Veganism is taking off in the west. And in England we were recently treated to the arrival of the Beyond Burger. We finally got our hands on one as they’re tricky to come across in Tesco. Now here’s our rating of the vegetable burger.
Beyond Burger
Right, this thing caused a surprising amount of controversy in England. Butchers here really threw a wobbler about the arrival of the plant-based burger.
This is due to its arrival in supermarkets on the same aisles as normal burgers. And that threatens their livelihoods, which sent them into complaint mode.
The idea from Los Angeles based company Beyond Meat is to try and replicate beef burgers.
Documentaries such as Cowspiracy are making the public more aware of how the mass farming industry is not only adding enormously to the climate crisis, but also leading to terrible suffering for animals.
The veganism movement is bolstered by such films, but also the meat and dairy alternatives industries.
Whether it’s brown rice milk or these burgers, all manner of businesses are sprining up to build on an era of social awareness.
Sure, the meat eaters still baulk at this. Quite angrily so as well, as if the arrival of plant alternatives is somehow an affront on their lives.
But the success of Beyond Meat, the Beyond Burger, and the likes of Gregg’s vegan pasty show there’s a marked shift to a healthier, more environentally-friendly future.
Beyond the Beyond Burger
Right, our iPhone was so impressed by the sight of this the sound totally failed.
But just imagine the familiar sizzling sounds (plus Mr. Wapojif screaming a note perfect rendition of Under Pressure by Queen).
You get two burger patties for a slightly whopping £4.99 (the cost of vegan food is often enough to put many families off – especially in austerity-sticken England).
But these things are mega tasty. And there are cheaper alternatives, such as the Vivera brand from Holland.
Anyway, for the below… *deep breath* simply heat up your frying pan of choice and dump on the Beyond Burgers.
Each side demands three minutes of cooking and then you’re pretty much ready to go.
Add whatever bread and sides you want and it’s a case of eating the thing. The result? Very tasty! We like it a lot. Is it like a beef burger? Kind of. Beyond Meat claims on its site:
"The Beyond Burger is the world’s first plant-based burger that looks, cooks, and satisfies like beef. It has all the juicy, meaty deliciousness of a traditional burger, but comes with the upsides of a plant-based meal. The Beyond Burger packs 20g of plant-based protein and has no GMOs, soy, or gluten."
We must say, we prefer Vivera’s Veggie Steak and think it’s a bit more realistic.
But then we cooked Beyond Meat’s on an electric hob – over a proper BBQ and you’ve likely got a mighty treat. And it’s totally worth it as part of a happy and healthy you.
Professional Moron 
I also enjoyed it when I tried it a couple of weeks ago! The texture in particular is better than most vegan burgers I know. I prepared it with avocado, melted vegan cheese and ketchup, it was really great!
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With avocado is an excellent combo, I’ll have to do that next time. But they were mega tasty anyway so yeah, indulgent treat here every now and then. At £5 they’re not the cheapest ones around.
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They’re not, but as you said every once in a while it can be done! :–)
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One of the issues/ridiculousnesses/etc. of carnivores wanting to embrace a vegetarian or vegan diet is that the food needs to mock/emulate a meat eating diet.
Forget beef feast treats. Envision veggie feasts, a world apart from beef/pig/chicken/fish feasts.
As a life long vegetarian, I want to say … eat as many vegetables, fruits and grains as you can, but you don’t need to make them imitate meat.
I mean… does anyone out there make their meat imitate veggies?
Get with it!!!!!
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I missed your comment! I do agree with you there. I think the idea is to tempt meat eaters away with a decent substitute, but I think it’ll only really appeal to the vegan/veggie crowd. Meat fans tend to be a tad stuck in their ways and baulk at such things.
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Crazy… baulk at killing animals??
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Nooo, I am borderline vegan.
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CROSS THE LINE!
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“The only line is the line created by the line…” Spoken by anti-line people.
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Veganism may be the pendulum swinging away to a side that is frightening for many.
Let’s just say… a predominately plant based diet? Maybe?
We will not include sauerkraut juice, promise!
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I just got some beetroot juice.
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😀
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I’m impressed by the science of meatless meat burgers. The flavour is reportedly made by jamming a soy-bean protein into a yeast cell (Piccha pastoris) and then harvesting the leghemoglobin that comes off them. It’s not strictly GMO, but it’s apparently produced by a GMO process. Into this is also mixed (I cite the ‘impossible burger’ patent) ‘glucose, ribose, fructose, lactose, xylose, arabinose, glucose-6-phosphate, maltose, and galactose .. cysteine, cystine, selenocysteine, thiamine, methionine, and mixtures of two or more thereof’. A technical tour de force, and doubtless delicious (I haven’t tried one yet) – but it’s an awful lot of science to exactly imitate a product usually made by scraping up the cheapest off-cuts of a steer from the abbatoir floor, grinding them into mince, sauteing the results in lard and then serving them up jammed between two bits of bread. (Well, that’s how I imagine meat burgers are made, anyway…)
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We could all do with a bit more leghemoglobin, in my opinion *ahem* (what’s that!?!?). One issue I believe is whether these things are good for you at all. And it’s quite easy to make a veggie burger without turning it into a work of scientific art.
For my part, I felt it didn’t really taste like a beef burger either. Tasty as it was, if I ran a business like this I’d do it to make a tasty alternative. The fact it aims to replicate the meat flavoud has left a fair few people baffled here, but the idea is to be more environmentally-friendly I guess.
Is this the future!? Apparently, Beyond Meat is aiming at fish next. Be interesting to get a sushi fix from this.
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Further to this – there is a brilliant Arthur C. Clarke short story from 1964, ‘The Food of the Gods’, about a world in which all food has been synthesised, enabling manufacturers to create all kinds of food products without huge environmental impact. Indeed, the idea of eating natural meat has become so socially ostracised that the synthetic meat products have been given different names to disguise what they imitate. The very word, ‘canivore’, is offensive and has to be spelled out to avoid upsetting people.
The story revolves around a presentation by a CEO of a synthetic food company, concerned at a product made by a rival, a synthetic meat known as ‘Ambrosia Plus’. It’s a runaway success. Everbody wants it. The thing is, his chemists reverse-engineered his rival’s product and discovered something. That word ‘c-a-r-n-i-v-o-r-e-‘? Well, there’s another word starting with ‘c’ that describes people who eat this product. ‘C-a-n-n-i-b…’
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Now that’s ahead of its time. Very fitting for this era, really! Who knows, maybe in 100 years saying “beef burger” will cause nationwide riots.
I’m going to have to find that story now.
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Yes!
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