Vegan smoked salmon slices from the Redwood Vegideli range. We looked for these at Christmas but couldn't find them, and only recently saw some lurking at the back of a wholefood store fridge. Vegan smoked salmon is so ridiculous, this couldn't possibly work... could it?
The colour is pretty vibrant... a mixture of anatto and iron oxide according to the pack. What Redwood can't do is replicate that translucent nature of smoked salmon, or indeed the flaky texture. What you get is thinly sliced, gelified, soya protein.
We were so eager to try this stuff we ate some straight from the pack. It really is disgusting. Despite the high threshold for weird and wonderful vegan stuff here at veganoo towers, we think this is truly awful. The flavour is smoke... just liquid smoke. The texture is almost gagworthy too... sort of like the sole of a child's plimsoll that's been tenderised with a wooden mallet. We tried some on a 'buttered' roll, which relieves the texture problem, but the 'salmon' contributed nothing but smoke.
Redwood produce some great vegan food... check out our other more favourable Redwood reviews.
This stuff though... merits a rare 1 star score.
Verdict: Neither Fish nor Fowl....just Foul.
Veganoo Score: ★☆☆☆☆
Redwood Smoked Salmon Style Slices
Redwood Smoked Salmon Style Slices
Footnote: Ingredients
Here is the ingredients panel from the pack we reviewed.
Thanks for the review... don't think I'll be trying it! Here is some truly great vegan salmon... even has a crispy seaweed "skin":
ReplyDeletehttp://www.veggie-world.com/OnlineShop/TC06-Vegetarian-Salmon-?lsbTlJp
That's a great link! We're ordering some vegan fish stuff right now!
ReplyDeleteTruly foul. My cat seemed to appreciate them though..
ReplyDeleteThey're back again this year, so someone must like them. :-s
DeleteI wanna try them. I love smokey foods - smoked tofu, smoked deli slices, lapsang souchong - and I've never had salmon in my life so I've nothing to compare it to.
ReplyDeleteThere's beautifully rich smoked flavours like Taifun tofu.... and there's bitter, woody smoked flavours like these things...
DeleteFelicity's link looks interesting too. I used to go to a very cheap and cheerful Noodle Bar in Islington, which also happened to be entirely vegetarian. The food was fantastic, so I always knew it was possible to get (or possibly make) cheap, good quality vegetarian meat substitute in the UK, but I never knew the secret. JR Vegetarian/Veggie World could be the answer!
ReplyDelete