Trying out the Beyond Meat – Beast Burger | Gluten Free Aussie Vegan
Welcome to Gluten Free Aussie Vegan. Today instead of sharing a recipe I’m going to show and do a little review of what I ate a few nights ago.
I’ve seen all over youtube, American Vegans have been loving the range of burger patties from Beyond Meat, those being The Beast Burger and The Beyond Burger. They also have a range of sausages too. Now out here in Australia we haven’t got anywhere near the amount of variety of faux meat alternatives as you will get in UK and USA, at least not where I live but I think it’s slowly starting to catch up. If you’re gluten free like me though, you will have discovered that a lot of the meat alternatives that we DO have are often not gluten free argh.
So recently I’d heard that The Beyond Burger had started to make it’s way out to Australia, showing up in some of the major cities like Melbourne and Adelaide. Then I heard that the takeaway franchise Lord of the Fries had started using it in one of their burgers but alas I don’t have a franchise here where I live. The hype was that people say it tastes shockingly like a real beef patty and that when you cook it, it even oozes juices that look similar to what you get with a beef patty but through the use of beet juice.
If I’m honest? After 2 and a half years I don’t really miss meat anymore and if I do want a burger then I usually go with my favourite Fry’s Quinoa and Brown Rice Protein Burgers . Having said that I’m still totally open to trying out new things so that I can share it with other people who might be transitioning off a meat diet and looking for good meat alternatives that are gluten free and vegan.
That brings me to a few days ago when I discovered one of the health food stores where I live started stocking the Beyond Meat ‘Beast Burger’. Now because it gets imported in from America, the prices are a little steep at the moment with 2 patties coming in at a total of $14.30 eeek…but i still got it anyways to try.
Here’s a quick video of it cooking and you can see the ‘juices’. Sorry for bad audio it was a quick, rough vid.
Here’s some pics of the end results.
So I had a mustard pickle relish with tomato sauce, onions, lettuce, tomato, cucumber and beetroot along with the Beast Burger patty on Gluten Free Vegan Turkish Bread.
I got this Turkish Bread from Coles. It’s by Gluten Free Bakehouse and as you can see on the picture it’s Gluten Free and Vegan. It is SOOOOOo delicious. I discovered the bread a few weeks ago and have been obsessed having it in so many meals. It’s especially good when toasted.
How good does that Turkish bread look?
What’s my verdict you may ask? So I realised after I tried it…that I might have got a little confused over which burger is supposed to taste ‘like OMG’ so meaty. I just remembered the name ‘Beast Burger’ and had heard reviews but after I tried this I realised it’s the ‘Beyond Burger’ that is supposed to be the most realistic. Either way my verdict was that this was just ok. I didn’t get blown away…but it certainly isn’t a bad alternative if you’re looking for one. I didn’t find it to taste too meaty in flavour, the flavour wasn’t very strong at all in fact. Which I don’t mind since I don’t miss meat. The texture was pretty good, it had the springiness that I remember from minced beef patties.
My overall rating would maybe be a 6 to 7 out of 10. I’m hoping some day in the near future I’ll get a chance to try out the Beyond Burger.
I look forward to when the Australian food industry starts coming out with their own versions to make the prices more competitive. In the meantim, I would recommend the beast burger a try if you’re missing the taste of beef patties. It’s a pretty respectable alternative even if a bit expensive.
