Theburgers that bleedmight get all the hype, but the best product from the buzzy alt-meat brand Beyond Meat is far and away theplant-based sausages. Even though it makes me feel slightly weird and just a bit uncomfortable to admit this—considering a) I’m a near-lifelong vegetarian who has neverhada sausage and b) my husband insists these taste just like the real thing—I’ll say it:我爱这些香肠!(Am I having an identity crisis?)
I wouldn’t be upset if I didn’t encounter the Beyond Burger again: I found it a little mealy, crumbly, and bitsy, and the smell lingered in my kitchen for days (was that just the scent of, um, cooked meat?). But once I tasted the sausages, I was hooked.
I should, at this point, offer a disclaimer: I am not exactly Beyond Meat’s target demographic. Like its biggest competitor, Impossible Foods, Beyond Meat is less interested in wowing vegetarian consumers who might not miss meat at all and more focused on convincing omnivores who would otherwise crave a juicy, medium-rare patty; a plant-based alt, they insist, can be just as appealing. (The burger is available at Carl’s Jr. and TGI Fridays, a sign that they’re trying to expand their consumer base rather than target a small group of vegetarians or health fanatics.)
This explains, at least partially, why the burger didn’t appeal to me: I’m a fan ofDr. Praeger’s veggie burgers, which bear no resemblance to meat. A burger that tries hard to stand in for meat and wouldn’t deign to call itself a veggie burger? Not nearly as appetizing. (And I’m not alone! When the Epi team taste-tested veggie burgers, the Beyond Burger proved very divisive, with some testers claiming the burger could be mistaken for a beef burger fresh from the grill, and others saying that it "reminded them of cat food." Find the full range of their opinionshere.)
But as for the sausages, I don’t care whether they taste like sausage (thoughapparently they do): All I know is that they taste delicious. I’d happily eat the original flavor or the slightly spicier hot Italian variation. They’re salty and savory, chewy and fatty, with a taste I can only describe as … meaty? They've got the earthy depth of a roasted mushroom or a chunk of smoked mozzarella but a texture that’s juicier, spongier (not in a bad way!), and more substantive. (I guess if you eat sausage, you know what I’m talking about.)
Typically, I sear the sausages in a hot cast-iron skillet, turning them occasionally so they char all over. It takes only three to four minutes, and you don’t have to remove them from their casings or add any oil to the pan: They’ll sizzle and render fat (coconut oil is the number two ingredient, after pea protein isolate) as they cook. If the stovetop’s occupied, I’ll broil them, shaking the pan for even browning. And, come summer, I’ll try them on the grill. You can also slice them up and cook them in coins, or peel back the casing and crumble the “meat” into pieces that’ll crisp up all over—good for tacos, burritos, or pasta dishes. (The only fake-sausage no-nos: boiling, microwaving, and cooking from frozen.)
尽管我’m sort of lazy, and normally just eat the sausages alongside whatever I’m already making for dinner, I’m thrilled that I can now cook the recipes that had been previously, in my sausageless existence, inaccessible:Sausage Skillet with Cherry Tomatoes and Broccolini,Pasta with Chorizo and Chickpeas, andEgg and Merguez Wraps. What won’t I try? This sausage is unstoppable, and now, so am I.
