Retort pouch vegan curry made by Kagome

When I bought Samurai Ramen through Amazon Japan the other day, they offered free shipping on orders of 2,000 yen and over. So, I ordered a box of retort pouch curry in addition to the ramen. It contained five pouches and was intended for wholesale. Maybe it isn’t available in ordinary supermarkets as I have never seen it before. It was manufactured by Kagome, a major Japanese food company known for its ketchup, sauce, juice, etc., with history of over 120 years. One pouch was smaller than I thought and looked like this.  

At the upper left corner, there is a vegan mark. This is certified by VegeProject Japan. In fact, I had never heard of it before until I saw this mark this time (it’s embarrassing!). According to their website (http://www.vegeproject.org/), they are an NPO working to increase vegan/vegetarian options. They provide some useful information also in English.

The name of curry is “Mix Beans Vegetable Curry.” The ingredients are onion, red kidney beans, white kidney beans, chickpeas, carrot puree, onion saute, soybean oil, tomtate paste, soymilk fermented food, fried onion, apple puree, Wooster sauce, mixed vegetable saute, white kidney bean puree, garlic puree, spice, granulated sugar, salt, starch, and vegetable broth.

This curry is supposed to be medium-spicy. But when I started eating, I thought it was rather mild. Maybe I have been too accustomed to spicy foods such as Samurai Ramen and couldn’t appreciate its spiciness or taste. The curry was well-made and was not bad at all, but I still felt something was lacking. I longed for Chana Masala and Dal Curry made at Indian restaurants. Maybe it is a matter of personal preference.

At the beginning of this year, Kagome released this “Mix Beans Vegetable Curry” and “Soy Meat Keema Curry.” In addition, they produce three kinds of vegan pasta sauce that were released earlier. I appreciate their efforts very much. When you search with words “Kagome Vegan” on Amazon Japan (the language can be switched to English or Simplified Chinese), you can see these two kinds of vegan curry and Mushroom Soy Milk Cream (pasta sauce) on sale. If you live in Japan and have difficulty finding vegan instant foods at local supermarkets, Amazon Japan may be convenient and helpful.