Tofurky Beer Brats: A Vegetarian Product Review

Tofurky Beer Brats from Turtle Island Foods are a low-cholesterol, low-fat vegetarian substitute for the ever-popular bratwurst. Contrary to what their name implies, they contain no turkey or animal products and are certified vegan.

Price/ Availability
Tofurky Beer Brats sell for around $4.00 for a 14 oz package which contains 4 brats. I purchased them at my local Wild Oats Marketplace. They are also available at Trader Joes, as well as a variety of large retail food chain stores such as Fred Meyers, Albertsons, Safeway and Vons.

Cooking/Preparation
Tofurky Beer Brats are great if you don’t have a lot of time to cook. They can be prepared in less than 5 minutes. They can be either grilled, cooked in the Microwave, or on the stovetop. I cooked my brats in a pan on the stovetop with a teaspoon of olive oil. You simply just brown them, and then add 1 tablespoon of water at the end of cooking and cover for 15 seconds. You can also boil the brats in water for about 90 seconds. I wouldn’t recommend the microwave option, I think it tends to dry them out and give them a rubbery texture. The tastiest way to prepare them is on the grill.

Taste
Tofurky Brats taste great. They are about as close to a meat Bratwurst as you can get without the grease. These beer brats are made with Micro brewed “Full Sail Amber Ale”, and the beer flavor comes out very nicely. Tofurky Beer Brats are so tasty that you can eat them plain, but I prefer mine with spicy mustard. If you put them on a bun with sauerkraut, cheese, relish or other toppings you can’t even tell that they are vegetarian brats.

Nutrition
Each Tofurky Beer Brat is 280 Calories and contains 16 grams of fat, 0 mg of cholesterol, 650 mg of sodium, 5 grams of dietary fiber, 1 gram of sugar and 24 grams of protein. They have 4% of the RDA for calcium, and 2% of the RDA for Iron. For those of you on a restricted diet or allergies, they do contain soy and wheat.

Ingredients
According to the package, these are made from real tofu, not soy isolates or powers. The ingredients listed are; wheat gluten, canola oil, safflower oil, organic tofu, salt, evaporated cane juice, spices, textured wheat protein, onion, garlic, autolyzed yeast extract, carrageenan and konjac flour (from yam root).

Recommendation
I would recommend trying Tofurky Beer Brats. I have tried many other tofu and vegetarian style hot dogs, sausages, and meat substitutes, and would say they theses are the best I have tasted. Typically these types of products have an overwhelming soy flavor, or a rubbery texture, but not these, they are really are great; good spices and hearty beer flavor mask the tofu. They are a little dryer than a meat brat from not having any animal fat, so don’t skip the olive oil and water when pan frying. Overall, these make a great addition to tasty quick meal that vegetarians and meat lovers both can enjoy.