Yesterday, I wrote a piece for my Guidebook about Oumph! (link here), a soy protein meat substitute from Sweden (although Oumph! go out of their way to maintain that their product range is not a replacement to meat, but rather a whole new food group unto itself). It was all positive, as I’m a big fan of Oumph! and, having just recently tried their Pulled product, I think I’d have to say this is my favourite.
Chunk is their standard product, from what I can tell. It appears to be the most widely available and also the most flexible to use, given that it is essentially unflavoured, making it the best direct replacement for chicken in sauces and similar dishes.
Pulled, though, is very much flavoured, coated as it is in a barbecue-style marinade. I think it’s meant to be a pulled pork substitute (the name’s a giveaway) but it is more like chicken to me. Anyway, enough intro; how does it fare?
Tastes like meat?
Definitely. Texture-wise it’s almost identical to chicken thigh meat. I’m not a big fan of blind taste tests as I don’t think vegetarian and vegan foods are entirely successful in being like-for-like substitutes for meat. But in this case I’d be happy to put it to the test. And the barbecue coating is great – I ate this simply fried and served in buns and it was great. I can’t fault it at all.
Easy to cook with?
Really easy. It only took 10 minutes of shallow frying from frozen and it was ready to eat.
Value for money?
I got this in a money off promotion at Asda – which, truth be told, is the only reason I actually bought it as the Chunk and other items weren’t available – so in this case it was pretty good value at £2. Normally, the packs are £3.50 so it’s not particularly cheap (I used to get a kilogram bag of frozen chicken breasts for the same price). I don’t expect vegan food to be as cheap as mainstream meat versions so I think this is about standard. When not in a deal, it’s too expensive to buy all the time, but cheap enough to treat myself to when I want something to satisfy my meat craving.
Extra note: You can easily get two single person meals out of this, or one single meal for two. At a stretch, it could feed three small people who are just wanting a snack.
FINAL VERDICT
Honestly, I have nothing but good things to say about this. Great texture, really good flavour, super easy to prepare and a brilliant replacement for chicken in a sandwich or salad. I’d happily serve this to my carnivore friends and I think they’d be hard pushed to tell it was vegan. I have – grudgingly – deducted half a star because I do think the normal price is a bit high for the pack size. Otherwise, this would have gotten a full five star rating.
