Vegetable soyburg of San-iku Foods

Recently, I have introduced some vegan instant foods. It’s wonderful that more and more companies have got interested in new business concerning vegan foods and have been trying to make delicious and convenient products. Such trend is relatively new in Japan, however, as for vegetarian instant foods, there is a company San-iku Foods (三育フーズ) with long years of experience. The other day, I happened to find their product sold at a discount price at BIO Atsumi. It is a retort pouch of “VEGETABLE-SOYBURG Teri Yaki Sauce Taste.”

On the top of the pouch, you can see the mark of the company that represents a church beyond green fields. San-iku Foods is an affiliated company of Seventh-day Adventist Church, a Christian denomination that promotes a lacto-ovo vegetarian diet.

The ingredients are onion, soy protein, cabbage, bread crumbs, plant oil, plant-based powdered bouillon, starch (corn), egg white powder, sweetened sake, soy sauce, spice, cocoa, sauce (onion, soy sauce, sugar, wheat flour, plant oil, plant protein enzyme decomposer, spice, cacao coloring). The soyburg looked delicious after boiled for three minutes and put on a dish. Additionally, I stir-fried onion and green pepper.

The inside looked like this.

It looked meaty. As I ate it, I found the texture was meaty indeed and dense. I didn’t notice the flavor of soybeans at all. Though it was a teriyaki soyburg, the sauce was mild without a strong flavor of soy sauce. I thought it is suitable for many people and felt something in common with vegetarian dishes served in Buddhist temples here.

Though I’m not very interested in religions and don’t know much about Seventh-day Adventist Church, I think San-iku Foods has greatly contributed to make vegetarian foods more accessible. They provide a variety of products such as soyburg, soyball, vegetable meat sauce, canned gluten meat, granola, peanut butter, etc. They are easily found in natural food stores but not in ordinary supermarkets, I guess. On Amazon Japan, you can find some of their products by searching with “Saniku vegetarian.”