Trader Joe’s Vegan Foods

Trader Joe's Chicken-Less Beef-Less Meats

Trader Joe’s is a great place to shop,  for vegans and non-vegans.  First, they have great prices on staples, a large selection of which are organic, including tofu, jams/jellies, nut and seed butters, canned beans, bread products, frozen vegetables, and non-dairy milks, including soy-, nut-, and rice-based flavors.  (Hmm, now I’m stumped trying to think back to the basics of high school English to remember if that is the appropriate use of hyphens.  I think it is, but it’s been so long .. )

Recently I spotted a fairly new arrival at the Daly City location – a quadruplet of house brand faux meat products.  I’m not necessarily a big fan of buying faux meat products to prepare and eat at home, but they looked so darn appealing on the shelf.

Having a vague recollection of having brunch at Herbivore’s a few months back with friends, and hearing a rave review about stuffed cutlets purchased at Trader Joe’s in SF, I went for the fake meat in box number four.  Upon reaching home, it joined my other collection of vegan-foods-to-be-eaten-later in cold storage.

Flash forward to about a week later .. I’ve just been for a gorgeous hike on a late spring Sunday, didn’t feel like cooking, and so out came my home-frozen rice and O Organics broccoli, and my new stuffed cutlets.  Interestingly, the two cutlets were individually packaged, which is nice if you don’t want to eat both at the same time.

Well, I followed the instructions on the box and microwaved the cutlets (yes, in my tired and lazy state of mind, I microwaved them in the plastic bags).  It was simple to prepare, and when combined with the brown rice and broccoli, it made a decent meal.  The cutlets were good — the sauce had an enjoyable slightly spicy undertone, the fake meat tasted fine, the stuffing was okay.   I thought the cutlet on the package box looked more appealing than my actual cutlet though.

On a scale of one (low) to five (high), the average reviews from the two vegans in the household was a solid 3.0, which reflects our thoughts that while it was good enough to eat again, it seemed a bit pricey for what it actually was.

Anyways, if you’re looking for other ideas of what to eat vegan at Trader Joe’s, cheaply, check out Michelle’s recent video blog at Vegan Break.