Trader Joe’s Tofu Edamame Nuggets

Here is another item I’ve not seen in Trader Joe’s before, so I thought I would give it a spin and see how it tastes! Clearly, Trader Joe’s is trying to cater to the Vegetarian/Vegan crowd out there with mixed results. Some of their products push the boundaries of what is acceptable food in pursuit of being vegetarian. When I saw this in the frozen section a few days ago, I figured here is another dud in the faux meat department. I’m glad I was wrong on this one!

First let’s talk about what’s in the bag. It’s basically a bag of these Tofu nuggets that are impregnated with edamame and little chunks of carrots. Based on the picture, I thought there might be a packet of dipping sauce in the bag, but nothing. From the exterior of the nuggets, they look very much like chicken nuggets but you can see the pea-like edamame and carrot chunks through the skins.

They preparation directions come in two flavors, oven and microwave. This is one of those times I opted for the extra time for warming up the oven becuase I knew that  if I nuked them in the microwave they would get mushy. Maybe next time I will heat one up in the microwave to see how the texture is, but for now I only recommend using the oven to heat these things up. I put them on your standard cookie sheet and waited…

They came out of the oven with a nice crisp looking brown skin and smelled great. If you are expecting anything similar to chicken nuggets you can forget that right now. These have a decidedly asian flair to them, eventhough they aren’t seasoned in any way. It must be the combination of tofu, edamame and vegetables that make it taste that way. You know we have a lot of Asian food out this way near Seattle and these remind me of one of the dishes you get regularly at Dim Sum restaurants. They were decent on their own, but they really needed something to dip into. I tried a couple of different things. I tried a sweet chili sauce, soy sauce and soyaki all from Trader Joe’s. Of all of them, I really like the sweet chili sauce best and then the soy sauce.

So would I buy these again? I think I would! They make a decent appetizer at a party or a nice side dish for an Asian meal.

I’m going to rate this 8 Bells!