- Hello everyone.
It's Barry here.
Welcome to My Virgin Kitchen.
I hope you are well.
Today, we're doing another taste test video.
Now this one is gonna be a vegan taste test, and it's something I've wanted to do for quite
a while, but I've managed to find a few quickie vegan foods.
So I found vegan steak, vegan cheese, vegan egg.
So, I'll get to all that in a bit.
I have nothing against veganism whatsoever.
I just really am intrigued to do this video to work out if this tastes remotely like what
it's supposed to.
Even got vegan wine gums for sweetsvideo.
So I think without further ado let's get going.
First up, not from a chicken's bum, potentially, this is vegan egg, 100% plant-based egg replacer.
It's made from algal, yes protein-based ingredients, and the thing that I had a chat with Mrs.
Barry about this last night, I was look, it's actually even in an egg carton.
I wonder if it's in an egg shell, but obviously like Mrs. Barry said, it's probably just a
marketing ploy.
So apparently you can make baked egg with this.
We can also scramble it, which is what we're gonna do.
Aw, that's a shame.
I was generally hoping they might put them in just like kinder egg style, little plastic
containers or something like that.
Wow.
So, it's just kind of like a drug, not that I know what that looks like.
Crikey, it's even got a recipe for quiche on here.
So that's pretty cool.
What we're gonna do is we need to mix this up.
So, I'll be right back.
The texture of it, if you're wondering, is like corn flour, and it does just smell like
corn flour.
There's nothing really there.
So, what we do is get two tablespoons of it, shove it in a bowl.
At least the colour resembles egg-yolky kind of stuff.
We then pour in 150 mils of water, nice.
Grab a whisk.
Where's my whisk?
Couldn't find my whisk, so I'm using the whisk from my stand mixer, and this really does
smell proper eggy, like proper farty, popping off smell, unless it's the dog.
I'm not sure.
So we just whisk it.
I've whisked it until it's smooth, and generally, it does smell like Trump in a bowl, which
is another name for farts in the UK, Trump.
You can take that any way you like.
So, now, we pass this into a lightly-oiled frying pan, and cook it up, scramble it up
baby.
Just gonna let that warm a teeny bit.
Whew, whew, whew, wheeeew.
Yes, they've done an excellent job of making that smell like egg.
Let's pour this in like so.
Oh yeah.
Looks more like pancake batter at the moment, and it does say to scramble it almost immediately.
So, spatula.
Hey, tell you what, that is looking scrambled.
You see that?
I think it said the cooking time is quite long.
Scramble frequently and evenly with a spatula until the eggs are firm.
Vegan egg takes longer than regular eggs.
So we recommend six to eight minutes until fully cooked.
Season to taste.
Oh yeah, I'll be seasoning, and enjoy, which I aim to do.
I'm not a massive fan of scrambled egg anyway.
So maybe I'll like this more.
The other thing I'm thinking is if I kind of left it and didn't beat it too much, maybe
it would be good for an omelette.
So, would that be called a vegomelet, a vegomelet?
That's only been two minutes and it is just congealing together like loads, like that.
So I'm gonna jump right forward to eight minutes' time.
So I'll see you in the future.
Alright, there we go.
That has been eight minutes.
Let's see what it tastes like.
Here we go then, on the plate, little bit of pepper.
It does just smell like omelette, so.
Uh, God, that's weird.
That just tastes like eating like rubber, like a rubber mask or something, just nothing,
there's nothing there.
It's kind of like, I feel like I might like it more than a scrambled egg 'cause I'm not
really a huge fan of it, like the taste of the egg.
If you even think about the texture of a marshmallow, it's kind of like that, but without like any
flavour whatsoever, like nothing.
It's just like eating chewable water.
So, not bad, not bad.
In this packet right here, I have some vegan steaks.
Now I'll just get on to that in a moment, but I'm just making a quick bowl of vegetable
stock.
Now that smells good.
Let's put that to one side.
This, my friends, is a vegan steak.
The texture, just feeling it is very light.
It feels like cod or a cracker actually, you know, one of those really healthy crackers
that people loads tonnes of Nutella on to make them feel like they're eating healthy,
but then they eat 20 billion of them or the Nutella as well.
So they're probably not doing too good, but what we do then, yeah, there is just no, actually
this kind of resembles dog food guys.
It does.
We're gonna just stick it in our bowl and let it soak for a half an hour while we continue
our vegan feast.
So, let's just submerge that in there.
Woo, okay, we'll do a couple, 'cause I might need a couple.
That one's a bit thinner, and I presume, I'm only going to turn it right after.
I'll just give it a little bit of loving now, a little bit of a dunk, and it should sort
of absorb some of it and soak it up and be a bit more meaty.
There's definitely something going on in there.
It's like coming back to life.
So I'm gonna put it out the back, out of the way.
So we're gonna use that with this cheese for the finale of our vegan steak and cheese,
but as you guys know, I'm not a massive fan of cheese, especially when it's cold.
So this is vegan cheese, and it's made with coconut oil.
So I'm wondering, I'm gonna try this now, just a bit cold, if I actually like vegan
cheese cold, and I wanted to give a shout out to the most unhelpful person in my local
supermarket.
We're in the cheese aisle, she was stacking the cheese, and I'm like, "Excuse me, do you
sell vegan cheese," and she said, "Yes," and walked off, and that was it.
I was like, can you show me where it is?
So yes, that delayed my arrival to make this video this morning, but here we go.
It does look like cheese, doesn't it?
They are just sheets of vegan, dairy-free, lactose, soy, gluten-free vegan cheese.
It's says water, coconut oil, modified starch, sea salt, and vegan flavour.
What's a vegan flavour?
Have you vegans got your own herb or spice or something?
That's cheeky.
So normally this would be extremely unappealing to me, entirely, but I'm not getting that
whiff that you get from cheese straight away.
The texture is there.
It looks like cheese, it feels like cheese.
Oh, it does smell like it too.
It does, it does, it does.
Ohh, that doesn't taste of cheese, otherwise, I would've spat it out by now.
It doesn't taste of coconut.
It tastes like milk, but we can't have milk, but again, absolutely no real major taste
to it, other than a very subtle milky vibe, maybe slightly creamy.
If anything, it tastes like eating a beermat.
Don't do that.
Do not eat a beermat in a pub, but actually for the first time ever, I have found a way
to enjoy eating cheese.
This is okay, this is okay.
So we'll come back to this cheese at the end.
You stay bland, cheese, okay, to make our vegan steak and cheese.
Alright, next up, by Primal Strips is some meatless vegan jerky soy, Texas barbecue style,
beef jerky, except there's no meat in it.
So, it should be called soy maybe.
It looks and feels, it's very squishy like jerky, but it could actually make better dog
food, and apparently this is suitable for dogs.
Definitely the smell of jerky straight away.
Uh, it's very slimy indeed.
Want to eat it?
They're not sure.
Want to try it?
I'm gonna wash my hands.
How was it, alright?
I think they liked it.
Let's try it now.
It does actually look a lot like jerky, but look at the ingredients, non-GMO isolated
soy protein, water, cane juice, soy sauce.
You can definitely smell the soy in it.
Let's have a try.
Umm, oh, wow.
That is basically like eating a bar of soy sauce, but the strange thing is, don't you
agree with me, it's like fibrous.
It's kind of like eating wet fibreglass or kind of like thatyou get.
You just imagine that but coat it in spices and mainly soy sauce, but it works.
It's weird, right?
I'm sure you guys have eaten worse, but it works.
I'm loving the sun today, folks.
It have given us some dramatic mood lighting.
I feel like I'm in a church right now.
Anyhow, next up is soybean vegan braised tofu.
Tofu being that well-known ingredient that you just can squeeze the living life out of
it, and you just do not get any flavour in it no matter what you do.
It does take a heck of a lot of work to get some flavour in there, but this is braised
tofu.
It's ready to eat, hot or cold.
So basically braised tends to mean we quickly fry something, that's optional, but then you
slow cook it or stew it.
So hopefully, flavour should be rammed into this.
I'm just gonna be proper like Crocodile Dundee style and eat it straight out of the tin.
Oh, wow.
Can you see that?
Yeah.
That looks like a tin of leftover kabob.
See that doesn't look like tofu to me.
I'm used to seeing them nice little white bulks, but you can see how they've squeezed
it and made it into these sort of like ribbony, it looks more like tuna, but the fact that
it's not white makes me think, okay, we could work with this, you know.
Why am I blowing it?
I was about to blow it.
It's not gonna be hot.
Here we go.
Oh my word, that's weird.
The texture, it feels a little bit like I'm eating an insect.
It just sort of slides down your mouth and tastes a little bit muddy as well.
I don't like it, I don't hate it.
There's just something very weird about it, and now my second bite just tastes like cold
coffee.
It's really addictive to eat, though.
I've had a few more mouthfuls.
I'm just still trying to understand what it tastes like.
I'm gonna, whoa, look at that.
Cold coffee.
It tastes like coffee.
Just turned the steaks over.
They've absorbed a bit more vegetable stock.
They've sort of like gone,bloated up a bit.
So, intrigued for those.
Next up, we're gonna try and do some fake duck, mock duck baby.
This is braised gluten in gravy.
So, it's wheat gluten.
It's slightly different to tofu.
I think it's quite similar.
It's also got water, again, and soybean extract.
So probably quite similar in taste, but it's supposed to resemble duck.
So what I thought we'd do, what I've been doing this fatboy-slimming month, I've been
avoiding bread.
I've had no bread for over nearly four weeks now.
So I can't wait to have a bit of pizza.
I'm being honest, just a little cheeky slice.
I haven't missed it that much though.
I'm feeling much lighter, but these are some sandwich wraps made out of carrots.
So they're kind of like nori, like sushi sheets but made of carrot instead.
So we're going to try and make a sort of vegan duck wrap.
I've got my cucumbers, spring onions, and a little bit of Hoisin plum sauce there.
So it's all vegan, it's all good.
I've checked the labels.
So let's see if we can do it, and hopefully by putting some flavour in it, it might be
pretty good, but of course, we need to see what the duck is like on its own first, don't
we?
Oh, uh, it's some sort of weird, I mean there is a gravy in it.
Oh, it looks like it has the texture of duck.
That one tastes a bit like cold backed beans, sort of.
Umm, oh dear.
In fact, what I want to quickly do is put a teeny bit of in a bowl and warm it up in
the microwave.
Ewww.
Right, nice and hot out the microwave.
Got myself a board and these are the carrot wraps.
Oh my gosh, it does just generally look like a sheet of orange paper that the kids would
bring home from school.
There is a backing on it.
I generally feel like we need to peel this off.
Yes we do.
Okay, so that is just like a sheet of seaweed nori thing but carrot.
That's really weird.
I hope there's not another sticker on it still because that really does still taste of plastic.
There is a sweetness coming through, but that tastes nothing like carrot.
So there's a rough edge, and a smooth edge.
So we'll put it smooth side up.
Let's sit some duck in it.
Strip of mock duck ready to roll, spring onions, aka scallions, sticks of cucumber, going all
out classic retro, and then some of this plum sauce on there.
Okay, roll it up.
Okay, oop, bit of duck has come out the side, trying to escape.
I love how I'm referring it as duck and it generally is nothing like duck at all.
So, here is my carrot cigar of duckness.
Oh, wow, I tell you what, that is blooming bizarre, but I think the cucumber, the spring
onions, and the sauce are marinating on that duck just kind of disguise it, and it does
feel like a genuine duck wrap.
To be fair, that is blooming I would actually eat that again, yep.
I think it's a little bit like that age-old thing.
If you put enough sauce on something to disguise the flavour, which is where I think this is
working, you can generally take anything and make it taste nice, which is why I think my
dad back in the day would put ketchup on literally everything.
I'm super excited because these have just this moment turned up.
The postman just knocked at the door.
I didn't think I'd get to show you them.
These are some vegan wraps again, but they're coconut ones.
So kind of like how we had carrot before, this is coconut.
So hopefully more of a sweeter vibe.
The only thing I've got at the moment I can put in it other than fruit is some almond
butter.
So we'll do that.
Oh yes, these actually smell really good from the off.
A little bit like a Bounty bar or Mounds in the US.
So, kind of like, just if I put chocolate on that, I'd be like,oh yeah.
In fact, nah, not so good, but it would make an amazing stamp to post a letter on it, wouldn't
it?
Alright, just cut up some chunks of apple there, and we're gonna grab our almond butter
as well.
Great.
Ah, this is pour on, oh yeah.
So we're gonna spread that over.
This would make amazing coconut carpet in your house, wouldn't it, and for this, I'm
just thinking like coconut, that's sweet, but on the serving suggestion on the front,
it was savoury.
So shoving some of the mock duck in there, would probably work a charm.
So here we go.
We're going for a coconut, almond butter, and apple wrap.
Crikey, that feels pretty tough and butch.
It feels like a parcel or something.
Yeah, eww, yeah.
I think You are getting a bit of that coconut vibe in there.
Well, there's definitely something in there, but it does feel like you could just have
the apples with the almond butter as snack, which I have been enjoying and loving loads
this month, but with the coconut on there, it does feel like you're eating a stamp.
So, not too bad.
The flavour is in there from the coconut.
It's just a bit too rough, We're going to come on to the steak and cheese finale in
just a moment, but just before we do that, these are some veggie wine gums.
So for fatboy-slimming month, I had no bread, no fizzy drinks, no chocolate and no sweets,
but I'm bending the rules slightly just so I could try one or two of these.
So, basically standard wine gums, sweets here in the UK.
They're kind of like chewy sweets that you get in most places around the world.
and they do have gelatin in it, which obviously is made from hooves.
So this gets around it.
They're veggie wine gums, also gluten free, and nut free as well.
It says made with natural colours, natural fruit juices and stuff like that.
So it's got sugar, glucose syrup, pea starch, corn starch, apple concentrate and all bits
and bobs like that in it.
So, let's see what they're like and they're very, very bendy.
Most wine gums are tough and they'll shatter your teeth.
So, let's try a green one.
I'm quite intrigued to try a green diamond one.
Um, okay.
For a minute there, I was worried.
There was no flavour coming through.
It felt like I was chewing on the tofu again, but there is a flavour, and now I'll try an
orange one now.
Wow, they really do wanna stick to your teeth.
I'm not sure if one of the other ingredients replacing the gelatin is glue because my gum
is now lined with these sweets.
They're hugging it going, hey, I love it here.
So yeah, they kind of work.
Steak and cheese time.
So here is our gorgeous vegan steak folks.
Check this out.
This water has fully absorbed it.
It's gone a little cooler.
So hopefully the flavouring of the stock is in there.
Tastes like mock duck, but on the packaging, there was no instructions whatsoever on how
to cook this.
So I'm gonna pan fry it to warm it and then shove our cheese on to give it a nice steaky-cheese
melt finish.
I'm feeling like these steaks need charring if we can because with charring, like any
food, comes flavour, okay.
So, let's just do our best.
Alrighty.
Loving that bit of colour on there, cool.
Let's do one with some cheese on top, and let that melt and cloak it.
I hope it melts, that cheese.
Yeah, just put a lid on that.
That way it's going to incinerate.
Come on cheese, melt for me baby.
Ah, that's blooming awesome.
It has melted, right.
Let's see what they're like.
Steak number one.
Ah yeah, and there's steak and cheese.
Let's try the steak first.
Medium rare.
It tastes more like chicken, not a very nice chicken at that either.
You can definitely taste the vegetable stock in there, how that soaked that up and it's
charred as well.
Oh dear, that's a struggle, that one.
Sorry to say, rubbery chicken that's been charred.
The charring has really helped get some flavour in there, so hopefully, with a bit of cheese
on top.
Oh my God.
That is great.
Um, I'm loving that melted cheese as well.
Umm, that is phenomenal.
I think that cheese is the one that's doing all the charm there, the fact that it's melted
and cling really well to it, and it's disguising that woody, cardboardy meat underneath.
That has worked an absolute charm.
I'm loving that.
I genuinely have to put that away 'cause I'm gonna gobble it all up.
Now, what I think I've learned from this video is with all these foods, my favourite ones
that I like the most are the ones where I put more effort into it, like the cheese steak
and like this carrot wrap, which is actually my favourite.
If I put in the sauce, the cucumber, and the spring onion with it, it really just drives
more flavour into it.
So most of you vegans watching, if you're going to try any of these things, you probably
know the rules, right.
Just put as much effort and flavour in as you can.
Things like the scrambled egg and the tofu was kind of bland because I didn't put anything
else with it, and that's the bottom line.
The more effort you put in, the better it's gonna taste, but there you go.
Hope you enjoyed the video.
I did find it quite intriguing myself, to be honest, and I found a cheese that I like.
So don't forget to subscribe for regular recipes and food fun.
Let me know down below, anything you want to see next, and I'll see you again next time.