It’s always a good day for a tofu scramble — at least, that’s what the tofu-loving Freezer Meal Frenzy staffers think. So today we’re pretty hyped to be checking out the Trader Joe’s Tofu Scramble with Soy Chorizo. It’s been a hot minute since we’ve reviewed a nice scramble, after all. (If memory serves, the last scramble we reviewed was the Sweet Earth Protein Lover’s Breakfast Scramble back in August of 2021.)
Before we taste this, of course, we must cook it. The package gives instructions for the oven and the microwave, and there seems to be a preference for the oven. However, that could take 45 minutes, and the microwave only takes three to four (we recommend the full four minutes), so we opted for convenience here and nuked ours. (If you want to read the full cooking instructions for both methods, scroll down to the package scan at the bottom of this review.)
This is a vegan-friendly meal, so you might be surprised to see it topped with cheese. That’s actually a vegan cheddar alternative, which is why it doesn’t really get the same kind of melty that you’d expect from an authentic cheese. It tastes a little bit like a mac and cheese sauce rather than an authentic cheddar, but that’s pretty alright with us, we suppose.
Now, the flavor here is decent, with a southwestern zing. This contains bell peppers and spinach for the veggie content, and while the spinach is a little hard to taste in this mix (it comes in dry flakes), the bell peppers seem reasonably flesh and flavorful. We would have loved to see some black beans here, but unfortunately there are none.
Once you get past the faux cheese and real veggies, though, the real problems begin. The whole thing has a really odd consistency due to the faux chorizo and the tofu. This is crumbly inside, and much drier than we expected. It’s almost like a gravely stuffing. If you try this meal, you’re definitely going to need to get used to that. We never really warmed up to it, and made us really want to wash this all down with a big glass of milk (we’re not vegan here at Freezer Meal Frenzy, though we do have some vegetarians on staff).
There’s a little bit of spiciness here, but not as much as the word chorizo might suggest. This is pretty mild in the spice department.
One bowl of this stuff contains 370 calories and 980 mg of sodium. While that calorie count isn’t bad, the sodium level is pretty wild. We definitely recommend avoiding this if you’re trying to reduce your sodium intake. And we’re not the only ones to make this recommendation — this product seems to have created quite a stir in the sodium-avoiding crowd. Eat with caution.
The Trader Joe’s Tofu Scramble with Soy Chorizo is a decent-tasting meal with a really off-putting consistency and a bit more sodium than a lot of people are comfortable with. We’re also not sure we would have named this a scramble, as that implies (at least in our minds) that this should contain scrambled eggs. Obviously it doesn’t.
All in all, our recommendation is to skip this one until TJ’s decides to tweak the formula (which they do occasionally). Until then, there are plenty of better meals in the Trader Joe’s freezer aisle.
To learn more about the nutrition content, ingredients, or cooking instruction for this frozen tofu bowl, check out our package scan below.
