Finding the best vegan food is tough. All too often, companies don’t put in enough effort for our vegan friends, leaving them with products that pale in comparison to the non-vegan foods they’re trying to mimic. But we found a bunch of great vegan products this year. From vegan ice cream to vegan sour cream to vegan turkey roasts for a Thanksgiving feast, we covered our plant-based bases. But out of all the great products we tried, there were only a couple that stayed on our minds. Here’s the best vegan food product we tried all year and one runner-up for 2022.
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Winner!
Trader Joe’s Dairy Free Shredded Parmesan Cheese Alternative
The absolute best vegan product we had the pleasure of ingesting all year was Trader Joe’s Dairy Free Shredded Parmesan Cheese Alternative. While deliberating about which vegan product was the best we’ve tried so far, this “cheese” was the immediate answer. This faux cheese product took the number one spot in our best vegan shredded cheese ranking and for good reason, too. “The shreds are packed with umami and have a nice creamy finish. It would be great on pasta with some dairy-free butter—a simple dish that will remind you of childhood. That’s a lot to get from one bag of dairy-free cheese,” wrote Sporked editor-in-chief Justine Sterling. Lots of vegan cheeses can be hard on the nose and even harder on the palate, but Trader Joe’s Shredded Parmesan Cheese Alternative goes down easy and creamy. Its impressive likeness to actual parmesan really stood out to us, so much so that we gave it a full ten out of ten sporks.
Writer Jordan Myrick gave the Beyond Plant-Based Italian Style Meatballs ten full sporks in our best vegan meatball ranking. “These look and taste like meat. There’s a nice bouncy texture. They’re lightly seasoned and have a strong savory, meaty umami-ness. I would definitely buy these for my future spaghetti dinners,” they wrote. Leave it to Beyond Meat to go above and beyond in making a supremely meaty meatball––without any meat. We would purchase these again in a heartbeat because, like many of Beyond Meat’s products, the texture is so meat-like that it simply cannot be ignored. If you’re looking for a meatless alternative for your next meatball sub, look no further.
Naajia Shukri is the legit biggest fan of candy corn. She is interested in all things food, art, and beauty. After living in Korea for the past two years, she has gotten back to her L.A. roots, frequenting thrift stores and art museums.
Thoughts? Questions? Complete disagreement? Leave a comment!
Thoughts? Questions? Complete disagreement? Leave a comment!