We love an exotic pasta dish, but sometimes, we prefer dishes that are a little more basic. We also love frozen meals that are vegan and vegetarian-friendly. At a glance, the Gardein Italian Saus’age & Pasta Bowl, looks to be the best of all worlds.
The box instructions suggest cooking this for four minutes, then allowing it to cool for a minute before cooking. We followed these instructions to the letter, but we think we probably could have wound up with better results if we cooked it for about 30 seconds less. This dish was piping hot when it came out of the microwave, and it definitely seemed like it was slightly overcooked.
Because of these issues, we were pretty apprehensive of this dish when we took it out of the microwave. The tomato sauce looked like it had started to dry up into clumps, and the sausage looked a bit dehydrated s as well. A good stir helped, but we still had doubts about the sauce quantity in this dish.
Thankfully, the lack of sauce wasn’t actually much of a problem. We would have appreciated more marinara, but we had enough sauce for our pasta, which is all we ask for. The sausage was juicier than it looked, and we’d actually say that it mimics the taste of meat pretty effectively. There are no real texture issues here, and there’s no weird aftertaste either.
If you’re looking for a quick and easy vegan meal that you can keep in your freezer, the Gardein Italian Saus’age & Pasta isn’t a bad option. It’s definitely not a gourmet meal, but it has that classic comfort food taste we sometimes crave. It’s a simple dish, but it’s something that even meat eaters can enjoy.
To learn more about the ingredients, nutrition content, or ingredients for this Gardien bowl, check out our package scans below.
