Earlier this week I was wandering through Kensington Market in search of Gadein’s new Fishless-Filets that I had tried at ExpoWest, but my dreams were foiled, and replaced by new dreams – trying the (also new-to-me) Gardein Breakfast Sandwich.

I found it in the Freezer section of Essence of Life, and haven’t seen it anywhere else (but if you have please share where in the comments!)

Today was a lazy morning, so it seemed appropriate to crack open the box and try them out. One box had two breakfast sandwiches in it, and two slices of vegan cheese.

While I usually avoid the microwave, I opted to follow the microwave instructions for maximum lazy factor and for science.

The instructions for microwaving say to wrap it in a paper towel, and heat on high for 1 minute and 20 seconds. Then add the slice of cheese – and blast it for another 20 seconds.

And voila, it’s on a plate, and has melted cheese on it. Ready to be eaten. For science.

First impression:

I LIKED it. I feel like’ I’ve heard some negative reviews of this combo, but I thought for what it was – a quick microwavable breakfast sandwich – it was surprisingly good. Actually, really surprising.

The bread didn’t turn into mush, and was chewy like a toasted English muffin, the breakfast patty was tender and lightly spiced, and while the cheese wasn’t perfectly melty, it fit my requirements for what I remember of the flavour and texture of processed (non-vegan) cheese.

I’d be interested in hearing what other people think about this product, but as for me, I’ll probably stuff my freezer full of them because having them around increases the likelihood I’ll have breakfast by about 85%.

Ingredients

Gardein Patty: water, soy protein concentrate, expeller pressed canola oil, Canadian wheat protein, yeast extract, soy protein, organic cane sugar, potato starch, modified vegetable gum, maple syrup, sea salt, natural flavours (from plant sources), malted barley extract, spices, garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, vinegar, pea protein, carrot fibre, beetroot fibre, molasses, wheat starch, soy lecithin.

Cheddar style slice: organic rice base (filtered water, organic rice flour), potato maltodextrin, rice bran oil, pea protein, rice maltodextrin, calcium & sodium phosphates, sea salt, carageenan, mono & diglycerides, natural flavours, lactic acid (non-dairy), apocarotenal, beta-carotene.

English Muffin: water, whole wheat flour, yeast, sugar, degerminated yellow corn meal, salt, fumaric acid, vinegar.

Nutritional Information

You can find the nutritional information for the sandwich without the cheese on the Gardein Website, but oddly there is no nutritional information for the cheese slice on their site, so here they both are.

I suppose the logic behind separating them is that not everyone is going to want to put a cheese slice on their breakfast sandwich, vegan or otherwise.

Preparation Instructions

So, have you tried this? What did you think? Where did you find it?