The Big Fry Burger! Sounds tempting, comforting and meaty, and it is. But no animals were harmed in the making of these patties. They are vegan but please, dear reader, do not turn the page.
We are not a vegan. I am not even a vegetarian but having said that, we, chez nous, only eat meat about twice a week. I wish I could say that I have virtuous motives for eating so many veggie meals but that would be a lie. It’s just that there are so many vegetarian meals on offer that meat is often somewhat redundant. The Fry Family Food Company expands our non-meat horizons.
This enterprise, in Durban, South Africa, looked at their output and produced a chart to show how many animal lives would be saved if someone had chosen a Fry’s product instead of a meat product. In 2019 that number was 647,737 chickens, 11,354 cows, 10,055 pigs and 3 million prawns. That is a sobering thought. I believe this is the sustainable way forward, with all of us cutting back on meat – and that is deliciously easy to do these days.
The Big Fry Burger is likely to be a winner even with card-carrying meat eaters. It’s a substantial patty of well-textured plant-based burger with 20g of protein per 112g of patty! Ingredients include Vegetable Protein (Soya, Wheat (Gluten)), Onions, Vegetable Oil (Sunflower Seed), Dijon Mustard, Corn Flour, Salt, Coriander Seeds, Thickener (Methylcellulose), Onion Powder, Beetroot Powder, Paprika, Smoke Flavour, Garlic Powder, Flavourings (0.1%), Cilantro, White Pepper, Black Pepper, Parsley, Turmeric, Colourant: Caramel IV.
A succulent canvas
We topped our Big Fry Burgers with mustard and relish, along with onions and peppers, and served it all on a homemade bun. The burgers offer a succulent canvas on which to build a flavourful meal, and without the fatty residue one would find from a conventional meat patty.
I have reviewed quite a few vegan products and am offered more and more these days. I note that the quality has improved a great deal over the past year, and now vegan options stand up to comparative scrutiny in their own right. Meat eaters are now likely to appreciate a product that is vegan or vegetarian just because they enjoy it. The Big Fry Burger is one of the most convincing non-meat burger-type patties I have tried and, yes, I would buy them as a lighter alternative to meat and would be happy to present them to food-loving carnivorous friends.