Kosher Premium Textured Vegetable Protein Chunks (Unflavored Chunks, 1 Kilogram)

I keep TVP in hand more as a long term pantry staple than a daily pantry item. I buy the unflavored because in general I find that the flavored varieties can be lacking, and a lot of brands charge more for flavored and fancy packaging. I can flavor it up how I want to. I have found that Tova keeps it simple. Very simple packaging, and fair prices.I like the shape of their TVP. It really comes down to what your main use is. I like crumbles for "ground meat" applications (sauces, chili, tacos), and I like the more waver style strips such as this for when I want a more meat like bite- soups, stir fry, rice bowls, etc. These bits are nice- good texture. As for flavor, they are neutral as expected. Just play around with it and flavor it up in any means you want.I am not vegan or vegetarian. Those terms say more about what people dont eat. I am primarily plant based eater. I eat everything and hold back on nothing, but I prefer my meats centered around plants. I dont like consuming a lot of soy, so I dont do TVP daily. But it is worked into my rotation. I have been buying more as of late because of food issues-- ie food shortages, food availability, shipping issues, price fluctuations, etc. I prefer to keep a little extra food on hand so I dont have to rush to the store every time I want to eat. Having shelf stable options on hand helps a lot.

I almost didn't buy this because there was no picture of the actual product, but I'm glad I did. Being Kosher tipped the scale toward this product over another competitor.Visually it appears to be darker and the size of the chunks range from about 3/4 of an inch down to a grainy sand particle size.It is not as "fluffy" as other TVP brands, so the actual product is denser which makes it more "meat-like."All TVP brands have very little flavor, but this one seems slightly different, and it is nice.TVP is one of my main food staples and my local store has been out of stock, so I looked online.It cooks well in my recipe that I make little fried protein patties.Below is my basic recipe that I usually make: - VEGETARIAN MOCK-MEAT TVP PATTIESMIX AND SET ASIDE FOR FIVE MINUTES:1/2 cup TVP1/2 cup instant/ minute rice1 tbsp bullion powderAdd 3/4 cup boiling water to the above dry mixture, and stir togetherSTIR IN ONE EGG AND SET ASIDE FOR FIVE MINUTES:1 eggMAKES ABOUT SEVEN PATTIES - FRY IN SKILLET, TURN WHEN FIRM, ABOUT 10 MINUTES ON LOWCoconut oil, or your favorite oilNote that when I cooked this in coconut oil it seemed to brown a little nicer than other brands of TVP that I have used in the past, so I would think that this product would be great for making mock-ground meat for tacos, etc.VEGAN ALTERNATIVE: If you want to make this VEGAN style without eggs I have used a combination of liquid lecithin and/or ground chia seeds mixed in warm water to bind it together. Eggs are just a little easier.///LINKS TO OTHER INGREDIENTS:Link to minute rice:https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0010YWIYQ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1Link to Kosher vegan gluten-free bullion:https://www.amazon.com/Hella-Phat-Vegan-Chicken-Bouillon/dp/B08PJZJ5NY/ref=sr_1_10?crid=170PA6TRSH13N&keywords=vegetarian+bouillon+kosher&qid=1702585516&sprefix=vegetarian+bouillon+kosher%2Caps%2C168&sr=8-10Link to Lecithin for VEGAN alternative (egg substitute):https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07QLPM675/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1Link to Kosher gluten-free ground chia seeds for VEGAN alternative (egg substitute):https://www.amazon.com/Worldwide-Botanicals-Organic-Ground-Seeds/dp/B09GNR8XGB/ref=sr_1_1?crid=30E15QAR1NX2D&keywords=%22ground+chia%22+seeds+kosher&qid=1702586246&s=hpc&sprefix=ground+chia+seeds+kosher%2Chpc%2C161&sr=1-1-catcorr

Okay, gonna start with the worse feature then move on. Please do not take this personally if you disagree but, to us, in our honest opinion right out of the bag it smells like dry Dog food. I've not own a Dog in many years so maybe current dry dog food smells different? Now that the worse is out of the way let's concentrate more on the good. Once hydrated with broth it no longer seem to have that previously mentioned smell. It hydrates well in around 20 minutes in warm liquid and it has an excellent texture. Now, what do I mean by excellent texture? Simple, it feels just like eating a cut up steak. We love the texture. Once hydrated the size is that of a Mother cutting her child's steak. Please see the picture I uploaded for a better idea. We have used it in Taco de Carne, Alfredo spaghetti, Rice & Bean & steak burritos, Soups, Fajitas, Steak and Onion style, with butter and Basil, etc. We have purchased it three times already and will continue to buy as long as it's reasonably priced and available. The Best by Date date is not very long. The last two we purchased had a Best by Date of 09-01-2020 and we purchased the last one on Feb 25, 2020. We were hoping it would come with a longer Best by Date for emergency storage. Currently, as I write this review, the larger 1 kilo (2.2 pounds) bag we buy it's no longer available. Hope Amazon brings it back. The Best by Date it's a slap on label, again please see the picture provided, date is blurry but legible. If you are looking for a textured Soy alternative to this product I would recommend Butler Soy Curls. Great texture, the pieces are much longer, Fajita length. However, much more expensive and it's not Beef color. That's all I have to say, hope it helps and stay safe!

I have ordered this product before and while there was a little powder at the bottom, this time it was mostly powder and very small chunks. The box it came in wasn't cushioned so I don't know if it was the product being damaged during shipping or just a bad product. It's mostly unusable. I'm very disappointed.