Petaluma, California-headquartered Amy’s Kitchen, a producer of ready meals and other products made with organic and non-GMO ingredients, recently added two new entrees, three pizzas and a burrito to its extensive line of frozen convenience foods.
Introduced at a suggested retail price of $5.29 per 10-ounce pack, Amy’s Thai Green Curry features a blend of sweet potatoes, green beans, yellow zucchini, red bell peppers, spinach, tofu, herbs and coconut milk accented with green curry sauce over jasmine rice.
The new Chinese Noodles & Veggies in Cashew Cream Sauce offering, distributed in 9.5-ounce packs, also retails for $5.29. This is Amy’s first take on the cashew cream trend popular in US restaurants now. The gluten-free, vegan dish consists of rice noodles, organic baked tofu, shitake mushrooms, broccoli, julienned carrots, edamame and other organic vegetables flavored with creamy cashew butter sauce.
Amy’s Rice Crust Pizza goes for $9.89 per 14.6-ounce box. It features a gluten-free crust topped with organic spinach and tomatoes, feta and mozzarella cheeses, and Italian sauce.
Weighing in at 11.2 ounces, the company’s Rice Crust Pesto Pizza also sells for $9.89. In addition to pesto, toppings on the gluten-free crust include organic tomato slice and broccoli florets, plus part-skim milk mozzarella cheese.
A dairy-free and vegan version of Rice Crust Pesto Pizza is offered for the same price. Topped with Daiya shredded mozzarella-style cheese alternative, it contains no gluten, cholesterol or lactose.
Amy’s new Gluten Free Burrito is filled with a combination of organic black beans, quinoa, chard and broccoli. The crepe-like tortilla is made from a blend of organic flours. Priced at $3.29, the 5.5-ounce offering joins a line of gluten-free vegan wraps and burritos that range from Indian Aloo Mattar Wrap and Teriyaki Wrap to and Bean & Rice Burrito.
Entering the Restaurant Business
Meanwhile, Amy’s is taking its “We love to cook for you” slogan from the supermarket frozen food aisle to the foodservice front with the launch of an all-vegetarian drive-through restaurant in Rohnert Park, California, about 50 miles north of San Francisco. Scheduled to open by the end of June, its organic fast food menu will include dairy-free tortillas, burritos, pizza, veggie burgers, fries prepared in sunflower oil, and milkshakes.
“Everybody said we couldn’t do it. But we set up a test kitchen in our warehouse space and we did it. We learned how to do it from scratch very quickly,” commented Andy Berliner, who co-founded Amy’s Kitchen in 1987 with his wife, Rachel.
The 4,000-square-foot operation, complete with solar panels and a water tower to collect rain runoff, is situated one block away from a popular In-N-Out Burger outlet and not far from other quick service restaurants. Should Amy’s drive-through prototype prove successful, the company will likely duplicate the effort in other locations around the state and nation.
An artist’s rendering of the soon to open Amy’s Kitchens restaurant shows a “living roof” made of grass, solar panels and a water tower to collect rain runoff.
