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Dear QSRs: Why can't plants be themselves?

In this increasingly plant-based meat world, have QSRs forgotten that plants —  sans the meaty masquerade —  are actually pretty darn good foods themselves?

August 5, 2019 by S.A. Whitehead — Food Editor, Net World Media Group

When Burger King opted to take its Impossible Whopper nationwide last week —  just days after Dunkin' dropped its breakfast sandwiches into the plant-based protein game along with news of Tim Hortons' test of plant-based eggs and Baskin-Robbins introduction of plant-based ice cream — something really welled up inside my big ol' vegetarian heart. You QSRs are really trying to be more sustainable in your menus, respond to your diners and just generally accommodate folks like me, who root for veggies wherever we go. 

I am really touched. After all, in this largely carnivorous nation, I know it can be tough to get all warm and fuzzy about non-meat eaters. Heck, my own 92-year-old mother nearly disowned me when I went vegetarian some years back, proclaiming that "It's just a horrible shame! God intended us to eat meat for heaven's sake!"

But you, my beloved fast food joints (save you folks at the marrot-making, Arby's, grrr) have really stepped up to the disposable plate, working tirelessly to bring all manner of plant-based meats, eggs and cheese to me and my veg-loving kin. 

And really, a special thanks here is due to brands that led the way in this, like Subway, White Castle and Burger King, which all offered plant-based patties long before it became the thing to do. Especially, White Castle which boldly went where no fast food burger joint had gone before last September with one of the first QSR launches of an Impossible Burger spin-off in its Impossible Slider. 

So all this is to say that I'm grateful. I truly am. But, as a woman who sustains herself on plants, grains, fruits and lentils, I have just one question: What do QSRs have against plants playing themselves? 

Yes, we have burgers and sausage and cheese and eggs and all manner of plants masquerading as meats and other animal-derived products, but what's wrong with a bean as a bean, or — heaven forbid — broccoli as its florety self?

Is this all really just a 'flexitarian' thing?

I'm really hoping this isn't what's behind all this plant-based QSR activity, but I have a sneaking suspicion all this QSR vegetable meat-ification is really not so much to placate plant-eaters like myself, but a play for the tastes and dollars of that sometimes-plant eater. You know, the flexitarian? 

In fact, all the data appears to back this up, frankly, with study after study showing the same. 

And I have to admit, this veg-centric diner is a little crushed. I mean, I thought we had something, you and me, QSRs. Now I find you're just making a play for those less-committed semi-meat eaters and you're really not too worried about vegetarians and vegans having a happy drive-thru at all. Frankly, I think it's a little short-sighted of you.

After all, if flavor and culinary experimentation are — as so much recent research has indicated — big drivers of the increasing urge to eat out among Americans, wouldn't that smorgasbord of tastes known as the vegetable kingdom be a no-brainer for menu inspiration? 

Don't take my word for it. Just look at some of the components of some of the world's most popular cuisines today, like the Middle Eastern-derived, eggplant-based baba ghanoush, or the many variations of that Latin American staple, refried beans, not to mention all the fantastic concoctions made of sister foods in the grains and fruit groups. 

And talk about on-trend! 

Vegetables have it hands-down in their alignment with today's QSR trends, including:

• Value: Just compare the price of those beans to burger meat.
• Health: All those long-established body benefits of plants as food sources of everything from vitamins to antioxidants.
• Instagram-ability: What could be more colorful and camera-worthy than a plate of fruits and vegetables, versus a slab of mostly monotone meat? 

So I have a challenge

I admittedly am biased in my persuasion on this issue (hence the clear labeling that this is an opinion-tilted blog), but I still think there's — for lack of a better term — meat on this bone. And yet for most QSRs, the very idea of putting a brand's culinary experts to work on great center-of-the-plate vegetable dish development is largely unheard of. 

But, why not? Why do meat-eaters get all the variety in still more meat-flavored versions of the vegetables that are doing the real work as plant-based meats. Let's see what you QSRs can do with a green bean, pea pod or even an "Ugli" fruit, presented as just what they are. 

After all, what is one of the most loved and well-associated QSR foods of all time? That's right, the French fry — a.k.a. a potato playing a potato. Imagine that. Your brand could be the inventor of the next French fry ... chew on that one a little while. 

Photo: iStock

About S.A. Whitehead

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Pizza Marketplace and QSRweb editor Shelly Whitehead is a former newspaper and TV reporter with an affinity for telling stories about the people and innovative thinking behind great brands.