Whether you’re hosting a plant-based holiday feast or need a delicious option for vegan guests at your table, we’re here to help you pick the best vegan Thanksgiving roast.
The Best of the Best
Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve been reviewing vegan Thanksgiving roasts in search of the perfect roast that combines festive flavor with no bad aftertaste or funky texture. While we’ve only begun to scratch the surface of all the vegan roasts available, we’ll continue to rank and update this post as we test new products. For now, we’re ranking five products from three big players in the vegan roast market, including Gardein, Tofurky, and Field Roast.
How we ranked the Thanksgiving roasts
Like our standard vegan reviews, we considered price, taste, and texture. Does it taste good? Is the texture satisfying? Is the price reasonable for the quality of the product?
Price
Generally, most of the vegan roasts we reviewed aligned with pricing. There were no major outliers, and many roasts cost around $2 to $4 per serving.
Taste
This is where we rated the roasts most harshly. If we’re preparing a vegan Thanksgiving feast, we want it to taste delicious! Only one roast delivered the most iconic, satisfying Thanksgiving flavors, while the others had varying degrees of bitterness or bad aftertaste.
Texture
The texture of the roast was another deciding factor. The last thing you want to do is serve a rubbery, dry roast to your guests this holiday season!
Without further ado, let’s get into the best vegan Thanksgiving roasts for your holiday table this year.
The Winners
These two plant-based roasts are a cut above the rest.
1. Gardein Plant-Based Turk’y Roast
Our favorite vegan Thanksgiving roast is the humble Gardein Turk’y Roast. Is it the flashiest? No. Does the packaging look a bit boring? You bet. Does it taste amazing? Absolutely. As soon as we tried Gardein’s roast, we knew it blew the others out of the water. Gardein delivers simple, classic Thanksgiving flavors, and the crisp coating around the roast brings a nice textural contrast that we loved. The gravy had nostalgic flavors that reminded us of Thanksgiving dinners from our childhood.
Read our Review of Gardein Plant-Based Turk’y Roast
2. Field Roast Cranberry & Hazelnut Roast
Field Roast got us with that buttery, flaky puff pastry crust around their plant-based holiday roast! If you want to wow guests with a stunning vegan roast that even meat-eaters will want to try, this is the one to snag. Although the roast itself is a little on the bitter side, the buttery puff pastry helps mask it.
Read our Review of Field Roast Cranberry & Hazelnut Roast
Tied for Second Place
These two aren’t our favorites, but we still think they’d make a great option for the holidays.
3. Tofurky Plant-Based Roast & Gravy
The stuffing is delicious, but the roast was a little on the salty, bitter side. We wouldn’t turn our noses up at it, but we also felt that our winners offered a better taste and texture experience than Tofurky’s plant-based roast. Overall, Tofurky’s plant-based roast is a totally serviceable option for vegan guests, but it doesn’t quite bring the wow factor.
Read our Review of Tofurky Plant-Based Roast & Gravy
4. Tofurky Plant-Based Ham Style Roast
Tofurky’s plant-based ham roast might be what you want if you want to steer away from turkey-style roasts this year. While it is a little rubbery, that texture made it feel more like a traditional ham. The glaze, while delicious, does burn easily. Our review offers a suggestion for preparing this roast to ensure that you don’t end up with tar (like we did). This may sound like an indictment of the product, but trust us! We kept going back for more…there’s something strangely enticing about this plant-based ham roast that we can’t put our finger on!
Read our Review of Tofurky Plant-Based Ham Style Roast
Our Least Favorite
It’s not horrible, but we’d probably skip this one.
5. Field Roast Celebration Roast
To be honest, we’re not celebrating too much over this celebration roast. The flavors were okay enough; the texture was rubbery, and we didn’t like that the stuffing wasn’t distinct from the roast. The worst part was the gravy. It was extremely bitter and the worst of the plant-based gravies we tried. Would we eat it? Sure, but there are better options available!
Read our Review of Field Roast Celebration Roast
What do you think?
Will you be serving any of these roasts for your plant-based holiday feast this year? Or do you have another favorite you think we should test? Let us know in the comments!
