re showing us that, with careful use of ingredients, you can make food extremely tasty and very good for you at the same time.”
And the momentum of change created by plant-based products and the conversation surrounding them — after all, seemingly everyone knows someone who has gone vegan within the last year or so — is here to stay. The plant-based conversation, Stewart assures skeptics, isn’t merely a “trend.”
“I don’t think it’s a curiosity. I think it is a definite move toward the future,” Stewart says. “I think more and more of us are understanding about pollution. I think more and more of us are understanding that, if we became a less meat-consuming people, we would be better off. And many studies are pointing out the fact that this is a more healthy way to live.”
It’s a shift in modern diets that Stewart, who released a cookbook of meatless recipes in 2013, admits she has been watching for years.
“I’m very, very curious about the development of the meatless diet. I have been a fan and a friend of (American author and journalist) Michael Pollan, I have been a vegetable person my whole life. I am not a vegetarian, but I am certainly interested in plant-based foods,” she says. “And I am very interested in improving the pollution levels of the world, and getting rid of big, factory farming would certainly be a step in the right direction. So, if we can cut down on the consumption of too much meat, we would help the planet tremendously.”
Stewart admittedly still enjoys a “piece of chicken” or a “pork chop” every now and then — albeit “rarely.” But she also has vegetarian-minded eaters in her family, a fact she says has influenced her own outlook on food in recent years.
“I have a vegetarian daughter and two pescatarian grandchildren who are very adamant about this, too.” she says. “And who are very happy about the development of plant-based meat.”
Safe to say that her family was pleased with her latest commercial campaign for Subway Canada, which sees her “grow” plant-based meatballs in a pot of marinara and later “trim” them from the bountifully meatball-covered plant.
“Oh, they were so thrilled with this commercial. They were totally thrilled,” Stewart says with a laugh. “And totally impressed that a restaurant like Subway would be offering such advanced technology.
“I thought the writing was very cute,” she adds of the satirical commercial. “Making light of the fact while being extremely serious about the goodness is, I think, exactly the way that we should be approaching this.”
Subway recently announced the release of its Beyond Meatball sub sandwich, available exclusively at its Canadian locations. While the meatballs are plantbased, the prescribed toppings aren’t — though one can opt out of said trimmings — and include marinara sauce, grated Parmesan, shredded mozzarella and Monterey Jack cheese.
The significance of offering plant-based meat alternatives at a fast-food chain that is said to serve seven million sandwiches per day, according to company statistics, is a relevant point for Stewart, who pointed to other fast food chains such as Dunkin’ Donuts and Mcdonald’s, which have similarly announced recent Beyond Meat additions to their menus in the U.S. In Canada, several fast food outlets already offer Beyond Meat dining options including A&W, Tim Hortons, Quesada and White Spot.
“More and more and more people are shifting their eating habits and really want to get away from big meat consumption,” Stewart says. “They are responding to the requests of the public for more vegetable-based foods.
“That is excellent.”