I tried the “Pollen + Grace mezze houmous and rainbow veg grain bowl” on British Airways and thought it was fabulous…the sort of superfood that I go out of my way to eat at home…which is rare for an airline meal.
Pollen + Grace Mezze Houmous and Rainbow Veg Grain Bowl On British Airways
A superfood is “a nutrient-rich food considered to be especially beneficial for health and well-being.” As I age (and attempt to age gracefully), I’m eating more of those foods and less of the processed crap that makes people fat.
While browsing the inflight menu on my British Airways flight from London (LHR) to Basel (BSL), I stumbled upon this dish from Pollen + Grace, a London-based company that focuses on fresh, plant-based food:
We make food that helps you feel good and we believe this starts with natural, fresh meals made from whole food, plant ingredients. Which is why our meals are packed full of fresh veg, wholegrains, pulses, legumes, herbs and spices, with at least 10 plant varieties in every meal. They’re made by chefs, backed by nutritionists and ready to eat whenever you are.
As British Airways describes the mezze houmous and rainbow veg grain bowl:
The hero of this Middle Eastern-inspired salad is the creamy homemade houmous, perfectly balanced with dukkah quinoa, cayenne-roasted sweet potato, harissa-roasted chickpeas, fresh cucumber, rocket, pickled cabbage, and a herby zhoug dressing.
Pollen + Grace pack their meals full of delicious, natural ingredients that taste good and do good. This one contains 11g of protein, 10g of fibre and 14 plant points towards the recommended 30 a week.
I had to look it up, but zhoug is a spicy, herby sauce/marinade/dip from Yemen that is really delicious (the last country in the Middle East I have to visit…).
This dish costs £6.50 or 1165 Avios and can be ordered anywhere from 30 days up to 24 hours (18 hours if flying out of LHR) before your flight.
Fine, fine…the description sounds great. But how would it taste? Would it even be loaded?
Shortly after we leveled off, before the buy-on-board service commenced, the meal was delivered to my seat:
Unwrapping it, it looked good (though not quite as nice as the stock photos).
But after putting on the dressing and digging in, I was delighted by the fresh taste and juxtaposition of flavors in this dish…and it was even healthy.
While picking up my (empty) box the flight attendant commented how much she loved this dish too (let’s hope her colleague was not this flight attendant!).
I highly recommend this dish on your next BA short- or mid-haul flight.
Each week, my Meal of the Week feature examines an airline meal from my travels over the years. This may be a meal from earlier in the week or it may be a meal served over a decade ago.
“Unwrapping it, it looked good (though not quite as nice as the stock photos).” Don’t they always?
Lol
Please tell me you intend to age gracefully! Anyway the food is so colorful how can it not be delicious.
Yikes
That looks great and reminds me of a similarly healthy meal (smoked salmon and grain bowl) I got on the Swedish high speed train recently. If only the BOB options on US airlines was like this! (I know you love the UA cheeseburger 😉 but it’s the opposite of this!)
I am shocked you had never had zhug before — it’s very common in both Israel as well as Middle Eastern restaurants in LA
Even more common in Arabin peninsula countries.
You went to Syria? I’m looking forward to that review.
And, how tough would it be for US carriers to make something like that available as a coach meal option?
It would be useless & wasteful. Obese, diabetic Americans love their junk food/drink ( & guns ) too much to even look at such options. Just observe at the total proliferation of franchised junk fast food that litters this country.
Why does the food always taster better in Europe ?
Case closed, sadly.
It’s sad that this is probably right. I prefer whole wheat pasta. Grocery stores used to have many choices, but now have few. It’s not their fault, they just respond to sales numbers. Still, I think making this a vegetarian choice might have enough non-vegetarian converts to keep it around. I’m probably just delusional.
While much of this meal appears healthy the problem with preprocessed, packaged foods remains – way, way too much sodium. The American Heart Assoc. recommends for most people a target maximum daily consumption of 1500 mg of sodium. If I’m reading the label properly this one meal contains 1800 mg (1.8 g) of sodium – more than the entire day’s recommended maximum consumption. I would not be able to eat this, and the same should apply to the 50% of American adults with high blood pressure. Airplane food in general is unhealthy … don’t be mislead that this item is an exception.
JP –
Good point. But I wonder if most of that excess sodium is concentrated solely in the dressing. It seems unlikely that
it would be added to all the other ‘fresh’ ingredients. Many similar entrees ( in the US ) show two nutritional breakdown columns: one with ‘dressing’ & one without.
Still these companies may still inject extra sodium & sugar to compensate for less fat, or vice verse in their subterfuge to portray their slop as ‘healthy’ or ‘natural’ …. Buyer beware !
From official EU guidelines:
《Therein, ‘salt means the salt equivalent content calculated using the formula: salt = sodium × 2,5’.》
They list salt, rather than sodium, so the conversion is about 40%. Note, that a product can have no salt as an ingredient, but since it has sodium, you’ll see salt on the nutritional label. So, 1800mg (1.8 g) of salt here is 720 mg of sodium. So, it’s just under half your 1,500 mg cutoff. Not really all that bad for processed food, but still about half your daily sodium for 20-25% of your daily calories.
Aside from the seed oils (rapeseed in this case), it looks like a great meal!
Yeah, kudos to the BA for offering a decent buy-on-board option.
I had that last year. It was delicious. Have to order it online before the flight.