White Castle is known for its iconic sliders, but the burgers are getting an update.
Starting Thursday, White Castle is offering a new plant-based slider option in addition to its original beef ones at 140 locations in New York, New Jersey and Chicago, according to a statement from the company. The new burgers from Impossible Foods are made of wheat protein, coconut oil, potato protein, and heme, which is an iron-rich compound giving the burger a more meaty taste, according to USA Today. The company’s burgers also have a meat-like texture and “bleed.”
The new Impossible Sliders will expand chain-wide to all 380 locations if popular enough, Quartz reported. It’s not the first meatless option at White Castle, which has offered its Veggie Slider since 2015, according to USA Today, though that menu item has less of a resemblance to fake meat. While the Impossible Burger is served at a variety of restaurants including Fatburger and Umami Burger, White Castle will be the largest single restaurant group to serve the item, the chain said in its statement.
“We think it will appeal to a broad range of customers — those that are meat eaters who want to try something different and non-meat eaters who want this,” White Castle CEO Laura Ingram told USA Today.