Lidl has been found to be the cheapest UK supermarket to buy the ingredients for a vegan Christmas dinner.
The costs of nine plant-based Christmas dinner staples were compared — nut roasts, parsnips, roast potatoes, carrots, Brussels sprouts, red cabbage, cranberry sauce, stuffing, and vegan gravy granules — at the UK’s top nine supermarket chains. As reported by Wales Online, Lidl came out on top, with all the ingredients coming to just £8.83.
The total also came in at under £10 for four other supermarkets — Morrisons (£9.19), Aldi (£9.42), Asda (£9.55), and Tesco (£9.70). With the use of a Nectar card, the ingredients also cost under £10 at Sainsbury’s, dropping from £10.21 to £9.51. Loyalty cards did not make a difference to the total at any other supermarket.
For the chains lower down the list, there is a significant jump in cost, with the ingredients coming in at £15.23 at Co-op. This is followed by Waitrose at £16.70, and finally M&S at £16.80 — almost double the cost of Lidl.
Cost of living crisis
The cost of living remains a significant challenge in the UK, as inflation rates continue to rise. While this has led many consumers to cut down on conventional meat, it has also led to a fall in sales of plant-based alternatives, which are often more expensive than their animal-based counterparts.
In Europe, some supermarket chains are responding by dropping the prices of plant-based foods to make them equivalent to or even cheaper than animal products; examples include Lidl Germany, Kaufland, and BILLA. If UK supermarkets were to follow the lead of mainland Europe and make similar changes, the impact would be huge, with immeasurable benefits for consumers on a low budget who want to eat a healthier and more sustainable diet, not least the planet and the animals.
