Vegan Product Review: Beyond Meat The Beyond Burger

I finally managed to pick up a package of Beyond Meat The Beyond Burger.  My local Whole Foods in Marlboro, NJ did not have them, because they suck and have a super limited amount of vegan products unlike the Whole Foods in Cherry Hill, Princeton, or even out in Philly.  Do I sound annoyed by that?  Yes, just a little.

They're packed like a standard beef burger.

Here's a close up.  They look real, right?

I used a little coconut oil, but it didn't need it.  It leached out a lot of its own oil.

Wowza, does it smell like I'm cooking a regular beef burger.  Don't know that I like that, but if you were an omnivore, that's probably a good thing. After a few minutes, flip them over.

And voila!  A meatless burger that tastes like meat.  (Served with Alexa onion rings.)

Does it Taste Like Meat?:  It really does taste like meat.  From the look to the smell to the texture. Now, if you ate this alongside a beef burger, you wouldn't have a hard time figuring out which was which.  But if you needed a burger option that's not a veggie burger, but won't contribute to you having a heart attack, then this is the way to go.

  

Will Meat-Eaters Eat it?:  Absolutely.  I think it's smart that this product is being marketed for meat eaters.  Even if they don't want to go vegan, for people with high cholesterol or other health issues, this is an easy swap for something they already eat. 

Is it Healthier for You?:  Clearly, it is.  For the record, to the people who say, you shouldn't eat things with ingredients you can't pronounce....there are no weird ingredients in here.  If you look at the list of drugs pumped into cattle, and the weird crap they use to preserve that meat...I'm sure you can't pronounce much of that.  Furthermore, if you're eating fast food burgers, then please, go educate yourself a bit on what they're putting in those. They're barely meat.  That's not a laughing matter, it's a disgusting level of filler and grossness because they know they're consumers will eat anything they put in there, no matter how bad.  You should want better.  You should demand better.

Would I Buy It Again?:  My husband and daughter liked them a lot, but it's not for me.  The whole time I was eating it, my brain was spinning out of control, like this internal barrage of lights and sirens, screaming, "Danger Will Robinson! Danger!"  My brain just couldn't reconcile the fact that even though I knew it was plant based, it just didn't taste plant based and that weirded me out.  I'm going to keep buying myself veggie burgers, but I'll pick these up for my family on special occasions. I think burgers like this are going to be the wave of the future.  I'd imagine it's significantly cheaper to produce this plant-based burger, than it is to raise cattle and kill it.  Fingers crossed.