Veganuary: Emirates Highlights Innovation and Culinary Excellence

Refined vegan cuisine is an important consideration at Emirates, as numbers of vegan customers continue to rise globally, and many non-vegan customers opt for vegan cuisine when flying, as a lighter option often considered easier to digest.

Emirates continues to expand its portfolio of vegan cuisine by workshopping new dishes made with innovative ingredients, such as a lookalike solid egg substitute made entirely from legumes, which packs a tasty and nutritional punch for Emirates customers, as well as adding curated vegan meals for children, and new dishes onboard and in lounges.

Emirates’ continuous commitment to innovative vegan meals

Marking Veganuary, an initiative that has highlighted the benefits of a vegan diet for the last decade, a collective of Emirates’ talented chefs gather in Emirates Flight Catering Concept Development Kitchen to workshop new dishes, and experiment with the latest innovative ingredients on the market.

At the workshop, chefs trialled the new solid egg substitute in a spicy shakshuka sauce and developed a premade vegan pastry sheet into savoury vegan cannelloni, as well as evaluating some of the celebrated ingredients and high-quality products already onboard.

Emirates offers an impressive selection of 300+ vegan recipes, served on flights to 140 destinations worldwide. The extensive menu showcases an array of high-quality plant-based products sourced from global suppliers, like plant-based proteins from Beyond Meat in California, soybean protein from UAE and Singapore brand Arlene, pressed tofu sourced from Japan's Qian Ye for authentic Asian flavours, organic dark vegan chocolate crafted by Linnolat in France, vegan margarine from Meister Marken in Germany, vegan curry paste supplied by Pantai in Thailand and almond milk from Italy's Koita. Emirates also emphasizes sustainability by integrating fresh produce from Bustanica, the world’s largest hydroponic vertical farm.

This farm is a joint venture with Emirates Flight Catering that delivers pesticide and chemical-free leafy greens like lettuce, arugula, mixed salad greens, and spinach, directly to Emirates’ catering facilities. Emirates recently introduced individual vegan milk servings onboard in Economy and Premium Economy Class, with more than 30,000 customers a month selecting this option for their coffee and tea.

Highlighting its commitment to culinary excellence for all customers, Emirates recently introduced vegan meals for children. Kids vegan meals currently include tasty and tempting dishes like vegan pizza, sweet and sour vegetable casserole, vegetable fajitas, vegan muffins, cauliflower bites with sweet sauce and desserts like strawberry crumble and vegan chocolate pudding.

Vegan options are available to order and pre-order onboard, as well as in Emirates Lounges. Customers can request vegan meals on all Emirates flights and across all classes of travel up to 24 hours before departure. However, on high-demand routes, plant-based meals are also provided as part of the main menu options.

Emirates’ vegan cuisine in every class

Serving more than 400,000 plant based meals onboard every year, Emirates offers vegan cuisine  across every class. Last year, vegan meal consumption grew in line with passenger volumes, but in some regions, consumption has exceeded passenger volume growth -  such as  Africa, Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Many Emirates Cabin Crew also follow a plant-based diet, and Emirates has offered vegan meals for Cabin Crew for the last 9 years.

In Economy class, Emirates customers can enjoy dishes like crêpes filled with sautéed carrots and peppers, served with roasted potatoes, mushrooms and tomato concassé, or curried vegetable puffs, and chocolate mousse cake with chocolate sauce and blackberry crumble.

In Premium Economy class, customers choosing vegan cuisine will be served delicious dishes like braised mushrooms with vegetables in five spice soy sauce, served with steamed jasmine rice and blanched pak choi, followed by desserts like chocolate tart drizzled in apricot compote or raspberry tonka mousse cake with berry coulis.

In Business class, a range of elegant and creatively curated dishes are offered including Thai red curry tofu with aubergine, beans, mushrooms and taro in aromatic gravy, served with steamed jasmine rice. Customers who have room for dessert can feast on a tropical coconut pineapple cake or indulge in a chocolate pecan cake.

In First class, customers will be treated to exceptionally elevated vegan cuisine like creamy polenta cake with thyme mushroom ragout, sautéed spinach drizzled in a rich root vegetable jus. Dishes offering a burst of sophisticated flavours include aubergine curry with charred rice and turmeric potato, with a dash of coconut and mint chutney.

Decadent desserts feature curated contrasts including the tartness of rhubarb tempered with strawberry charlotte, Chantilly cream and raspberry tuille, or a tempting warm chocolate fondant, dashed with salted caramel sauce and whipped cashew cream.

Crafted vegan options in Emirates’ Lounges Dubai

At Dubai International Airport, Emirates has 7 lounges located in its flagship Terminal 3 - 3 for First Class and 3 for Business Class customers, as well as newly opened Emirates’ Lounge catering to all premium customers.

The lounges offer a wide array of vegan options, from soya and pea protein crispy pops at the Business Class Lounge Snack Counter, to Baharat and turmeric spiced kofta in coconut gravy at the buffet area, and an à la carte breakfast of warm amaranth porridge with compressed green apples, red grapes, raspberries and walnuts in the First Class Lounge, amongst many others.

In addition to an array of popular vegan salads, the most in demand vegan dish in the lounges is the Emirates Green Burger – a soya and flax seed green burger, with a signature sauce and pickled cucumbers.