A fresh, new way to salad
Over the years, you (our lovely Pret customers), have told us you love fresh, vibrant salads – but sometimes need something a little more filling. Something with more protein to power you through the afternoon. Something a bit heartier, without taking away from the benefits of all those leafy greens.
Enter: Super Plates (When salads dream big)
Designed to be flavour-packed, protein-rich, and satisfying enough to keep you fuller for longer, these dishes are the latest addition to our menu – and the result of months of care, creativity, and collaboration.
So, what makes a Super Plate… well, super? It’s not just the golden roasted salmon or carefully charred butternut. It’s the people who make them possible – the nutritionist in our food team, the farmers who lovingly grow the Tenderstem® broccoli and the shop teams who hand-massage kale every morning.
It all started with Anna and her vision for a better lunch
Anna’s our Head of Food, a Registered Nutritionist, and the brilliant mind behind Super Plates.
She saw that our customers needed lunchtime options that ticked every box: balanced, delicious, and (most importantly) – filling enough to power them through the day. High protein was key, and Anna set out to design meals people could trust to beat the afternoon slump.
The result: generous portions of protein, balanced with fresh vegetables (like hand-cut avocado), whole grains, and bold dressings. But designing them wasn’t just about nutrition on paper – they had to taste absolutely delicious too.
The flavours that worked (and some that didn’t)
Like all our recipes, the creative process is a cycle of tasting and tweaking (not a bad gig for those of us who just get to do the tasting bit). Some ideas soared; others never quite made it to the menu.
Anna was inspired by her travels and attempted a Sri-Lankan-inspired plate, which was delicious but ultimately proved too tricky to balance. Not everything makes it through auditions, and that’s okay.
What we ended up with showcases the best of what Anna and her team wanted to achieve: variety, satiety, and bold flavour. From smoky chipotle chicken to sweet roasted butternut squash, each one was carefully designed to feel like a proper meal, not just a quick bite.
And some of the elements took weeks of work to perfect. The Butternut Mezze Super Plate, for example, was the result of tireless collaboration with suppliers to get the roasted squash just right – a hint of char, a hint of zestiness, and only using the bowl-shaped portion of the squash for that gorgeous shape.
Even the kale gets special attention: in Pret shops, team members hand-massage lemon juice into it every morning. Anna learned this small ritual on her travels to New Zealand, and found it works wonders to soften the leaves, lock in nutrients and improve the taste. Side note: if you don’t love kale, it’s probably because you’ve not tried it like this.
So… what exactly is a “good meal”?
For Anna, protein was the starting point. In the Miso Salmon Super Plate, the portion of Pret’s beloved golden roasted salmon was increased by a whole third to make it richer in protein and omega-3s (this was such a good move, we did it to all our other salmon salads too). Her thinking was simple: the right balance of protein, good fats, grains, and vegetables creates a meal that’s as nourishing as it is delicious.
But – the all-important question – which is her favourite? It took some coaxing, but we finally got her to admit to a winner: Miso Salmon. “There’s SO much salmon... with Togarishi seeds inspired by Japan and perfectly cooked smoky chilli aubergine, it hits every note.”
We even got her runner-up: the vegan option, Butternut Mezze. Yum.
Of course, a Super Plate is only as good as its ingredients
That’s where our suppliers come in – partners who share our passion for quality and sustainability. One of them is Barfoots, with family-run farms in Hampshire and West Sussex that have been growing semi-exotic vegetables for decades.
The story starts with Peter Barfoot, who founded the farm after spending time in Australia in the 1970s. There, he learned new techniques for growing sun-loving vegetables and brought them back to the UK. He was one of the first to grow courgettes on a broader scale here, at a time when they were still considered “fancy” and only found in high-end restaurants. That pioneering spirit lives on throughout the family-run business, with 4 of Peter’s daughters involved.
Kim told us all about one of their proudest achievements: Tenderstem® broccoli. First produced in Japan in 1993, Tenderstem® broccoli has a long, tender stem and the tightly bunched florets of regular broccoli. It isn’t genetically modified… just years of patient cultivation. Originally grown in the warmer climate of Kenya, Barfoots were one of the first to grow in the UK and are now one of the largest growers.
Now, it’s a star ingredient in our Miso Salmon Super Plate – crunchy, fresh, and full of flavour.
The journey of our veg
Long before “regenerative agriculture” became a thing, Barfoots were practising it: investing in soil health, encouraging biodiversity, and managing water carefully to farm in harmony with nature. In fact, founder Peter Barfoot was awarded a CBE for Services to Sustainable Farming. His ethos to “look after the land like you are going to farm forever” runs through everything the farm does.
Barfoots put that same care into their (and now our) Tenderstem® broccoli. Once harvested, it’s iced immediately to prevent stress, carefully transported across the farm to be prepared and dispatched to Pret within 24 hours. Keeping it cool and fresh is the priority, so it can arrive in our shops crisp, vibrant, and ready for your plate.
All our veggies are treated the same way: grown and transported according to their specific needs, then carefully selected so that you, dear reader, get fresh, high-quality flavour in every bite.
Have you tried them yet?
