The 5 Best Plant-Based Meat Alternatives For Any Meal
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You've definitely seen plant-based meat alternatives like Beyond Meat and Impossible Burgers in restaurants or at your local meat counter. But as an avid carnivore, I had never really tried any of them. So I did what any great reporter does and went to my local grocery store and spent almost $100 on all of the options I could find. I got plant-based bacon, breakfast sausage, burgers, chicken nuggets and more so I could try them out and see which ones are the best based on how close they taste to actual meat products.
Here's what I learned: It comes down to texture! You can add all the spices in the world to a blend of soy and seitan, but if the texture is too smooth, too lumpy, too soft, too squishy, too grainy, or too hard, it is going to completely throw off the eater (aka me!). These are the products that nail the flavor and the texture almost too well. Some of them were so good that if I did a blind taste test, I would think they were the real thing.
I judged each selection on texture, flavor, and appearance, and this is how they stacked up.
Best breakfast sausage alternative: Beyond Breakfast Sausage
Best burger alternative: Impossible Burger
Best ground beef alternative: Beyond Burger
Best chicken nugget alternative: The Alpha Nugget Chik'n
Best sausage alternative: Beyond Sausage Hot Italian
Best Breakfast Sausage Alternative: Beyond Breakfast Sausage
Bottom line: If you had served this to me and told me it was actual meat, I would have believed you. The texture is spot on, the flavor is amazing, and the outside gets perfectly crunchy when seared in a hot pan. 10/10.
Best Burger Alternative: Impossible Burger
Forming your own burger here is key. It gives it a bit more of an organic shape than pre-made patties. The inside stays juicy and pink, while the outside gets crispy (making it the perfect meat alt for a smashburger). Overall, this is a damn good burger, meat or no meat.
Best Ground Beef Alternative: Beyond Burger
You can get Beyond Burgers in ground or patty form, but the patties are the best for tacos, salads, or stir fries. The texture in patty form is slightly off, but break it up and it perfectly mixes in with other things.
Best Chicken Nugget: The Alpha Nugget Chik'n
These nuggets are so crispy on the outside that the slight tofu texture on the inside is hardly noticeable. Dunk these in some ranch or ketchup and you'll feel like a kid again, minus the actual chicken.
Best Sausage Alternative: Beyond Sausage Hot Italian
Another meat alt that tastes just like the real thing. A little spicy with a perfectly juicy texture, and surprisingly, a casing that has that snap.
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