It's always great having another vegan option hit the market, especially when it's vegan mac and cheese! There have been so many vegan mac and cheese options hitting the market lately that I've been pretty overwhelmed with trying all the options. I have finally tried the majority of them over the past few months, and I'm dedicating this week to reviewing them all! If you want to see earlier examples of vegan mac and cheese, check out my Earth Balance review and Amy's review! Those are two solid standbys I pretty much judge all vegan mac and cheese by!
Anywho, first up in the newbies of vegan mac and cheeses is Annie's Homegrown Organic Vegan Shells and Creamy Sauce. Interesting to note that Annie's never calls it mac and cheese but I'm pretty sure anyone that looks at the box will assume it promises some mac and cheese-like flavors and textures.
I was excited to try this since it is made out of pumpkin and sweet potatoes, which sounds good, right?! Ugh, was I ever wrong...this was some seriously weird "mac and cheese" that I would not purchase again. The main thing wrong with this is the sauce, which turned out more in like a powdery, gritty goop than sauce and tastes weirdly sweet but oddly onion-y at the same time. It in no way resembles anything "cheesy" or edible. In this day in age with all the amazing vegan cheese out there, you think a decent vegan cheeze sauce for mac and cheese would exist...and it does, just not in this product!
I even tried to improve the taste by adding tons of hot sauce and peas (as seen in the photo above), but even after all that it was hard to swallow this meal. Even if you put aside mac and cheese expectations, the taste on this is too off and too weird to be enjoyed, I mean, I guess the pasta was alright (though it stuck together a lot and was a bit too mushy), but that is only so-so thing about this dish, everything else was awfully disappointing.
Annie's really missed the mark with their Vegan Shells and Creamy Sauce - it seriously tastes like one of those "old skool" vegan mac and cheeses that I tried when I first went vegan (and, ugh, never tried again!). Seriously don't bother wasting cash on this (though it is relatively inexpensive at less than $3 a box, though after tasting it I now think I was ripped off), save up for some awesome vegan mac and cheese, because I promise it exists! More on that later this week!
If you are still looking for more info on this product, visit Annie's website.