Simon Day eats a burger and considers becoming a vegetarian (again). 

For two years in my 20s, I was vegetarian. It was a choice based on the idea that it’s a much more efficient and much less environmentally invasive way to feed the world. I used to habitually roll out a quote attributed to Einstein: “Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet” (unfortunately, the quote is unverified and highly unlikely to be something he actually said). 

Coming into the summer of my second year abstaining from meat, I started to lapse. I was sneaking meat late at night; I’d slip a slice of steak in the kitchen when I plated friends’ meals before joining the dinner table with my vegetarian option. My belief in the reasons behind my decision to stop eating meat hadn’t waned, but I was tired, exhausted, of falafel and tofu. 

I love cooking and eating, and the most frustrating part of being vegetarian was the restriction it placed on the (meat-focused, yes) skills I had in the kitchen. I wanted to braise a lamb shank in red wine, not make another fucking chickpea curry. And while I deeply respect the importance of beans’ ability to feed many more people using less land and water than beef, I missed the taste of meat. The caramelised skin of chicken thighs charred on the barbecue. The rendered fat of lamb racks. Salty pork crackling. Gigantic slow-cooked beef short ribs that fall off their thick bones.

I couldn’t resist any longer, and I fell off the wagon. 

Today I eat meat most days. I still believe disrupting our food chain is the most important way to mitigate climate change but I struggle to walk away from the salty, savoury deliciousness of meat. But I do want to eat less meat, and as the plant-based revolution hits the mainstream, it feels easier than ever. 

Seven years ago the landscape looked very different for vegetarians. My decision disorientated the average Kiwi omnivore. My mother-in-law-to-be was deeply confused by what to do with me. A fantastic cook, she couldn’t understand how I could have a meal without a focal meat dish, despite her exquisite salad and roast vegetables being more than adequate. 

Once I returned to meat, friends told me they’d actively stopped inviting me around for dinner because it was too hard accommodating my dietary requirements. I’m sure it also had something to do with not wanting to hear that fucking Einstein quote again. 

In 2019, vegetarian and vegan lifestyles are much more visible, comprehensible and available to those who traditionally eat meat-and-three-veg seven days a week. Restaurants are going vegetarian for full months, my mother-in-law is cooking meat-free meals multiple nights a week, and macho documentaries on “the plant-based diet” are trending on Netflix. 

The rules are changing. Being aware of the impact your diet has on the world around you doesn’t need to come with labels and strict regulations (or Einstein quotes) anymore. Research out last month found 34% of New Zealanders are reducing their meat consumption or eating no meat at all. And everyone from the supermarket to local burger chains are making it easier for consumers to choose plant-based products instead. 

On Monday night I made the best burgers I’ve ever eaten. Using ground beef from my favourite boutique butcher, I covered them in cheese that caramelised in the pan. No lettuce, no tomato, just meat, cheese, mustard and mayo. The patty had a crisp burnt crust and a juicy interior. The cheese was nutty and sweet. It leaked burger juice all over my hands. 

On Wednesday I ate another burger – BurgerFuel’s Alternative Muscle, a vegetarian remix on their classic cheeseburger, the American Muscle. It features a plant-based patty made by The Alternative Meat Co., an Australian brand specialising in alternative mince, sausages and burgers. 

It’s an attempt to replicate the meat experience and the target market is omnivores who are trying to reduce their meat intake. BurgerFuel’s reasoning goes: “We are all aware of the growing dietary trend of flexitarians and reducetarians and it has always been important for us to provide options for all dietary lifestyle choices where possible. We wanted to cater to those who are wanting to limit their meat intake, but just love a good BurgerFuel cheeseburger.” 

The burger does exactly what a burger should. It’s salty and savoury. The patty is juicy and greasy. Its texture is tender. It’s simple, exactly how I like my burgers – rich patty, creamy cheese, sharp cleansing pickles, messy sauces and a soft bun. But it didn’t taste like a beef burger, it had its own distinct flavour. 

Does alternative protein need to emulate exactly what meat is? Or should it celebrate being something similar, something familiar, but also something unique? This was a burger in its own right. One I enjoyed and would order again. 

The aforementioned study also revealed that taste is a barrier to meat-eaters trying plant-based products, something The Alternative Meat Co. is trying to remedy. I had my share of chickpea patties and mushroom or tofu burgers during my stint and this is something else. It’s embracing the existential idea of a burger at the same time as providing an alternative. 

“We want to offer customers a satisfyingly ‘meaty’ experience to make their meat reduction journey easier… because there is no planet B,” is the Alternative Meat Co’s ethos. “We hoped to create a product that would be enjoyed by everyone, whether they’re vegan, vegetarian or flexitarian and looking to reduce meat a couple of days a week – and at the same time provide a simple way to reduce their impact on the environment while still getting their all-important protein.”

Honestly, I can’t see myself becoming a vegetarian again soon. But in this new moment, I don’t feel the need. The movement feels more inclusive, more tolerant and more exciting. After one burger, I’m inspired to try using the alternative mince to make a ragu and serve it with tagliatelle. I wanted to make plant-based koftas mixed with cumin and sumac. It feels compelling to know brands like BurgerFuel are on that same journey. And I don’t feel obliged to burden anyone with fake Einstein quotes.  

This content was created in paid partnership with BurgerFuel. Learn more about our partnerships here. 

A pair of innovative Kiwi startups have partnered with a Kiwi burger behemoth to bring two delicious, nutritious and under-appreciated local ingredients to the people.

Long gone are the days when a burger strictly equalled a meat patty, a bit of limp lettuce and a sad slice of tomato or two between a couple of buns, but while the meaty options have become increasingly wild and wonderful, it seems like vege burgers have remained a little, well, safe.

But with more and more alternative proteins coming to the fore, a whole new world is opening up to burger makers. Meat substitutes made from pea protein have hogged the limelight in recent years, but the team at BurgerFuel had their eye on something different – hemp. 

Hemp is a strain of cannabis that contains low levels of THC (that’s the psychoactive stuff), which basically means that no, it won’t get you high. But hemp seeds have a whole host of nutritional benefits, including being a dense source of protein – which makes them particularly appealing for use in a meat-free burger.

The reason you may not be particularly familiar with hemp as a food source is because until November last year, it was illegal to grow, manufacture or sell it as a food for humans. 

“When we did our first pop-up restaurant, we were basically selling animal food,” says Cameron Sims, an Auckland chef who sells hemp seed products through his business Plant Culture. 

Thankfully, these days Sims doesn’t have to skirt around the edges of the law, and he’s teamed up with BurgerFuel on a delicious new vegan burger. 

Sims, a big BurgerFuel fan, was in the Hamilton branch when he had a lightbulb moment. “I’d been playing around with hemp burgers at the time, and I was just like, ‘OK, I really want to help BurgerFuel bring a hemp burger to the menu. Let’s see if I can get BurgerFuel to get hemp out to the masses.”

The BurgerFuel team, meanwhile, came along to one of Sims’s pop-up restaurants, loved what they tasted and after dinner, made him an offer he couldn’t refuse. “I felt like I was getting approached by the mafia,” laughs Sims. “I didn’t even know who they were, but they were like you should come into our kitchen and we’ll play around.

“It went from there – I was back and forth heaps trying to educate them about all the properties of hemp seed and how it works, then we did multiple trial days. It was a long process – you step into their kitchen and they’re kind of like these mad scientists, they’re really relentless with getting it perfect. It really inspired me and I learnt a lot through the process.”

The development of the burger was a real team effort, and the result is the 100% locally sourced, 100% vegan Electric Pūhā burger (more on the pūhā bit later): crumbed hemp and broccoli bites (a combo of hemp seed butter, pumpkin seeds, chickpeas and broccoli), pūhā and cabbage kraut and hemp seed oil aioli join rocket, relish and avocado inside an organic hemp sourdough bun. 

BurgerFuel was keen for the hemp inclusion to be much more than token. “We’re seeing so many products on the market incorporating hemp, but we didn’t want to just sprinkle some seeds on a patty, we wanted to hero the flavour of hemp itself,” says Dylan Kelly, a member of BurgerFuel’s research and development team. 

Hemp has a unique earthy, nutty flavour that can challenge the taste buds at first – Sims equates the taste to “grassy pine nuts” – but after much trial and error the BurgerFuel team is confident they’ve nailed the flavour profile. They’re particularly pleased with how filling the burger is – if you have one for lunch, it’ll see you through well into dinner time. 

Sims, whose goal is for every New Zealander to eat three tablespoons of hemp seeds a day, is excited about taking the product mainstream. “There’s still a lot of confusion out there about what hemp is, and I think this is really going to help Kiwis to start getting more of it into their diet.”

Hemp isn’t the only unusual ingredient to feature in the Electric Pūhā burger – as the name suggests, the native leafy green pūhā also features, joining cabbage in a fermented kraut. 

To source the pūhā, BurgerFuel collaborated with Māori-owned South Taranaki company Kaitahi, whose primary focus is frozen smoothie drops that champion indigenous superfoods. The BurgerFuel team met Kaitahi’s business development manager Leonie Matoe (Ngā Rauru, Ngā Ruahine) at the Food Show in Auckland last year and loved what the company was doing, then later approached her about sourcing pūhā. 

Matoe, understandably wary of the ever-present risk of appropriation of Māori taonga, admits she was a little suspicious at first. “Just about every one of our cultural elements is exploited in some way, and food isn’t discounted from that. But once I understood the detail, and just the quality, wholesome meal these guys are serving up with the burger, then yeah, absolutely we wanted to work with that.

“That’s why developing that relationship with them right from the beginning was really important. It was along the way that we thought, ‘these guys are actually genuine, they want to support and help us, they want to celebrate us as a company as much as celebrating the ingredients’.”

It’s been a two-way street, with BurgerFuel gaining as much from the relationship as Kaitahi. “We were invited down to South Taranaki and saw where the pūhā was grown in the wild, and how Kaitahi had begun growing it in greenhouses,” explains Kelly. “It was a massive source of inspiration for us, seeing where the proceeds would be heading and tangibly seeing the effect it would have on the people. We just knew we were on the right track.”

Nutrition and wellbeing are at the heart of Kaitahi’s kaupapa, so the health-giving aspects of the burger appealed to her, says Matoe, as well as the benefits of bringing pūhā to a wider audience. “It’s another platform for indigenous food ingredients like pūhā to be shared with the population and communities that normally wouldn’t be exposed to it.

“That’s always been part of our vision,” she says. “That’s why we created Kaitahi, to share this awesome indigenous food with the world. So while it’s early days, we’re seeing a big company like BurgerFuel having indigenous ingredients on the menu as a win-win. And they’ve been great to work with, which has made the collaboration all the sweeter.”

BurgerFuel’s collaborations with both Kaitahi and Plant Culture will continue to develop, with hemp-based sides and a Kaitahi smoothie hitting the menu in coming months. It’s all about keeping it local, so keep an eye out for more collaborations with innovative New Zealand businesses in the future.

This content was created in paid partnership with Burger Fuel. Learn more about our partnerships here.