Szechwan cuisine hails from the Sichuan region of China. It’s famous for its bold, spicy, and delicious flavors. In China, Sichuan is known as “heavenly country.” Gardein’s Sizzling Szechuan Beefless Strips definitely don’t qualify as authentic, but they’re easy to make, meat-free, and pretty darn tasty.
While this dish can be cooked in the oven, we chose to heat it up on the stove. The process is simple, but it does require you to stay in the kitchen. The dish comes with a sauce packet that needs to be heated in warm water. The strips need to be tossed in a pan with some vegetable oil flipped every few minutes so that they can be browned evenly on both sides. The entire process takes around 10 minutes. Not bad at all! (If you want to see the full cooking instructions, check out our package scans at the bottom of this review.)
Typically, Gardein has you add the thawed sauce to your food as it heats. This sauce, however, isn’t added until after everything is fully cooked. This means that the sauce doesn’t have the chance to thicken up in the pan, but it also means there’s more than enough sauce to completely soak your strips. As you can see, we had plenty of leftover syrup even after slathering it all over our food.
This is less spicy and substantially sweeter than a traditional Szechuan sauce. There’s a strong, sugary flavor that borders on overwhelming. Thankfully, the soy sauce and garlic help cut through some of that sweetness. If it had a little less sugar and a little more ginger, it would have been perfect. As is, it’s still pretty tasty. Since there’s so much sauce, we’d recommend adding some rice to your bowl to soak the extra sauce up.
But enough about the sauce. Do the strips taste anything like real beef? Probably not, but it doesn’t really matter. Since this product is absolutely soaked in sauce, you can’t really taste any other flavors, meaty or otherwise. The abundance of sauce gives this a nice juicy texture. We thought that the strips seemed a little dry when they were cooking in the pan, but they wound up being wonderfully soft with a nice crispy coating. They’re a terrific substitute for meat.
Gardein Sizzling Szechuan Beefless Strips aren’t something you’ll want to grab if you’re in the mood for authentic Chinese food or craving the taste of beef. However, if you’re looking for a meatless substitute you can use when making takeout-style meals at home, this is a great option. Combine it with your favorite frozen rice, and you’ve got a great meal on your hands.
To learn more about the nutrition content, ingredients, or cooking instructions for these Gardein faux beef strips, check out our package scans below.
