Ever since Tesco announced a vegan marriage to Wicked Kitchen I’ve been curious to try one of the resulting offspring.
I have now had the opportunity to eat one of their babies and share my thoughts on the meal.
Vegan pizza seems to be a thing at the moment. I reviewed the very tasty Goodfellows offering here: https://veganonadesertisland.com/2018/02/25/review-goodfellas-vegan-stonebaked-falafel-pizza/ and thought it a good idea to give my loyal blog readers an opinion on a competitor.
At £4 for a 280g pizza, it’s more expensive and smaller than the falafel pizza reviewed in the link, so, I do think it’s quite a pricey offering.
As you will see from the photo, there is a rather long ingredient list, but everything on it does seem pretty natural – although I don’t like sugar, inverted sugar syrup and black treacle all being on there – but I guess, there is an underlying sweetness to most pizzas.
I must say that, again, this is a cheeseless pizza – I will endeavour to review a pizza topped with vegan cheese in the near future.
I used to make pizza toasties as a kid – so I was intrigued by a bread base pizza. It works pretty well – it’s crispy and tastes like a normal pizza base – however, there is too much base and not enough topping for my liking – especially for four quid.
The tomato sauce is, for me, the basis of all pizzas, this product does have that, so it does taste very pizza-like – always good for a pizza.
I also like the idea of shredded king oyster mushrooms as the “meat”. I’ve seen a few posts online using this as a replacement for pulled pork – and I’m a huge fungi fan, so it’s a win-win situation for me.
The mushrooms did remind me of pulled jackfruit, so they definitely work as a meat replacement. I would have liked more of them – but I will look out for the mushrooms themselves to use in my own recipes.
The overbearing taste here is one of chilli heat. If you don’t like spicy food this pizza is definitely not for you. I actually thought the chilli distracted from the other tastes – it hid the mushroom taste too much for my liking. I like chillies – but I like mushrooms more!
But if you are a chilli fan – and plenty of people are – this pizza will definitely not disappoint.
It’s nice that we have more and more vegan options and this is a nice offering – but I still prefer the Goodfellows pizza – it’s bigger and cheaper too!
https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/298910498