Freezer Meal Frenzy originated as a project to review frozen burritos, but we’ve obviously grown far beyond that. But even so, it brings us great joy to return to our roots and take a new frozen burrito for a test drive. That’s why we’re thrilled to be trying Trader Joe’s Mildly Spiced Organic Vegetable Burrito today.
These come two in a package, though it’s definitely not the most attractive packaging we’ve ever seen. These burritos are dairy-free and vegetarian-friendly, so they can be enjoyed by vegetarians and those avoiding lactose. Not bad, right?
These come with instructions for the oven and the microwave, but we didn’t follow either of them. Instead, we preheated our oven to 375 degrees fahrenheit, wrapped one burrito in tinfoil, then stuck it in the oven for 45 minutes, flipping it over about halfway through. This is a method that’s really worked wonders for us in the past, so we decided there’s no reason to stray from it.
Well, that didn’t go as well as we’d hoped, and this burrito did require about 20 extra minutes of cook time. So it probably wasn’t a great idea to use a lower cooking temperature than the package asked for. You live you learn, right?
From our cross-section view above, this almost looks like it has strands of pulled pork or pulled beef inside. We assure you, that’s not the case, and the Mildly Spiced Organic Vegetable Burrito is indeed vegetarian-friendly. it contains a good deal of non-meat filling items, such as tomatoes, corn, onions, potatoes, black beans, red beans, bell peppers, and even broccoli.
The flavor is incredible. With the smorgasboard of things inside, this actually ends up with a tiny bit of a barbecue taste to it. It’s a mild undertone, and we think it must have something to do with the tomato purée. Wherever it comes from, we really enjoy that faux barbecue flavor.
As the package states, this is a mildly spicy burrito. It contains some jalapeño, but it’s not intense enough to send you running for a cold glass of milk. We didn’t really notice much spice while we were eating this, but afterward our sinuses were definitely clearer. We would definitely file this under “mild.”
One burrito has 320 calories (100 from fat) and 400 mg of sodium, so it’s not all that unhealthy. If you want to eat the whole package at once — which we don’t recommend — you’ll have to double those numbers, which makes this seem much less like a healthy snack and more like a robust, fatty meal. But it’s up to you whether you choose to eat one or two. We’re not your mother.
Trader Joe’s Mildly Spicy Organic Vegetable Burrito is a true winner. For us it’s truly a fantastic return to the world of frozen burritos, and we think our vegetarian readers will really like this.
If you want to learn more about the nutrition or ingredients in this frozen burrito, check out our package scan below.
