Beyond Meat Feisty Beef-Free Crumble

Growing up in the McDevitt household, tacos were a weekly dinner item: simple to make and always amazing tasting. As I got older and started "cooking" on my own, tacos continued to be a mainstay. That is until I gave up on tacos and went 100% nachos, 'cause I'm lazy. When I stopped eating meat, I tried all of the popular meatless crumbles of the day. Everything from Morningstar to Boca. After a couple years, I decided the crumbles were not that great, and actually unnecessary when you have a quality refried bean. That is until now! The new Beyond Meat Feisty Beef-Free Crumbles are a revelation. I got to try them at Expo West and I recently gave them the true test, on my nachos.  

Let me start off with the flavor. Holy smokes! Straight up Taco Bell meat. Spicy, but not burningly so. This stuff is gold! I'm serious when I say that if Taco Bell replaced their taco meat with Beyond Meat, very few people would notice. And honestly, most people would prefer Beyond Meat once they see the nutritional and ethical differences.

Also the Beef-Free Crumbles are super easy to prepare. You can use the microwave or a skillet. I've been using a cast-iron skillet and the Crumbles warm up perfectly. The instructions say to warm them up, but if you like your beef crispy, you can cook them a little bit longer with some oil. I'm seriously on my fourth bag of crumbles since Expo West and I'm still hooked. If you're not convinced, please print this free coupon for a bag of Beef-Free Crumbles and try them for yourself. I think you'll love them as much as me.

Beyond Meat Chicken-Free Strips at Tropical Smoothie Cafe!

Last month, at the Vida Vegan Conference in Portland, Oregon, I was introduced to Kedar, a representative for Beyond Meat. He happened to mention to me that there was a Tropical Smoothie Cafe in the Omaha area and that they carried Beyond Meat Chicken-Free Strips for sandwiches, wraps or salads! I've heard rumblings of Vegan options at Tropical Smoothie Cafes across the country, but I had no idea Omaha had one (technically it's in Papillion, but whatever.) Kedar provided me with a Vegan cheat sheet that really comes in handy once you're ready to order. It goes like this:

Vegan Breads:
Flour Tortilla
Garlic Tortilla
Ciabatta Flatbread

Vegan Sauces/Toppings:
Jerk Sauce
Thai Peanut Dressing
Buffalo Sauce
Guacamole
Hummus
Salsa
Southwest Rice
Wontons

Suggested Vegan items with Beyond Meat:

Wraps:
Buffalo Chicken Wrap (without cheese)
Thai Chicken
Southwest Chicken (without ranch)
Hummus Veggie (without pepper jack, doesn’t normally have meat, so add Beyond Meat)

Sandwiches:
Turkey Guacamole (With Ciabatta bread instead of 9-Grain)
Build your own? (Chicken, Hummus, Guac with Lettuce & Tomato on Ciabatta)

Flatbreads:
Baja Chicken (without cheese and ranch)
Caribbean Luau (without cheese)

It also turns out that many of the smoothies are Vegan, too. They use Turbinado sugar, which is completely Vegan, plus tons of fruits and veggies. So now you can get some great food and a smoothie. My kind of fast food joint! Everything was pretty easy to order. Just remember that most things come with cheese, so just ask for no cheese and Beyond Meat Chicken-Free Strips in place of the chicken. Here's what I tried:

Looking at the cheat sheet, I knew I wanted the Buffalo Wrap. I love that buffalo tang and I knew it would taste great with the Chicken-Free Strips. Boy was I right, these are dynamite! Probably my favorite of the three food items I tried. For real, I could eat these everyday.

Next is the Caribbean Luau Flatbread. A very flavorful, sweet, hearty creation that's a little different than your typical sandwich fare. I have to add that the Chicken-Free Strips taste great! I believe they serve the Grilled Chicken-Free Strips. I'm not sure of their cooking method, but they are warm and delicious.

And finally we have the Hummus Veggie Wrap. Now, this wrap is normally Vegan (minus the cheese) but I tried it with and without Chicken-Free Strips (yes, I'm pretty thorough.) I loved it both ways! The strips add a lot of sustenance to the wrap, but it was also excellent without.

Unfortunately, there was only one bag of chips that were Vegan. They were Miss Vickie's Simply Salt Chips. I liked them but I would love to see more Vegan options. Hopefully Tropical Smoothie Cafe can rectify that in the future.

I also want to mention how impressed I was by the smoothies. If you follow me on twitter or know me in real life, you know I'm a sucker for shakes and smoothies. The two I tried were simply amazing: Island Green and Caribbean Carrot. They were refreshing AND came in very handy during this hot Nebraska month of June. Can't wait to try some of the other varieties!

It's always been a dream of mine for fast food restaurants to offer Vegan options. I know it happens on the coasts with Chipotle and Subway, but nothing like that ever happens in Omaha. I'm really excited and I hope people come (I'm talking to the whole city of Omaha) and try all of the different varieties of Vegan eats.

Special thanks to Kedar from Beyond Meat for telling me all about this. I was half drunk when he told me (we were at party, I'm not always drunk) and I didn't believe him. I'm so happy he was right! Find a Tropical Smoothie Cafe location near you here.

Beyond Meat Chicken-Free Strips

Beyond Meat is a new company that recently released a chicken-less protein strip that has been eagerly anticipated for a while. Biz Stone (the Co-founder of Twitter) is an investor, so there has been a lot of hype (even outside of the Vegan community) that Beyond Meat is the next meat alternative game-changer. The first time I tried Beyond Meat was at the Whole Foods salad bar. I really wasn't blown away by it, but I chalked that up to the fact it hadn't been cooked or seasoned. But now that Beyond Meat has graciously sent me all three flavors of their strips, I'm going to cook some up and see if the hype is real.

First off, after eating cooked the cooked Chicken-Free Strips for the first time, I NEVER want to eat them raw again. The cooked version with a little bit of oil is so much better, it's like night and day. I haven't had chicken in over ten years, but as far as I can remember, Beyond Meat tastes eerily similar. Not to the point where I'm weirded out because I think I thought I just ate chicken, but it definitely has those flavors you're going to remember. As for the texture, I thought it was spot on. Now if that's your cup of tea, well, that's up to you.  I love that you can throw them into a salad, pasta, taco or virtually anything.

On the plus side, I think meat eaters will dig this. In fact, I bet a lot of meat eaters would prefer Beyond Meat when cost, social responsibility and health are taken into account. Maybe that's just me being a optimistic Vegan, but I believe people in the end would like to do the right thing. When it comes to the three different flavors, there are subtle differences. I think the Grilled was my favorite -- of course it has grill marks and a smokey flavor. The Southwest Style had some spice to it and the Lightly Seasoned had a bit of a salty flavor. Overall, I think the flavors are subtle enough to put them in any dish you want.  

So, the good news is I think think the hype on Beyond Meat Chicken-Free Strips is warranted. My only suggestion is to cook it up in a skillet. Will all Vegans like it? No. Will some meat eaters like it? Yes. And to me, that's the most important aspect. If we can get meat eaters to eat less animals, it will make a difference. Give it a try and tell me what you think!