Dixie Diners' Club - Beef (Not!) Strips (1 lb bag)

I used some of this to make vegetarian Philly cheesesteaks. It rehydrated easily in hot water. I just boil water in the kettle and pour it over the amount I want to use in a bowl and leave it covered until it’s soft. It absorbed a lot of flavor and the texture was good. I had some left over so I threw it in some ramen the next day and that was pretty good to, so i would say that you could find a lot of uses for this stuff. Bon Appetit!

1.) CheapI tried a similar product before by a different brand, and the advantage that Beef (Not!) Strips has is that it is a lot cheaper than that other product.2.) QuantityIt's also in convenient 1 lb bags, instead of 6 oz bags. I use a little more than 1/3 cup per serving. I'm not sure how many servings I will be getting in the bag, but I bet it is more than the written 9 servings per bag. I am guessing it's more like 10-12 servings for me and potentially even more than that. But that's just for me. Everyone uses different amounts in their food.3.) TasteLike the other product I tried, this also does not have any flavoring. You have to add your own seasonings. You are actually paying more than $15 a 1 lb bag if you factor in the seasonings, which can be a tiny bit expensive. But every textured soy product is like this. None of them come flavored. Once you add seasonings, the beef appearance and beef texture will make you happy. I do wish that textured soy protein was already flavored though.4.) HealthI like how it doesn't have any saturated fat and also even has fiber. That makes it a good meat substitute for me. I'm not a vegan or a vegetarian, but I am looking for some ways to lower my cholesterol and LDL levels, even though I am restricted to a dried foods and canned foods diet (I don't go to the grocery store because of poor health and anxiety). Some people complained about sulphites. I don't know anything about sulphites. I mean, I know I don't have an allergy to them, so that's good. As for being harmful, well my options are to get this product or pay a lot more for a 6 oz bag of another product, so I opted for this product. If they can remove the sulphites in the future, that would be great.5.) ShapeSo the other product had large, flat, and wide pieces of beef which I thought was cool. And this Beef (Not!) Strips is just tiny pieces. When I mix it in with pasta, it's easy to start off with 100x the pasta as the soybeef and then end up with only soybeef in the end because the small pieces of meat don't get picked up by the fork and fall through the pasts to the bottom. But if I apply a little more effort and dig around making sure to tryand get some pieces of soybeef in with the fork-fulls of pasts, it's doable. It would have been great if they had used long, flat pieces instead of short thick pieces.6.) UsefulI think when I first tried it, I ate it with pasta. Then rice. I found myself eating a lot more pasta once I started eating soybeef. And pasta is more nutritious than rice, so that's a good thing. I'm even starting to add it to other random things like boxed stuffing, etc. I find myself eating a lot less canned chicken and canned tuna now that I started eating soybeef. It's easier to just throw some soybeef into some boiling water, than it is to bother with cans. And it's nice knowing I'm getting less saturated fat and more fiber.Btw, "soybeef" is probably not an accurate term, but I like calling it that because it is beef made from soy.

I do like this product. It is a little expensive considering the alternatives out there, but it is a good product with nice texture and hydrates quickly. It takes on flavor of seasonings and stocks well. Overall a solid TVP option.

First off I am not a vegetarian by choice. My husband has heart disease and meat is no longer on the table. We miss meat and are always looking for products that taste as close to meat as possible. I have used this product in the past and never wrote a review, because I felt it was ok. This batch is different, I think they must have made changes. It is excellent and made great Italian beefs. You really have to experiment how you prepare it for maximum flavor. I rehydrate in instant pot, throw out excess water and rinse. I put it in the air fry for about 10 minutes, dehydrated it again. I then cook it in the broth and spices I want for the Dish I am preparing. The results are amazing.

I made ginger beef out of mine... And it was pretty decent! The texture is still softer than actual beef. It rehydrates pretty fast and easy to flavor. I wish it was cheaper and more bigger pieces.

Okay, first off, this is awesome. It's became my one of my main protein staples and i wish I would had found these years ago.Soaks up flavor impeccably. Cooks up great.Just let it hydrate with seasoning or marinade in the water/broth. I cannot stress what a game changer this is.The texture is really killer. It's fooled a couple of die hard carnivores already when I've served it.But...let it hydrate. Follow the instructions. You won't be sorry.

I introduced the mister to this product by incorporating it into homemade spaghetti sauce; he asked what the meat was, but also said "it's good". We're not vegan, we actually like beef; we keep buying this product because we like it. It's shelf stable, easy to reconstitute, and tasty in dishes that call for small chunks of meat. Worth noting that the texture stands up to cooking briefly in the pressure cooker. Bonus: it's low in sodium and high in potassium.

So to be clear, all this is is soy flour and caramel color. Literally just two ingredients. Until you add flavoring, it’s just edible cardboard. I paid the premium for the shape/size of the product, for recipes where regular TVP flakes won’t do.Unfortunately each pound of product contained A CUP of dust and little TVP bits. The bags were not vacuum sealed. The product packaging did not withstand being tossed around by amazon staff and the post office.I’ll find a use for the dust and crumbs, in a soup or something, but if I’d wanted finely ground meat I’d have use the (much) cheaper TVP flakes in my pantry.Texture is good and would be a good beef substitute but the lack of quality control ensures I’ll never buy this again.