I have recently been enjoying lots of stir fries because they are quick to cook when I come home from work. When I saw that Quorn manufacture some frozen steak style strips, I decided to try them as I thought that they could add a different flavour to the dishes, along with extra protein. Like all Quorn products, they are actually made of a mycroprotein, which is a member of the fungi family.


There are obviously intended to taste like steak, and it is suggested you use them in the same way as the regular kind. For example in stroganoff or with noodles, as well as stir fried. You can cook them in the microwave, or on the hob if you don't fry them but in both cases you need to cover them with a sauce first. I don't mind this as this tends to suit the recipes I want to cook, but I did find it less convenient when I wanted to add them to a pizza. I had made a sauce already, so I tried cooking the steak strips with just a little water in the microwave but it didn't work well. They turned out dry, and chewy, and the water became dark brown. I do think they need covering with a sauce as recommended. Stir frying them is easy though. They take about 10 minutes, so you need to add them with vegetables that take a similar time to cook. They don't need defrosting first, but being frozen means they reduce the temperature of your hot oil when you first add them to the pan. For this reason, I need to cook any vegetables fried at the same time for slightly longer.


The pieces look like a pale version of real steak, and colour up a little on cooking. They look nice enough, and the fact they are in a strip form makes them easy to stir into noodles for example. They don't smell of meat which is not a disadvantage to me. Taste wise, I would say that they really do remind me of beef at the first bite but after having a few mouthfuls I am left with what I call the universal Quorn aftertaste. This is the taste of the mycroprotein itself, familiar from the Quorn chicken pieces and fillets that I have tried previously. This means I don't think their flavour is that distinctive, even if it isn't unpleasant. It helps to add bulk to a noodle dish, and the texture is good because if cooked properly, the pieces are succulent. I just didn't find the taste very exciting. I enjoyed them marinaded more, using an adaption of the recipe for "beef" teriyaki on the Quorn website. [hhtp://www.quorn.co.uk/recipes/39/quorn-beef-styl e-teriyaki/] All the same I thought they were working mostly as a vehicle for the lovely flavours of the marinade, rather than adding much taste of their own.


They are marketed as a healthier alternative to real steak pieces, no doubt to appeal to non vegetarians too. Quorn say that the pieces contain 30% less fat than the equivalent meat would if stir-fried. In fact, a quarter of the pack contains only 0.8g of saturated fat in total, plus 10.7g of protein. The only nutritional point that bothers me is the salt content - 15% of your RDA in the quarter pack. This is an issue for me because I like to add soy sauce to my stir fries and this also tends to contain quite a lot of salt. Taken together, it is easy to consume a lot of sodium in just one meal. For this reason, I wouldn't use the Quorn pieces too often, even if I loved them more.


Being frozen, these pieces keep a long time. The use by date on my packets have been a year in advance! You can shake out exactly the amount you need because the pieces are not stuck together in one large lump. This makes them convenient if you like them. It is a shame the bag isn't re-sealable though.


I do not like these enough to pay the standard price of £2.35 in Tesco/Sainsbury's too often. [This is for a 300g bag.] I just enjoy other Quorn products more. They are worth trying if you like steak flavours, bearing in mind that I don't think it is that strong. You may enjoy them more than me.

[This review may also appear on Ciao, under my user name.]