Tesco, the UK’s leading supermarket, has launched an app to help holiday hosts cater to their guests’ specific dietary requirements. Called the Festive Menu Helper, the app is designed to make planning vegan, vegetarian, dairy-free, and allergen-friendly Christmas meals simple.
The launch follows research by Tesco which revealed that 48 percent of Christmas hosts will be cooking plant-based dishes in addition to the traditional turkey, Yorkshire pudding, pigs in blankets, gravy, and buttery vegetables. Additional research shows that the average Christmas table this year will have at least one vegan or vegetarian.
The Festive Menu Helper allows the user to input specific dietary requirements to receive recipe suggestions and ready-meal options. The service is shoppable, so users can buy ingredients online or take the shopping list to the store. It also offers a wine-pairing service because 83 percent of consumers don’t know how to pair wine with food.
For example, a Christmas dinner request for seven vegan guests yields recipes for a chicory and clementine salad, vegan mushroom roast, vegan Yorkshire pudding, roast veggies, vegan chocolate and cranberry roulade, and a bottle of Gaillac Perle.
“Christmas can be a stressful time and this research shows just how many different tastes festive home chefs across the nation are catering for,” said Tesco executive chef, Martyn Lee. “With pre-prepared and scratch-made suggestions, our new festive menu creation service is designed to help people looking for inspiration on what to cook to keep all their guests happy, and hopefully help ‘designated chefs’ across the nation feel a little calmer come Christmas day.”
Further data shows that 36 percent of Christmas hosts say they are worried about preparing a meal that guests will enjoy while 35 percent are overwhelmed by cooking for a group. Tesco, along with other UK supermarket chains, have anticipated this by launching festive vegan ready meal options.
Tesco’s holiday range includes last year’s popular vegan cauliflower wellington plus a dairy-free spiced fruit cake and a festive sandwich from its Wicked Kitchen range. Waitrose, ASDA, and Iceland have each also launched own-brand vegan Christmas ranges.
To view Tesco’s Festive Menu Helper, see here.
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