Here’s some of what Trader Joe’s has to say about this product:
“Each bowl of Trader Joe’s Vegan Pasta Bolognese comes with a bed of toothsome, tube-shaped pasta made from red lentils, which our supplier then tops with a ragu made with tomato, carrot, onion, and garlic, in addition to the previously mentioned mushrooms and wheat protein. All together, they create a supremely satisfying pasta dish that takes only a few minutes in the microwave to heat up, and provides an impressive amount of protein per one-bowl serving.”
Now while I’m not vegan on occasion I like to try out some vegan Trader Joe’s stuff to review here. I tried TJ’s frozen bowl of “Vegan Pasta Bolognese” which they say is a “meatless, plant based Bolognese style sauce with mushroom and red lentil pasta”. It’s in the Frozen section and its a microwavable dish. I wasn’t expecting this dish to taste like much so I was a little surprised when I found I actually liked it better than I had expected to. For one thing, I usually do not like any non-regular pasta. I once bought TJ’s pasta made from red lentils and didn’t like it at all, I found it gummy and yucky. But the pasta in this “Vegan Bolognese” tasted OK more or less like regular pasta and the texture was fine. The sauce of this vegan “Bolognese” sauce was pretty tasty and did kind of taste like a traditional (meat based) Bolognese. After tasting it by itself I then tried it with grated Parmesan. Yes no longer vegan, still I did find cheese added to the taste, so you’re call there if you are vegan. Overall two of us, not vegetarians, found this pasta bowl quite acceptable and tasty enough for anyone. Meatless Mondays? One bowl has an impressive 30 grams of Protein. It’s $3.49 so a pretty inexpensive lunch or dinner. “Contains Wheat”
“CHOCOLATE RASPBERRY SWIRL” (NEW PRODUCT) An excellent new addition to Trader Joe’s ice creams containing two flavors which are so perfect together, namely chocolate ice cream plus an intense raspberry sorbet, both swirled together into one super tasty treat. This stuff is so delicious. Super gourmet premium ice cream/sorbet. Its $3.99 a pint.
“Slow cooked beef in a savory tomato and chile sauce“
Here’s what Trader Joe’s has to say about BEEF BIRRIA…
“This Mexican dish originally hails from Jalisco, and, like ours, is traditionally cooked for several hours in kettles until the Beef is incredibly tender and infused with a savory tomato and chile sauce. You can serve it as a simple stew, topped with fresh cilantro, diced onions, and a squeeze of lime. Alternatively, if you want to evoke the taco truck vibe—and we’re thinking you will—make your own Birria tacos! Dip Corn Tortillas in the broth and fry them in a hot pan or on a plancha. Add the Birria, top with chopped onions, cilantro, and a squeeze of lime, then fold and fry on each side until crispy. But don’t stop there—that lusciously spiced broth serves as a delectable dip for your tacos, too. Believe us, you’ll want to spoon, dip, and sip every last drop.”
“M.I.A. again!”
What is “Birria”? Birria is a famous very tasty Mexican dish. I’ve wanted to review Trader Joe’s “BEEF BIRRIA” since I first heard about it, many months back however it was almost impossible to find in stock. Is this one of Trader Joe’s most popular products now due to social media & internet buzz about Birria and current popular and trendy truck that sell it. Birria taco trucks that specialize in Birria have been selling it in many cities like here in NYC. Does it sell out at Trader Joe’s as soon as they put it out, or has it just been a supply problem, or a combination of the two? Anyway I looked for it almost every time I would go to TJ’s for a few months and could never find it, however finally last week I got lucky, and literally saw one last package sitting alone. I looked behind me ready to fight off any interlopers who might grab but I reached out quickly to grab that last box of Birra. Finally!
COOKING: I did the overnight defrost in the fridge, one method they suggest, and put the stew in a pot on the stove. For 16 oz of meat plus sauce ($7.99) its not an enormous amount and of course beef is expensive. They give your a fair amount of chunks of beef and sauce but you need other things with it, certainly tortillas. For us with some corn tortillas, a little rice, and a little salad, the package of birria was just enough for two of us for a dinner. I found the beef and sauce tasty, with the beef appealingly tender, stringy and moist. The sauce the beef is cooked in is good, it’s made from tomatoes, chiles and spices. The ingredients read like real home cooked food: “Beef, water, onions, tomatoes, chile peppers and spices”. Generally the beef is decent quality however we found a few inedible fatty pieces, but just one or two and fyi some fat is actually important in this dish! So don’t just skim it off. That’s what you should dip your tortillas in, the yellow fat on top of the broth and fry up the tortillas as the package suggests. Now BIRRIA is especially known for the stock or broth which they call the “consommé” and typically is served alongside the meat in a cup so you can dip tortillas in it. Trader Joe’s version didn’t have enough broth for me anyway. Frankly I wished they gave more broth with this. Frankly I would like about double what they give you. So what I actually ended up doing was I added maybe a 1/2 cup of water to the pot and simmered it for 30-40 minutes to get more broth. I also added one large zucchini, quartered to the pot, and let that simmer in the broth, and it all came out delicious and gave it some more juice too. Though I did not find this overly salty in taste, FYI the Sodium content listed on the package is pretty high. One portion (1/2 a package) contains over 1000mg sodium which is almost half (47%) of one’s daily recommended sodium so just be informed. I would certainly not recommend that one person eats the whole thing as that would be over 2000 mg of sodium. By my adding water and a veg to make more broth I did dilute things a bit and it was still tasty and not watery at all, if you want to go in that direction. A Vegetable cooked in the broth will be delicious. We served this with corn tortillas and a little rice, and it made for a pretty tasty dinner. Birria is always served with chopped cilantro and chopped onion so consider that a must to add on top like the Serving Suggestion. Buy cilantro and onions along with your preferred tortilla to go with the Birria. I vote for corn tortillas. All in all I liked this, and would say this is one of Trader Joe’s better items, it almost tastes like it was home made. If you can find this (!) I think this is worth trying and I would buy it again.
“Trader Joe’s Beef Birria is tender, slow-cooked beef in a flavorful broth made with crushed tomatoes, dried chiles, and aromatic spices and often served as a simple stew….make your own Birria tacos….if your mantra is “everything is better with cheese,” then make Quesabirriatacos! We dip corn tortillas in the savory broth and fry them in a hot pan, top them with Birria and shredded mozzarella cheese, then sprinkle chopped onions and cilantro and fold into a taco. We suggest frying each side until the tortillas are crispy and the cheese is gloriously gooey and begins to brown at the edges. But don’t stop there—that lusciously spiced broth serves as a delectable dip for your tacos, too.”
Finally if you want to really learn about this dish there’s a really good documentary series on Netflix called the TACO CHRONICLES and it has a whole episode about making Birria in Jalisco, Mexico, it’s point of origin. And you will see, it is traditionally made with goat, the most authentic meat for Birria.
Here’s another new Korean/Asian item from Trader Joe’s. These rice cakes are flat oval disks made from sticky rice, so are very chewy and soft. These kind of rice cakes are a typical ingredient in many Asian cuisines, Chinese, Korean others. In Chinese cooking these rice cakes are known as “nian gao”. If you fry them, they get a little crispy, which is how I like them best and the way I would suggest you try to make them. The bag has just rice cakes (no sauce) so you will add your own stuff. You can use these to make a stir fried dish with vegetables and a protein. There is a basic stir fry recipe on the bag (“Stir Fried Rice Cakes with Vegetables” which you could expand upon with adding a protein (say chicken, shrimp, pork or baked tofu.) Tip: of course do add garlic which this recipe omits (?!) You could come up with a Korean stir fry variation by adding some Kimchi or Gochujang and pork or chicken. The other thing you can do with these is add them to a soup (like a Wonton and Chicken Soup) in which case, no need to fry them up. The rice cakes are $3.29 (16 oz). They’re are in the Asian frozen area. These are a “Product of Korea”. While not quite as good as ones I buy in say at H-Mart in a pinch these will do and easy to buy. VEGAN, GLUTEN FREE
“A chewy-flaky dough filled with a lusciously gooey cinnamon filling”
Here’s one more Korean item Trader Joe’s added in 2022; “SWEET CINNAMON FILLED KOREAN PANCAKES” known in Korean as “HOTTEOK“. In Seoul, they’re a common snack sold from stalls in the street. People really enjoy eating them on a cold winter day. Trader Joe’s has come up with a frozen version which all you need to to do is heat up in a pan and enjoy. I cooked them as recommended in a pan on the stove with no added oil, until they were golden brown and delicious. They look really good as you can see. I found them to be quite tasty. They were flaky and had a nice filling with cinnamon and brown sugar. I thought there might be some red bean paste in there but but reading the package I can see theres some sweet potato in the filling. So while I enjoyed these I’ve never tasted a real one and my wife (who’s Korean) on the other hand told me they were just so-so and not at all as good as ones you would get at some street stall in Seoul made by the Hotteok lady vendors. I don’t doubt that but at $4.50 for a package (of 4 pancakes) these are at least a lot easier and cheaper than booking a flight to Seoul. These might even make you want to go get some real ones some day in person. I know I would watching the lady make them in video below.
Trader Joe’s and folks on the internet suggest putting ice cream inside them. I didn’t try it but imagine it would be good. Again my wife, poo-poo’ed this saying that’s not authentic. I say try these yourself and decide. They make a slightly unusual and interesting dessert or snack. And if you’re ambitious enough to want to try to make them yourself, here’s a recipe…. and a TIP: eat them carefully, the inside is lava HOT so let them cool slightly!
Trader Joe’s site has a “Limited” sign on the picture so I expect these may not last forever. If you want to try them, do sooner rather than later.
“When strolling through the streets of Seoul on a still, chilly morning, among the many sights to see, you may encounter the scent of fresh hotteok being served straight from the grills and fry pans of street vendors….”
They are interesting to watch getting made…. I bet they are really good. They are huge too.
Trader Joe’s seems to have a little thing for “Boba tea” and this is another incarnation of Boba Tea, in a frozen (non-dairy) dessert. Made with coconut milk this has small chewy tapioca pearls (boba) with swirls of brown sugar. More or less like the trendy “Bubble Tea” drink that has become popular recently in the U.S. This frozen dessert tastes like black tea with brown sugar with chewy black pearls of tapioca. Overall I would say I found this OK and interesting. It’s good but I am not crazy for it. However my wife (who’s Asian) liked this very much. She likes Asian style desserts. I said “this is good but I’d probably rather have a bowl of Coffee Bean Blast ice cream”. OK this is not a fair comparison, as this is not ice cream of course, its a non-dairy frozen dessert . So I will say “interesting”. If you want something a little different and want Non-Dairy and love tea, you might give this a try. It improved and tasted better after letting it sit out to defrost a little bit for the tapioca pearls to get softer. So give this about 5 minutes at room temp before eating. About $5 for a pint. We are divided in that I would not buy this again but my wife would, so a its a toss up in our house!
We really enjoyed this Trader Joe’s Pumpkin Cheesecake. Especially after our upstairs neighbor gussied it up with some whipped cream when she invited us to her Halloween dinner (hence the black spider napkin holder) and served the TJ’s pumpkin cheesecake for dessert. What I liked about this cheesecake was it they did not over do it in the “pumpkin spices” department, it’s pretty subtle and tasted first and foremost like cheesecake with just a little something extra, with pumpkin. Its very yummy. $7.99 for a rather large cake (30 oz). This could make an especially nice dessert for Thanksgiving, or anytime you can get this during the Fall/Winter season when it may be available. Frozen, defrost in fridge overnight or 4 hours and leave at room temp for about an hour or so. I would buy this again.
Trader Joe’s: “We couldn’t fit an entire pumpkin into the box but we did fill it with rich pumpkin flavor…blended into the tangy sweet goodness of cheesecake….perfect for holiday dessert….”
Trader Joe’s Fish Nuggets are tasty and these taste like a real battered piece of fish. They are perfect for making fish tacos for one thing. The first ingredient is Alaskan Pollack. Don’t confuse this item (“Fish Nuggets”) with TJ’s “Fish Sticks”which are terrible, way inferior to these at a dollar less. I used these nuggets to make Fish Tacos for dinner the other night. BTW I didn’t bake these as it says on the package. I sauteed them in a cast iron pan till they were crispy on both sides.
We really enjoyed these when we made them into fish tacos. The popular TJ’s Fish Tacos recipe is easy to make. You take a package of these, Corn Tortillas (which I think will taste better than flour ones) and top with crunchy slaw made with the Cole Slaw Mix, some Greek Yogurt, and lime juice. Optional but nice would be some ripe avocado and your favorite hot sauce. I would recommend TJ’s Green Dragon and/or Peri-Peri hot sauce as being a good match with fish tacos.
TJ’s BATTERED FISH NUGGETS are now $5.99 for a 1 lb package. The other thing these might be good for is an English style Fish & Chips with some french fries?
“These tantalizing tacos combine the tart, tangy, and savory flavors of fresh Lime juice and crispy Battered Fish Nuggets with a mix of soft, crunchy, and creamy textures, courtesy of our Corn Tortillas, Organic Broccoli Slaw, and Plain Greek Whole Milk Yogurt. Endlessly customizable with your favorite hot sauce, salsa, or crema, one batch of these can feed a family of four and even more, depending on your hunger level.”
FISH TACOS
TJ’s Battered Fish Nuggets
TJ’s Plain Greek Whole Milk Yogurt
1 Lime
TJ’s Organic Broccoli Slaw or Cole Slaw Mix
TJ’s Corn Tortillas
Add yogurt and lime juice to the slaw mix; let sit a 1/2 hour to marinate. Cook up the fish till golden brown and put two pieces into a warm corn tortilla and top with slaw and a few drops of salsa or hot sauce.
Ground turkey is something I tend to buy often when I go to Trader Joe’s, maybe like many of you, as I find it so versatile as well as affordable. So besides the fresh stuff in the meat case, I which I always get, I decided to check out this box of frozen Trader Joe’s turkey burgers. Is there any advantage of buying this versus buying a package of fresh ground turkey? Normally I would probably just buy fresh ground turkey and form them into burgers, which would take maybe a minute to make 4 with little effort involved. However I can see a few reasons some people might like frozen turkey burgers instead of fresh. For one thing I imagine some folks (especially singles?) might find this more convenient as if you just wanted one burger. You have that ready to go and are not left with extra turkey which you would have to use in a few days (or freeze). Or maybe some people don’t like touching ground meat and forming them burgers, or just find this faster and easier to make? Certainly one benefit of these frozen turkey burgers is the frozen burgers are a bit cheaper than fresh ground turkey. These go for $3.49 for a pound (4x 1/4 lb burgers). One pound of TJ’s fresh ground turkey will cost you $3.99 presently. So the frozen ones are good value.
Cooking: Trader Joe’s instructions say to “Cook From Frozen”(as usual for them on frozen stuff). Now I don’t like to cook food from frozen if I don’t have to. So I defrosted these on the counter for about an hour or two, after cutting open the package and putting the pucks on a plate to defrost but in a pinch you can cook from frozen. The cook time will be shorter if defrosted of course.
The cooked turkey burgers were tasty. TIP: Turkey is pretty bland so I really season them before cooking with a real good dusting of the TACO SEASONING spice blend, which really jazzes up turkey burgers. Don’t add salt as there is some salt in the spice mix, and they have some salt already added in the burgers. Also I made them as cheese burgers by putting some grated Unexpected Cheddar on top which works great as it is amazing melted (cover the pan for a minute to help melt the cheese). I put them on toasted Trader Joe’s Whole Wheat Hamburger Buns and dressed them up with some spicy ketchup (mix some Peri-Peri or Bomba into some of the Organic Ketchup) . Our turkey cheese burgers were yummy with toasted buns, lettuce and tomato and we quite enjoyed them and wouldnt even know it was turkey and not beef.
You could easily describe me as a dumpling fanatic. I’m fortunate to live in a city (NYC) with a huge Asian population and can get really excellent dumplings, such as at “Vanessa’s Dumpling House” to name just one place. So having said that, I can’t say these Trader Joe’s frozen mini wontons can compare to some handmade chicken and basil dumplings like I could get at a dumpling place like Vanessa’s, or Shiu Jiao Fu Zhou dumpling house. Stil these are kind of decent little wontons, and they are certainly convenient. So if you can’t go buy a big bag of frozen dumplings from Vanessa‘s or another Chinese dumpling maker as I do on occasion, these may be the next best thing. They seem popular. I usually will see a few people grabbing a bag at Trader Joe’s. On the web, I know there is some hack with these dumplings cooked in TJ’s Miso Ginger broth, which I tried and is pretty good (for me the broth needs more miso and way more ginger!) These are mini wontons so are smaller than regular size wontons or dumplings. These are just one bite each. They’re good made by either boiling or pan frying them. If you are doing them boiled, I like them served in a soup – a strong chicken broth (preferably homemade) or possibly one of Trader Joe’s broths or the Ginger Miso Broth (add more miso if you have that and some fresh grated ginger) They are good also cooked up as pan fried wontons. These will taste much better with a good dumping sauce. For me, that is mandatory. Also the cilantro flavor in the dumplings is very weak so buy some fresh cilantro and add some just before serving. Some people hate the cilantro’s flavor but I love it and it’s a very essential Asian taste. These Mini Wontons are $3.49 for a package (12 oz). I would buy these again.
Trader Joe’s Rants & Raves (mostly raves, a few rants) 
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