After years of customer requests, Pizza Express has finally developed a vegan mozzarella alternative which can be used to replace traditional cheeses across their whole pizza range. Pizza Express follows in the footsteps of Zizzi, which launched a vegan range in early 2016, and will offer the cheese alternative in all of its 400 plus UK branches. This is good news for diners who want a cruelty-free meal, especially when in the company of non-vegan friends or family.
According to Holy Davies, Head of Food and Drink: “For some time now, our customers have been telling us that they want a vegan mozzarella alternative on the menu and in parallel, the world of vegan ingredients has opened up and become so interesting, enticing and tasty too. So, after a lot of tasting and testing, from June 20th we finally have an option that we believe you’ll love. One that we can say is sufficiently delicious to warrant it’s inclusion on our menu and sit atop our unique dough and delicious passata.”
Pizza Express’ bases, fired in their authentic pizza ovens, have always been suitable for vegans and the company created the Pianta pizza in 2014, which only uses vegan friendly ingredients. However this limited the choice for vegans and didn’t allow them to have a fully veganised pizza, complete with cheese. Now, however, the chain has announced that they will offer vegan cheese as an option from June 20 2017. The cheese is made from sprouting brown rice in Italy and will be offered on all of their pizzas, although vegans will still need to make sure that their pizza of choice does not have any animal derived products.
Alternatively, Pizza Express has created the Vegan Giardiniera which customers can order straight from the menu. The new pizza will combine artichokes, asparagus, red onion, garlic oil, black olives, seasoning and their vegan cheese, giving a creamy finish to the pizza.
Peta UK have said: “It’s clear that eating without harming animals is now mainstream – and you can help the movement grow even more. Ask your local pizza joint to follow Pizza Express’ example by starting to offer vegan options.”
Pizza Express still has a way to go to catch up with Zizzi, which now has an extensive vegan menu including starters, pizzas, pastas, desserts and wines, but it is a step in the right direction for the company.