Veggie Jerky

Brand: Kings

Cost: £2.50

Found at: Morrison’s

I don’t hate this at all. Looks like jerky, tastes like jerky – I’d eat this again. I will eat this again. It’s sweet and peppery and they even got the stringy texture right. Sure, it’s not a perfect meat substitute, but who cares? It tastes good.

It also doesn’t have a lot of those weird chemical ingredients that I associate with meat substitutes. I’m not a snob when it comes to -ites, -ates, and -amines in my food (better living through chemistry, after all), but it’s nice to look at a franken-food like vegan jerky and actually recognize what it is made of. (Which, as it turns out, is mostly soy.)

The only downside is that it is kind of expensive. It’s not steak dinner expensive, but it is more than I usually pay for jerky. Still, as an occasional treat, I’ll totally spring for the extra £1.50 for a bag for the soy-based jerky substitute (if only because I’m less worried about it spoiling). If this is the future of plant-based protein that pundits have been warning me about, then actually, I think I can live with that.