When I first went vegan back in 2016, these wonderful pockets of joy seemed to be everywhere!
Unfortunately now, they no longer exist.
Admittedly, when I was a kid, I didn’t eat a lot of the ‘regular’ pizza pockets (allergies), but from what I remembered, these were spot on!
Not only were they the right shape (looking at you, Tofurky Pizza Pockets [which are also sadly discontinued]) but they also tasted how I remembered! The marinara sauce, the pepperoni, the mozzarella… even not waiting long enough to bite into one and burning the shit out of your tongue.
Don’t get me wrong, they definitely aren’t five star cuisine or anything, but you don’t want that from a pizza pocket anyway, right? Or at least, I know I don’t. Food doesn’t have to be fancy to be good, y’know? They scratched the nostalgia itch, made a delightful small meal, or a hearty snack and used to be pretty easy to find.
They also used to come 4 pockets per box, so it was a winning product all around!
I’m definitely sad I can no longer buy them, but luckily you might be able to!
A few years after I stopped seeing them, I did some research and apparently, the company had discontinued all of their products in Canada, and then slowly began re-releasing them. I believe the reason at the time was something about operating costs since they had branched into the US market. (Which doesn’t make sense to me, considering Gardein is a Candian company) The thing that really got me annoyed though, is that on the US Gardein website, they have more product variety than the Canadian one!
I understand the US is a big market, but what I don’t understand, is why you would bare-bones the product line in the country you started in/are from? That just doesn’t make sense! If anything, they should’ve released a few products to the US to ease into the waters or whatever.
… Sorry about that mini-rant. I’m clearly not over this senseless betrayal. That’s how much I loved their pizza pockets! I haven’t eaten a non-homemade pizza pocket since 2016. That’s too long!
Anyway, if you’re in the US, you should have no problems finding this product to test, enjoy and hoard for yourself. I’m not sure if it’s available in other countries markets, but you can check using the Product Locator on their website.
Oh, and if anyone from Gardein is reading this: please, please, please bring your pizza pockets back to Canada!
So, have you tried Gardein’s pizza pockets? Have you found a different brand of vegan pizza pockets you love more? Or started eating to fill the pizza pocket shaped hole Gardein left when they disappeared? Let me know in the comments!
I first tried this new Gardein soup back in November of 2020. Yes, I’m that organized.
Since I only do 12 product reviews a year (one each month), it’s actually not hard to try more new foods than reviews to post. So instead of trying new foods and not reviewing them, I just write down what I think every time I try something new, and then I always have content. And, since I write the full review from my notes, it’s almost like not even doing work, since I’ve already done the hard part. (Thanks past me!) So yes, just like story WIP’s I also have a lot of vegan food reviews piled up/backlogged.
But, not to worry because you guys will get to see them all! Eventually.
Actually, one hard thing about keeping reviews for future years is the product I was planning on posting the review about is no longer around. Sometimes it’s been pulled from certain markets and is only available in specific countries or a few times, it had been discontinued all together.
Anyway, let’s get to the part you actually came here to read.
If you’ve been around for a while – or read some of my other Product Reviews – you’ll know I’m not that big on soup – but this one was actually pretty good!
It was a tomato based soup that had thick ring-shaped pasta, green beans, black beans, chickpeas and of course, faux sausage pieces. The can that I got was mostly pasta. It seemed to be lacking in beans and there were only 3 pieces of the faux sausage. Granted they were pretty big pieces – about the size of one of their Meatballs (notballs), if you cut it in half – but still. Since they put the word ‘sausage’ in the name, I think there should’ve been more than three. At least do five.
The soup in the pot
The piece of saus’ge, with a carefully placed ring-shaped pasta on top for size comparison
But, I know there’s not a worker sitting in the assembly line counting out pieces by hand (or at least, I hope that’s not happening), so maybe your can or if I buy another one, there’ll be a better mix of ingredients.
As I’ve said before, I have a pretty low spicy food tolerance, so I’m not sure if minestrone soup is supposed to be spicy, but mine was a little bit. It was enough to notice, but not enough to burn my throat/upset my stomach.
It also wasn’t very filling. It was pretty tasty, but I wouldn’t call it ‘hearty’. Though I’m not sure if that’s a soup thing or a this soup’s thing. So, take that with a grain of salt if you wish. If you wanted to stock up for winter, I’d keep a few cans on hand, but don’t max out your budget on them.
Speaking of budget, they also weren’t that expensive. The 425g can was $5.49, which is comparable to other soups and even the Daiya cheese blocks. (At the time of buying)
I’m not entirely sure if Gardein still makes this soup, to be honest. I checked Vegan Supply as I was writing this review (24.01.11, hello from the past!) to compare the 2020 price, but it didn’t come up. I also checked Gardein’s own website with the Store Finder and it crossed out Toronto, Canada and the closest that came up on the map were a bunch of stores in Detroit, USA.
I usually like to end my reviews by telling you to go try the product yourself, so Detroitians (is that what people who live in Detroit are called?) and probably other USA residents, feel free to check out this soup! People in Canada and other countries, see if you can find it. Just, don’t look too hard.
It was good, but not scour-the-Earth good.
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Gardein used to have a few kinds of ready-meal type products back when I first went vegan. There were pizza pockets, cans and even more faux meat selections available. They ended up having to cut a lot of their line in Canada for some reason, which sucks because I would gladly be eating their pizza pockets if they were still available.
It’s been a few years now and they’ve thankfully slowly begun expanding their product line again. Though I’m not sure how far off they are from bringing back their pizza pockets, I was excited to try this ready-meal bowl once they crossed the border.
This Chick’N Teriyaki Style Bowl is the first of it’s kind I’ve tried. I’ve never had another ready-meal version of this, so keep in mind I don’t really have anything to compare this too.
Usually, not having anything to compare a new product to is great, because then you’re not sub-or-consciously keeping tabs on things it does different than the other product.
That said, even without anything to compare it to, this product wasn’t my favourite thing from Gardein.
For starters, it came in a black plastic container that I think was supposed to look like a faux takeout container. Not only have I been trying to stay away from plastic (and I believe the black takeout container plastic is one of the harder kinds to recycle), it was a lot smaller than I was expecting.
And I know I say that basically every time – you’d think for someone who’s tried as many vegan products as I have, I’d expect things to be on the smaller side by now. But for a product that’s supposed to be an entire meal, it was very small. This could maybe be an appetizer to tide you over before the main course – like having a light soup before the entrée at a fancy restaurant – but if you’re planning on eating just this for dinner? Prepare to stay hungry.
This product also said to microwave it, which I didn’t because I try to avoid using them as much as I can. It actually cooked in the same amount of time on the stove in a pan (about 5-6 minutes) as the cooking instructions said it would.
It was also a lot more apparent just how small this portion was once I had it in the pan and out of the container it came in. It was maybe a half bowl’s worth of rice.
The taste was also not that great. Now, I’m not sure if there’s different ways to make teriyaki sauce, but every food I’ve had that said it was “teriyaki” was some sort of soy sauce concoction. This product however, tasted more like plum sauce.
If you enjoy plum sauce, that’d be a plus, but unfortunately I don’t like it. This made the dish weirdly sweet and it somehow also had a kick to it? I guess it’s the definition of “sweet and spicy”, but I wasn’t expecting that (and wouldn’t have ordered it) from a product that was labelled “teriyaki”.
The plus side of this dish, was that despite it being small, it came with about 10 pieces of chick’n strips. The strips I don’t think were anything special, though. They just tasted like their regular bagged ones.
If I remember correctly, this bowl was either more or about the same price as their chick’n strips bag. (I tried to find the price for this article, but Good Rebel, VeganSupply and Loblaws were either sold out or no longer carry the product)
Honestly, you could probably make a much better version of what this dish is supposed to be if you just bought their chick’n strips separately and combined everything yourself.
Again, if you enjoy plum sauce, spiciness and small portions, you might love this dish! But as for me, while I wouldn’t count this product as “bad” I definitely wouldn’t buy it again – unless it was my only option.
This article was written 23.03.06, some of the below products may be sold out/discontinued/etc. at the time of posting.
Though No Frills is owned by Loblaw, they surprisingly don’t carry as many vegan options as their parent company. Sure they’re a ‘discount’ store, but that doesn’t mean they should carry less vegan products.
Vegans like deals, too!
Earth Balance:
Soy Free Buttery Spread
Original Buttery Spread
Becel:
Vegan Margarine
Unsalted Plant-Based Margarine Brick
Salted Plant-Based Margarine Brick
Yves:
Veggie Ham Slices
Veggie Turkey Slices
Veggie Bologna
Veggie Bacon Strips
Ground Round Original
Ground Round Italian
Ground Round Mexican
Veggie Family Hot Dogs
Jumbo Veggie Dogs
Veggie Chicken Nuggets
Veggie Nuggets With Whole Wheat Breading
Veggie Breakfast Links
Falafel Balls
Veggie Meatballs
Lightlife:
Smart Bacon Strips
Smart Dogs
Smart Chicken Tenders
Original Crumble
Original Tempeh
Gardein:
7 Grain Crispy Tenders
Chipotle Lime Crispy Tenders
Beefless Ground
Meatless Meatballs
Mandarin Orange Crispy Chick’n
Lightly Breaded Turk’y Cutlets
Fishless Fillet
Crispy Chick’n Sliders
Beefless Tips
Crispy Golden Chick’N
Barbecue Wings
Chick’N Wings Spicy Gochujang Style
Crabless Cakes
Beyond Meat:
Beyond Beef Ground
Beyond Burgers
Beyond Mild Italian Sausage
Beyond Hot Italian Sausage
Daiya:
Shreds Mozzarella
Shreds Cheddar
Pizza Supreme
Pizza Fire Roasted Vegetable
Flatbread Mushroom Caramelized Onion
Block Cheddar
Block Feta
Salad Dressing Ranch
Salad Dressing Creamy Caesar
Cheesecake New York Style
Cheesecake Key Lime
Silk:
Almond For Coffee Vanilla
Almond For Coffee Hazelnut
Soy For Coffee Original
Oat For Coffee Vanilla
Almond Original
Almond Vanilla
Almond Dark Chocolate
Soy Original Unsweetened
Soy Vanilla
Creamy Cashew
Half & Half Coffee Creamer
Coconut Original
Almond Yogurt Vanilla
Coconut Yogurt
Coconut Yogurt Vanilla
Oat Yogurt Vanilla
Oat Yogurt Plain
Whipping Cream Alternative
Oat Original
Oat Vanilla
Violife:
Shreds Cheddar
Shreds Mozzarella=
Slices Mature Cheddar
Slices Cheddar
Slices Smoked Provolone
PC:
Butter Alternative Salted
Butter Alternative Unsalted
Salad Dressing Caesar
Cheddar Slices
Swiss Slices
Coconut Cream Cheese Style Spread
Mozzarella Sticks
– Beefless Undeniable Burgers
Vanilla Marshmallows
Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
Bittersweet Chocolate Chips
Peanut Butter Delights
As always, the above list is for the pre-made/faux vegan foods. I don’t list staple vegan products like fresh fruit and vegetables, grains, etc. because not only are those found at every store, including them would make these posts way too long.
Like this article? Check out more store crawls here!
I’ll be taking the last half of this month and first half of January off from posting. I’ll be back Jan. 13th 2023, (9am, ET) with the first short story (and product review) of the new year!
Hope you all enjoy the upcoming holiday season, and get well rested for 2023!
Now that the winter weather is in full swing, I thought what better product to review than a soup?
Now, I’m going to be honest, I’m not that big of a fan of soup. I hardly ever eat it (Mr. Noodles not included). I think it’s a little weird as a food. It’s practically just juice with chunks in it.
I’m a much bigger fan of stew. Food should be solid, or fork-able. If I wanted to drink something, I would just get myself a beverage.
That said, I decided to take a chance on this soup, because I’m a big fan of most of Gardein’s other products. And let me tell you, I’m very glad I took the chance!
This soup had big chunks of chick’n (the pieces were roughly the same size as their Meatballs), had pretty big pieces of carrot and celery, and there was a decent amount of noodles, too. My can only had 6 pieces of chick’n total, which I guess I could let slide since they were pretty big, but for a soup that is called Chick’N Noodle, you’d think there would be more. That could entirely vary by can, though, so don’t let that be a reason you write this soup off before even trying it.
The can also made a full bowl, which I was admittedly impressed with – I was half expecting it to be a little under, if anything. The can itself is pretty small, it’s the same size as the Amy’s Kitchen soup cans.
Because I don’t eat soup all that often, I don’t really have much to say in terms of how good it is specifically as a soup, but compared to the Chunky Soup Hearty Chicken I used to eat before going vegan, it definitely stacks up!
One thing I didn’t like about this soup – or any soup that has noodles in it – is how soft the noodles are. I understand that’s what happens when noodles are left soaking in liquid for a long time, they get super soft. And I’m not sure if that’s something others would say is a plus in their soup, but as for me, I like my pasta to have a little bit of a bite to it.
This soup definitely gave me classic chicken noodle soup vibes, and even though I’m not that big a fan of soup in general, I could definitely see myself enjoying this during the cold winter months.
These cute little sausage rounds are perfect for breakfast sandwiches!
Gardein makes 2 kinds of these breakfast sausage patties: original, or maple. And, with me being in Canada and all, I figured I should probably test out the maple ones first. I’ve seen tried both and love both flavours, but the maple beats out the original when talking strictly about breakfast.
There’s just something very pleasing about sliding one of these maple-y goodness rounds onto a freshly toasted English muffin, and topping with cheese. The flavour combo is amazing, and if you haven’t tried them, I definitely recommend doing so!
… Sorry, I just really love maple sausages.
Getting back on track: 5 patties come in one bag, and considering how small they are – and how big the bags Gardein uses – they could easily fit more than 5 in these bags. In fact, to save freezer space, I’ve actually done this. 8 patties comfortably fit, and if you really try, you can fit 10 in one bag. That said, considering they’re usually about $6.99 (Loblaws) and they’re often on sale, it makes them a pretty good deal, in terms of vegan food.
One down side of these patties is that since they’re loose in a bag, they freeze together, which usually wouldn’t be that much of a problem. Except, that because these are covered in maple syrup, it makes it harder to pull them apart when you want to use them. Also, because of the maple syrup coating, it will leave a sticky residue in your frying pan when cooking. This isn’t that much of a big deal, but if you’ve never cooked anything with maple syrup on it before, be warned: you’ll want to immediately soak the pan with some water. Dried maple syrup is very hard to get off of things.
Don’t let that discourage you, though! The maple flavour is more than worth the little bit of extra effort!
Now, it’s been a long time since I last had ‘real’ maple breakfast sausages, but from my (6 year) memory of them, these patties taste the same. The only difference being, they’re in a patty form, instead of cylinders. The texture is nice and not overly chewy, and if you wait long enough not to burn your tongue, the maple syrup adds a nice sweet flavour to whatever breakfast sandwich you’re eating.
Your house will also smell amazingly maple-y after cooking them, so you get breakfast, and a bonus! Who needs candles?
There’s not really much else I can say about these, other than that you definitely need to try them, and the Original flavour, too. (Though those ones will be getting their own review in the future)
Gardein Maple Breakfast Sausages: have you tried them? What’s your favourite way to eat them? Let me know in the comments below!
Like this review? Check out more here! I post NEW reviews on the 13th of EVERY month!
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This article was written 21.06.07, when COVID pre-cautions were still in place. Please excuse any reference that is no longer applicable
Similar to Metro’s store crawl, this crawl was also done online. While the restrictions are lifting a bit where I am, I still think it’s safest to not go to highly populated areas at the moment. Especially if I don’t absolutely have to go.
And running around a store writing down all the vegan food they offer isn’t on that list, so you’re getting another online edition. Actually, I was thinking of maybe making most of these online crawls instead. Lots of people would rather get groceries delivered, and, sometimes the online selection of products is better/has more variety than if you were to go in person.
Also, since we’re starting to get back into the cold weather, not having to brave the oncoming winter temperature’s seems like a good idea.
And with that little preamble out of the way, let’s see what vegan offerings** Loblaws has:
Yves:
Original Ground Round
Ham
Turkey Slices
Hot Dogs
Mexican Ground Round
Bologna
Pepperoni
Chick’N Burgers
Italian Ground Round
Lightlife:
Smart Dogs
Smart Tenders Plant-Based Chicken
Smart Bacon
Organic Smoky Tempeh Strips
Organic Original Tempeh
Plant Based Burgers*
Plant Based Ground*
*All other products said Certified Vegan on packaging, these products did not, however their ingredients appeared vegan when I read them
Gardein:
7 Grain Crispy Tenders
Mandarin Orange Crispy Chick’n
Beefless Ground
Crispy Fingers Chipotle Lime
Turk’y Cutlets
Golden Fishless Filets
Beefless Tips
Breakfast Spicy Sausages
Chick’n Sliders
BBQ Wings
Breakfast Maple Sausages
Earth Balance:
Soy Free Buttery Spread
Original Buttery Spread
Whipped Spread
Creamy Coconut Peanut Butter
Peanut Butter and Flax
Crunchy Coconut and Peanut Spread
Crunchy Peanut Butter with Flax
Silk:
Soy Original
Soy Original Unsweetened
Soy Vanilla
Soy Chocolate
Unsweetened Almond
Vanilla Almond
Dark Chocolate Almond
Almond Protein
Almond and Coconut
Coconut Unsweetened
Cashew Unsweetened
Oat Yeah Original
Oat Yeah Unsweetened
Oat Yeah Vanilla
Barista Soy
Barista Almond
Soy For Coffee
Vanilla Coffee Creamer
Hazelnut Coffee Creamer
Oat Yeah Coffee Creamer
Plain Coconut Yogurt
Vanilla Coconut Yogurt
Raspberry Yogurt
Blueberry Yogurt
Almond Strawberry Yogurt
Almond Peach Yogurt
Strawberry Banana Yogurt
Presidents Choice (PC):
Swiss Style Slices
Cheddar Style Slices
Mozzarella Style Slices
Cheddar Style Shreds
Mozzarella Shreds
Coconut Cream Cheese
Vegan Cheddar Puffs
Chickenless Strips
Onion and Chive Tofu Dip
Beefless Undeniable Burgers
Amy’s Kitchen
Alphabet Soup
Vegetable Barley Soup
Fire Roasted Southwestern Vegetable Soup
Light In Sodium Minestrone Soup
Lentil Vegetable Soup
Lentil Soup
Daiya:
Cheddar Block
Mozz Shreds
Cheddar Shreds
Cheddar Sauce
Alfredo Sauce
Cheddar Mac
Alfredo Mac
Cheeze Lovers Pizza
Margherita Pizza
Fire Roasted Veggie Pizza
Supreme Pizza
Vegetable Crust Meatless Pepperoni Pizza
Vegetable Crust Mediterranean Pizza
NY Style Cheesecake
Key Lime Cheesecake
Strawberry Cheesecake
Vanilla Ice Cream
Triple Fudge Ice Cream
Chocolate Crunch Ice Cream Bar
Salted Caramel Swirl Ice Cream Bar
Original Cream Cheese
Enjoy Life:
Mini Choc Chips
Mega Chunks
Plentil Dill and Sour Cream
Plentil Thai Chili Lime
Plentil Sea Salt
Cocoa Loco Baked Chewy Bars
Chocolate Chip Mini Crunchy Cookies
Soft Baked Mini Double Choc Brownie Cookies
Soft Baked Chocolate Chip Cookies
Soft Baked Snickerdoodle Cookies
Soft Baked Mini Snickerdoodle Cookies
Soft Baked Gluten Free Gingerbread Cookies
Oat and Fruit Breakfast Ovals Choc Chip and Banana
Oat and Fruit Breakfast Ovals Fig and Maple
Oat and Fruit Breakfast Ovals Berry Medley
Gluten Free Crunchy Double Choc Cookies
Boom Choco Boom Candy Bar
Misc:
Mr. Noodle’s Vegetable
Habitant Garden Style Vegetable Soup
Lipton Cup-A-Soup Spring Vegetable Dry Mix
Knorr Vegetable Bouillon Cubes
Bob’s Red Mill Nutritional Yeast (Large Flake)
Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Pizza Crust Mix
Oreo’s Original
Fudgee-O’s Original
Triscuits Original
Ritz Crackers Original
Kisko’s Mr. Freeze Jumbo Freezies
Ben and Jerry’s Non-Dairy Netflix and Chill’d
Ben and Jerry’s Non-Dairy Peanut Butter Half Baked
Ben and Jerry’s Non-Dairy Cherry Garcia
Ben and Jerry’s Non-Dairy P.B. and Cookies
Ben and Jerry’s Non-Dairy Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
Dandies Vanilla Marshmallows
**This is not counting of course fresh/frozen/canned fruit and vegetables, and staple dry ingredients like pastas and rices, this is also not including ‘obvious’ snack products (Lay’s Original chips, etc.)
This article was written 20.11.12, when COVID was still running rampant/wasn’t under control. (At least in Toronto) Please excuse any reference/joke that’s no longer applicable.
Disclaimer: This article contains links to graphic videos of animal slaughter. If you have issues with watching, I recommend not clicking the video links, but I implore you to ask yourself: if you can’t watch, should you really continue to fund it?
I’m gonna be honest, when I started doing this series, I didn’t really have a plan other than making pretty-ish collages of vegan alternatives. However, after giving it some thought, I realized that I should be taking this time to educate the non-vegan, and new vegans, to show them what options there are, so they don’t have to freak out and go through that ‘wait… what am I gonna eat?’ phase.
Hopefully if you’ve stumbled upon this article on the vegan section of a website, you already know what’s wrong with eating meat, but just in case, here’s a quick refresher:
As you hopefully already know, you have to kill an animal to be able to eat it’s dead body. Sooo, not to be ‘that’ vegan, but yes meat is murder! (There’s a reason why it’s a popular chant!) And, as we (hopefully) all know, murder is wrong.
Slaughterhouses are giant murder factories. Animals go in alive, and come out chopped into pieces wrapped in plastic. As if murdering them wasn’t enough, the animals are also often traumatized, by either being abused, or by hearing their friends and family (yes, animals have friends and family!) being killed in the next room, or both. ‘Oh, Ater’ you say, ‘but animals don’t know what’s happening! They’re not that self-aware.’
Well, how about you look at this picture, and I mean really look at it. Are you still gonna try to tell me that’s not fear and sadness in that animal’s eyes? Does that expression look like the expression of someone who doesn’t know what’s going on? What if I told you this is a picture from a video that was shot in 2015, and this animal has been dead for 5 years. Now do you care? What if this was a picture of a dog, instead of a pig – would you care then? Why?
If you believe dogs have souls and deserve to live, so should other animals. Not all animals are as smart as dogs, but does that mean they deserve to die? What if we did that with people? Dogs on average are about as smart as 2 year olds, so what if we just killed everyone not as smart as that. Does that sound even remotely like an okay thing to do?
And, while we’re on the subject of intelligence, pigs have actually been shown to be more intelligent than dogs. So… why is it okay to eat one, but not the other? Tell me, truly, what’s the difference?
2. Humans as a whole are so overly murdering animals, it’s crazy. Seriously, the shear number of animals that are being killed every minute is insane to think about. In fact, why don’t you check out this site, and watch the numbers go up. That is a lot of lives that are being lost. On average, humans kill 3 billion animals every day. Yes, you read that correctly 3 billion animals die every day!
To put this into perspective, on 9/11, roughly 2,900 people died. That was enough to change basically the world as a whole, and there were many changes enacted to make sure something like that never happened again.
That is only 0.0000966% of 3 billion. But for animals, nobody cares? What if we killed that many people everyday? At the time of writing this article (20.11.12), there are 7.8 billion humans on Earth. If we were to kill humans at the same rate we killed animals, the human race would be extinct in 17 days.
17 days!
And this isn’t even mentioning all the terrible environmental factors that slaughterhouses, and needless breeding of animals has on the planet.
But, in the interest of keeping this short, let’s move on.
So, now you know meat is terrible, and you’ve agreed to stop funding murder – awesome! But, now you may be wondering, what else is there to eat?
Well, thankfully, there have been amazing strides in the vegan movement in the past couple of years, and it’s easier than ever to stop eating meat!
Starting from the top left corner, going clockwise:
Beyond Meat Beyond Burgers
Gardein Beefless Strips
Gardein Beefless Ground
Gardein Chick’N Patties
Gardein Chick’N Scallopini
Gardein Turk’y Cutlets
Gardein Stuffed Turk’y
Tofurky Veggie Roast
Gardein Porkless Bites
Beyond Meat Beyond Sausage
Tofurky Italian Sausage
Yves Veggie Dogs
Yves Veggie Ham
Yves Veggie Bologna
Gardein Fishless Filets
Gardein Crabless Cakes
Seitan
This collage show only a small sample of all the different vegan friendly ‘replacement’ meats currently available. Basically any meat you want to eat has a substitute. And, these are just some of the convenience foods available. There’s also tofu, tempeh, or heck, even vegetables, such as mushrooms or jackfruit can be used as a meat substitute. (Depending on the dish, of course)
All it takes is a little know-how to make kick-ass faux meat dishes. Or, instead of trying to replace meat directly with substitutes, you could also try making different dishes. Expand your meals from being meat-centric, to include ones that put veggies in the spotlight.
Instead of trying to replicate steak and potatoes, why don’t you try making stuffed bell peppers? You can replace the ground beef or chicken (or whatever meat you’d usually put in the rice) with lentils, or mushrooms. Add in some of the usual suspects (corn, broccoli, carrot, etc.) and BAM! You’ll have one seriously hearty dish on your hands. I guarantee you that you won’t even notice the lack of meat in the dish.
There are tons of veg-centric meals just waiting for you to try them. So why not give it a whirl? And if you need some help? No worries! There are tons of vegan cookbooks, blogs, Youtube channels and even Instagram accounts out there for you to draw inspiration from. One of my all time favourite Youtube channels is HotforFood. Lauren is a master in the kitchen, and makes all kinds of breaking-vegan-stereotype dishes. She has recipes for burgers, mac n cheese, gravy, and even a vegan ranch dip! In a lot of her videos, she also explains why she uses certain ingredients, instead of keeping you guessing.
When I first went vegan, I watched a lot of her videos, and learned a lot from her videos about combining certain ingredients to get certain flavours. So go ahead and give it a try! There’s never been a better time to test out new recipes. (Not like you’re leaving the house, anyway)
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I don’t think there has been a product from Gardein I’ve tried that I haven’t liked. I don’t know how, but they keep coming up with awesome new foods to try, and I’m always game!
So, Gardein actually has 2 kinds of these breakfast sausage patties, they have these plain/original ones, and they have maple ones. They taste exactly the same, but the maple one has maple syrup on it, so this is going to be like a combined 2-in-1 review.
These sausage patties are pretty small, which I like, because they fit perfectly on an English muffin. They have what I believe would be a ‘classic’ sausage taste, and have a good consistency, as well. They aren’t too squishy, and have a good bite to them. Pan frying them with some oil gives them a nice ‘crust’ on the outside, so they get a bit more crunch to them. I don’t know if you’d be able to tell by the consistency if they weren’t meat, but from what I remember, they’re pretty close. (Though I’m at 5 years vegan now, so my memory may be fading)
The only problem with these – as with most vegan products – is the amount that comes in the bag. 1 pack only comes with 5, which leads to disappointment when you open it, because they’re so small, so it makes the bag look even emptier. You could easily fit at least 2 more patties in the bag. Or, if you don’t want to add more patties to the bag, you could use a smaller bag! The bag is the same size as all the other products, and honestly I think that’s just a waste of packaging. Either add more product, or make a smaller bag.
I wish they had these, or the maple ones, as actual breakfast sausages (the round kind), that would be even more perfect. Because while these patties are great, if you don’t have English muffins on hand, they look so sad in a regular bread sandwich, or even on a bagel. If they made ‘real’ sausages, then you could have them on the side, instead of turning them into a sandwich, and that would lend itself well to not feeling like you need to make a sandwich for breakfast. And yes, I know you could have these patties on the side, but I feel like they look weird being ‘on the side’ instead of in a sandwich.
If you’ve been looking for something to elevate your breakfast sandwiches, you definitely have to try these. Either the plain or maple ones. They make great breakfast sandwiches, especially with some black salt and nooch on a toasted English muffin. Which is funny, because that’s one of those things I didn’t realize I missed until I had it again, and then I was like, ‘oh, yeah….’
I don’t often eat breakfast type foods, but these are definitely going on my regular shopping list.
I don’t know what a ‘scallopini’ is supposed to be, honestly I think a better name would’ve been a ‘cutlet’ (like their breaded turk’y cutlets) so this review may not be the most accurate.
Call that a disclaimer or warning, whatever floats your boat, but yeah. If I miss something that has to do with it being called a scallopini I apologize in advanced.
I want to start this review off by saying there’s only four that comes in a bag, similar to the Chick’N Burgers.
Also similar to the Chick’N Burgers and nuggets (and tenders) is the flavour of the chick’n minus the breading. They’re also similar in size to the cutlets which I like. They’re not too small or too big. They’re roughly the size of a chicken breast (I think) albeit they’re not nearly as thick as a non-vegan breast. They’re actually about the size of my palm, which is about 3in x 3in. (Yes, I did just measure that)
They’re a good texture too. They’re not too squishy like some tofu nuggets I’ve had, they have a good bite to them, and you have to put some pressure to the knife if you want to cut them.
The first way I tried one was just pan fried (no oil) and I topped it with some Daiya shreds and put it on a sandwich.
My dad even tried a piece and said he liked it!
Taste-wise there’s not really anything new – if you like their other chick’n products, you’ll probably like this too. Also, the texture is pretty much the same as all their other chicken products. It’s that firm-soft texture that uncooked meat has. (If you remember that)
I think the best way to cook these is in a pan. I think the instructions on the back say to cook them in the oven, but that just takes way too long. Why would I put them in the oven and wait 20 minutes, when I could pan fry and have them done in 10? Also, if it’s a tad under-cooked, it’s still fine, because it’s not actually raw meat, so you don’t need to worry about getting sick. (I’m not a doctor, so don’t quote me on that)
One of the things I’ve actually noticed since going vegan is that most of the premade stuff takes so much less time to cook, it’s insane! That’s definitely another bonus of these, and a lot of the other Gardein products, too.
All in all, these are pretty much their Chick’N burgers, if they were naked instead of being breaded. I like them a lot, and similar to the Chick’N Burgers, I wish they put more than 4 in one bag!
The soup in the pot
The piece of saus’ge, with a carefully placed ring-shaped pasta on top for size comparison
