Often when people take meat out of their diet, they replace it with beans. If you’ve ever eaten veggie burgers or vegan meatloaf, it was probably made with some type of bean or legume. But not everyone can eat beans or just don’t like the taste of them. Well, there’s a product those people will really enjoy – Patty Up Gourmet Meat Alternative.
Patty Up Gourmet Meat Alternative is the creation of Shirley Burris of Burris Country Kitchen in Lancaster, PA. Shirley Burris wanted to create a product that was safe, healthy and easy to prepare. Patty Up is vegan, gluten-free, non-GMO, low-sodium and has no soy or preservatives.
So what is in the Patty Up mix? Dried shiitake mushrooms, cashews, almonds, brazil nuts, almond flour, plus veggies (tomatoes, onions, peas, carrots, celery, green bell peppers and green beans) and seasoning (parsley, basil, rosemary, garlic, salt and pepper). All natural foods you would use if you made your own version from scratch.
Shirley sent me a package of Patty Up to try and asked me to try it with egg replacements for a vegan recipe. I decided to make a big meatloaf that would feed the whole family (dogs too).
The mix is really easy to use: simply mix it with whatever ingredients your recipe calls for. I used my own meatloaf recipe that I usually make with lentils. I chose to use Ener-G egg replacer for this because the added starch helps hold the loaf together. If I were making burgers, I might use a flaxseed/water combo instead.
Basically, I mixed the Patty Up mix with sauteed onion, celery and bell peppers, and added the Ener-G, some vegan Worcestershire sauce, ketchup, gluten-free bread crumbs and seasoning. I put in a loaf pan and topped the loaf with a ketchup/Balsamic vinegar/hot sauce mixture. Then it baked for about half an hour.
While I was preparing the mix, it had a wonderful smell – you could already tell it was going to be good and the mixture felt firm so I wasn’t worried it would hold up. One of the tricks to making a vegan meatloaf that will hold up and be able to be sliced is to do the exact opposite of what you would do with a meat meatloaf. Pack it tight! When you make meatloaf, they always say to not work it too much and not pack it tightly or it will be tough but a vegan meatloaf needs tight packing in that loaf pan to give it shape and form that will hold up.
Once the meatloaf baked, I let it sit for about ten minutes (another trick to keep it holding together) and then sliced it. It looked wonderful! It tasted delicious. Everyone loved it – including the dogs. All the nuts add a bit of a sweet flavor and it’s really filling and satisfying.
Patty Up can be used to make burgers, meatballs, even waffles and pancakes. You can use it anywhere you would use ground beef so think stuffed peppers, stuffed cabbage, Shepherd’s Pie – the number of recipes are infinite.
Patty Up is healthy, vegan, bean-free and so easy to use. What more could you want? Try it for yourself. Order your own package of Patty Up here. Visit the Burris Country Kitchen web site for ordering info, store locator, and lots of recipes that you can easily veganize. Thank you Shirley for the opportunity to try your amazing product.
