Review: Morning Star Farms Veggie Crumbles

My girlfriend is a vegetarian, which makes me a part-time vegetarian. Cooking for the both of us can be tricky-especially when I want something like chili. It took some getting used to at first, but using a meat substitute has come to be something I actually enjoy. Morning Star Farms Veggie Crumbles, however, sealed the deal for me as far ground beef substitutes are concerned.

I was reluctant to use meat substitutes at first, but using vegetarian grounds made cooking really interesting. The novelty of it was that most of the grounds that I had used prior to Morning Star Farms Veggie Crumbles weren’t all that seasoned. To make the other brands have some flavor in my cooking I would have to be really creative with my seasoning and cooking techniques.

Using Morning Star Farms Veggie Crumbles is a completely different experience when it comes to flavor. A look at the list of ingredients on the back of the Morning Star Farms Veggie Crumbles packaging (or on Morning Star Farms‘ website) sheds some insight on why this is true. Evaporated cane juice crystal, garlic powder and onion powder are but a few of the ingredients that adorn the label.

It may seem silly to celebrate the use of seasoning, but I’m really at a loss to understand why it’s been such a rarity for me to come across something so simple in my use of ground beef substitutes. I still cook pretty much the same way; the key difference is that the flavor has been amplified by my use of Morning Star Farms Veggie Crumbles.

Aside from the fantastic flavor, Morning Star Farms Veggie Crumbles also have a nicer texture than other ground beef substitutes I’ve tried. Other brands can be kind of gamey, and somewhat rubber-like. That’s not the most flattering description of a product but a little shopping around for ground beef substitute will find that my statement rings fairly true.

The gamey texture is probably inevitable when using a ground beef substitute. Most grounds are soy or mushroom based, so it’s easy to see why they are often times gamey. Morning Star Farms Veggie Crumbles have a little bit of that texture to them, but it is remarkably minimal. Their crumbles mimics actual beef the closest of all other ground beef substitutes I’ve tried.

What pushes Morning Star Farms Veggie Crumbles over the top for me is the beefy flavor that their grounds have. It’s a deep beefy flavor, if the ingredients weren’t listed on the back-I’d swear they used beef broth to flavor their product. If I had to give this product a rating out of five stars, they would definitely get all five stars. If you haven’t given Morning Star Farms Veggie Crumbles a try, get to the store! I think you’ll be amazed!

Sources: Morning Star Farms Veggie Crumbles, Morning Star Farms

Reference:

• www.morningstarfarms.com/product_detail.aspx?id=324