Beyond Meat Review: Part I. Beyond Beef
Chef Wanzi by Bethany Joseph
Intro
Last Spring, I was visiting Anaheim, California, with my family, and after a full day at Disneyland, we returned to our hotel room. I was hungry and decided to venture out close to the hotel and get some food. The closest restaurant open was a Dell Taco. I pulled into the drive-through and saw advertisements for a Beyond Meat Taco. At the time, Beyond Meat wasn't widely available in Utah, and I thought I'd give it a try. I wouldn't say it was the most awesome hard shell taco I've ever had, but I will say it was pretty good. I was impressed with how beef-like the taco was, and I wanted to try Beyond Meat offerings. I've decided to document cooking each of them in a blog series.
What I’m Cooking
I don't use a lot of ground beef in my cooking, so It took me some time to think of what I wanted to cook. I settled on Spaghetti and Meatballs. Meatballs aren't too tricky to pull off, but it was a good proving ground for Beyond Beef. Would it hold up being rolled into a meatball? Would it brown? Would it resemble a meatball when it was all said and done? It seemed like the right dish to tackle, and I likely had all the ingredients in my fridge and pantry.
Spaghetti & Meatballs by Bethany Joseph
Beyond Beef “Raw”
Beyond Beef comes in the same packaging that an excellent grass-fed beef might go in. It looks somewhat like Beef, and it smells like canned corn beef hash when it's "raw." It's costly, one pound of Beyond Beef was $8.99 at my local Target. The instructions on Beyond Beef suggest thawing it in the fridge and then cooking immediately, which is what I did for this recipe. Outside of the smell, Beyond Beef has a slimy texture. I've heard other people talk about it, but I had to wash my hands twice to get the slimy feeling to go away. Overall, there isn't too much that is surprising about Beyond Beef, and that's a good thing!
Beyond Meatballs
I followed a simple recipe for meatballs because I wanted to keep it simple. The ingredients were:
1 lb. Beyond Beef
1 ½ TBSP bread crumb
¾ TSP Chopped garlic
1 TBSP Chopped onion
1 TSP Chopped basil
2 TSP Chopped parsley
2 ½ TBSP Parmesan cheese
½ TSP Italian Seasoning
Pinch of black pepper
Pinch of Kosher salt
I mixed these all into a bowl and then formed golf-sized meatballs. On medium-high heat, I browned the meatballs in a small amount of olive oil. Once cooked, I added some marinara sauce and let it all sit while I made my pasta.
Pasta
I didn't have any wheat pasta in my cabinet, but I did pick up some Cauliflower Linguini from Costco earlier in the week. I decided to use this and go for a gluten-free pasta dish. The pasta is incredibly easy to make and tastes great. I will warn that when boiling for the first time, this stuff is SMELLY. My 3-year-old complained about the smell for 10 minutes after I dished it up. The texture and taste of this pasta are extremely impressive, and it holds up as leftovers.
All Together
I added a little more marinara sauce and tossed in the linguini with the meatballs. Once plated and added a sprinkle of parmesan and parsley. While it dished up and plated well, I worried a bit that this meal would be too much fiber for one sitting. My worries were misplaced as this dish provided tons of fiber and protein with a reasonable volume of carbs and sat well with me.
Review
Overall I'm impressed with Beyond Beef. While it is expensive, the taste of these meatballs is indistinguishable from ground beef. The browning and crust I got on the meat were also impressive. With time, I imagine Beyond Meat will be able to get the costs to around $4 per pound, and then this is something I can see myself eating regularly.