Hi, I'm jazzhands, and welcome to vegetablog. Here you will find reviews of vegetarian and vegan foods, a recipe or two, and maybe some occasional on- or off-topic discussion about other things I hope my readers might find interesting or useful. All posts are tagged for easier browsing. Please feel free to comment on any post (even the old ones) and/or take a poll. Thanks for visiting! :)

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Yves Veggie Seafood - Veggie Shrimp

Holy %$#@! This stuff smells, tastes, looks, and chews so much like seafood it's eerie! I swear, as I was first trying it, I had to check the ingredients list about 10 times to make sure it was truly meat-free because it was so disconcertingly fishy.

I found it at Safeway a few weeks ago next to other Yves and Gardein veggie products in the refrigerated section. It was expensive compared to any other veggie product I've ever bought -- about $7 for a 6 ounce package (about 2 servings). I'd never been a fan of shrimp, but the fact that I'd never seen vegetarian seafood before, plus curiosity, plus the fact that I haven't tasted seafood in years all meant that I had to buy it.

The package sat in the fridge for a few weeks simply because I had absolutely no idea what to do with them -- until finally my boyfriend said, "Why don't you just cook them with pasta?" Duh! :) So I did, adding fresh peppers from my garden and a little alfredo sauce. It was a bit of an experiment all around, since it was my first (and possibly only) pepper harvest of the year, and both the sauce and the veggie shrimp were new to me. I'd say it turned out pretty well, though. I had to eat several shrimp before I could get past the weirdness of eating something fishy-tasting, but they did grow on me.

The package mentions two other Yves Veggie Seafood products -- a veggie shrimp scampi and a veggie tuna steak in sesame ginger sauce. I would really like to try the veggie tuna steak, but wish it was available plain -- just because versatility is nice in a meat substitute.

I tried looking this product up on the Yves website to borrow a picture for this post, but I couldn't find it. In fact, there is no mention of any veggie seafood at all. I can't help wondering whether this means the seafood line has already been discontinued (which would make me sad) or if they just haven't updated their website in a while. I may have to contact them directly to find out...

Protein source: Whey
Allergens: Milk, potato
Vegetarian