photo from WebstaurantStore

By Chef Nancy Berkoff, EdD, RD

For professional caterers, senior facilities, quantity cooking needs for residential camps or conference centers, or perhaps a one-time catered event, there are versatile quantity-pack vegan products available online. According to website information, both individuals and businesses can purchase on these websites. If you already have a vendor, you might use the information on these websites to suggest your vendor source these products for you.

Here is a fast overview of a selected few items. If you have been looking for vegan quantity products, the web may be a useful resource for companies supplying your area:

Campbell’s Vegan Soups

Campbell’s offers frozen vegan vegetable soup and vegan tomato soup, along with lower-sodium versions of each, in 4 pound, 4 to a pack cases. This translates into about 260 ounces per case or about 32 one-cup servings. Here is a link to these products: https://www.campbellsfoodservice.com/product/campbells-signature-frozen-ready-to-eat-soup-vegan-vegetable-soup/

And here is a link to a Rainbow Vegan Chili recipe, serving 40, using Campbell’s soup as a base, with the addition of carrots, onions, celery, a variety of beans, several types of peppers, two types of tomatoes and vegan crumbles. See: https://www.campbellsfoodservice.com/recipe/vegan-rainbow-chili/

If you are limited in pantry space or in purchasing power, soups can serve many functions, such as a base for tomato-lentil stew, five-bean chili, paired with vegan crumbles to create a hot sandwich filling, or to be tossed with pasta or to top a baked potato.

Heinz 

Heinz/Kraft has several quantity brands, including Home Away From Home, Chef Francisco, and Bella Rossa, offering quantity pack vegan products.

The Chef Francisco Vegetarian Pozole (4 eight pound) is made with hominy, black beans, and a spice blend. It could be served as is, with cornbread or tortillas and some greens, used as a hot sandwich, wrap or burrito filling, or combined with cooked vegetables to make a hearty stew. See: https://www.kraftheinzawayfromhome.com/products/00071398000132-vegetarian-pozole-soup-4-8-lb-case-bag

The Heinz Bella Rossa brand offers quantity pack vegan (it’s labeled as “vegetarian,” but it is vegan) pizza sauce and tomato sauce. The Heinz brand has vegan lentil, minestrone, white bean chili, and curried lentil quantity-size soups.

Walmart Business Center Online

For fast shopping, perhaps for a one-time event, we were delighted to see that the online Walmart Business Center offers vegan items here: https://business.walmart.com/search?q=vegan

The site has an assortment of retail-sized, packed in bulk, such as 6-pack of vegan Ranch dressing. There were also retail packs of vegan sliced cheese, Gardein and Morningstar frozen vegan meats, plant-based eggs, Daiya mac and cheese, vegan prepared cookies and cookie mixes, and Amy’s individual frozen entrées, to name a few, that could be purchased in multiples.

The site also offered larger-than-retail packs, including 24-ounce Soy Delicious coconut-based frozen yogurt, 24-ounce refrigerated Soy Delicious unsweetened plain coconut yogurt, 3-packs of BetterGoods mac and cheese (which would create about 12 portions), and many other items.

Web Restaurant Store.com

You could really have a field day with the vegan quantity offerings at https://www.webstaurantstore.com/search/vegan.html

Here is just a sampling:

Five-pound back of Daiya shredded vegan mozzarella and parmesan, Five-pound packs of frozen vegan meat entrées (meatballs, chik’n, “steaks,” patties, pups, shrimp, tuna, drumsticks, bacon, crumbles, sausage), Four-pound packs of falafel, five-pound packs frozen jackfruit, bulk packs of silken and many varieties, brands, textures of  tofu, vegan chocolate chips (50 pounds!), 32-ounce packs of plant milks, and bulk packs of salad dressing, banana bread, pound cake, macaroons, passion-fruit and mango mousse (12 three ounce cups).

We were intrigued by the frozen, five pound Southern Roots brand red velvet cake, advertised as vegan, soy-, nut- and gluten-free, with a “cocoa-flavored red velvet cake with a dairy-free buttercream icing,” as well as the frozen, vegan 120-count omelets, advertised as “a plant-based vegan folded egg patty.”

This is a short overview of many quantity vegan products found on the web. Hopefully, the web can supplement what your regular vendors offer or inspire your vendors to increase their vegan offerings.