Sunday, August 18, 2013

Review: MorningStar Farms Veggie Bacon Strips


I think I've mentioned once or twice over the course of this year that I have happened upon giving up eating meat.  No particular reason for doing it, but I'm just challenging myself to see how long I can last.  So far, so good.  Being that I've given up eating meat, I've been trying to get out and give some meat substitute products a shot and my collection of MorningStar Farms reviews helps me meet those objectives.  Today's review is the MorningStar Farms faux version of the most overrated meat there is.  Yep, I just said it...bacon is OVERRATED.  Don't get me wrong, when I ate meat, I enjoyed bacon, but I think it gets way more love than it deserves.  Regardless, I picked up this box of MorningStar Farms Veggie Bacon Strips on sale at Kroger for $2.99 and each box is 5.25 ounces and contains about twenty (sorry, I didn't count) strips of "bacon" and each strip is 30 calories with a lonely gram of protein.



When I took these out of the box, I was moderately surprised at the fact that MorningStar Farms had done a decent job of at least making this look like it was a typical package of bacon that you would pick up in your local grocery store.  The strips were lined up like soldiers and packed together in plastic packaging.  In terms of size, they were about six inches long and they certainly were not like thick cut bacon.  While they did smell like bacon, they felt nothing like bacon at all.  In fact, they felt like a piece of bubble gum in that I could bend them and they'd retain that new form after I bent them.  That was interesting, to say the least.


There were too ways that I could prepare these.  One was the microwave, which I did not choose, and the other was the traditional pan frying method which I did choose as you can see in my cooked (and slightly singed) version above.  After frying these, that gum stick like texture turned into almost a brittle texture, similar to the pieces of gum that I would get out of packs of baseball cards when I was a kid (yes, I'm dating myself since that's not standard procedure anymore).  Basically, what that means is that when I would try to bend these strips after cooking them, they would immediately break into several pieces because they were so brittle.  It was kind of like super, extra crispy bacon, but being that these were so paper thin, it wasn't appetizing like when that happens to regular bacon.  While it was very fake looking, it still smelled like bacon (as did my house for the next 24 hours), but it definitely didn't act like bacon.  In order to give a fair review, I tested out the non-singed versions of this for the purposes of my taste test and despite the fact that these sections were cooked properly, I can't say that this was good at all.  It tasted like a whole lot of nothing that lack of flavor, combined with the brittle nature of this made me think I was basically consuming a thin piece of cardboard.  Yikes.

Buy It or Fly By It?  I've had a some good experiences with MorningStar Farms products, but this was not one of them, so it gets a FLY BY IT rating.  Nothing about this was appetizing and nothing about this particularly reminded me of bacon.  Honestly, I could have just put cardboard on my "B"LT instead of this and I would have had the same experience.  I would have saved myself $2.99 in the process too.  Oh well, I guess all manufacturers have winner and loser products and this was one of those losers for MorningStar Farms.

FLY BY IT!!

20 comments:

  1. looks like fried rubber bands

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    1. Ha, ha. Great comparison. Pretty much tasted like that too.

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  2. My vegetarian boyfriend used this in a dish once.. It was a french toast BLT. The mere fact that it was two pieces of french toast around an almost BLT made it pretty good... but I would never use this bacon otherwise. I'll take Gimme Lean over this any day.

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  3. The secret to eating this bacon is not to cook it at all. Sometimes I don't even let it thaw out before I eat it. But, a lot of times I do.

    Then, it tastes like the turkey bacon my mom buys from Costco. To me, it is very delicious.

    Also, don't layer it in a sandwich because it gets a bad aftertaste from being layered.

    But, if you appreciate the bacon the way it is it is very good, I think. I feel like I'm on a protein diet when I eat it by itself, no bread or anything- like I'm actually fitting in! :)

    But, I'm trying to transition to a vegan bacon. This one has egg whites. I'm hoping to find Upton's bacon seitan in a nearby whole foods. But, I'm glad that some alternative is available.

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  4. Y'all are a bunch of haters...this stuff rocks. Tastes kinda like bacon on its own and just like bacon in a breakfast sandwich. I prefer them a little singed but thats how I used to like bacon. If you think it looks weird check out a pig...hey im not so picky with the fake stuff anymore. Much love morning*farms.

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    1. I agree. I think it's the best vegetarian product out there. I have turned this on to so many people.

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    2. REALLY GREAT!...TASTES LIKE BACON.. BEST BRAND I HAVE EATEN.. AND TRIED SEVERAL.....

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    3. Yep...love this too!

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  5. I'm with you on bacon being terribly overrated. Too fatty, coats your mouth, and a flavor that just hangs around. I've been veg for close to two decades now, and I never once missed bacon.

    I do disagree about this product, though. I like it a lot. We do STAB sandwiches with it (spinach, tomato, avocado, and bacon). It works really well in quiche/strata. My son (and sometimes me) will eat a strip or two by itself. My eight year old son and I are both ovo-lacto, and my husband is omni. While he'd never confuse it with real bacon, mostly because of the fattiness factor, Omni Man likes it, too.

    It's fine that you don't like it, since that leaves more for us! It is, though, quite expensive for what it is, as are most meat subs out there.

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  6. Fry the strips in a little olive oil.....that's the secret. My favorite recipe for these strips is on toasted garlic bread, slices of avocado, with 2-3 strips is delicious and nutritious; and beats eating Peppa Rig for breakfast any day of the week!

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  7. I love this stuff! But I must admit, at first I didn't like it. Then later I found myself craving it. After getting used to veggie bacon, eating turkey bacon or regular bacon grosses me out with all the grease. It did take some practice to learn how to cook it correctly.

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  8. I enjoy this bacon. I cook in a flat pan with ridges and let the ridges brown. Its a great substitute.

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  9. I love love love this fake bacon, but I've been vegetarian since I was 7 years old (20 now) so I don't really remember what real bacon is like. I think this stuff is great in its own right as long as you aren't trying to compare it to the real thing. I'm also used to meat substitutes because I basically grew up with them, whereas newer vegetarians who are used to real meat might be unnerved by the flavors and textures of imitation products like this.

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  10. I love real bacon but can't eat it for health reasons. If I were comparing the fake's taste to that of the real thing right while I was eating it, I wouldn't like it. The trick is to see it as something else altogether. Then it tastes pretty good. Better than no bacon at all.

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  11. I tried this product (fried in a pan) the other day and hated it. Today, I used the second method--the microwave. Although not as bad as the fry pan method, it was still nasty. It was so awful, I decided to search online to see what others were saying about it. It definitely smells like bacon; but it is too salty and cooks way too crispy--even at 1 minute. Furthermore, it is too salty, has no flavor and has a slight aftertaste. I stop eating pork when I was a young girl and often enjoyed Park East turkey bacon baked in the oven with spices on top. As a vegetarian for 17+ years, I have enjoyed tempeh bacon and seitan bacon, and wanted to try something new. I like most of Morningstar's products but these "bacon chips" are horrible. If courage comes to me again, I may try them again in a "VBLT" sandwich. Otherwise, I'll stick to the good stuff.

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  12. I first opened it and it smelled like bacon. The color was a little bit off, but it looked ok. Then, i fried it in a pan. i would like to have it be known that the picture on the box is nothing like what the end product is. It is way too brittle, and too cripsy. To me, it felt like i was eating a very dried out sponge with a gross flavor. sorry :( try again

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  13. I like it alot as a bacon sandwich but you have to cook it correctly. It does well for five slices in the microwave for 3 minutes. I love the crispy texture - especially on a sandwich. I have to agree to disagree with this test. Buy it.

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  14. I love this bacon. I cook it in my nu wave. I'm addicted to BLT's minus real bacon.

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  15. Funny, I love it, too! I like that it is not all greasy and nasty like bacon from dead animals, and-if you don't overcook it, it doesn't have to be crispy. I will confess, though, that is how I love it!

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  16. I tasted this on its own and agree that it has no flavor. Then, I put it on an egg and cheese bagel, and it was delicious on the bagel and gave it a nice crunch!

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