Trader Joe’s Rants & Raves (mostly raves, a few rants)

Ingredients include: potatoes, canola oil, carrots, green beans, bread crumbs, peppers, corn…..

Though I’m not vegetarian, I like to try vegetarian foods occasionally and see if they are any good. As far as Indian food goes, well I happen to love, repeat, love Indian cuisine. I think it’s one of the great World Cuisines. Certainly the greatest vegetarian cuisine, and I’ve eaten my fair share of Indian food in some really good restaurants which we happen to luckily have here in NYC.

Trader Joe’s does sell a few quite tasty Indian food items. Some are quite good and I’ve give good reviews to quite a few of them.

So I thought I would try Trader Joe’s VEGETABLE MASALA BURGERS. The picture on the package looks enticing plus they are are called “Masala Burgers with Authentic Indian Spices“.” Masala” indicates “mixed spices”.

To be honest when I tasted this, all I could think was that line, “Authentic Indian Spices?”. I find this very plain and lacking in spices. Yes I agree Indian food is not always highly spiced, but generally very flavorful. So my short review is these are Just OK and not terribly exciting. I gather from the feedback here that these Masala Burgers are actually pretty popular, despite what I think. Vegetarians especially seem to appreciate these vegetarian / vegetable burgers.

I just find them a bit too Meh myself. For example, in a dish like Masala Dosa filled with potatoes is basically mashed potatoes however the potato filling has a ton of flavor with assorted spices. I just wish these were a bit more like most of the potato fillings you would find inside say a Masala Dosa.

Trader Joe’s Vegetable Masala Burgers are made primarily with potatoes and to me, I think of this basically as a mashed potato burger with a few veggies. My wife how eats basically everything told me one was enough for her.

The concept is not bad, I just find the execution not as good as some of TJ’s other Indian foods. Again, many which are outstanding (and I see Indian people buying at Trader Joe’s)

One burger has 140 calories.

HOW TO COOK : These are fully cooked but you still need to brown them. Cook them in a skillet for 3-4 minutes per side in a little butter and oil until they look golden brown and delicious. They should get nice and crispy looking on the outside. The crispy texture makes these. Don’t microwave them as they will not get crispy.

TIP: If I had some curry powder I would sprinkle a bit on next time I made these.

I think they needed a little something to them to jazz them up. I think you will want some kind of sauce with these. Maybe Sriracha or Peri-peri sauce. Zhough. Bomba. Magnifisauce. At the very least I would add a little garlic or even garlic powder on these if you make them. The thing that perked this up a little bit for me was putting on a little TJ’s TAMARIND SAUCE, basically a tamarind chutney sauce. Perhaps some CHILE CRISP would be good for these?

I think these may really benefit matching with either Trader Joe’s GARLIC ACHAAR or Mango Chutney

My wife told me “one was enough” which was not a good review from her as she likes most anything I cook. So personally we didn’t find these as good as some other Trader Joe’s Indian frozen items. But again, they seem popular and a few readers have written in that they really like these Masala Burgers, especially if they do something to it to jazz it up. I have two good friends who are vegetarian who told me she loves these TJ’s Vegetable Burgers and buys them all the time. As they say, to each his own.

These might be worth checking out to see what you think, especially if you need vegetarian options.

Trader Joe’s does sell quite a few tasty Indian foods which I find quite good in the frozen section. For example, the super tasty CHANNA MASALA (chickpea curry) which I love as well as the BHAINGAN BHARTA (eggplant) and superb PALAK PANEER (spinach) entrees. All three of these I find excellent. Some people really like the Samosas too. Perhaps you could pair these Masala Vegetable Burgers with the Palak Paneer spinach dish, or Channa Masala for a good combo?

Vegetable Masala Burger $3.49 (4 burgers, 10 oz)

(NOTE: Contains Wheat, bread crumbs)

INGREDIENTS: POTATOES, CANOLA OIL, CARROTS, GREEN BEANS, BREAD CRUMBS (WHEAT FLOUR, SUGAR, YEAST, SALT), BELL PEPPERS, ONIONS, CORN, WATER, SALT, SUGAR, SPICES, GINGER, CELLULOSE GUM, GREEN PEPPER, CITRIC ACID, TURMERIC