Places to Eat

A Bleeding Veggie Burger?

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Tony Maples Photography

 

Vegetarians and meat-eaters alike are tilting their heads at this one. A bleeding veggie burger? What? Yes, the impossible burger has hit the market and the streets are abuzz. Designed to taste and feel like the real thing, no animals were harmed in the making of this burger. It’s a veggie burger but seems to be meeting the needs of many carnivores. Shocked? So were many others, but restaurants including the trendy chain Hopdoddy have debuted the Impossible Burger and are getting positive reviews.

Photo: Impossible Foods

So what’s in it? The Impossible Burger comes from a company called Impossible Foods with a mission of changing the food industry’s obsession with meat and aiming to convincingly replicate meat products without using animal product. The Impossible Burger first debuted in 2016, so Hopdoddy isn’t the first to take notice and add it to the menu. The Impossible Burger, developed by scientist and physician Patrick Brown, is made from wheat, coconut oil, potato protein, and heme. Heme-yes, as in hemoglobin, the iron-rich substance that gives blood that metallic taste and smell.

Heme-yes, as in hemoglobin, the iron-rich substance that gives blood that metallic taste and smell. Heme is actually a plant-based protein and has been described as the “magic ingredient” that gives the Impossible Burger its meaty taste and signature look, and that metallic quality that no other veggie product has been able to capture. It also gives the burger a juicy pink quality – hence, the bleeding veggie burger.

Hopdoddy added the Impossible Burger to its list of other burgers and it doesn’t seem to be leaving anytime soon. We are rooting for the Impossible Burger, and for Impossible Foods. Regardless of your feelings toward eating meat, the reduction of meat consumption is undoubtedly a win for your health and the planet. Hopdoddy is a restaurant often seen with lines wrapped around the store. People dig it. We have no doubt that people will continue flocking to the chain to check out this new item.