Move over, tofu — vegan cuisine is becoming more substantial. The once-niche food sector is now gaining mainstream traction, driven by increasing consumer awareness of the meat industry’s livestock practices, environmental impact, and effects on human health. However, many individuals aren’t shifting away from meat due to a lack of affection for it; rather, they find that kale salads and quinoa fail to satisfy the craving for hearty dishes like ribs.
Enter the Herbivorous Butcher. Founded by sibling duo Aubry and Kale Walch, this Minneapolis-based butcher shop offers vegan creations that replicate the look, flavor, texture, and mouthfeel of meat favorites such as hickory smoked bacon, jerk chicken, and ribeye steak. The Walch siblings are part of the rapidly expanding meat substitutes market, projected to reach nearly $6 billion in global sales by 2022, according to research firm MarketsandMarkets.
Both being vegans, Aubry and Kale had been crafting mock meats at home for years before introducing their carnivore-friendly recipes to the Minneapolis community. “We started a farmer’s market booth just to see if people would actually like the food, and that went really well. We sold out the first weekend, and then we just kept selling out every weekend until we couldn’t possibly make enough,” Aubry shared with Food Dive. They considered opening a restaurant focused on their meatless offerings but were wary of the industry’s high failure rates. Then, an idea emerged. “It started as sort of a joke, you know, ‘Let’s open a vegan butcher shop,’ ” she recalled. “And we all laughed really hard, but then we stopped laughing and decided it was actually a good idea.”
In 2014, Aubry and Kale launched a Kickstarter campaign to bring their vision to life, surpassing their initial goal by over $10,000. With assistance from architects, graphic designers, and business advisors, the Herbivorous Butcher evolved from an inside joke to a thriving faux meat phenomenon. “We were super surprised by the [strong reception],” Aubry said. “We thought that people would like our food, but we didn’t realize the full scale of what this would become.” Interestingly, about 65% of the Herbivorous Butcher’s customers are omnivores. Some are looking to reduce their meat intake, while others are catering to the dietary preferences of family members, such as vegan or vegetarian children visiting from college. “[Many customers] have recognized the impact that industrialized farming has on our climate and are trying to cut down. There are some Meatless Monday people. They’re all over the place, really,” she explained.
The Walch siblings, along with a team of eight butchers, dedicate nearly 12 hours each day to handcraft locally sourced, artisan “meats” to meet customer demand. Annually, The Herbivorous Butcher sells the equivalent weight of a hippo in its Korean ribs alone. “We can’t make them fast enough,” she remarked. The Korean ribs and other mock meat products stem from recipes that Aubry and Kale developed at home, experimenting with various flours, beans, and juices sourced from their local co-op to create veggie-based alternatives that can rival the authentic experience.
“You can find any of the ingredients in our products at your local co-op. We still stand behind that today,” Aubry affirmed. The siblings note that behind each of their links, cutlets, jerky, and other offerings lining the Herbivorous Butcher’s display case are countless failed formulations, and they continue to innovate with their current recipes. “That’s the beauty of not having a factory where we’re just pumping this stuff out. We make it day to day, allowing us to make small improvements to enhance products, such as making an Italian sausage slightly more tender or optimizing it for grilling,” Kale explained. “It’s just little adjustments that we can make daily to absolutely perfect [the meat].”
To craft their mock meat, Kale explained that Herbivorous Butchers begin with a blend of high-protein wheat flour, nutritional yeast, and ca citrate to enhance texture. “From there it gets interesting,” he added. “You can incorporate garbanzo flour for a more tender meat texture in our smokehouse ribs, or different beans to achieve the desired heft in a sausage.” A variety of wet and dry ingredients like vinegars and spices are then mixed to create “a mass of muscle.” Depending on the type of meat being produced, butchers portion the mixture to roll into sausages or press it flat for ribs, deli meats, or cutlets.
“Then you can boil it, braise it like you do with our ribs, steam it, or bake it,” Kale noted. “Different cooking methods yield very different results. For instance, meats that are a bit more delicate need to be baked before boiling.” Among the deli meats, sausages, and steaks on the Herbivorous Butcher’s menu, chicken presents the biggest challenge to perfect. “It’s incredibly tough to achieve the right stringiness and mild flavor while ensuring it holds up in a fryer or on the grill,” he mentioned. “I have a notebook full of chicken recipe ideas. I would go to a coffee shop and brainstorm new exotic flours or other ingredients to refine the recipe, and eventually, I got it right — just in time for the Vegan Beer & Food Festival where we showcased chicken and waffles and chicken sandwiches.”
The Herbivorous Butcher doesn’t only focus on mock meats; it also offers a variety of vegan cheeses such as pepper jack, mozzarella, and smoked gouda, which Kale hand-mixes daily. “Mozzarella is definitely one of our best sellers because I believe that pizza is something people miss the most when they can’t or choose not to consume dairy,” Aubrey noted. Among the meats, steak is particularly popular due to its ease of grilling, while Italian sausage is cherished for its versatility in dishes like pasta sauces and pizzas.
Over the years, the Herbivorous Butcher has collaborated with numerous festivals and now supplies its products to 40 different retailers across Minnesota, New York, Colorado, Ohio, Washington, and Florida. Aubry and Kale aspire to expand their business to the East and West coasts as well as parts of the South, so they can serve their growing customer base without relying on air shipping. They anticipate that expansion efforts will commence within the next year. “I think that we’re going to outgrow our kitchen pretty quickly,” Aubry remarked. “We’re definitely getting a little too big for our britches.”