"Dude, You Sure That Ain't Meat?" - The Beyond Burger (Review)
The Beyond Burger grilled up so sweetly with vegan provolone cheese and organic wheat buns.
This past week a friend and I got some coupons for that supposed new king of veggie burgers, "The Beyond Burger". We fired up the extra-virgin olive oil to see what all the fuss was about –– and surprisingly –– "BURP!"
Pardon us.
The results were kind of notable.
In case you haven't heard, The Beyond Burger is the newest product from the ultra-ambitious little food company, Beyond Meat. The El Segundo, CA based company was founded in 2009 by meat-less visionary Ethan Brown––a hyper-dedicated researcher and developer of alternative "meat" sources as alternative fuel for human beings. And Brown's ambitions have yielded quite a crop.
Brown makes it clear he’s not on some crusade against meat, he just wants a smarter type of meat for humanity that has "all of the good" in it without "all of the bad." Translated, that means a plant-based meat that has no averse effects on human health and the earth's atmosphere. Plus, this is a meat that does not promote industrialized animal cruelty.
In less than 10 years, Beyond Meat Inc. has released an impressive catalog of plant-based meat products like Beyond Chicken, Beyond Beef and The Beast. The Beast is another not-so-common veggie burger packed with a wallop of protein, antioxidants, iron, calcium, potassium, Vitamins B12, B6, and Vitamin D. It also boasts Omega-3's and ALA Omega 3's aimed at muscle recovery post workout. This particular meatless product is a gym-rat's dream supplement, but shaped into a burger and packed between two buns. Brilliant, right?
Regardless of these great feats of meatless wonder, Brown and his little vegan wonder-elves over at Beyond Meat truly outdid themselves recently. They have produced a brand-new burger product called The Beyond Burger. And, oh my.
The Beyond Burger is a purely plant-based, protein-packed, nutrient-dense (fresh, not frozen) veggie burger, built to look, smell, taste and act like a beef burger on the grill. It packs more protein and nutrition than beef, it won't hurt the environment and it bodes a lot easier on your heart and artery health. When cooked medium-rare the thing actually kind of bleeds like a burger–– beet juice, not bovine blood. Like seriously, they really out did themselves.
Even the packaging of The Beyond Burger is impressive. It's meant to totally mimic the experience of purchasing ground-beef patties. The ground-beef looking reddish Beyond Burgers come in a tray wrapped like cow patties. They’re meant to be shelved, displayed and found in your grocer's refrigerated meat section –– right next to the ground beef. This veggie burger was built to completely appeal to hard-core carnivores as a realistic alternative.
Brown and the team at Beyond Meat seemingly took every complaint an avid meat eater would have about a vegan burger, reverse-engineered it, then packed it into a product with a big "now what?" on their faces. And let us tell you. It's a good question because it's a damned good burger.
When we cooked up our first Beyond Burger, we cooked it pretty plain and did not dress it up at all. It was good, but not 'do two back-flips in a row' good. It was just 'pretty cool' and interesting. It was just exactly what would happen if you grabbed a 1/4 pound of ground beef, slapped it in a pan and did nothing to help it. It'd just be plain old fried no-frills meat.
HOWEVER, when we handled The Beyond Burger like someone who knows what they hell they are doing in the kitchen, that burger came alive like a champ! There were flips. And they were backward. And there were more than just two.
Though my initial interest in this product was strictly for the nutrition density of it, I’m now sold on the taste and the emotional feast experience. What I first saw as a nutritional supplement in a patty has turned into pure culinary fun. I won't tell you how many of these burger patties we have purchased in the last 14 days. But if you live in Hollywood and your local Whole Foods is out of stock, you might wanna send me some hate mail about that.
I will soon release an article revealing the specific recipe of our Beyond Burger build. It’s beautiful. It’s sensual. It’s epic. [Update: Click Here For Recipe]
I suggest you incorporate it into your meal regimen every now and then. Your body will love you, the earth will love you and you’ll probably get all kinds of friend requests from random cows liking your pics and thanking you profusely.
Yeah, perks ;-)
A D V E R T I S E M E N T
