Blue Apron Announces New Beyond Burger Meal Kits

Plant-based protein is having its moment in restaurants, fast food joints and grocery stores, and now it's making its way to your meal kit. Starting this August, home cooks who use Blue Apron can choose from seasonal recipes featuring the new "meatier" meatless Beyond Burger. Vegetarian and carnivorous Daily Meal editors recently taste-tested the new and improved faux beef patty, and long story short, it's good. It cooks just like real beef and, more importantly, it tastes, feels and looks like it too.

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Blue Apron will offer Beyond Meat starting the week of August 19, when caramelized onion and cheddar Beyond Burgers with garlic green beans grace the menu. The next week (August 26), get ready for jalapeño and goat cheese Beyond Burgers with corn on the cob. Both are available for preorder now, but you have to have the Signature Two-Serving Plan to snag them (it's $9.99 per serving).

"We know a growing number of customers are interested in plant-based proteins, whether as an alternative to meat, a desire to explore a new ingredient, or an opportunity to make more sustainable food choices," Blue Apron CEO Linda Kozlowski said in a statement. "Blue Apron recipes are designed to evoke a sense of discovery and, as a meal kit partner, we have a unique opportunity to teach our customers how to cook a wide variety of cuisines with plant-based protein."

The new offering comes on the heels of Blue Apron's latest sales report, which showed millions of dollars in less revenue than expected. Perhaps it's hoping to buoy sales by hitching its wagon to one of the biggest trends in the food world. If so, it looks like it's working (somewhat, at least). Shares had fallen by 40 percent over the past year and were down 90 percent from all-time highs, but as soon as Blue Apron announced its new partnership, shares jumped nearly 20 percent.

Blue Apron is using the Beyond Burger in these meal kits because it's the brand's flagship product, but home cooks can expect to see other Beyond Meat products in future kits. Currently, the company makes meatless ground beef, sausage and crumbles. If the whole fake meat thing freaks you out, make the most out of your summer with these vegetarian cookout recipes that'll make you forget about burgers and dogs.