‘Gobble-ish’: Juicy Marbles Takes on Your Thanksgiving Turkey with Plant-Based Granny’s Roast

Slovenian food tech startup Juicy Marbles has launched Granny’s Roast, a whole-cut plant-based turkey roulade with a “gobble-ish” flavour just in time for Thanksgiving.

Juicy Marbles, the viral startup behind ultra-realistic vegan steaks and ribs, has expanded into the poultry category to target the holiday season’s favourite centrepiece.

The Slovenian firm has introduced Granny’s Roast, a plant-based take on turkey roulade, in the EU and the US, just in time for Thanksgiving. The meat alternative comes pre-rolled around a layer of herbs and can be served whole, ready to be carved into spiral slices.

The roast turkey analogue joins Juicy Marbles’s growing list of whole-cut plant-based meat products, including steaks, sausages, pork and lamb fillets, ribs with edible bones, and seafood.

A holiday centrepiece that bridges the texture gap

Founded in 2019 by Luka Sinček, Maj Hrovat, Tilen Travnik and Vladimir Mićković, Juicy Marbles began with whole-cut beef steaks made using patent-pending ‘reverse grinder’ tech that mimics the muscle texture and marbling of conventional steak.

It layers plant protein fibres on top of each other to replicate animal tissue, helped by deposits of hardened sunflower oil. The effort aims to solve two of plant-based meat’s biggest pain points: taste and texture.

The latest launch marks its first foray into poultry territory. Like the rest of its whole-cut products, the roulade features a texture similar to animal muscle fibres, which carve into clean slices and pull apart tender.

The company describes the aromatic flavour of the product as “gobble-ish”, noting that it pairs with all classic holiday sides, allowing it to go “toe-to-toe” with any roast turkey.

This is key for Juicy Marbles, which suggests that while plant-based holiday roasts have improved, they still lack the centre-of-the-table “wow factor”. They can feed the meat-free eaters, though they are rarely the star of the show.

“Whenever I try a new plant-based roast, it just lacks that whole cut realism, juiciness, and ‘carvability’ that makes those meals special. I don’t want giblets and tendons, but if I pair it with a delicious gravy and squint, I shouldn’t be able to tell the difference,” Sinček explained.

“Our customers go crazy for our beef-style whole-cut loin during the holidays for this reason. It gives them a realistic cut to satisfy their skeptical relatives, while bringing that ‘big meat energy’ we all want at the center of the table. So, once we cracked the ‘gobble-ish’ flavor, we couldn’t wait to release it for the 2026 holiday season.”

Juicy Marbles stakes its claim in the clean-label era

The Granny’s Roast SKU is available on Juicy Marbles’s website in limited quantities for $29.99 per 600g roast (which feeds four). It doesn’t require any prep, stuffing or basting; it can just be brushed with oil and roasted in the over for 25-30 minutes.

It’s made up of soy and textured pea proteins, sunflower and coconut oils, natural flavours, carrageenan, methylcellulose, and parsley, and delivers 28g of protein, 10g of fibre, and just 3g of saturated fat per 150g serving.

That composition taps into several consumer trends. Nearly three in five (57%) Americans are prioritising protein this year. Most of them are fibre-deficient, too, a dietary gap that online trends like fibermaxxing are looking to fill.

The boom in GLP-1 drugs has accelerated this demand. According to Innova Market Insights, the share of Americans who have used a weight-loss medication rose from 10% in 2024 to 18% in 2025, and these consumers are eating 40% more protein and 30% more fibre. Globally, these consumers plan to spend 11% more on high-protein foods and 10% more on fibre.

The appetite for protein and fibre is shaped by the demand for clean-label products. Research shows that 69% of Americans check labels to avoid highly processed ingredients, and 80% prefer familiar ingredients over artificial additives. In Europe, 65% of consumers are concerned about the health impact of ultra-processed foods, and 54% avoid plant-based meats because they fall into this category.

Juicy Marbles’s meat alternatives are relatively clean-label, but it has also recognised this trend with the launch of its Umami Burger in the UK earlier this year. This isn’t a meat mimic; instead, it intends to bridge the gap between hyper-realistic meat alternatives and veggie patties by combining sunflower protein, fermented koji barley, quinoa, flax seeds, seitan, and miso.