VOL5: plant-based jus that performs like a jus de veau

Who's behind it

VOL5 comes from Guus Vredenburg, owner of Food Things!. He started as a commis at fifteen and then spent 23 years in top kitchens in the Netherlands and across Europe, including Michelin-starred restaurants. So the product comes out of a kitchen: he knew the problem from the inside.

Anyone cooking plant-based wants a jus that works like the classic: full of flavor, glossy, with enough body to bind and mount. Vredenburg spent two years on the right combination of Dutch vegetables, herbs and spices, and on the technique to reduce them into a sauce that holds.

The name refers to umami, the fifth taste. That is the starting point of the product. The jus is built on five vegetables, including reduced celeriac.

How it works

A classic jus de veau gets its flavor from roasted bones and long simmering. VOL5 gets it from vegetables reduced until the umami is concentrated. The result comes close to a jus de veau: rich, with a full mouthfeel, and fully plant-based.

One base serves a mixed table. Vegetarian guests, flexitarians and meat eaters get the same jus on their plate, from one pan.

The product comes frozen in one-liter cooking bags, so you take what you need and the rest keeps. Michelin-starred chefs like Niven Kunz and Freek van der Vlist have worked with it, VOL5 is a member of Euro-Toques and won the We're Smart Future Award for Product of the Year.

In your kitchen

Turn it into your own sauce. The base is neutral enough to take in any direction. Reduce a portion further for a tight glace under roasted vegetables, or mount a looser version to go with poultry.

On the menu, you put a plant-based jus where guests expect a classic one. It serves the table that wants to eat vegetarian, and it's one less pan on the pass.