Product Review: Trader Joe's Soy Chorizo

I'm always looking to try new fake meat products - that being said, I've had a lot of bad experience with those fake smoke flavored, terrible textured, barely edible products. When I saw this guy at Trader Joe's , I thought why the hell not!

Stats:

salty!

I'll be honest, I had no idea what Chorizo was. So I turned to my good pal Google.

According to About.com ..." Chorizo is made by chopping or grinding pork and “marinating” it in spices. Spanish paprika (sweet or spicey) is the spice which is gives chorizo its characteristic flavor and distinguishes it from other sausages. The casing of the chorizo is usually made from pork, if made at home"  Gross, right?

Then I ran into the issue of having no idea how to cook this stuff. Trader Joe's products usually include a hint of a recipe but this packaging did not.

Attempt # 1 - Being nonethewiser, I just threw it in a frying pan and paired with a few rando sauces I had kicking in my fridge.

not even ketchup could save this mess

Result - Not good. Not good at all. The actual fake meat came in a plastic casing and kind of smushed out like Eloise's wet cat food. Barf. The texture alone was enough to give up. I was expecting a slicing-friendly sausage that I could dip like a veggie hot dog. This was SO BAD that I actually ended up tossing this & had some trustworthy tofu with veggies instead.

much better

Attempt #2 - Never one to give up on my dear friend Trader Joe, I thought I would give this stuff another shot. The huuuge package comes with so much fake chorizo I felt like I had to. This time I used Google again and searched "Chorizo recipe". I found that most people mixed the real meat version with eggs or used it in stews / chillis. Since I had some eggs & veggies, this seemed like the easiest option: a skillet like creation.

2 eggs, frozen carrots & broccoli, low fat  cheddar and lots o ketchup

Result - I was really good! I only used a bit of the chorizo and it added a spicy, meat-like (but not too meaty) taste to the dish. This was like nothing I've ever made before. I highly recommend putting this easy dish together if you're feeling ravenous. I was full for hours and hours, even after spinning class.

 What did I learn from this? Do some research before diving into any unknown fake meat otherwise you might be disgusted. Also, never give up on Trader Joe's  :)

Happy Monday everyone!