Soy Chorizo Review

Last week I decided to try making some soy chorizo.

Ever since my boyfriend introduced me to chorizo about a year ago, I have loved it. However, my stomach does NOT enjoy it. My system does not like pork products, especially very fatty ones and in large quantities. I have replaced normal hot dogs with 100% beef hot dogs, I normally will replace bacon with turkey bacon, and I generally avoid other pork products.



When I saw soy chorizo at the grocery store by the string cheese that I routinely pick up, I decided to go ahead and give it a shot. I got this variety (picture from the Cacique website), and I'm not sure if other companies make soy chorizo. I have seen this brand in Walmart and Crest stores in Oklahoma.

I let it sit in my fridge for a few days before I got in the mood to cook it. But then I decided to cook it.

It took about as long to cook as regular pork chorizo of the same brand. However, it did not crisp up as pork chorizo does. I like my chorizo about the same crispness of Bacon Bits, however this soy variety soaked back up more of the spices and whatever it is packaged in, instead of sitting there cooking in fat. Which is fine. It just ended up being about the texture and softness of cooked ground beef or ground turkey...still fairly soft on the inside and a bit chewy instead of crispy.
However! It tastes very much like normal pork chorizo. I haven't had pork chorizo in months because I don't like spending my evening with an upset stomach, but the spices seem the same or very similar. It definitely did not taste bad.

I cooked the chorizo and had about a serving's worth right after I made it in breakfast burritos. I made two breakfast burritos with a total of two scrambled eggs and about a 1/4 cup of fiesta blend shredded cheese on fajita-size tortillas. It was great! Not too spicy, not too bland.

Then a couple of nights ago, for an evening protein-packed snack while studying, I combined about a cup and a half of 2% small curd cottage cheese with about half a serving's worth of the chorizo stirred in. It was also wonderful! I would not have thought of it but I was wanting the chorizo again and didn't want to dirty dishes and make the noise of cooking more eggs. I also wanted to try something a little different, and my cottage cheese was due to expire at the end of the month.

For a nutritional comparison of soy chorizo to pork chorizo, of the same brand, for a 2-2.5 oz serving:

Soy Chorizo: 80 cal, 4g fat, 0g saturated fat, 5g carbs, 2g fiber, 6g protein
Pork Chorizo: 260 cal, 24g fat, 12g saturated fat, 3g carbs, 3g fiber, 10g protein

Which one would YOU rather have affecting your health?