Beyond Meat & Homemade Bagels

The mission has FINALLY ended! We found it! All it took was a little trip to Whole Foods in Union Square to see it in the veggie prepared foods section! There it was. Its strips packaged nicely, just waiting for us to take them home for a delightful meal. Beyond Meat was ours!

Okay, no need for me to get all melodramatic about it. But...for MONTHS...we've heard friends talk, read fellow vegan blogs and even heard buzzing at a couple of vegan restaurants. We were frustrated because we couldn't find Beyond Meat in our local shops. Getting to Manhattan wasn't a simple endeavor, now working in New Jersey and living a hop and skip away from Westchester County.

Artie and I had heard that Beyond Meat was the best vegan thing since sliced bread. So, when we finally were able to buy it, we were eager to cook it up...fast. Alas, I made sure we held off a day, because we were in the midst of food comas having a delicious meal at Peacefood Cafe Downtown.

When Sunday came around, I knew I was going to make something with Beyond Meal. However, I had this weird desire to make bagels. I had made them before, and somehow was inspired to do it again. With my handy-dandy bread machine, I made a lovely batch. Then it clicked...MAKE VEGAN CHIK'N SALAD. Done and done!

Back to Beyond Meat. This product is scary...and in a good way. We had purchased a package of the Lightly Seasoned variety. The strips smelled and looked like chicken as I remembered it. Artie and I actually took a double take. I chopped up half of package to use in my chik'n salad. The other half to be used in a cooked meal later.

The chik'n salad was an easy-peasy whip-up with some vegan mayo, mustard, garlic powder, celery and spices. If I had some apples, walnuts and grapes, we would have been good to go with something close to a vegan Waldorf Salad. Nevertheless, with the salad complete, I split and toasted a couple of my homemade bagels and heaped on the salad in between the slices.

There, we had it. Vegan Chik'n Salad Bagel Sandwiches, warm, creamy and so good. We went for seconds and had to stop ourselves for going through thirds. At some point, we vegans have to know when to say NO to starchy carbs, right? Ahh, who cares about that when the food is good!

Bottom line: Now I feel to be one in the know about Beyond Meat. Like I was finally let in on the secret...because I bothered to do food shopping in Manhattan. Now, PLEASE, Whole Foods in Yonkers, can you get some! I'd rather be able to stop on the way home instead of make an extended trip. I sometimes appreciate the laziness in going a lesser distance.