Just Salad, a fast-casual restaurant concept with a mission to make everyday health and sustainability possible, today launches its summer menu, featuring SIMPLi Regenerative Organic Certified (ROC) White Quinoa in two new dishes, making it the first multi-location restaurant to offer a ROC ingredient at this scale. SIMPLi is the first brand to achieve ROC for its quinoa and beans in South America. Combining the best practices from Certified Organic and Certified Fair Trade, ROC is a new certification for businesses and products that meets the highest standards in the world for their three pillars: soil health, animal welfare, and farmworker and social fairness.
SIMPLi’s ROC White Quinoa sourced directly from farming communities in Peru, will appear in Just Salad’s new summer menu items: the Honey Crispy Chicken Salad and the Golden Summer Salad, plus the year-round menu item: the Earth Bowl.
Adding SIMPLi’s ROC White Quinoa is likely to reduce the carbon footprint of Just Salad’s menu versus the use of conventionally grown quinoa. Similarly, by working with farmers that use regenerative organic agricultural practices, SIMPLi has optimized its operation to limit the carbon footprint of its products, including their white quinoa. According to the USDA, up to 15 tons of carbon per acre per year can stay locked in the earth as long as regenerative practices are maintained.
“Regenerative Organic Certified is quickly gaining momentum as more farms get certified and more brands source ROC ingredients,” says Elizabeth Whitlow, Executive Director of the Regenerative Organic Alliance. “Just Salad and SIMPLi exemplify how food-based companies can join forces to use delicious, nutrient-dense ROC ingredients at scale that actively regenerate the land, sequester carbon, and conserve resources as they are grown.”
Just Salad’s new seasonal Honey Crispy Chicken Salad is made with extra crisp romaine, spinach and red cabbage, oven-crispy chicken, crumbled feta, SIMPLi’s ROC White Quinoa, sliced grape tomatoes, roasted corn, crispy onions, sliced carrots, and honey mustard vinaigrette.
Just Salad’s new summer menu also features the Golden Summer Salad made with extra crisp romaine and arugula, golden beets, blood oranges, SIMPLi’s ROC White Quinoa, chopped almonds, creamy goat cheese, mint leaves, fresh dill, and lemon basil vinaigrette.
As a year-round Climatarian menu item, the Earth Bowl includes arugula and shredded kale, SIMPLi’s ROC White Quinoa, Violife® creamy vegan feta, hand-cut beets, roasted sweet potatoes, sliced apples, chopped almonds, and balsamic vinaigrette. SIMPLi’s ROC White Quinoa will also be available as an add-on ingredient to any Just Salad meal.
Rodale Institute’s founder, J.I. Rodale, pioneered the belief that healthy soil creates healthy food, which leads to healthy people. Rodale Institute’s Farming Systems Trial is the longest-running side-by-side comparison of organic and conventional grain cropping systems in North America, finding that organic systems use 45% less energy, release 40% fewer carbon emissions, and have the potential to produce yields up to 40% higher in times of drought than conventional systems.
The launch of these ROC menu items represents the collective action of Just Salad and SIMPLi taking steps towards scaling regenerative and organic ingredients to inspire a more equitable and restorative food industry. Both brands are sustainability leaders in the food space, representing a partnership with aligned missions. By supporting farmers in their transition from conventional farming to USDA Organic Certified and ROC farming practices, SIMPLi is committed to bringing consumers ethically sourced, high-quality, single-origin ingredients from around the world. Similarly, Just Salad believes in making everyday health and everyday sustainability possible.
