Earth Grown Veggie Breakfast Patties + Veggie Breakfast Links

EDITOR’S NOTE: Read our roundup of many of Aldi’s Earth Grown products here. 

Aldi’s Earth Grown product line has exploded in the last couple of years, with a variety of items showing up in stores throughout the year. The Earth Grown line typically consists of vegan foods, including everything from cheese substitutes to “ice cream” to meatless chicken patties to beefless crumbles.

Aldi has also introduced breakfast patties and breakfast links into the Earth Grown lineup. However, these breakfast items that resemble sausage are not true vegan products because they contain egg. Aldi seems to have been intentional about the wording on the packaging because they’re called Veggie Breakfast Patties and Veggie Breakfast Links (rather than vegan breakfast patties or vegan breakfast links). So, these are vegetarian rather than vegan, and they represent a break from what has — as far as I can recall — been a strictly vegan Aldi house brand up to this point. It remains to be seen whether that will cause confusion for consumers about what exactly the Earth Grown lineup is all about.

Earth Grown Veggie Breakfast Patties and Earth Grown Veggie Breakfast Links cost $3.49 for an 8-8.5-oz. box at the time of publication. These are ALDI Finds, which means they’re only at Aldi for a short time. They’re located in the ALDI Find freezer section.

Here’s a closer look at both of them.

Earth Grown Veggie Breakfast Patties

Earth Grown Vegan Breakfast Patties nutrition info and ingredients. (Click to enlarge.)

These come in an 8-oz. box with six patties. My family thought these closely resembled meat in terms of texture, although some of us thought they were a bit crumbly. They have good flavor, and the outside browned up nicely when cooked on a large griddle on the stove top. If someone served these to us and didn’t tell us they weren’t made of meat, we never would have guessed it.

One patty equals one serving, which has 90 calories, 5 grams of total fat (8% DV), 0.5 grams of saturated fat (3% DV), 270 mg of sodium (11% DV), 4 grams of total carbs (1% DV), 1 gram of dietary fiber (6% DV), less than 1 gram of total sugars, no added sugar, and 7 grams of protein.

In my experience, meat substitute foods tend to be more processed, with fillers and other less familiar ingredients, and these patties include some ingredients that aren’t transparent, such as “spices” and natural flavor. Ingredients in these patties are: water, soy protein, sunflower oil, free range egg white, potato starch, tomato paste, natural flavor, salt, garlic puree, wheat gluten, dextrose, spices, wheat starch, barley malt extract, sugar, spice, and coloring. (I’m guessing the added sugar is such a small amount that it doesn’t count on the nutrition label, which gives the impression these patties have no added sugar.)

If you’re watching out for allergens, these contain soy, wheat, and egg. They may also contain nuts and peanuts.

These can be prepared in a pan (preferred) or in the microwave.

To heat in a pan, preheat a non-stick pan over medium heat. Cook frozen patties four minutes. Carefully flip and cook for an additional four minutes. Continue cooking and flipping as necessary until heated through.

To heat in the microwave, place frozen patties on a microwave-safe plate and cook on high approximately 45 seconds. Carefully flip and cook an additional 30 seconds. Patties should be hot throughout.

Earth Grown Veggie Breakfast Links

Earth Grown Vegan Breakfast Links nutrition info and ingredients. (Click to enlarge.)

These come in an 8.5-oz. box with eight links. Again, these are spot-on in terms of resembling meat in texture. My family thought these were a bit more bland compared to the patties above, but if you’re looking for a vegetarian knockoff of traditional sausage, they’re not bad.

One link equals one serving, and it has 170 calories (that seems high!), 9 grams of total fat (12% DV), 0.5 grams of saturated fat (3% DV), 640 mg of sodium (28% DV), 7 grams of total carbs (3% DV), 0 grams of dietary fiber, 1 gram of total sugars, 1 gram of added sugars (2% DV), and 14 grams of protein.

As mentioned above, meat substitute foods tend to be more processed, with fillers and other vague ingredients such as “spices” and natural flavor. Ingredients in the links are: water, soy protein, rapeseed oil, egg, onion, and less than 2% of potato starch, salt, spices, natural flavor, dextrose, wheat gluten, yeast extract, sugar, and sage extract.

If you’re watching out for allergens, these have egg, soy, and wheat.

These can be prepared in a pan (preferred) or the microwave.

To heat in a pan, preheat a non-stick pan over medium heat. Cook frozen links, turning occasionally, until cooked through.

To heat in the microwave, place frozen links on a microwave-safe plate. Cook on high for approximately 60 seconds until heated through.

The Verdict:

Earth Grown Veggie Breakfast Links and Earth Grown Veggie Breakfast Patties are a vegetarian substitute for traditional meat sausage links and patties. The Earth Grown product line at Aldi typically is limited to vegan food, but these breakfast items are not true vegan because they have egg in them. We found them to be good imitations of meat in terms of texture, and we preferred the taste of the patties slightly over the taste of the links, with the links being a bit on the bland side. The links are also high in calories, with 170 calories per link. Overall, though, both the links and patties taste decent if you’re trying to avoid or take a break from meat. Just be aware that, as with many meat substitutes, these are pretty processed in terms of what’s in their ingredients lists.