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Monday, July 27, 2009
The Vegan Patty Contest
Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati
A few weeks ago, I wrote about some vegan patties I bought at Park + Vine. Since then, Beacon co-founder and Cincinnati ex-patriot Andrew Warner issued a challenge, claiming that his wife—moderator of Columbus Vegan—could blow any store-bought patty out of the park. I invited life-long friend and vegetarian The Nihilist to the event, to serve as a bit of a judge.
So here were the offerings: artichoke burgers and meatless grillers from Five Start Foodies (bought at Park + Vine), Trader Joe’s vegetable masala burger, and Tracey Warner’s black bean burger recipe.
Now I am not a vegan, nor a vegetarian. Sometimes, I think meat-eaters have a weird prejudice against vegan food. One might like cheeseburgers, for example, but that doesn’t mean one eats cheeseburgers for every meal. We all like variety. Vegan food is good, too—which is why I eat vegan meals when the mood strikes.
After much deliberation and too much eating, here are the results.
1. Tracey Warner’s homemade recipe. These were delicious. Everyone thought they were the best, hands-down.
2. Trader Joe’s vegetable masala.
3. Five Star Foodie’s artichoke burgers.
4. Five Star Foodie’s meatless grillers.
On the one hand, I don’t like that my suggestions got the bottom two, but we all agreed that any of these are better than Boca burgers—an unfortunate flavor that turns many omnivores off from the vegan patty experience.
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27 Jul 2009 at 11:48 am | #
Thanks, Haap! It was a good time. You linked to the wrong recipe, though. I don’t have it up just yet. You’re too quick!
27 Jul 2009 at 06:22 pm | #
I prefer a blend of 1/2 each 90% lean ground beef & ground veal. Add milk-soaked breadcrumbs, salt, pepper and a pinch of cayenne pepper. Blend, for into patties, sear on a hot grill, reduce heat and cook to no more than medium rare. Serve on kaiser roll. mmmmmmmmmm love that veal!
27 Jul 2009 at 06:58 pm | #
Of course it was the wrong recipe…the one that tasted so good probably had a bunch of fattening stuff in it…or salt.
Personally I am one meat eater who likes the Boca.
Foodie Grillers -
- Calories 100
- Fat 2.5
- Sodium 270
- Carbs 9 Fiber 1 Sugar 5
Trader joe Veggie Marsala
- Calories 120
- Fat 8
- Sodium 360
- Carb 12 Fiber 1 Sugar 1
Now compare to my fav the Boca.
- Calories 70
- Fat .5
- Sodium 280
- Carb 6 Fiber 4 Sugar 0
28 Jul 2009 at 12:38 pm | #
Tracy, kudos again on your well-earned victory.
Boeuf, contrary to popular belief, vegetarians and/or vegans are not reduced to tears whenever a meat eater brags about his or her unconscionable eating choices. Your lack of compassion for animals is sad, but it isn’t shocking. Your tack is annoying only because it is banal.
Bearman, I agree that Boca burgers are not bad, especially once you’ve added your preferred condiments and fixings. But with the possible exception of the artichoke burger, which was quite good, all the other burgers in the contest were much healthier than any meat-based burger. They were all much tastier too.
28 Jul 2009 at 12:41 pm | #
Bocas became adulterated with yeast (manna type flavoring affects ones floraculture) when they were bought up by Food Inc.
Well, now since the Feds spared us with more nuclear refinement ($2 billion worth), maybe we could concentrate on better vegan food for all!
Peace out, and Beef, you’re out of order here…
28 Jul 2009 at 02:37 pm | #
Nothing like a dry, witty response from the Nihlist to brighten up a day…
28 Jul 2009 at 04:16 pm | #
I’ve had all of the above (except for the homemade ones), and five-star foodies artichoke burgers are the best, IMO. The trader joe’s burgers aren’t nearly as good as the vegetable masala burgers you can find at bombay grocers. Still, these are all very different patties. It would be almost like having a taste test between a beef burger, a chicken patty, and a filet of fish sandwich. Still, great item here, and I look forward to checking out the recipe!
28 Jul 2009 at 05:45 pm | #
Hey! Here’s the actual recipe: http://www.columbusvegan.com/2009/07/burger.html
Bearman: No excessive salts. Minimal fattening stuff. Just flavor. By the way, your Boca has more sodium that the Foodie Grillers, yet you highlighted the Foodie Grillers’ sodium content?
28 Jul 2009 at 07:37 pm | #
Nihilist…how do you define healthy? Ostrich meat beats these in many categories.
Tracy…I highlighted the Grillers b/c it had the lowest sodium of them all. It was the only category that was better than Boca.
28 Jul 2009 at 10:58 pm | #
Bearman,
Ostrich meat is great. It has almost no saturated fat and it’s low in cholesterol as well. Ditto for Bison, but to a lesser extent. Ground turkey breast meat is great, but you have to get pure breast meat and not packages that are just marked ‘ground turkey’ as they contain dark turkey meat, and jas more fat & cholesterol than lean ground beef has.
When we make dishes like tacos, chili (Texas or Cincinnati)or meatballs for pasta sauce we use Gimme Lean’s ground meat substitute. It’s utterly beef-like in those heavily spiced dishes. Sometimes we will add a little ground turkey breast meat to the mix, and we always add non-fat beef stock to ‘beef up’ the flavour. But you will never miss the red meat in those dishes.
Being a native Cincinnatian, sometimes I get a insatiable craving for a 4-Way, but Skyline/Camp Washington’s versions have over 760 calories, 44 grams of fat (20 grams of which are saturated fat) and over 200mg of cholesterol per serving! We make our own using the above ingredients (Gimme Lean, stock, a little ground turkey breast that has been further ground in a food processor), lowfat cheese made with 2% milk and whole grain pasta. It helps that I have an authentic recipe for the original, Empress Chili, which a member of the Kiradjieff family (the founders of Empress) gave to my Mother when she worked at La Normandie over 35 years ago. The spicing is the secret, and unsweetened chocolate, allspice and cinnamon are part of that spice combo.
OK, now I’m hungry….....
28 Jul 2009 at 11:14 pm | #
PS: Sorry for the meat references folks, I certainly didn’t mean to offend. I’m not vegan, though I absolutely respect the choices of those that are. I do avoid red meat due to hereditary Hyperlipidemia and a strong family history of heart disease.
28 Jul 2009 at 11:21 pm | #
Well, Bearman, I would define healthy in terms of the degree to which a food contributes to the continued, proper functioning of an organism. Calories are energy, and even fat, sodium, carbohydrates, and sugar, when eaten in moderation, sustain the overall well-being of the human organism. So I wouldn’t say that the health quantum of a food necessarily is inversely proportional to the amount of calories, fat, sodium etc., that it contains.
Moreover, according to the National Cancer Institute, “cooking certain meats at high temperatures creates chemicals that are not present in uncooked meats. A few of these chemicals may increase cancer risk. For example, heterocyclic amines (HCAs) are the carcinogenic chemicals formed from the cooking of muscle meats [e.g., Ostrich meat].” So even though Ostrich meat is low-calorie/low-fat, it poses other health risks that have to be taken into account in order to make a judgment.
Considering I could eat two Trader Joe’s Vegetable Masala patties for breakfast, two for lunch, and two more for dinner, and still come in well under the recommended daily allowance for calories, fat, sodium, sugar and carbohydrates, it doesn’t make much sense to me to say that something is healthier merely by dint of having even lower nutritional values. After all, how many burgers do you eat in a day?
29 Jul 2009 at 09:57 am | #
N, I wasn’t saying that to say my lifestyle is better than others I was reacting to your statement that all the other vegetarian burgers are healthier. Whether you are a vegan, vegetarian, meat eater or whatever, you can make healthy or not healthy choices. I don’t eat meat every day as shown by the fact that I will reach for the Boca.
I am also trying to limit white flour and rice from my diet as it seems Cincy Capell you are too. Anyone know any restaurants that serve whole wheat pasta or pizza in town? I know Papa Johns and Maggianos do but interesting if there are others.
29 Jul 2009 at 10:41 am | #
Nihilist - I think you’re right to note that claiming something is low calorie or low fat does not necessarily mean it’s healthy. However, high amounts of fat and saturated fat can be bad, and it seems that most Americans DO eat too much (http://pennhealth.com/health_info/nutrition/fat.html). If you have too much fat in one sitting, and are prone to heart disease (which is the leading cause of death), it can instantly create artery abnormalities which would cause a heart attack (http://www.empowher.com/media/video/video-dr-scherwitz-one-high-fat-meal-can-it-kill-woman-heart-disease). In that regard, we should aim to lower our fat intake.
Bearman - All that being said, cholesterol is an unnecessary dietary intake because our body naturally produces it (http://www.uihealthcare.com/reports/cardiovascular/011203cholesterol.html). SO, I think the ostrich burger loses the “health-off” with 28% of your allotted daily cholesterol intake, since all these burgers are generally low fat and low sodium items (http://caloriecount.about.com/calories-better-burger-ostrich-i57723).
29 Jul 2009 at 01:06 pm | #
Bearman, I sincerely congratulate you on your efforts to eat healthy and to limit your consumption of meat products. Most would do well to follow your example.
Tracy, I certainly agree that most would well to limit their fat-intake, too. The only point I wished to convey is that any of the veggie patties that were under consideration in our contest, with the possible exception of the artichoke patty, could be a fitting part of a healthy, low-fat diet.
30 Jul 2009 at 02:59 am | #
TW-Thx for the correct link I cannot wait to try it. I’m a pescetarian that lives for black bean burgers so I look forward to trying something lil different! =)