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Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Morning Star Farms Veggie Burger Review


*bzzagent is a word-of-mouth media channel that helps connect consumers with brands, companies and marketers to harness the power of honest opinions. In most cases, I have received a free product to try and give my honest opinion about. I received the products I'll be talking about from bzzagent.


Another fun campaign from bzzagent. First, let's talk about veggie burgers.
I. don't. like. them.
Haha! People say they taste like cardboard. I don't know if I would describe them that way but they definitely don't taste right.
So, I'm not a vegetarian, and I don't like veggie burgers. But...I decided to join the campaign anyway, and here's what I've learned.

I received a coupon from bzzagent for a free product from MorningStar Farms. There were quite a few different flavors to choose from at my local Fry's including a "Chik'n" and breakfast line. I picked the Mediterranean Chickpea Burgers. On sale for $3.49 for a box of 4.


(Looking back, I wish I would have included a ruler in the pic to show you how thin these are.) 110 calories and 4.5g of fat per patty is pretty good, but keep in mind that if you have a hearty appetite you're gonna need two of these babies. Even with two patties, the calories are low, but the fat is creeping up into a high zone, especially considering that you'll be eating other things (like a bun) with these burgers.


The recommended cooking instructions say to microwave, pan-fry, or bake. So I put them on the grill. lol Such a rebel!
I grilled them straight from frozen for a few minutes on each side at medium heat. I got some nice looking grill marks and also a bit of a crispness to the outside. You can see all of the texture in these burgers in this pic.


I was in a hurry to make dinner on this particular night so I just grilled some organic carrots and threw some brown rice in the rice cooker. I also made a simple tzatziki sauce for the burger since it had already had a Greek flair.

Tzatziki Sauce Recipe:
Peel, seed, and chop 2 cucumbers and put in a food processor with 1-2 containers of plain Greek yogurt, 2 tbsp olive oil, 1/2 the juice from a lemon, 1 tbsp fresh dill, 3 cloves garlic. Blend until smooth-ish. Refrigerate for about an hour.


Now let's talk about taste. Personally, I noticed the texture more than the flavor of this burger. The texture was very interesting, it was almost like the inside of a processed chicken nugget but with a whole chickpea every once in a while. I make it sound bad but it was actually pretty good. I didn't think that the patty itself had a whole lot of flavor but I only had one on my bun and I told you earlier that these are thin. My husband had a double patty and he like the flavor a lot.
I think that if I were a vegetarian I would love these as an alternative to meat. They have a unique flavor and awesome texture. Personally, I doubt I'll buy them again, I'd rather have a good chicken or portobello burger.
But that's just me...