In the beginning, there was the Gardenburger. Today, there are more kinds of veggie burgers in the frozen food aisle than you can shake a drumstick at. But the perennial question remains: Do they taste good? Yes -- or the good ones do. And while they can be microwaved in a flash -- a big plus when time's tight --
like any burger, they taste even better if you throw them on the grill, Weber or Foreman, indoors or out.
To rate the tastes, we picked up where the experts left off: with two recent flavor tests done by Vegetarian Times and Consumer Reports. We started with each of their top five picks and did follow-up tests to narrow down to the best.
AND THE WINNERS ARE...
RealAge Gold: Morningstar Farms Garden Veggie Burger
110 cal, 3.5g fat, 350mg sodium, 10g protein
This burger was seriously underrated in previous surveys; just don't expect it to taste anything like a BK Whopper. This is a real vegetable burger, with visible chunks of carrots, olives, chestnuts, and bell peppers. Once bitten into, the chewy, non-greasy, veggie flavor is a stand-out. Plus it's a bit lower in calories than many others.
RealAge Silver: Quorn Chick'n Patties
150 cal, 6g fat, 400mg sodium, 9g protein
These taste possibly better than chick'n! The soy-free patty cooks up crispy outside and juicy inside. Wrap it in warm pita bread with all the fixings, or chop it up and throw it in a spinach salad with some goat cheese and dried cranberries, or have it for breakfast on a whole-wheat English muffin.
One note: Quorn and most meatless "chicken" is made from mycoprotein, a fermented fungus that sounds ick but tastes surprisingly good. However, it has triggered food allergies in some people (as does soy occasionally). While there were zero problems in the tests, still, better to be aware.
RealAge Bronze: Boca All American Flame Grilled
90 cal, 3g fat, 280mg sodium, 14g protein
This one's for the beef lovers. Boca seems to have perfected the traditional, fast-food, charbroiled flavor, complete with the juiciness of fat without the actual grease. This soy protein burger is as close to the real thing as you can get without eating red meat. It's also lower in calories and sodium than most of the brands tested, as well as higher in protein.
And if you've still got a soft spot for Gardenburger, try their Savory Portabella. It's low in calories (90) and came in fifth in our taste test, right after Boca Spicy Chik'n Patties.
SPECIAL MENTION TO...
What the tastiest veggie burgers lack in fat they often make up forin flavor-boosting sodium, and that includes our winners. While their sodium content still doesn't hold a candle to, say, a cup of Campbell's chicken noodle soup, which scores a staggering 1,780mg, all top the 185mg of sodium in a plain Burger King hamburger (though add a bun and ketchup and that leaps to 580mg). For a tasty veggie burger with less salt, try:
Morningstar Farms Grillers Original, which came in 7th on our taste test.
130 cal, 6g fat, 260mg sodium, 15g protein
THE OTHER REWARD
Making at least some of your burgers veggie burgers does your body good in a simple, powerful way: Avoiding the saturated fats that red meat's filled with can make your RealAge as much as 4 years younger.
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