Plant Pioneers Tuna

Hey everyone!

I hope you’re enjoying all the new posts in food, I spent a long time looking into different recipes I hadn’t covered yet and my big thing which I wanted to tackle was fishless fish alternatives. I really enjoyed Seaspiracy and thought the documentary showed an incredible insight about how the fishing industry is such a prevelent cause of harm to not only the environment but human rights around the world. It’s a very fascinating piece because it also let’s people know where the benefits of eating fish come from, which is the aquatic plant life, and what salmon farms actually look like. You’re not eating the benefits of a fish in 2021, you’re not catching fish from the local lake, it’s mass produced, low quality poor meat that has very little flavour.

So Plant Pioneers is a fabulous new brand and they have some genius people behind them, because I always wanted to know why they didn’t do fish alternatives with the older brands. I know you can make tuna alternatives from chickpeas, but I have yet to see even a slightly comparable texture, until now! So No Chuna comes in tins that look exactly like tuna cans, but they are vegan. I don’t really know how to describe the fragrance as they are flavoured, so the lemon and black pepper version was just citrusy. The garlic and chilli was mildly flavoured like garlic, but they don’t have the obvious fishy smell. That can be added if you so wish, you can actually buy nori which is dried seaweed, and you can add vegan fish sauce from any Thai grocerers.

I added them to a few different dishes including a salad, a pasta bake and a panini, and I think it works absolutely in all variations. The flavours add something to the meal you’re making, but the texture is pretty comparable to tuna. It’s got a resistence to it which reminds me of some of the Linda McCartney products that are slightly meaty, perhaps the mince they used to do? But it’s not the same as vegetarian meat alternatives. It’s got a milder texture, more like a mushroom, and it’s easily adaptable. When you eat it as it comes, it’s a more noticable ingredient. I did notice that when added to a baked dish it started to disintegrate a little. It wasn’t prominent, so perhaps if you were doing a baked dish I’d add it as a topping rather than in a sauce.

But what a genius idea, and totally great for people looking to et all those high protein benefits of eating fish, without the fishing industry.

Let me know if you try these new products!