I have said it before and I will say it again, I always love my trips to my local Costco because each time there seems to be more and more gluten-free items on the shelves.  My last visit yielded a really great fine of gluten-free and vegan Veggie Patties from Don Lee Farms.  I am typically not one for pre-made foods but after looking at the ingredients – these patties were all natural and had real honest to goodness ingredients (namely vegetables) so I thought why not give them a try.  Now obviously this is Costco so you are buying in bulk and these patties come in a package of ten.  When I saw they could be frozen I was sold and picked up a package.

Those of you that follow me regularly know that my daily lunches here in NYC are delivery.  I just don’t have the time during the day to pop-out and honestly living in NYC affords me the opportunity to have everything from gluten-free cupcakes to Chinese and everything in-between delivered right to my office.  However, as we all know, this adds probably more calories than I really need.  So I thought, why not try a an experiment of bringing my lunches for a at least a few days (I ended up doing four) and most of those days I enjoyed two of Don Lee’s veggie patties.  At just 160 calories per patty, I was only taking in 320 calories on the main portion of my lunch.

The patties themselves are comprised of: carrots, celery, bell peppers, garbanzo beans, brown rice flour, and sunflower seeds.  The patties are actually quite large and with a bun one would more than likely be enough, but I opted for sans bun for my lunches so had two patties.  These heat up in minutes in the microwave so make for a great, fast lunch option.

It also helps that the patties taste amazing.  They are actually quite complex in the flavor department with the great crispness of the fresh veggies paired with the nuttiness of the rice and sunflower seeds (which really helped take these to the next level).  Great texture and taste make these all around winners.  I opted for a bit of organic America cheese on top and paired my patties with bold and spicy horseradish sauce – kismet.

So next time you are at your nearest Costco, look a bit closer at the shelves because you may just find a fabulous new gluten-free find.  Now if only they would have a dedicated gluten-free section, the world would be a more perfect place.