Dr. Gourmet's Food Reviews

Sunshine Burgers: South West Burger

We have had mixed success with our reviews of veggie burgers. While some have been OK and others bad, none have been what one would think of as a dish that you would say "boy, I can't wait for dinner tonight and those veggie burgers that I have in the freezer." It has always seemed to me that something like this Portobello Burger would be worth looking forward to - fresh, tasty and not highly processed.

But veggie burgers are popular and we want to see if we can find one that is worth keeping on hand so this week we present Organic Sunshine Burgers brand veggie burgers. The first thing that appealed to our tasting panel was the sodium content. While all three varieties that we tasted were in the 250 calorie range they all came in at 200 mg of sodium or less. Combined with 4 or more grams of fiber and the Nutrition Facts really had our attention.

We cooked the burgers using the conventional oven instructions. These call for placing the frozen burger in an oven that has been preheated to 375°F for 5 to 7 minutes. This is simply not long enough. Even with turning the burgers three times they took a full 17 minutes to thaw and heat through.

The result is pretty good. Not great but pretty good as far as veggie burgers go.

First up was the South West version and it is the best, by far. There is a strong hit of cumin at first but this is blunted by consuming with a bun, lettuce and tomato. There is a good Southwest flavor, good texture and the saltiness is well balanced. Many veggie burgers are grainy but this one is creamy but not overly so. There are 8 grams of fiber per burger, 13 grams of unsaturated fats but only 190 mg of sodium making this a healthy choice for a quick and easy meal.

The Garden Herb has less fiber but is still good. They have a somewhat fresh herb flavor that is heavy on dried dill. At 240 calories, 4 grams of fiber and only 200 mg of sodium these are also a good choice.

The Barbecue is, unfortunately, not as good as the other two burgers. There is a strong flavor of artificial smoke up front that fades quickly and then the burger is a little bland. They do have 7 grams of fiber but that can't make up for the lack of quality barbecue taste. Our conclusion was that having either the Garden Herb or South West burger with a little barbecue sauce on it would make a far better burger.

Even with the limits of the Barbecue version, however, these are the best veggie burgers we have tasted by far.