Monday, July 23, 2012

Finding Good Vegan Burgers in Expected Places (Vegan in Costco!)

Unlike some people, I'm not a a veggie burger aficionado.  I can appreciate a good one like Sunshine (southwest flavor FTW), but I don't gravitate to veggie burgers on menus or in the supermarket.  For starters, many contain non-vegan ingredients.  Not to mention that there are a lot of bad ones out there.  Also, there's so much other great stuff to eat; long gone are the days when you were lucky to just have a veggie burger option.  Like hummus, salad, and pasta; to me, veggie burgers represent the ho hum of requisite veg offerings at omni establishments that have great potential, but too often miss the mark.


Yet for some reason, these refrigerated veggie burgers recently caught my eye in Costco: perhaps because they looked so chock full of veggies?


It certainly wasn't because I needed that many burgers (I don't own a barbecue and I have no intention of having a cookout).  Oh, right; it was because I'm a sucker for the word "vegan" on mainstream packaging.


It's hard to "try" things from Costco, because if you don't like them you still have to power through the rest of the giant package.  But I had a good feeling about these (i.e. the second "vegan" on the box), so I took a chance. 


When I got them home, I was happy to see that they looked exactly like they did on the package, smelled extremely appealing, and were packaged neatly in a reusable, figure eight-shaped box.


The burger cooked up nicely on the stovetop and was soft without being delicate; this is no smushy/falling apart burger.  My only complaint is that it's oblong, so it doesn't exactly fit into the confines of a round bun.


The veggie flavor was prominent and the burger was a substantial meal.  I gambled and I won; 13 more to go!


The company, Don Lee Farms, is neither vegan nor vegetarian; but they make one heck of a tasty, vegan burger. (UPDATE 2/12/14: I bought these burgers again and did not enjoy them; they seemed to have some sort of a coating on them that I found oily and off-putting.  I'm definitely back to the Sunshine Burgers.)

7 comments:

  1. i'm glad you found a winner! they looks delicious!

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  2. They are so good! It's so funny about the shape though, isn't it? haha. I am really tempted to contact the company and ask "so, knowing that most buns are ROUND... what made you pick an oval shape for your burgers???"

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  3. Ali- Oh do it! I'd love to hear their response. Although wait; it might be something along the lines of, "We made a great vegan burger and you still have a complaint?"

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  4. Abby, I'm very curious what you will reuse that figure-8 shaped container for.

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  5. BYOL, for my figure-8 collection, of course!

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  6. Totally know what you mean about seeing the word vegan on mainstream food packaging: it makes me happy. I have not seen these burgers or this brand, but I may give them a try if I do.

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