product review: beyond meat burger

So last night, we finally tried the Beyond Meat Burger. It’s a plant-based burger that I have been wanting to try for a while now but it’s always sold out – at least whenever I have tried to purchase at our local Whole Foods. Over the weekend, my husband called and made sure they had it first and they saved some for him so that it was not a wasted trip. It was definitely worth the trip and the wait.

I’m still surprised at how many vegetarians and vegans especially have no idea what I’m talking about when I ask if they’ve tried it. For those who do not know, the Beyond Burger is created by Beyond Meat and their plant-based burger contains 20 grams of protein, is gluten and soy free. The star ingredient is: pea protein!

On the Beyond Meat website they describe it as:

“The Beyond Burger is our new “raw-beef” style burger that looks, cooks, and tastes so much like beef it’s being shelved in the meat sections at Whole Foods. Our goal in creating The Beyond Burger™ was to provide the full 360° mouth-watering, juicy, and delicious experience of beef but without so many of the health, environmental, and animal welfare downsides of traditional animal-based meat.”

Let me be clear, I have no idea what real beef tastes like. Honestly, I have never really had a desire to know. I’ve love vegetarian burgers and trying all the different options. I’ve practically been through them all – and really the only alternative protein that we eat on the regular is by Field Roast – I wrote a post last year on their options. It’s really good but it’s not trying hard to be a meat. It’s full of grains and vegetables that they don’t try to hide. I don’t blame them, they don’t need to – it’s that good.

But Beyond Meat is trying to give true meat lovers a real or close to real alternative that looks and tastes as close as possible to the real deal. And they aren’t trying to hide that. In addition to the burger, we’ve had the chicken strips – they were alright. Not as good as the burger in my opinion.

So let’s talk about this burger some more. In the package, you get two ¼ lbs burgers for about 6 dollars. Not too bad. But I’m sure meat lovers would argue that it’s more cost than meat.

Ingredients?
The main ingredient is pea protein isolate, three two types of oils (makes sense why it’s so juicy and not dry and card boardy like other burgers we have tried), and other things that don’t seem all that bad. There’s even beet to give that blood-red color that real burgers have on the inside. It’s almost crazy how real they’ve got it looking.

So what about the prep and TASTE?
Just cook on both side for three minutes each on a pan with a little oil. Very easy. The taste. To me, when I took a bite of this burger, I imagine that it’s very close to the way a real burger would taste. The texture seems very real, there fatty bits that resemble “meat” in every bite. The smell is pretty on point too – at least what I smell when burgers are cooking on grill. I LOVE everything about this burger. It is incredibly filling too.

Now I don’t think this is something that anyone should eat every day. I know I won’t for sure because it’s still better to eat a veggie patty you make yourself or even a portobello mushroom burger in my opinion. But it is nice to know that this option exists and that it truly feels, looks, and tastes like what a burger in my head should be like. It’s also an option that I love promoting to my meat loving friends and family because many of them are trying to lower the meats in their diets and I think this is a great option for slowly making that transition.

Stay tuned for recipes that I will share using this burger. Last night, we wanted to taste all the organic flavors without jazzing it up. But I’m very excited to bring other flavors in, like Indian flavors in particular.

Let me know what you think of Beyond Meat Burgers or any other plant-based burgers out there that you love!

Shraddha