The Squeaky Bean products are a staple in my household, especially when it comes to lunch supplies now my husband and I are travelling into the office more often. They have quite an impressive range of products already, so I was very excited when they added the salmon, as I feel they already offer a lot of options as is. But I will absolutely not complain!
I have tried some vegan salmon slices before throughout my 9 years as a vegan, but unfortunately they have never really managed to get it close enough for me. The products have always tasted either too artificially like fish, which is just odd anyway, or they don’t really taste of anything except what they are, such as very thin slices of carrot or very thin slices of tofu. They’ve also always been very expensive for what they actually are, so salmon has been off of my menu for the vast majority of my 9 years vegan. Therefore my expectations for this were quite low. As I say, it seems that salmon is a very hard taste and texture to replicate in a plant based manner, so whilst I thought these would be tasty enough – as all Squeaky Bean products are – I was also very much expecting them to be a let down.
Well don’t I now feel very humbled because this is probably the best salmon alternative I have ever tried. Now I will start by saying that it is not a direct match – it has a very soft fish flavour to it, but you can easily tell that this is not exactly salmon. for me, I don’t mind that, but if you are someone who is looking for a like-for-like replacement for your favourite meat products, this may not quite hit that mark. The texture however I would say is incredible close to salmon. It has this odd oily feel to it, the way salmon slices do, and even tears apart into very thin slices. It is very delicate in texture, but is not watery as I had initially expected upon first look. It does have a very subtle fish smell to it, but nothing off-putting or gross. The colour is also a very close match from what I can see.
Taste wise, it is very close again. It has a subtle fishy flavour and a very soft smoke to it, but it is very light. I remember salmon having a very subtle taste, and I think this does a good job of replicating that. As I say, it is not an exact match, but it is very close. I decided to try this with some cream cheese (I went for the Tesco own brand soya cream cheese spread as that is my preferred option but I think any would work) on top of a bagel, for that true salmon and cream cheese replication. It really did hit the spot! The salmon has enough flavour that you can definitely tell that it is there, and it didn’t get overpowered by the cream cheese. It was refreshing, and filling, and was the perfect lunch item to enjoy in the English sunshine.
This packet however is quite expensive: ÂŁ3.25, for 6 slices. Which would equate to 3 sandwiches really. One slice on its own is not enough to get any real flavour in your sandwich, so I would say that two slices is needed. Now I do find that Squeaky Bean is always a bit expensive for what you get. The quality is undeniably very high, but the packets are always small and so it does make me a little hesitant to buy them. The main reason we do buy them regularly though is because the macros on their deli pieces are just insanely good, and at our local Tesco they do come onto Clubcard deals very regularly, which does help to offset the cost a bit, usually knocking them down to around ÂŁ2.50, which is slightly more reasonable in my opinion. Unfortunately though, these salmon slices have pretty poor macros, so whilst they do taste very nice, I think I will likely keep these as a treat rather than a weekly purchase. Which I think is what salmon is meant to be in the meat industry so…perhaps that’s what Squeaky Bean were going for?
Taylor Talks Vegan 
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