Gardenburger Chik'n Wings

[duckie1978]

My husband and I were looking through the fake meats at the store to see which were vegan (I had a coupon) and found the Gardenburger Chik'n Wings. We LOVED them! There were 8 in the package and were very spicy (which was awesome-I just wished I had vegan blue cheese dressing). We baked them in the oven and thought they would fool any meat eater. Has anyone else tried these?

[Kelly]

I have not tried those specifically, but I recently found out that some of their chik*n patties and their barbecued "ribs" are vegan. Both of them were very good.

Kelly

[Erin Pavlina]

Are you sure the wings were vegan and didn't have whey in them?

[xmysticprincessx]

Here's a link to the Gardenburger website with a * next to everything that is vegan! I didnt realize that Gardenburger had so many vegan products! (I'm so used to getting Boca burgers since they are less expensive and most likely to be on sale.) I also think that the Riblets are really good, and I'll have to keep an eye out for the buffalo wings. (I'm from buffalo, so we'll see if they taste like the wings I remember from years ago!)

http://gardenburger.com/products/index.html

Veggie Medley*
Black Bean*
GardenVegan*
Flame Grilled*
Homestyle Classic*
Flame Grilled Chik'n*
BBQ Chik'n*
Meatless Riblets*
Meatless Breakfast Sausage*
Herb Crusted Cutlet*
Meatless Sweet & Sour Pork*
Meatless Meatloaf*
Buffalo Chik'n Wings*

[Erin Pavlina]

Whoa, they must have changed the recipe on some of those items...

Herb Crusted Cutlets contained honey last time I read the label.

And the BBQ chicken contained whey. So did the other chicken thing.

I can't wait to check the ingredients at the store. That's great that they changed the recipe to make it vegan. I wrote them a letter about a year and a half ago complaining that they ruined so many items by adding whey. They wrote back and told me "If it's in there, there's a reason."

[duckie1978]

They have changed their recipes. The box even had "VEGAN" is huge type on the box. I am really glad that they have expanded their line to be more accomidating to vegans.

[Erin Pavlina]

That is so awesome.

their herb crusted cutlets on their site still show honey though. I wrote to them asking for clarification. We'll see what they say.

[Christa]

Originally posted by Erin Pavlina
They wrote back and told me "If it's in there, there's a reason."

Yeah, I got the same response from Tofutti when I wrote them about their cookies. There was a rep at the front of our local HFS a while back handing out samples of the Toffuti cookies & she told me that they were vegan - I asked about eggs, dairy, etc & she assured me that there were none. After I tried a piece:mad: , I went to buy a package & looked at the ingredients & they had a bunch of egg in it.

I wrote Tofutti & suggested that they could reach a wider audience, including those with egg allergies & vegans if they used a product similar to Ener-g egg replacer. They wrote back stating the the egg was necessary or the cookies would be so bad as to be "inedible." Their position was that, you cannot make a good cookie without dairy or eggs - it had to contain one or the other. Funny, my homemade cookies are never inedible!

[duckie1978]

I would have made the biggest scene at the HFS if I were you. Did you say anything to her about it??

In response to the comment that cookies need egg and dairy in it, funny all my cookies come out great. Oreo seems to think so too because now most of the Oreo cookies are vegan!! The plain and peanut butter ones are NOT vegan, but the double stuff, mint, Uh-Oh's, the vanilla Oreos and chocolate ones are vegan!!

[Christa]

I didn't make a scene :p , but I did tell the rep that she was WRONG about the ingredients. She half-heartedly apologized, & Tofutti apologized as well in their email response, but it really wasn't their fault. I was rather upset, though, b/c it was the first time that I had accidently ingested non-vegan food in years - at least that I know about!

[Erin Pavlina]

Thsi year when I went to the Natural Products Expo there were companies giving away samples of their products. One company had people standing outside giving free boxes of their food and saying it was vegetarian. So i took the box to see if it was vegan, saw anchovies, and told the guy the food was not even vegetarian. He looked sick to his stomach and scared. I told him he'd better not say it's vegetarian because his company could get sued.

Later, while with a friend, I told her to walk ahead and see if they said the same thing. She walked up to get her sample, asked if the item was vegetarian and they said "No" because of the anchovies! I'm soooo glad they heeded my advice.

[Christa]

Yeah, I figured that the Tofutti cookies were partly my fault anyway b/c I always do check the box & not just rely on the person handing out the samples. I guess that's what I got for being lazy & not going & grabbing a box before trying it!

[veggiemomma]

double stuff, mint, Uh-Oh's, the vanilla Oreos and chocolate ones are vegan!!
No way!! woohoo, I used to love the mint ones.

[PikkuMyy]

There's this amazing fast food joint in LA called Astro Burger.

They have an entire veggie/vegan menu. We get the riblets and the chicken grills - both really good, with french fries!

Also, the Chickn' grills used to have sulfites in them as preservatives (I'm deathly allergic) but they took those out as well. Yay!

[DawnLA]

Where in LA is Astro Burger? I'll have to check it out!

[xmysticprincessx]

I finally had the Gardenburger Wings a few days ago. They were ok, but not really what I was expecting so I was a little disappointed. Not that they were bad or anything, but you know how it is when something is too different from expectations. I made mine in the microwave, so maybe if I cooked them in the oven they might have turned out better. I thought the sauce was a little too oily. (I dont like anything that is too oily or greasy.) I also thought the sauce was a bit too hot, but I'm not into anything spicy so that's probaby the reason. (I guess I did not inherit the "hot" gene... my dad likes the hot sauce that tastes like eating pure fire. Yes, the kind that comes in a child proof bottle and that you have to sign a waiver to buy.) My boyfriend thought the "wings" were a little too salty. I think had it not been that I am so picky that I would have liked the "wings."

[PikkuMyy]

My experience with all of those gardenburger things is that they're really not good microwaved. You really need to heat them in the oven or fry them up in a pan.

We make the Riblets in the oven and sautee onions and mushrooms in a pan to add to them. YUM!

Emily

[PikkuMyy]

Astroburger is located on 5601 Melrose Avenue at the corner of Gower

http://www.astroburger.com/

The website really touts their vegetarian/vegan choices. The people who own it are Greek and they also have quite a few vegetarian Greek choices. We go every time we're in LA at least a few times.

[DawnLA]

Thanks PikkuMyy!
I don't get up to Hollywood that often (live in West LA), but this is a good reason to make the trip across town!

[Jenica]

Recently I had an unpleasant experience with misleading labels as well. I was at a vegetarian/vegan tabling fair where you can sample all sorts of products (mostly food.) They had this "fish" stuff (like the chinese style fake meats) that was AMAZING. And the ingredients on the label were completely vegan. Since you have to buy it direct from the importer, I hit their website as soon as I got home.

Oddly, the ingredient list on the website for the same product I ate was anything but vegan...and the entire ingredient list was different! I'm betting that the ingredients on the website are correct, though I haven't had the time to write and ask. If they're putting fake labels on the food at Vegfest to lure in vegans, I have a feeling the people who run Vegfest would sure like to know about it.