Product: Boomerang’s 100% Plant-Based Beefy Potato
Specs: The box contains a single, frozen hand pie of puff pastry encasing cubed potatoes and crumbles of plant-based Beyond Meat. The vegan “gravy” inside is made with yeast extract, palm oil, malted barley flour, and onion powder.
Preparation summary: From frozen, either microwave in the box for 2 ½ to 3 minutes, and let cool for 5 minutes—or bake in the oven at 400 degrees on a sheet pan for 25 to 30 minutes. Cool also for 5 minutes.
High points: Based on using the microwave, none.
Low points: Starting with the anemic pastry crust, it browned slightly, but its extreme dryness was palate-parching. The beady bits of Beyond Meat were in rubbery contrast to the over-tender potatoes. And the negligible amount of goopey “gravy” inside had a weird, dusty flavor. As the Aussies would say to describe something so awful: “It shits me to tears.”
Average retail price: $3.99
Availability: Ralph’s, Wegmans, Albertsons, Whole Foods Market, Vons, and other major grocery outlets.
It does injustice to Beyond the way it sounds and anything that “ shits one to tears” is better left untried !