Beyond beef is a brand of protein products made from soy and peas. Their Beyond Burger, the focus of this article, “bleeds” like real meat. It cooks on a grill or stovetop and tastes delicious. In appearance, it’s eerily similar to ground beef, but beyond even vegan patties because it also has fat, water, omegas, and all the things you find in real beef.

Silky Terrier Dog Breed Playing Aro... Silky Terrier Dog Breed Playing Around

When I first saw the packaging I was skeptical, but anyone who cooks knows that presentation is often deceiving. As a vegan-leaning carnivore, I’ve spent years learning to cook with “meat substitutes” so it only makes sense that if something claims to be meat it’s worth trying out for fun at least. The Beyond Burger comes in two flavors: Original and Fire-Grilled. For this review, I cooked the original flavor on the stovetop.

“How does it taste?” my wife asked as she walked into the kitchen while I took photos of drippings coming off the burger onto my pan. “It’s good,” I told her without elaborating. She sat down next to me and ate her own, but it wasn’t too long before she put her own burger down with a concerned look. “You better not think you’ll get away with saying this is just as good as ground beef…” Before I could answer she’d snatched my burger out of my hands.

“Hmmm… It is pretty tasty,” she said after taking the first bite.

It turned out that was all I needed to hear; however, for reasons which became apparent later on, there’s also no reason to believe Beyond Meat isn’t adding extra ingredients to make these contain what they claim them to be. So yes, you can eat beyond beef raw. But that will be based on your personal preferences and needs because one could argue there’s no such thing as a single one-size-fits-all diet.