Green Monday Grocery Store Find – Beef Tips

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It’s been a while since I shared a “semi-homemade-veggie” meal from my on-a-budget, vegetarian kitchen. Lately, I’ve noticed the Gardein Garden Protein products popping up in the frozen food aisles of many grocery stores. I’m always a fan of quick ways to add some protein and meatlike substance to my meals, so I picked up a bag of the vegan and iron rich beefless tips dreaming of an old school, Chinese delivery stir fry for dinner.

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These beefless tips are just one of a number of frozen, meat substitutes offered from Gardein. Their products are all vegan, based in vegetable proteins, low-fat, low-calorie and high in protein. Top that off with a super fast (less than five minutes) cook time and we have the answer for a simple and easy Meatless Monday night meal.

That night, we used the veggies we had on hand, and chopped up some snow peas, broccoli and scallions. For the sauce, we borrowed from a recipe for PF Chang’s Mongolian Beef found at Epicurious, adding some chili flakes and other spices, as well as a bit of flour for thickening.

After heating up the sauce, we set it aside to simmer and and started to stir fry the veggies. Since the beefless tips had a suggested cook time of 3 to 4 minutes, we first stir fried just the veggies in a bit of oil to avoid overcooking. Next, we moved the vegetables to one side of the wok, and carefully added the frozen beefless tips.

Less than five minutes later, with the tips heated through, we added the “Mongolian Beef” sauce to the wok and tossed it all together. Per the instructions, we let the beefless tips “sit” a minute and than served it over some brown rice:

The verdict? Pretty good! Chef Eric was disappointed with the vegetables (he thought they were overcooked) and the sauce (too much), but that can hardly be the fault of Gardein. We both found the tips to have a decent texture, not too mushy like many meat subs and without a hint of that rubbery texture that is the bane of many meat alternatives. The flavor was subtle, and the tips nicely soaked up the flavors of our sauce. While not the msg loaded Chinese take out of my youth, our Meatless Mongolian Beeftips were a nice take on an old favorite.

Taking the cost, ease of prep and taste all into account, I would absolutely buy these beefless tips again (as a matter of fact there’s a bag in my fridge right now) and look forward to trying more from the Gardein line.

we heartsters – anyone try a meatless frozen meal helper from Gardein? What did you think?