Dr. Gourmet's Food Reviews

Just Egg

Egg Bites: Inspired by America and Inspired by Mexico

While we do have perhaps a half-dozen recipes on the Dr. Gourmet website that use egg substitute, we've moved away from using it in any new recipes. While we've seen Just Egg products in the dairy/egg section of several different grocery stores we never really gave the brand much thought. Another egg substitute? Shrug.

But with our recent interest in sous vide egg bites for breakfast, when I saw these in the freezer case they got our attention.

I do have to come clean, however.

Despite the fact that it clearly says "4 sous vide plant egg bites" on the front of the package as well as "made from plants (not chicken)" I didn't realize these are not made from chicken eggs until I brought them into our tasting kitchen and read the ingredients list. I guess putting the words "egg bites" on the package, in the context of testing several other products that essentially look the same as these and are marketed in the same section of the grocery store, was enough to make me think they're made from eggs.

But they're not made from eggs, and they'll never fool anyone who eats scrambled, steamed, poached, or otherwise cooked chicken eggs. They are, in fact, vegan and made with a "creme" made with soybean oil along with some vegetables and a whole host of highly-processed ingredients.

For today we started our tasting with the version labeled "Inspired by America". Two of these "bites" are a serving, with 200 calories, 420mg sodium, and 1g fiber.

Apparently "Inspired by America" means skin-on russet potatoes in a large dice (that's the white chunk in the picture above), a heavy dose of dill weed, and some red bell pepper.

The "Inspired by Mexico" version includes diced poblano peppers, black beans, corn, and a strong flavor of cumin, with 200 calories (again for two "bites"), 350 milligrams of sodium, and 3 grams of fiber. The flavor is pretty good, with spice from the poblano and sweetness from the corn.

After one minute and 45 seconds in the microwave (cooked individually, not in pairs), you are instructed to allow these to cool for 2-3 minutes.

Are these supposed to have such a thick exterior skin that they can not be cut with the side of a fork? We had to use a knife.

Both varieties we tested had the same problem: their texture. These are "like something that's been extruded."

"Like a big mouthful of potato starch" (it is one of the ingredients).

"Soft, squishy, 1/2-inch-thick damp sponge."

"Gummy like a big wad of really overcooked rice noodles."

To add insult to injury, these are 2 servings to a package (4 "egg bites" per package) and are $7.99 per package - or about $3.50/serving.

We'd rather have the Starbucks version than this bit of rubber. Or better yet, the frittatas from Veggies Made Great.

Posted: February 25, 2022