Tested: Cricket Bolognese

Featured twice before in our reviews of the and the , we are still not done with the range of Imago products. And so, next in line is Cricket Bolognese! Considering we love everything pasta and related to Italian food, we were very keen on trying another alternative to the Italian classic that is originally made with beef (and a bit of pork).

Of course, you can just leave out the meat and do everything else the same way to get a vegetarian version of Bolognese, but it is especially that long and slow cooked meat in the sauce that makes it so tasty. Continue reading to find out whether we consider this our new standard meat alternative to Bolognese sauce!

The (boring) facts

One box of Cricket Bolognese contains a 100 grams of powderized Bolognese sauce. The most important ingredients are tomato powder (it better be in a Bolognese sauce), 21% soy protein and 10% cricket powder. Further along the line are the same ingredients as you expect in any pre-done Bolognese sauce: small chunked veggies like onion and paprika and a bunch of herbs.

Soy and cricket being two of the main ingredients, you get a good shot of protein out of one box as well. Altogether, one portion of Cricket Bolognese has a decent mixture of protein, carbs and fats providing you with:

• 379 calories per 100 grams
• 23 grams of protein
• 44 grams of carbs
• 9 grams of fat

But how does it taste?!

Cooking the sauce is as easy as adding 400 ml of water to the powder and bringing it to a boil. What we were quite surprised and pleased about were the looks and the smell that came out of our pot. It has that nice and dark-red color and with a little bit of imagination the small chunks could actually look like minced meat.

On to the taste! Most notably is the sweetmess which is actually quite nice, just unexpected. Sometimes you get a intense onion or paprika flavour, which reminds us of the typical Bolognese taste. In general, the taste is very much like a pre-done Bolognese sauce that you can get in supermarkets, just a little sweeter and packed with a lot more protein.

Pre-packaged foods are simply not the same as dishes done with fresh ingredients and cooked yourself. So if you don't feel like doing your own sauce this Cricket Bolognese is a pretty good - although a little expensive - entovegan alternative to the original Bolognese. Do add some fresh veggies to get your daily vegetable intake, and you have a pasta dish with good nutritional qualities prepared and done within 10 minutes!