Attack of the Burrito-Burgers
My daughter has been on pseudo-vegetarian kick for a while. She only eats vegetables and animals that aren't cute. However, there are no set criteria as to what constitutes a cute animal, so this changes daily. I can, however, guarantee you that there are no bits of cute animals in either pepperoni or Salisbury steak. This makes me wonder how I've failed so miserably at teaching her where our food comes from. Of course, with the way some of our meat is done now-a-days, she may be right.
When BzzAgent offered me the chance to try some for free, I had some major reservations. My previous ventures into the world of vegan friendly foods have not been anything close to successful. In fact, most of them have been downright nasty.
To me, a veggie burger is an ominous sounding beast, invoking mental images of tofu, seaweed, soy beans, and fruitcakes. I won't lie: I love meat. I have issues with how our food is produced here, yes, but I still love meat. Let me reiterate: I think meat is delicious. I don't plan on stopping my consumption of it anytime soon. There's nothing I like better than a thick hunk of warm, salty meat filling my mouth.
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| Ah, who the hell am I kidding? |
Going into the campaign, someone reminded me not to expect these to taste like meat. You'd think that this would be a "no duh" statement, but you'd be surprised how many people I've talked to have expected them to do so. I have wondered in the past if they did, or not. I ended up selecting the Spicy Black Bean patties because I love the taste of black beans. The box assured me that "these bestselling veggie burgers are made with black beans, roasted corn, brown rice and chili peppers for a little kick." Visually, it looks like a cooked hamburger with little chunks of black beans, corn, and what I thought were tomatoes. It's also a very slender patty. In fact, they are so slender that on my Foreman-esque grill, the top doesn't touch the top of patty, resulting in me having to flip it mid-way through cooking.
This slenderness is one of my least favorite things about the patty. It makes it a pain to grill and it doesn't seem like it fills you up. Of course, in my house we could just be pigs, but I've heard this complaint from several people. Now is this from the modern American's over-inflated portion size ideas? Perhaps, but it still sucks to eat something really delicious and not be satisfied.
When I first tried them, I wasn't sure how to dress them, because how I normally dress a burger didn't sound appealing in combination with the veggies. I ended up going with just a patty on my first run. One thing that I did notice when cooking was that the only change in color come from a few spots on the patty that darken up to an almost burned appearance if it is cooked in a skillet. If you cook it on an indoor grill, there is absolutely no change in color, cooked or uncooked. I found this kind of odd for some reason.
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| Fine dining presentation at its finest. |
They're freaking delicious. If you like burritos, you will love these because that's what these tasted like. I know, I know. Bean burritos are (duh!) made out of beans; so's this. However, I've eaten lots of bean things that didn't taste like this. This is yummy. They're low calorie, clocking in at 120 calories per serving. Carbs run at 13g, fat is 4g, and protein is 11g. They're a great stepping stone towards a more health conscious diet. I just wish they were more filling.
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