Plants pretending to be meat have suddenly become a thing that is taking over everywhere. From Burger King offering the Impossible Burger to Beyond Burger offering you the option to cook it at home — it’s taken over.
I’ve been following this trend for a while since I saw something about the Impossible Burger on Buzzfeed two years ago. And yes, I have been trying to figure out how I could get it, as it hadn’t quite made its way to the East Coast from Los Angeles. Well, now I have and I’m honestly impressed.
The Food Lion here carries Beyond Meat (the brand with various fake meats) burgers but does not carry sausage, according to the website. I haven’t actually checked because when I bought these I did so when visiting my parents in Greenwood, South Carolina, and at the time the closest place was Raleigh.
But apparently, we can now buy the burgers here, which I recommend — they’re good and decent for the environment but as good for you as actual burgers, though the closest place to buy the sausage in which I’m cooking within this recipe is Fayetteville. You can find locations online at Beyond Meat’s website.
Now here’s the thing, I’m not the biggest fan of sausage but I like to try things and this piqued my interest. I’ll start by saying I was more surprised with this than the burgers. Why? Because it actually smelled and tasted 100% like sausage.
I was thrown off. The burger didn’t exactly smell like a normal burger to me so I wasn’t expecting this to smell like sausage but it did. I’d very much recommend at least trying it.
I know a lot of people are confused and have very strong opinions about the fake meat but as someone who tends to buy veggie nuggets from the store because I don’t trust regular frozen chicken nuggets (because pink slime) and, as someone who tried to eat at least one vegetarian meal a week, I’m a fan and I’ll likely be throwing this into my diet more often.
Also, I’m just happy I can now buy the burgers at Food Lion here. So enjoy this meatless recipe that involves one of the favorite starches, gnocchi.
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Ingredients …
1 package of Beyond Meat Beyond Sausage Brat Originals cut into 1-inch thick pieces
1 17 oz package of gnocchi
1 can of diced tomatoes
1 6 oz can of tomato paste
2 tablespoons of garlic
2 tablespoons of fresh basil
1 tablespoon of olive oil
Salt and pepper
Parmesan cheese
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Directions …
Cook gnocchi according to the package directions.
While cooking the gnocchi add olive oil to a pan and heat on medium-high. Add sausage and salt and pepper. Cook until slightly browned then add garlic, tomatoes and tomato paste.
Simmer for 3 to 5 minutes and add basil then add cooked gnocchi into the mix. Stir together then move to a plate. Top with parmesan cheese and enjoy.
Katelin Gandee can be reached at 910-506-3171 or kgandee@laurinburgexch.wpenginepowered.com.
