Top 5 meatless meals and plant-based promos you need to know about right now

Ad Age expanded its "Creativity Top 5" series to include new roundups of our favorite special-interest campaigns and ideas from brands. This week, we look at some of the latest meatless meals and plant-based promos. Visit our site each Thursday for a new list of niche campaigns from the past month. 

5. No floundering for Popeyes

As restaurants begin to promote meatless options for Lent, Popeyes Louisiana Chicken is bringing its Flounder Fish Sandwich back to its menus in the U.S. and Canada, but now with a choice of classic or spicy flavor profiles, similar to its signature chicken sister.

To fight the perception that fast feeders can’t be trusted with sea creatures, Popeyes enlisted agency Gut and New York social media personality “New York Nico” to interview Greeley Square pedestrians on their attitudes and expectations for fast-food fish, and then try Popeyes revamped sandwich. The people have spoken, and it’s good. One of the interviewees, the Staten Island-based Tiktok food vlogger who goes by “Cugine,” gave it high praise—"seven out of five Marones.”

Rivals highlighting fish for the season include White Castle, which is bringing back its breaded Shrimp Nibblers.

4. Banza Cascatelli

The gluten-free comfort-food brand Banza has teamed up with Dan Pashman, a James Beard Award-winning creator and host of the Sporkful podcast, to introduce the market’s first Cascatelli-style pasta made from chickpeas.

Inspired by the Italian word for “waterfall,” Cascatelli refers to the shape of the noodle, which has deep crevices to capture sauce, and a texture consumers can sink their teeth into. Pashman, who is credited for creating the shape, documented his three-year quest on his Sporkful podcast, including a recent episode about the development of the Banza version. Banza's Cascatelli launch coincides with a rollout of refreshed packaging for its pastas, which now include back-of-the-box recipes. For Cascatelli, an accompanying vegan “Vodka Sawse” from Dan Pelosi is included.

3. Babybel cheese

Bel Brands, the maker of “Laughing Cow” and other cheese snacks, is introducing plant-based Babybel cheeses this month.

Developed to taste like Mozzarella, Babybel Plant-Based mimics the taste of Babybel, now in a certified plant-based, non-GMO Project verified, vegan snack. The dairy-free version of the snack is also getting distinct packaging, swapping the signature red wax for green.

Bel’s development team went through a detailed process to test, refine and finalize the recipe for Babybel Plant-Based, a spokeswoman said. Ultimately, they landed on a recipe that uses fewer than 10 ingredients, including coconut oil and natural flavors and colors.

Bel Brands will also be expanding its Nurishh plant-based offerings this spring with the introduction of cubes and a cream cheese style spread, as well as new flavors of shreds and slices. Its Laughing Cow brand will also introduce plant-based varieties of its creamy snack cheese this year.

2. Everything Legendary

Fresh off a presentation on “Shark Tank” in which they collected $300,000 from Mark Cuban as part of a $6 million funding haul that included investors General Mills and the music mogul Russell Simmons, the Black-owned gourmet burger maker Everything Legendary is calling itself the fastest-growing plant-based burger brand in the industry.

Based in Maryland, Everything Legendary was created by the charismatic duo of Duane Cheers and Danita Claytor. Its vibrant, colorful packaging contains faux meat packed with uncommon and flavorful ingredients such as ginger, raisins, hemp seeds and orange peel, all put together by chef Jumoke Jackson. Products including frozen patties, burgers and cheeseburgers, are sold online and in stores.