Veggie Burger Taste Test: The Best Choices For Grilling

Kitchen Daily:

A box of veggie burgers is good to have on standby in the freezer for your non-meat-eating friends. Here at KitchenDaily we decided to put a number of brands to the taste-test to find out which burgers do best on the grill, which taste most like meat, and which are the most veggie-like.

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Comments

[RosesForObama]

08:59 AM on 05/30/2011

If Boca is the BEST....then alas, Veggie Burgers are not for me. I HATE the Boca ones so I know I wont like the rest. Which is sad because I love burgers but cannot eat red meat regularly anymore. (Bulks me up) :(

[Warren Lauzon]

06:24 AM on 05/30/2011

The headline says it all - Least Offensive. Over the past couple years I have tried 4 different brands, and ended up feeding most to my dog (poor dog...).

Almost every brand has high levels of MSG, coconut oil, palm oil, salt, and often some kind of mystery veggie, or maybe it was sawdust, hard to tell. The calorie count on many is higher than real beef, and nearly all have added tons of spices, fake cheese, and other things that seem more designed to cover up the taste than enhance it.

After trying a few, I went back to eating real beef - I have mine ground from my own meat selection so I know what I am getting.

[Bucket-Of-Love]

04:18 AM on 05/30/2011

Look up a recipe and make your own, for Chrissakes.

[dblueII]

08:36 PM on 05/29/2011

The very fact that there are all these products that try to mimic the taste and texture of meat proves one basic fact.

Humans crave meat.

So, stay away from the Safeway meat case, and frequent your local butcher, most of them are really nice guys. Know what your buying, and everything in moderation.

That said, a good old falafel taste better than any of these. A nice salad, some organic feta from happy cows, and you've got a veggie meal I can get behind.

[cestpasvrai]

06:35 PM on 05/29/2011

I love morningstar burgers, kind of surprised they weren't included. I'm not a vegetarian, but I eat quorn and morningstar products more often than I eat red meat.

[POPE INNOCENT]

06:00 PM on 05/29/2011

HIDDEN MSG IN SOY BURGERS!!

http://www.purezing.com/living/toxins/living_toxins_containsmsg.html

Contains MSG or Converts to MSG when Processed

MSG is an excitotoxin: an ingredient known to cause nerve damage by overexciting nerves. This is exactly how MSG enhances the taste of foods: by overexciting the taste buds on the tongue.

Note: when you see the following words on any ingredient label, it is essentially, another name for MSG

Hydrolyzed vegetable protein (HVP)



Maltodextrin

Textured protein



Sodium Caseinate

Glutamic acid



Gelatin

Carrageenan (processed)



Ultra-Pasteurized

Pectin Protease



Stock

Whey protein isolate, Whey protein



Barley malt, Malt extract

Natural Pork, Beef and Chicken flavoring



Citric Acid (when processed from corn)

Protease enzyme … and anything enzyme modified



Flavors, flavoring, natural flavors and flavoring

Hydrolyzed yeast extract, Tortula yeast, Autolyzed yeast, Yeast extract



Soy protein, Soy protein concentrate, Textured Soy protein

Anything protein fortified



Dextrose

Anything fermented

[Benjo333]

02:03 PM on 05/29/2011

The article should be, when health or organic food, is actually junk food.

[maxfax]

01:41 PM on 05/29/2011

Veggies burgers in a box? Doesn't that defeat the purpose of eating healthy? I don't find anything appealing about processed veggies.

[DavidMG]

11:36 AM on 05/29/2011

Note that "soy protein" in these burgers means a processed ingredient usually TVP. (No matterwhether GMO free, organic, etc). If you are looking for good protein choose those made with wholefoods: beans, soybeans, nuts and seeds.

[alanps]

09:04 AM on 05/29/2011

The article became irrelevant the moment you gave it the burgers and by default vegetarians an insult in the title. Smart....not.

[ThomasPaine1776]

11:29 PM on 05/28/2011

Ya know what IS offensive? A HEART ATTACK, which are caused by eating animal products, like hamburgers.

Ya know what ELSE is offensive? Terrified innocent animals being shoved off a truck right into a slaughterhouse, where they are hoisted by a leg upside down, very often still conscious, their front hooves up to their elbow chainsawed off, then another man moves in with a knife, and slits the throat, then reached in the would and grabs the vocal cords and rips them out, so the animal can't cry out, which disturbs the workers. Meanwhile, a river of blood arcs onto the bloody floor and spirals into a drain...the shocked animal flailing away with his bloody stumps, eyes wide in horror and surprise. I've seen a video that shows this exact scene and heard the interviews of former workers that say that at least 25% of them go through the slaughter still alive and kicking, which is why they chainsaw off the front hooves first, so no worker gets hurt down the line. They do this so fast that there is no time for the animal to die, The next step that they do is strip off the hide with a series of hooks to the face and a big roller that peeeeeels the hide right off him....animal still alive.

eat a boca burger or any of them, and at least you can say that your dollars did not go to support such a house of horrors.

[John Rathe]

03:04 AM on 05/29/2011

"eat a boca burger or any of them, and at least you can say that your dollars did not go to support such a house of horrors."

Boca Burger is owned by Philip Morris. Horror of horrors.

[DavidMG]

11:48 AM on 05/29/2011

Make sure you do not take ANY conventional medicines because they all used animal testing. My point is that compassion is a great thing to hold close, but unless you draw a rational and resaonable line you will go crazy as too many modern products have their safety approved via animal testing.( BTW I have been a vegetarian for 40 years.)

[penny7]

10:34 PM on 05/28/2011

I like TVP and veggy burgers alot, but IMO grilling them is not the way o go. They need the overall browning that pan-frying delivers.

[DavidMG]

11:37 AM on 05/29/2011

TVP is highly processed soy.

[ThinkingPatriot]

09:19 PM on 05/28/2011

There are better and healthier alternatives to the Boca, though I do agree that they taste the most like grilled hamburgers. I prefer tempeh, tofu burgers, or bean burgers to products made with soy protein isolate.

[Atari]

03:15 PM on 05/29/2011

I love the tempeh bacon strips their great as a side or in sandwiches.

[vaqka]

07:36 PM on 05/28/2011

I don't really care for any of the fake burgers. But a marinated and grilled portobello mushroom is pretty good on a toasted bun.

[RosesForObama]

09:06 AM on 05/30/2011

HELLO !

[tksensei]

12:18 PM on 05/28/2011

I know, how about A REAL BURGER?