Plant-based food has never been hotter. Recent years have seen more new releases and products than we can ever recall. It’s a great time to start exploring or expanding a meat free diet!
Among some of the gems though there’s a lot of mediocre products. Don’t risk your own cash on discovering what’s good and what’s garbage – we’ve done the legwork. Check out our list of the very bets plant-based foods – from burgers to hot dogs to nuggets.
Best Plant-Based Burger – Impossible
Read the full review. At a glance – hands down, the very best meat free burger is the Impossible Burger. There’s no debate in our mind, from taste to texture to even the simple cooking times and method – this is the winner. And it’s a winner by a fair margin too.
Best Plant-Based Bratwurst – Impossible
Read the full review. At a glance – these are hands down the best meat free sausages money can buy. The flavor is remarkably similar to a pork based sausage, as is the internal texture. The casing isn’t quite there yet, but who cares when they taste this good.
Best Plant-Based ChikN Nugget – Impossible
Read the full review. At a glance – released in late 2021 – these plant-based nuggets from Impossible Foods are currently the best we’ve tasted – and that’s a lot of nuggets. A perfect pick for the air fryer, they come out with a pleasing crunch that yields to a happily juicy interior.
Best Plant-Based Deli Meat – Worthington
Read the full review. At a glance – the texture of this Meatless Corned Beef from Worthington is epic. It has that perfect shred and chew you might expect from meat based deli slices. The flavor is great too, the best we’ve tasted.
Best Plant-Based Hot Dog
Read the full review. At a glance – another win for Worthington here. The meaty chew of these plant based dogs is even better than some from the mystery meat world!
Best Plant-Based Chicken Burger – Gardein
Read the full review. At a glance – our previous favorite in this category was from Alpha – but we recently tried Gardein’s Ultimate Chicken burger and we’re blown away. This thing is huge, crisps up wonderfully in the fryer and has a spot on texture.
Best Plant-Based Chicken Tenders – Gardein
Read the full review. At a glance it should come as no surprise then that these are also our pick for best meat free tenders. Essentially the same formulation as Garden’s heft chicken patty – simply formatted into stubby tenders. If you prefer more coating, more dunking and dipping, pick these over the patty.