From menus showcasing regional cuisine in economy class to fine dining in first class, for many passengers, the food and drink served onboard are crucial components of their inflight experience. Airline food has come a long way in recent years, with carriers around the world now hoping to cater to a wide range of dietary requirements and preferences.
Photo: SriLankan Airlines
Let’s take a look at some of the highest quality vegan selections available onboard airlines across the world that are worthy of a chef’s kiss.
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Emirates
Emirates serves more than 400,000 plant-based meals onboard its flights each year, and with a selection of more than 300 vegan recipes, the carrier prides itself on offering one of the most extensive vegan menus in the skies. All passengers can pre-order vegan meals up to 24 hours before their flight, while on routes with high demand, vegan options are available as standard.
Photo: Emirates
As published on Emirates’ website, among the vegan dishes currently on offer in each travel class are:
- Economy class – 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.
- Premium economy – braised mushrooms with vegetables in five-spice soy sauce, served with steamed jasmine rice and blanched pak choi. Vegan dessert options include chocolate tart drizzled in apricot compote and raspberry tonka mousse cake with berry coulis.
- Business class – Thai red curry tofu with eggplant, beans, mushrooms, and taro in aromatic gravy, served with steamed jasmine rice. For dessert, vegan options include tropical coconut pineapple cake and chocolate pecan cake.
- First class – those lucky enough to be traveling in Emirates’ first class cabin will be treated to the highest standard of vegan cuisine, such as creamy polenta cake with thyme mushroom ragout, sautéed spinach drizzled in a rich root vegetable jus, eggplant curry with charred rice and turmeric potato, with a dash of coconut, and mint chutney, and warm chocolate fondant, dashed with salted caramel sauce and whipped cashew cream.
The carrier recently introduced dairy-free milk options for travelers in premium economy and economy class, and more than 30,000 passengers have sampled them so far. Children are also well catered for, with specially curated vegan meals also available, and vegan options have already been available for Emirates pilots and cabin crew for over nine years.
Photo: Emirates
Emirates’ vegan offering is not limited to onboard its vast fleet of 116 Airbus A380s, three A350-900s, ten Boeing 777-200LRs, and 123 777-300ERs – the carrier also caters to vegan passengers traveling in first and business class in each of its seven lounges at Dubai International Airport (DXB). According to the airline, the most in-demand vegan dish served in its lounges is the Emirates Green Burger – a soya and flax seed green burger, with a signature sauce and pickled cucumbers.
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Cathay Pacific
In order to best serve its vegan passengers, Cathay Pacific has teamed up with the acclaimed Hong Kong vegetarian restaurant Veda to create inspiring plant-based meal options onboard.
Photo: Cathay Pacific
Veda’s Executive Chef, Raul Tronco Calahorra, worked with a team of specialists to design the menus, taking influences from some of the regions served by Cathay Pacific, including the Indian subcontinent, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Some of the meals also contain a plant-based pork alternative made by Plant Sifu, a Hong Kong brand.
In total, 16 meals have been developed, made up of six appetizers and ten mains. Speaking about the dishes, Raul Tronco Calahorra said,
“The food had to taste good while being as vibrant as possible. Not only that, but I needed to adapt my recipes to include ingredients that could consistently be sourced for potentially thousands of meals a day. Can they get the same paneer I’m using, or the same tofu? The challenge isn’t the mass production – you can get a big pot and cook 1,000 liters of a sauce – but the assembly.”
With limited cooking facilities in an aircraft galley, much of the preparation is done at Cathay Pacific’s dedicated catering facility near to its base at Hong Kong International Airport (HKG). The final preparation is then completed by the cabin crew onboard the aircraft that operate the carrier’s long-haul and ultra-long-haul flights. These include 30 Airbus A350-900s, 18 A350-1000s, and 36 Boeing 777-300ERs. Cathay Pacific also has 21 Boeing 777-9s and 30 Airbus A330neos, with deliveries due to start in 2026 and 2028, respectively.
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All Nippon Airways
Another carrier to proudly serve an extensive vegan selection is All Nippon Airways. The airline’s offering varies by season, and for its latest menu, it has teamed up with the award-winning chef, Hideki Takayama, who said,
“I have always wanted to bring the joy of eating in a restaurant into the aircraft cabin, and have finally realized this through this collaboration. Amid growing health consciousness, ANA has added vegan, vegetarian, and gluten-free dishes to its inflight menu, so that more customers can enjoy its meals as they fly to their destination. These meals are all “universal” meals. Working in collaboration with the ANA team, I have selected the best possible ingredients and produced great-tasting, nutritional dishes that are also low in calories. I very much hope that these will make for a delightful dining experience.”
Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying
According to All Nippon Airways’ website, among the vegan options currently available are:
-
Appetizers
- Cauliflower and tofu mousse with vegetable gelée
- Spring roll with field caviar dressing
- Wood cauliflower mushroom and seaweed salad with field caviar dressing and kaffir lime oil
- Edamame mousseline and green asparagus with tapenade
-
Mains
- Green curry and five grain rice
- Grilled tofu gâteau style with white miso and cèpe and bulgur salad
- Vegetable pilaf stewed red lentils and vegetables
The Vegan options listed above are available to all passengers, regardless of travel class, but must be requested at least 24 hours before departure. It is not just on its vegan menus that All Nippon Airways has teamed up with some of Japan’s leading chefs, with the carrier working with Michelin-starred chefs for its standard business class meals:
From its hubs at Tokyo Narita Airport (NRT) and Tokyo Haneda Airport (HND), All Nippon Airways operates a fleet of more than 200 aircraft, including:
- Airbus A320neo x 11
- Airbus A321neo x 22
- Boeing 737-800 x 39
- Boeing 767-300ER x 21
- Boeing 777-200ER x 8
- Boeing 777-300ER x 13
- Boeing 787-8 x 34
- Boeing 787-9 x 44
- Boeing 787-10 x 7.
A number of the Star Alliance carrier’s aircraft sport special Star Wars liveries, offering a unique experience for fans of the films.
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What about other carriers worldwide?
Over the past decade, the aviation industry has caught up with the growing numbers of passengers with a requirement or preference for vegan meals. Among the other airlines offering an extensive selection of vegan options today are:
- Singapore Airlines – high-quality vegan options are a fvailable or all passengers by pre-ordering.
- Qantas – serves a variety of seasonal vegan and vegetarian dishes.
- American Airlines – according to VegNews, around 23% of American Airlines’ passengers pre-order a vegan meal.
- Delta Air Lines – the SkyTeam carrier has partnered with Impossible Foods and Black Sheep to offer tasty plant-based meat alternatives in all travel classes.
Photo: Photo: Markus Mainka | Shutterstock
- Alaska Airlines – vegan options available in all travel classes, including the harissa and chorizo frittata and a spciy tofu wrap.
- Air Canada – vegan meals created by the Montreal chef Jérôme Ferrer, such as a chickpea wrap, are available for pre-order.
- United Airlines – the Star Alliance carrier uses meat alternatives from Impossible Foods in its vegan and vegetarian dishes.
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