A vegan burger that’s as juicy as junk food XANTHE CLAY

A plant-based pop-up is proving that ‘filthy’ fast food can be healthy – and taste fabulous

Eating vegan sounds so healthy. There’s a whole army of lean, clean Instagrammers promoting a flesh-free lifestyle as the secret to well-being and glowing skin. But more importantly, some pretty shocking evidence, including a recent study led by Oxford University scientists, strongly implicates meat production as a major cause of global warming.

A recent report in the medical journal The Lancet recommended cutting red meat consumption to a maximum of 14g a day, which works out about 100g a week, or a total of 200g including white meat – the equivalent of a small burger and half a chicken breast every seven days.

But, of course, vegan food isn’t necessarily healthy. After all, both Oreos and Skittles, not known for their positive nutritional value, tick the v-box. And now there is a rash of vegan restaurants – the likes of Temple of Seitan in London, Bristol’s Oowee Vegan, and Manchester’s V-rev – that are unapologetically devoted to junk food in all its deep-fried, sugar-laden glory.

According to food writer and chef Gizzi Erskine and her friend and collaborator, model-turned- nutritionist Rosemary Ferguson, you can have your cake and eat it. Except rather than cake, it’s a burger and chips. The two have cooked up a project, jokingly called Filth, to make meals that taste like fabulous junk food but actually pack a decent nutritional punch and, being vegan, won’t trash the planet either.

After a successful six-week pop-up at Tate Modern last year, the pair have opened for a three-month stint in London’s Shoreditch, which runs until the end of March. The menu includes a burger (£7.50), with a quinoa and soy-based patty, beetroot and sesame bun, fried onions, beetroot ketchup, roasted garlic aioli, romaine lettuce, cucumber pickles and American beer “cheese”, which in total packs three portions of vegetables.

The Korean-inspired Seoul burger (£8), which is topped with kimchi, or spicy fermented cabbage, is closer to four portions, says Erskine. The fries are made with sweet potato, high in beta carotene, the thick shake is made with Booja-booja vegan ice cream and the side salad is a moreish mix of kale, almonds and cashew.

It’s going down a storm in the tiny burger bar, little more than a few stools and utilitarian high tables (they do takeaway and Deliveroo, too). Social media went into a frenzy when David and Victoria Beckham called in for burgers and posted a rave review on Instagram, but even before that, there were queues, and the kitchen regularly sold out and closed early.

Neither Erskine nor Ferguson is vegan, although both say they eat less and less meat these days. “I love meat, the taste, the flavour,” says Erskine, “but the more we find out about it, the more I am challenged.” Her solution is to eat it only occasionally, and from a trusted source. “I’ll have a Sunday roast or meat if I am developing new recipes but, on the whole, at home I am vegetarian and vegan.”

“We looked at the impact that beef and dairy had on the environment and found that the biggest culprit was the fast food industry,” continues Erskine, speaking on the phone from Thailand. When you consider that Mcdonald’s alone is said to sell 41 Big Macs every second, simply switching our fast food habit from meat-based to meatless would reduce consumption hugely.

Key to the success of the burger, says Erskine, is the cheesy topping, a secret formula that includes rapeseed oil, gluten-free flour, beer, nutritional yeast, mustard and miso, as well as “a sneaky trick I’m not going to give away – but it tastes just like processed burger cheese”.

As for the burger patty itself, there’s no aim to mimic meat, unlike brands such as Impossible Burger, a beetrootbased burger that “bleeds”. The idea of people who’ve given up meat chomping on a burger dripping bloodcoloured juices does seem odd, and as Erskine points out, “the majority of people I know love vegetables.” Instead, the Filth burger is richly savoury, and not heavily processed but, as with the cheesy topping, there are “a couple of clever tricks” that give it a satisfying texture and flavour.

So much for the taste and environmental ticks, but nutritionwise, is it a good meal? Ferguson explains, “It’s fast food, it’s not like a home-cooked lentil stew with broccoli on the side, but I would be very happy… to say it’s a meal, if you have the salad. It’s a very well-balanced burger with lots of fibre, lots of grains, lots of protein and lots of slow-burning carbs and lots of probiotics from the garlic and the umami that goes into it.”

Yes, probiotics – not a word we associate with a fast-food fix. But the Filth menu is peppered with coloured dots indicating which of the items are good for skin, energy, gut, repair – and detox. Aren’t they on dangerous ground, I ask Ferguson, as scientists are quick to revile claims that food or supplements can be detoxifying? “People get very cross because they say you can’t detox your body – and no, you can’t,” agrees Ferguson, “but you can support the systems in your body and give it a bit of help.”

Dr Frankie Phillips, from the British Dietetic Association, agrees that foods or supplements cannot detoxify the body: “Our bodies have their own fully adapted detoxification system, called the liver, the kidneys and skin.” How about the idea that we can support the detoxification process? “It’s nonsense that it is necessary.”

As for the other claims, Dr Phillips is more moderate. “There are some foods that can have some influence on your body’s ability to repair itself, like making sure that you have enough protein, and vitamin A and vitamin C,” but, she emphasises, a proper nutritional analysis would be needed “to know if there is enough to make a difference.”

They both agree there is a need for balance. As Ferguson says: “There’s so much stress around eating the right thing, doing the right thing. The body can cope with a lot. Having a bag of crisps every now and then won’t hurt.”

Filth, 13 Bethnal Green Rd, London E1 6LA

Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and plunge in the broccoli. Cook for 30 seconds then add the kale and cook for another 30 seconds.

Drain and cool completely under the tap.

Drain and spin dry in a salad spinner or leave to dry spread on a tea towel. Mix the broccoli, kale, almonds, lemon zest, nutritional yeast and enough of the dressing to coat the salad generously.

‘I love meat, but the more we find out about it, the more I am challenged’ ‘The cheesy topping is a secret formula that includes beer, mustard and miso’