We go through a fair amount of this:
I’ve only ever made breakfast with it (e.g. tacos/burritos) but I’m told it is also good for making dirty rice (or something resembling it, anyway).
Not sure about roots, but I’ve heard of using mushroom stems instead of meat. (I was thinking that this place in Rockville MD did that, but I don’t see any while glancing at their menu. Also, their menu is what a co-worker called “the opposite of gluten free” – not an issue for me, but I can imagine it making a vegan diet that much more challenging)
Hmm. I recall a recent problem with allergies and pea protein. (It might have been here or CBC Radio.)
Meanwhile, Beyond has announced a re-worked (“improved”) burger patty and will start rolling it out soon. Meaning, presumably, like most investor-driven hot tickets, the quality is headed straight for the toilet while the good name rolls on and the price remains high until the flavor of the week has moved on to some other scam.
All that said, the Beyond Burger (old version), is pretty damn good.
I wouldn’t be surprised. It’s going to be impossible for anybody to use a plant protein and for it to not be edible by somebody. People with celiac or gluten intolerance can’t eat seitan; people with soy allergies (or a paranoid aversion to soy) can’t eat tofu or Impossible burgers. I guess Beyond chose to go with a less-frequent allergen.
Or, maybe, they’ve found a way to make it taste better and be more nutritious, the way Impossible did when they recently reformulated. Not sure why you’d think that a company getting a huge cash infusion for R&D would intentionally make their product worse. That’s not a great way to convert people to it.
Simple: cheaper ingredients yields higher profit margins (generally at the expense of quality). Certainly you’ve seen this sort of thing happen before? Still, I hope you’re right.
Had an Impossible Burger a short time ago at a Wegman’s. I was pleasantly surprised at how good it was! Very close to beef.
100% agree that A&W Canada is vastly better than the American version. There’s no comparison.
I think it actually was stems, now that you mention it. I have no issues with gluten either, so I’ll check it out anyways. Thanks!
Please choose your metaphors more carefully when we’re talking about food substitutes
Beyond meat just sounds like some kind of supernatural porno mag title
A&W–which in Canada is superior in almost every way to the American chain of the same name–has been offering Beyond Meat burgers, for some time now.
Hopefully they’ve solved the supply problem. Last summer their Beyond Meat burger was always out of stock.
I’ve never eaten at the American A&W chain, but can confirm the Canadian one is quite good. It’s the only fast food chain I’ll willingly eat at.
I am a fan of getting a veggie burger at a restaurant and adding bacon to it just for the perplexed looks it gets.
Impossible Burgers are great with the big caveat that they have to be prepared properly. It’s really easy for them to become dried out and then they aren’t particularly good. And they don’t really taste like beef, but they definitely have a beefy texture and feel. I quite like them.
Here it is compared to the Teen Burger, which appears to be its closest analog. The sodium content is indeed very high (the Teen Burger even has bacon, the Beyond Meat Burger does not.)
I don’t think the Beyond/Impossible type burgers are marketed as a healthy alternative to meat so much as a sustainable and guilt-free alternative.
I’ve yet to try thew Impossible Burger (doesn’t seem to be in Canada yet), but the Beyond Burger - at least the ones on the breakfast sandwiches - are gross. They taste exactly like the slimy meat ones so… win?
Were you under the impression that this was to be a healthy alternative? No. It’s still just fast food trying to appeal to the people that like fast food.
Oh, I certainly had no expectation that it was healthier. But as someone on a reduced-sodium diet it’s striking how high the sodium content is compared to a burger with bacon. That’s close to 50% of the daily recommended maximum.
(I mean, they’re all bad, so I shouldn’t be eating any of them. Sigh.)
And here is some that was consumed earlier entering the toilet. Look, there is some at the treatment plant.
You can get all those textures and variety in an omnivorous diet, with the addition of meat textures, too. It Seems bizarre to me that there’d be an issue with people inventing things that let them eat less meat while also enjoying the textures a meat-based diet has to offer.
I’ve said many times that I’d be the first person signed up to eat “engineered meat” when it becomes available, and put my money where my mouth was, literally, by seeking out beyond meat burgers, sausages, and now, their “crumbles” when they became available.
I am a huge fan of the textures, flavours, and culinary wonders made possible by meat (in fact I went to culinary school specifically to get better at cooking proteins), but both the beyond meat burgers and sausages are such good approximations of their respective meat-based foods that my partner and I now exclusively buy them at home when burgers or brat/italian sausages are required.
Before moving to Austin, I had occasion to hit up a Canadian A&W (which have no relation to the US chain, BTW), and try the beyond meat breakfast sausage, which was also an excellent approximation. I buy breakfast sausage rounds occasionally now at home, and would switch in an instant if/when they are available for home purchase.
In short, these products are wonderful, even if you’re an omnivore but want to reduce the amount of meat your family eats. I’m very happy that they market them as “alternative proteins” instead of “vegetarian/vegan”, and while no, they won’t compare to a $20 Umami Burger from a gourmet shop, they will compare to what you probably make at home or get from most fast-food joints nowadays.
