Plant-based umami can help people eat more vegetables
New e-cookbook provides 13 simple umami rich recipes for Meatless Monday and every day
New York, NY (October 30th 2019) – In recent years, the plant-based and plant-forward sector has seen unprecedented growth. According to a study conducted by the International Food Information Council, 69% of Americans are trying to consume more plant-based foods, indicating a need for products that help households easily prepare delicious plant-based meals.
Despite the desire to eat more plant-based, many still encounter challenges when preparing plant-based foods. For many people, vegetables are perceived as bland or less tasty compared to meat, and this perception is especially relevant for children. The flavor that makes meat craveable is linked to a taste called umami. Umami is the savory and satisfying taste that is associated with amino acids, the building blocks of protein.
Yondu Culinary Studio, a New York-based food lab devoted to promoting plant-based umami, has partnered with Meatless Monday to create “Meatless Umami Meals,” a cookbook of meatless recipes featuring umami seasoning sauce Yondu. Yondu Vegetable Umami is a new organic seasoning sauce made out of vegetables that is an all-natural source of umami. Yondu gets its umami from triple fermented organic soybeans combined with the broth of eight different fresh vegetables such as mushrooms, leeks, garlic, radish and ginger.
“We’re excited that Yondu provides an easy way to add umami to plant-based meals. This cookbook provides simple recipe ideas to prepare each Meatless Monday, and helps those who may be struggling to cook more vegetables at home. We are always looking for new products and cooking techniques that make it easier to prepare more plant-based meals, giving everyone the opportunity to make a positive impact on their health and the health of the planet,” said Joy Lehman, Meatless Monday Campaign & Communications Manager.
“At Yondu Culinary Studio, we strongly believe that a healthy lifestyle starts with home cooking. Through cooking classes, recipe development and seminars, we work to give culinary support to the home-cook striving for a healthier and more sustainable diet. Yondu has been the secret ingredient for many professional chefs worldwide, and now we want it to be the new pantry staple for anyone who loves good food.” Said Jaume Biarnes, Yondu Culinary Studio Director.
The 13 original recipes in this e-cookbook are developed to minimize ingredients, cooking time and cooking steps while maximizing flavor thanks to Yondu Vegetable Umami. This e-cookbook will support efforts to incorporate more plant-based meals with easy-to-prepare recipes for Meatless Monday or any day.
Press Contact:
Yondu Culinary Studio
Chef Jaume Biarnés
646- 675-0018
Victoria Jing
626-400-8419
Meatless Monday
Nara Sandberg
212-991-1055
Cherry Dumaual
212-991-1056
About Yondu
Yondu is a brand from Sempio Foods Company, a family-owned company from South Korea that has been mastering the art of plant-based fermentation for three generations since 1946.
Throughout history, Koreans would use plant-based fermentation techniques to add flavor to their vegetables, leading to a food culture that is largely plant-based, with some of the highest vegetable consumption in the world.
Yondu Vegetable Umami is 60 years in the making, culminating from a true mastery of fermentation combined with the forefront of R&D and culinary research collaborations worldwide. Yondu is largely used by international Chefs like Pascal Barbot (L’Astrance, Paris) or Joan Roca (El Celler de Can Roca, Girona), among many others. It has been praised by Chef José Andrés as one of his pantry staples in his latest book “Vegetables Unleashed” saying that “Think of it as a vegetarian fish sauce, a concentration of plant-based glutamates that makes almost all savory food taste better”.
About Meatless Monday
Meatless Monday is a nonprofit public health initiative founded by Sid Lerner, chairman of The Monday Campaigns. The initiative is in association with the Lerner Centers for Public Health Promotion at Johns Hopkins, Columbia and Syracuse universities. Meatless Monday encourages the public to cut back on meat consumption one day a week to reduce the risk of chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and cancer, and lessen the environmental impact of meat production on climate change, water and land use. The campaign is founded on research that demonstrates Monday is the day we are most primed to start and sustain a healthy new behavior. Since its launch on 2003, Meatless Monday has become an international movement in more than 40 countries with support from governments, schools, celebrities, restaurants, and local and global organizations.
