Windstar Cruises has partnered with the National Health Association (NHA) to create a new vegan menu on board all six of its small ships.
The offerings are plant-based, gluten-free and prepared without added salt, oil, and sugar.
Windstar has started training its culinary team on the new menu and plans to roll out the program fleetwide in June. Vegetarian options, as well as the line's existing omnivore menu items, will continue to be served as usual.
"The National Health Association points out that vegetarian and vegan diets are not always healthy, and for meals to be truly health-promoting, they also need to be minimally processed and prepared," said Peter Tobler, Windstar's director of hotel operations. "We've seen an increased demand for whole-food, plant-based dishes from our customers, and we're really excited to work with the NHA to bring them something that's nutritious and delicious. As a side benefit, plant-based foods also reduce our environmental footprint - a major goal of Windstar's - allowing us to tread more lightly on this planet."
Sample dishes from the new menu include daily smoothies at breakfast, roasted butternut squash velouté with baked pumpkin seeds, baked cauliflower croquettes with salsa verde and sautéed spinach, penne rigate pasta with crisp vegetables and Espelette pepper sauce, and tahini brownies with fresh strawberries.
Wanda Huberman, executive director of the NHA, worked closely with Windstar to share expertise and find recipes that meet the organization's standards for a whole-plant food diet and lifestyle.
"The Windstar culinary team has knocked it out of the park in executing the specific requirements of our meals," Huberman said. "Every meal is absolutely delicious and served in a beautiful presentation with so much variety that no one will leave a meal feeling hungry or less than satisfied."
The menu evolved out of hosting several plant-based groups, which have grown significantly in popularity since the start of the pandemic. Lisa McCarl, a former open heart recovery nurse turned travel advisor, has booked several plant-based groups on Windstar and says there is a huge demand for healthy travel options.
"More people are changing the way they eat to prevent and reverse diet-related disease. Why not make it easy for them to continue that healthy lifestyle while sailing on the trip of a lifetime?" McCarl asked. "Windstar is doing a phenomenal job in making healthy cruising a reality."
For more details on Windstar Cruises, click here.
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