Battle Of The Brands: Which Supermarket Has The Best Vegan Range?

The big five supermarkets have all branched out into producing their own brand of vegan food, ranging from ready-made pizzas to vegan meats, to nut roasts. We recommend the best each has to offer.

Sainsbury’s Plant Pioneers vegan range

Plant Pioneers carries a fairly wide range of vegan meals, meaning if you already do your weekly shop at Sainsbury’s but are looking to incorporate more vegan products into your life, the options are certainly there. Plant pioneers’ focus is more on vegan meats rather than ready meals, and there are a lot of good options here: I cannot recommend the shroomdog caramelised onion sausages enough, which are perfect for vegan and vegetarian toad-in-a-hole dinners. 

Plant pioneers are good for vegan meats to throw on the barbeque; the sausages and the quarter pounders have a great flavour and meaty texture. However, its other products can have mixed reviews, like the vegan mince, and jackfruit-based dishes.

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We recommend: Shroomdog caramelised onion sausages; take it out of the casing for sausage pasta dishes or cook on the grill for great hot dogs.

Special mention goes to the vegan steaks, and though vegan steaks don’t tend to have the best rep, these are a favourite of many. 

Tesco’s Plant Chef and Wicked Kitchen vegan range

Tesco probably has the most extensive vegan range of the five, boasting of two plant-based ranges. Plant Chef is the basic range of plant-based products, while Wicked Kitchen is the premium range, made in collaboration with vegan chef legend Derek Sarno. Between the two of them, you can pick up everything from ready-made mushroom stroganoff to black olive pesto to a red velvet brownie. 

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We recommend: Wicked Kitchen’s spicy mushroom and vegetable pizza for a crisp, flavoursome and quality pizza.

Special mention goes to Plant Chef’s vegan sausage rolls which cook quickly with deliciously flaky results. 

Asda’s Plant-Based vegan range

Asda’s vegan range is as simple as the name and branding, so is often overlooked despite having one of the most consistent ranges of the big five. Consisting mainly of vegan oven food and meats, it is perfect for those lazy days when you want a bit of beige on your plate: think no-zzerella sticks and veggie fingers. 

Asda has just released more to the range, including vegan cocktail sausages, Piri chicken burgers, and anticipating Christmas, vegan sage and onion stuffing balls that we can’t wait to get our hands on. 

We recommend: vegan spicy bean burgers, which are crisp and with a great kick. 

Special mention must go to the duckless spring rolls, which are great for fakeaways. 

Aldi’s Plant Menu vegan range

Aldi is the unsung hero of vegan food in supermarkets: here is a complete list of everything they stock that is vegan friendly, from own-brand alcohol to breakfast cereals to sweet treats. Concerning the plant-menu range, Aldi also has a good-sized vegan range of mainly frozen foods and ready meals. It concentrates less on creating vegan meat, and has a more wholefoods approach to vegan substitutes; the mushroom bolognese and vegan pasties are great examples of this. 

Apart from the teriyaki burger, in which every mouthful was more confusing than the last, the Plant Menu is quite good and the range is often quite surprising, serving vegan Sri Lankan, Korean and even Zanzibari inspired cuisine.

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We recommend: Plant menu no chicken burger

Special mention must go to the sheeze and onion roll, which became a staple for picnics after lockdown.

Morrison’s V Taste vegan range

Morrisons has a great reputation for its vegan range, having aisles in supermarkets stocked to the brim with Linda McCartney’s goodies — but what about its own vegan range? Its food range consists of 34 products, but the majority of them are really well liked. Offering no-lamb koftas and Indian-inspired quarter pounders, Morrisons has the most consistently good quality vegan range of the lot. 

We recommend: V Taste No chicken strips, as the breadcrumb is spicy and delicious. 

Special mention must go to the nut roast, which would have been the recommended product but it is unfortunately out of stock at the time of writing. Hopefully Christmas rectifies that very, very soon.