Last Updated on January 8, 2021
Aldi offers a line of (mostly) vegan products under its Earth Grown house brand, with foods ranging from burgers to chickenless patties to cheese substitutes. Most of these items are Aldi Finds that are only in stores for a limited time, but some products have become Regular Buys or Seasonal Favorites. This is our running post detailing many of these items. Check back later for additional products and updates.
Earth Grown Vegan Mozzarella Style Sticks and Cheddar Style Sticks
Cost: $3.49 for a 6.49-oz. bag
Thoughts: These alternatives to traditional mozzarella sticks or cheese sticks feature a crispy seasoned breading that is spot on. The filling is noticeably different from traditional cheese stick filling, with a consistency like a sauce or dip that is almost runny. These are good if you eat a strict vegan diet or if you can’t eat dairy, but our family didn’t finish them, saying they prefer real cheese sticks.
Full review: here
Earth Grown Non Dairy Coconut-Based Pints
Cost: $2.99 for 1 pint (16 oz.)
Thoughts: This coconut-milk alternative to traditional ice cream comes in three flavors: raspberry cheesecake, chocolate peanut butter, and mint chocolate chip.
Full review: here
Earth Grown Vegan Meatless Meatballs
Cost: $4.29 via Instacart (and probably cheaper if purchased in store)
Thoughts: Key ingredients include textured soy protein, soy flour, and breadcrumbs. Our guest writer Claire said she likes these meatballs even though they don’t taste exactly like traditional meatballs. She enjoyed them with pasta and sauce.
Full review: here
Earth Grown Vegan Non-Dairy Oat Milk Based Pints
Cost: $2.99 for 16 oz.
Thoughts: This is a newer product, and it’s different from the almond milk-based frozen dessert Aldi sold a while back (see below). This “ice cream” is made with oat milk. It comes in three flavors: chocolate, vanilla cookie chip, and cold brew.
Full review: here
Earth Grown Vegan Meat Free Chickenless Patties
Cost: $3.29 for a box of 4 patties
Thoughts: These are breaded soy protein patties, and while they don’t taste exactly like regular chicken patties, they are a decent substitute if you want a meatless option. They are a little more bland and less salty than real chicken patties, but my family happily ate them. They’re good topped with ketchup, mustard, and pickle chips or with lettuce, tomato, pickles, and a dollop of Ranch dressing.
Full review: here
Earth Grown Vegan Southwest Style Black Bean Chipotle Burgers
Thoughts: These were reviewed by our guest writer Katelyn. The main ingredient in these burgers is brown rice, not black beans, but she said the overall product is excellent and quite tasty. They held together well during cooking and were great topped with ketchup and Aldi’s Burman’s Honey Mustard. Katelyn’s husband, who is an avid carnivore, described this burger as similar to a McDouble from McDonald’s.
Full review: here
Earth Grown Vegan Veggie Burger
Thoughts: True to its name, this burger is packed with veggies. However, I thought it was bland. I tasted plenty of veggies but little seasoning. There are much better burgers in the Earth Grown vegan line.
Full review: here
Earth Grown Vegan Asian Veggie Burger
Thoughts: I liked the rice and water chestnuts in these burgers, and seasonings were spot on. The burgers had nice crisp edges and held together well. I recommend these if you want a vegan veggie burger with good flavor. These are now a Regular Buy at my local store.
Full review: here
Earth Grown Vegan Southwest Quinoa Crunch Veggie Burger
Thoughts: These are my favorite among all of Aldi’s Earth Grown vegan burgers I’ve tried so far. These burgers are filling, bake up crispy, and have just the right blend of seasonings. The only downside is that they tend to fall apart as you eat them, so use both hands to hold your bun. I like these so much that I’ve purchased them again several times when they have reappeared as Special Buys in Aldi stores.
Full review: here
Earth Grown Vegan Beefless Crumbles
Cost: $3.39 for 10 oz.
Thoughts: This is an attempt to imitate ground beef or ground turkey, and it’s not an all together bad attempt. The texture is pretty similar to ground beef. These crumbles do have a distinctly different smell that will immediately tip you off to the fact that they are not real meat. They don’t taste bad served up in tacos, though, and they’re a decent option if you’re vegan or vegetarian.
Full review: here
Earth Grown Vegan Non-Dairy Frozen Dessert
Cost: $2.99 for 1 pint
Thoughts: This is a dairy-free ice cream substitute that uses almond milk instead of cow’s milk as the primary ingredient. It has a smooth, creamy texture that is nearly indistinguishable from traditional ice cream. It comes in vanilla, chocolate, and mocha fudge flavors. The vanilla and chocolate flavors I tried had a noticeable almond flavor (from the almond milk) and also had a mild coconut flavor (because coconut oil is another key ingredient). This is more processed than regular ice cream because it contains thickeners such as gellan gum and carob bean gum, but it’s worth a try if you want the taste and texture of ice cream without the dairy.
Full review: here
Earth Grown Vegan Vegetable Potstickers
Thoughts: These have good flavor and even my picky kids ate them. They have a different texture compared to Aldi’s non-vegan Fusia Asian-inspired food line; probably because the Earth Grown potstickers are gluten free. These take a little longer to cook than the packaging advertises, and, contrary to the directions, I had to take the lid off the skillet to get the potstickers to finish cooking. Otherwise a great product.
Full review: here
Earth Grown Veggie Breakfast Links and Veggie Breakfast Patties
Thoughts: These are vegetarian substitutes for traditional breakfast sausage, and while they are marketed under the Earth Grown line, they are not true vegan products because they contain egg. My family thought these were good imitations of meat in terms of texture. Both taste decent, but we preferred the taste of the patties over the links, which we thought were on the blander side.
Full review: here
What’s your favorite Earth Grown vegan product? Let us know in the comments.
I am not a vegetarian, but am always on the lookout for alternative burgers in order to mix it up a bit. Most faux burgers are pretty “myeh”, some might be decent if there wasn’t an overload of onion powder in the product, a few still contain MSG…and then there’s Beyond Meats, which is absolutely *foul*. Shopped at Aldi’s today, and saw the “Earth Grown Vegan Kale Burger”-cooked one up for dinner, using my routine meat burger toppings ( mustard/mayo/lettuce /black pepper/ sauteed mushroom and green onion)….uh…. YEAH! LOVED it! It tastes *fantastic*. This product did NOT have the usual overload of seasonings and other assorted crud that too many of the other alternative burgers do. No, it doesn’t have the texture of meat, and no, it did not hold up in the bun…and that is *just fine* by me, because: it is a VEGGIE burger 🙂 Am definitely looking forward to trying all the other Earth Grown products. Great product, Aldi’s-thanks!
OMG…. The potstickers are incredibly delicious. I love them . I’m vegetarian and gluten , egg and dairy free. These are the perfect solution given those parameters.
I simply steam them. It gives me my pasta fix. I find that frying them makes them too wonky to chew.
The downside is that here in Southwesr Florida the clerk told me today that it is a seasonal item …boo who ….
While I am a fan of earth grown products the Aldi store near me does not always have these products available. It is hit and miss at this store. You can find it one time and it is never there again. Very frustrating. Is it possible to order online.
Aldi does not offer online ordering: https://www.aldireviewer.com/does-aldi-ship-its-products-online/
Why they stopped the best vegan hot dog ever Earth grown, i have family trying to find me a supply, i was so disappointed when our Mt Vernon Ohio said no more we traveled to a town n Coshocton Ohio none so off to Newark Ohio none my heart is broken find something good n healty n they stop making
Worst product ever! I bought a 4 pack of the kale burgers for health reasons and had to throw 3 of them away. No matter how you cook them they end up a pile of mush that tastes horrible! Do yourself a favor a choose something else!
We had the Earth Grown Vegan gluten free Vegetable Pot Stickers for the first time this evening.I purchased them some time ago to be part of a quick convenient freezer meal. I wish I tried them sooner, so I could buy more, they were so good. Even fhe simple soy dipping sauce was note worthy. I cooked them in a cast iron pan and found the water evaporated in the time noted, however I wanted them browner, and crisper, so I added a bit more oil and flipped them to brown both sides. I would love to see this product available regularly. Also, these folks make a satisfying lentil burger that I’d like to buy routinely.
The Cold Brew Vegan ice cream is to die for! I love coffee ice cream, and missed the flavor when I gave up dairy. I was thrilled to have found this. I bought several pints- taste and price beat the competition by a landslide. Recently, I have not seen the Earth Grown in my past few Aldi trips, and was afraid it was no more. I hope that’s not the case!
I live the Earth Grown products ,but does anyone know if the Sundae Shoppe ice cream is friendly to an ovo-lacto vegetarian? Thanks in advance
I love Earth Grown products but something is new on the Mozzarella cheese Doesn’t melt anymore and have a weird taste I don’t know if it’s anything will change but is a fell thank you for the dedication on vegan products
I am a meat eater. I like the taste of beef. I am trying to eat less meat and have found I really like both Beyond Beef and Impossible Burgers on the grill, and they have made it easy to give up red meat. I bought the Earth Grown Empower burgers thinking they would be like the other two, but was very disappointed! They were disgusting and didn’t come close to imitating how real beef tastes. If you want people to switch to a plant based diet and are trying to get people who actually like the taste of beef, then your product needs to taste like beef and not some mish-mash of flavors that I can’t even begin to describe, other than I can tell they like their liquid smoke! I have tried their meatless crumbles in a taco bake/casserole and in spaghetti sauce and those were pretty good, but the Empower Burgers are simply awful!
I have just tried the earth grown vegan lemongrass chicken bowl and i loved it. I don’t usually eat vegan …it was purely accidentally that i purchased this . My only complaint is the instructions of how to cook this . For the life of me i cannot read it. White tiny print on light green background. Otherwise….very tasty!
Have bought Earth Grown Vegan Flavoured Textured Soy Protein (all flavours). I am very disappointed in the printed recipes on the packets because I cannot read them. They are also TOO small. I have even tried a magnifying glass but still cannot read them. Please have the backgrounds colour changed so I am not second guessing quantities and methods. I would greatly appreciate your help.
Regards
Leone
Iwent vegetarian due to medical reasons n i feel in love with Earth Grown jumbo hot dogs, then they just stopped having them. I didnt even see the recipe on back of there earth grown, will have to check it out.
We’re not Aldi, so we can’t help you with that packaging issue. Here’s info on how to contact them: https://www.aldireviewer.com/contact-aldi/
I agree. I could not even read the heating instructions. Also used a magnifying glass and still couldn’t make it out. Did you try contacting the email address Racheal sent ? (https://www.aldireviewer.com/contact-aldi/)
I have not tried contacting the email address as yet. I will have to. Thank you for your response. 🙂
Hi Terri. Try this little trick. I took a screenshot of the back of the packet with magnification enlarged. I then opened it from my gallery and enlarged it a little more. I was then able to finally read quantities etc. Solved that problem, but still no excuse for it being so small or blurry on the packet. Good luck, hope this helps you also.😊
Great idea Leone. I will give it a try . Thanks 🙂
My partner and his mother both decided quite a few years back that they no longer wanted to eat meat. They just didn’t like the cruelty to animals during captivity or the inhumane way they were slaughtered. I am only vegetarian on weekends, but have gotten used to cooking alternatively. The product I was referring to is the plant ‘mince’. All you add is water….and if you like can follow their suggested recipes. I am not sure of the particular product you like but maybe a recipe or instructions was on back, but too small to read. Lol. I did work out the basics to the preparing the packet but gave up trying to work out the rest. Loved…. the results, very good substitute for meat mince. Happy cooking and eating.😊
I’ve been a vegetarian for over thirty years now. While I hear what meat-lovers are saying about expecting a “meat” experience, most of the time vegetarian and vegan food is meant as a substitute rather than an imitation. If it tastes good to you, and you can use it in place of an animal product, then you win. Folks who grill up vegan and actual meat products side-by-side and weigh the results are pretty much defeating the purpose. Back in the day we used to use a big Portobello mushroom instead of a burger as a vegan option. Did it in any way resemble beef? No, but it tasted great and was a great alternative. No one expects eggplant parmesan to fool anyone into thinking that it’s veal. Try a veggie burger after not eating meat for a while. If you like it, then you have found something you can place in a bun. It’s certainly a bit of an ask to expect one product to be an exact reproduction of something else.
Woyld love to see them offer the vegan dressings( ranch and caesar) year round. What do we have to do to request this? I did email them
I’ve been buying the Aldi Earth Grown products for awhile now. Unfortunately my area doesn’t have a lot of selection. But I love the meatballs and the chicken varieties. And especially the kale and quinoa crunch burgers. To me they taste exactly like fried zucchini, I can’t get enough of them. One thing to watch, my gf tried one and it gave her painful bloating for a couple days, when she can usually eat anything. No issues for me though.
The veggie burgers are a bit bland, but still ok. I haven’t tried spices on them yet. Just like the kale and quinoa crunch, they are more of a soft patty than an actual burger, but I like it that way. I never use a bun.
The protein burgers are good with the grill smoke flavor, but can get dry, so I zap them at 1:30 instead of the recommended 2:00. Another option might be to cook them in water like Morning Star dogs, but I haven’t tried that yet.