Trader Joe’s, in their never-ending quest to veganize everything, has rolled out Vegan Pepperoni – a daring foray into the realm where meatless wonders meet pizza toppings. As someone who appreciates a good plant-based experiment (and a skeptic of anything that claims to replace the real deal), I eyed this product with a mix of intrigue and a raised eyebrow. The packaging, vibrant and promising a revolution in vegan snacking, practically shouted from the shelf. So, with a smirk and a pinch of hope, I tore into the packet, ready to judge whether this meatless imposter could truly hold a candle to the classic pepperoni experience in terms of texture, scent, and the big deal – taste.
Let me start this off by saying that I am not a vegan but I have family members that are so we are always looking for good products to make vegan meals and what is better than a vegan pepperoni pizza?
The problem that many people have with vegan meat alternatives is that the texture is weird compared to meat. A lot of this depends on what type of vegetable protein they use as the base. I have found that wheat protein tends to give the most meat-like texture but not always.
You can tell right away when you pull it out of the bag. It has a weird rubbery texture and looks more like a sponge than pepperoni. I will admit that it smells exactly like the real deal. Smokey, spicy, garlicky, fennel (licorice). Everything that pepperoni should smell like. They have even gone to put fake chunks of fat (the white blobs) in this vegan pepperoni to make it look real. Is that the fava bean protein listed in the ingredients?
The first taste test is something I don’t recommend for reasons I will cover in a minute but for the sake of this review, I pulled a couple of slices out of the bag and ate them straight up. Let me say this, it is weird. The flavors are mostly there. If I can describe it as more jangly?!?!? the flavors poke out at your more. Remember in meat based pepperoni they are making a cured sausage and the flavors have time to mellow out as they age and ferment the sausage. Something this product, I am sure, does not go through. But the texture was rubbery and had a weird rubberband chewiness to it.
Even with the weird raw texture, we plowed ahead and made a vegan pepperoni pizza with the Trader Joe’s Pizza dough and Trader Joe’s Vegan Mozzarella and we used it exactly as we would regular meat based pepperoni. Baked the pizza at 550 degrees on a preheated pizza stone. Unfortunately, I got distracted for about 30 seconds and it over cooked a bit but lots of people like slightly over baked pizza crust.
I would say the biggest difference just looking at the vegan pepperoni after it came out of the oven is the lack of fat pooling on the pieces of vegan pepperoni. It looked dry compared to meat based pepperoni. But what was rubbery and weird before it was baked, actually turned out pretty good. Pepperoni is more a vehicle for flavor and not really texture. Once it’s baked on a pizza it’s in the cheese and sauce and dough and you aren’t going to notice anything and we all agreed that the pepperoni on a pizza like this wasn’t half bad and we could barely tell the difference in flavor.
Final Thoughts
Not being a vegan means I don’t really have to make this choice. I don’t eat pepperoni all that much. Most of my pizzas are vegetable based anyway but every once in a while I love the taste of pepperoni! In this raw form, it’s a hard pass from me. I would give it like 3 out of 10 stars mostly for the awful texture. But once you bake it on a pizza, the texture problems vanish and it actually tastes pretty good. I would give it 7 out of 10 stars on a pepperoni pizza!
Ingredients
WATER, SOYBEAN OIL, VITAL WHEAT GLUTEN, POTATO PROTEIN ISOLATE, TEXTURED PEA PROTEIN, SEASONING (YEAST EXTRACT, SEA SALT, SALT, SPICES, PAPRIKA [COLOR], ANNATTO EXTRACT [COLOR], DRIED GARLIC, NATURAL SMOKE FLAVOR, NATURAL FLAVOR), MODIFIED CELLULOSE, NATURAL FLAVORS, CONTAINS 2% OR LESS OF CARRAGEENAN, CAROB BEAN GUM, XANTHAN GUM, YEAST EXTRACT, VINEGAR POWDER (DRIED VINEGAR, SEA SALT), CITRIC ACID (TO PRESERVE), SALT, RED RICE FLOUR, SMOKED SUGAR SYRUP (WATER, HARDWOOD SMOKED SUGAR), SODIUM ALGINATE, CITRUS FIBER, FAVA BEAN PROTEIN, CANOLA OIL, GLUTAMIC ACID, GARLIC JUICE CONCENTRATE.
- CONTAINS WHEAT.
