I am always quite a fan of Meatless Farm products. Whilst they’re food doesn’t do anything revolutionary to change the vegan options available on the market, the food is always affordable and consistently tasty. So when I saw that they have released a new range of pasta dishes, I had to give them a go.
These pasta is probably the easiest meal I have ever had to make. The pasta cooks in 5 minutes, so it is perfect as a quick meal when you’re having a hectic day or just don’t want to cook anything. If anything, I find that boiling the water takes longer than the actual pasta takes to cook. So when we have had a manic day or we know we are going to be getting home rather late, we will pick this up as a super quick meal.
Taste wise, it is very nice. It isn’t anything ground breaking but honestly I prefer that. What it says on the packet is absolutely what you get in the product. As I say, Meatless Farm for me is always a consistently good option, so I wasn’t surprised that this meal was indeed very tasty. I have to say though that I didn’t get much red wine flavouring from this. The beef and the mushroom was a nice ‘meaty taste’ but I couldn’t really taste any red wine. Which for me is actually a bonus as I hate red wine anyway, and the ‘meat’ taste is the level that I enjoy. I personally like my meat replacements to not taste too close to actual meat – I personally like to be able to taste that my ‘meat’ is not animal meat. However I know some people want a perfect replacement so maybe this is just something to keep in mind.
My only criticism of this is that you get 6 bits of pasta in a packet and that supposedly serves 2 people. Yes, the pasta shapes are quit large but…really? 3 bits of pasta is a meal now? I am aware that some companies likely say smaller serving sizes so that the nutritional information looks better on the front (lower calories etc if you split a portion in half) but this just seems a bit dangerous. If I was to have dinner and only had 3 bits of pasta, I would not be satisfied. The meal is tasty but it is not at all filling. Nutritional wise too the macros are actually very good, with a whole packet having roughly 16g of protein and only about 350 calories for the whole meal. Those nutritional values are insanely good, but also suggesting that a meal of 160-ish calories for one person is a full meal is laughable. Just put more product in so it can be a solid meal!
We also mainly eat it with just a little bit of butter on it, but I think it would also work really well with a tomato sauce so it tastes similar to a Bolognese. As I say it is also a very light meal which does not fill you up much, so you will also likely need something else with it to make a proper meal of it. We sometimes have doughballs with it (to stick with a carb loading meal and/or Italian meal) but I also think it could work nicely within some sort of pasta bake with some chopped vegetables.
This packet cost £3.50 which isn’t the worst but it is also not the best. As I say, you do get a tasty meal out of it but at the same time, it is a tiny meal. Even if you have the whole packet as a meal, that still £3.50, when you could probably make your own high protein pasta dish for less money. Perhaps if this was priced more between £2-£3 this would be more reasonable as it does seem a lot of money for what is essentially a snack.
Taylor Talks Vegan 
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