Earth Grown Plant-Based Taco Filling
Tacos are a regular occurrence in my house. They’re satisfying and can be made relatively healthy, depending on how you make them and what you serve with them. I most often make tacos with ground turkey or ground beef, or I sometimes make shrimp tacos.
Recently, I found some vegan taco filling in a mixed case with some new everyday Regular Buy products at Aldi, including a vegan southwest burrito bowl and vegan pad thai. These are all sold under the Earth Grown brand. Earth Grown is not a company, but rather, it’s the name Aldi puts on many of its plant-based products to give them a uniform look, and Aldi sources those products from various suppliers.
Here, I’m taking a closer look at the vegan taco filling.
Earth Grown Plant-Based Taco Filling with Traditional Seasoning appears to be a Regular Buy. That means you should be able to buy it at Aldi all year.
This cost $2.99 for a 10-ounce package at the time of writing. That comes out to about 30 cents per ounce.
This is a product of Thailand.
If you’re looking out for allergens, this contains soy. This is gluten free, and it bears a vegan seal from The Vegan Society.
Like many products in the Earth Grown line at Aldi, this contains some processed ingredients, including maltodextrin, dextrose, and natural flavors. In my experience, it seems like making a product that traditionally contains meat vegan often but not always means it contains more processed foods as a tradeoff, especially if the vegan version is trying to very closely imitate meat in terms of texture. If that’s not something you like, keep in mind there are plenty of recipes out there for making tacos with lentils, beans, and other vegan healthy whole food ingredients.
There are five 2-ounce servings per package. One serving has 70 calories, 2.5 grams of total fat (3% DV), no saturated fat, 280 mg of sodium (12% DV), 6 grams of total carbohydrates (2% DV), 2 grams of dietary fiber (7% DV), 1 gram of total sugars, no added sugars, and 6 grams of protein.
The package has directions for heating this in the microwave or on the stovetop. To microwave, tear the pouch 2 inches, stand it upright in the microwave, and cook on high for approximately 60 seconds. To heat on the stove, boil the sealed pouch in water for 5 minutes.
I heated this on my stovetop, but I didn’t want to boil a plastic pouch. Instead, I poured the contents into a small saucepan and heated it until it was hot, which took about 3 to 5 minutes.
I served this with some corn tortillas, salsa, shredded cheese, lettuce, diced tomatoes, and sour cream. It has a consistency and flavor that reminded my family a bit of refried beans. The taco seasoning is pretty spot on. It has a slight aftertaste that isn’t bad. This was enough filling that it made six corn tortilla tacos for us. Overall, if you want taco filling that tastes like traditional ground beef but isn’t made of meat, this fits the bill.
The Verdict:
Earth Grown Plant-Based Taco Filling with Traditional Seasoning is a soy-based product that makes a pretty good attempt at the taste and texture of ground beef taco meat. If you’re looking for a vegan taco filling, this is worth considering.
We like both this one and the Southwest Burrito Bowl (both Earth Grown – but I think they’re the same as Loma Linda products – same name, stats, and ingredients). We rarely use tortillas with this – I just top it with diced tomato, plain Greek yogurt, and some salsa. Quick, satisfying dinner!
I’m curious is this non-GMO and organic because if the soy beans are sprayed with pesticide then this really isn’t that healthy completely but I can’t find the information anywhere. Could you look further into this for me please because maybe you might have better luck than I do, but I did make it tonight for dinner and I’m a meat eater, but I wanted to try something different. My Son and I very much enjoyed it and we would definitely eat this again because honestly, I couldn’t tell too much of a difference between this and actual meat and the price is amazing!!
You can ask Aldi at this link: https://help.aldi.us/s/contact-form-product
Let’s not say much about it because then the secret will be out. We need it all for ourselves….
Ha! It does taste pretty good!
I am eating it right now. I made Spanish rice and threw some of this vegan meat on top with black beans, cheese and sour cream. I am not vegan, but this stuff is tasty. And great for backpacking or camping since its not refrigerated!
That sounds delicious! You’re also right it’s great for camping or emergencies.
In the ingredients list it literally says beef flavor… How can that be considered vegan?….
Hi, Windy. The ingredients list clarifies in parenthesis what’s in the “beef flavor.” It’s maltodextrin (basically corn or some similar starchy vegetable), yeast extract, salt, soy sauce powder, spices, and silicon dioxide. No beef.
This stuff is great. We pair it with refried beans on tostada’s and the regular toppings. We also make our own taco filling plant based. But the Earth Grown is so good and easy. 60 seconds.
Gonna have to try it on tostadas. Thanks for the idea. We’ve come to like tostadas better than regular crunchy taco shells. They’re easier to pile all the toppings on.