Product Review: Gardein Burgundy Trio
When I first saw the Burgundy Trio, I thought it was too good to be true. All of the trios are billed as a complete 3 minute meal, with one of their protein products, rice and veggies. There's no way you could go wrong with a wine based sauce, vegetables and basmati rice, right?
Imagine my surprise when I opened it and only saw four or five very small cubes of carrot and a few pieces of mushroom. I suppose it's my own fault, because if I had paid more attention to the ingredients, I would have seen that all of the "vegetables" in this "meal" are listed as being part of the sauce. There's no way I would consider this a complete meal.
The biggest problem is that the language they used set my expectations way too high, and being let down so much colored my opinion. Which is a big shame, because I did enjoy the sauce with the rice. The basmati was fragrant, perfectly cooked, with that light, creamy, floral flavor, and the acid in the burgundy sauce balanced it nicely. I really think the rice is the shining star of this "meal". I don't really recall the flavor or texture of the beefless tips themselves, so I assume they were okay, but not great. Which, when I think about it is kind of weird, since the beefless tips are the main Gardein ingredient in this product.....
Honestly, I would only buy this again if I couldn't find anything else vegan, or if I was out of town. It would probably be a tasty and healthy meal if it was paired with a salad, or some blanched or steamed greens like broccoli, kale, or asparagus. It is high pretty high in sodium for something so....let's just say, delicately flavored, so keep that in mind if you're watching your sodium intake.
ETA: I wrote this post(and a stash of a few others) before Vegan MoFo started so that I would have back ups, in case I ran out of time-or inspiration--on any given day. Good thing I did, because today I'm pretty rushed, I just wanted to note that Julia at Snarky Vegan did a great and eerily similar post about these last week.
3 comments:
You and I are definitely on the same page with this product. The rice is the best part of the meal. Which is surprising because so much microwavable rice truly sucks. Too bad they didn't nail the other ingredients.
I tried this Stuff today.... Wasn't too bad, but It surely could better. I do for one like the Meatty texture of the "Gardien" Veggie Meats. Oh YEAH..more veggies would have been nice too.
Peace
It definitely wasn't bad, but the misrepresentation left a sour taste in my mouth.
Don't we have enough of a problem with people thinking tater tots or ketchup constitute vegetable servings without companies telling us that sauce equals a serving of four vegetables?
Also, rice that good could bring about world peace.
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