Not what I would have called the product. What about “Vegetab•all,” or if they want to sound smart “Veg•et•al?”
Anyway, this says it is “America’s Favorite Since 1926,” but I have never had it before. I certainly recognize the label. It hasn’t changed much since I used to see it on the shelves of Kohl’s Foods back in the 1970s.
I have to say, it’s not bad. It actually tasted like… vegetables. I was honestly surprised. It does not include the addition of “natural flavors” like Goya and Del Monte do. And right now, I feel fine. No after-taste and no unsettledness.
Salt was supposedly added, but I couldn’t tell. I added some myself
So, this is the front runner so far. Even though it included flipping potatoes. It should be called Veg•Most + Potatoes.
Please note — I have no idea if their parent company is evil or not.
Are they? I never think of them as a vegetables because they aren’t nutricious enough. But I guess they are clearly not fruit.
Regardless, I don’t think they should be included in the can. Not so many of them anyway. The more potatoes in the can, the lower I consider the quality.
I get where you’re coming from. Like, in produce terms, they’re obviously vegetables (after all, they live next to the onions in the vegetable bin). But culinarily the role they play is much closer to a grain. They’re a starch. They fill the “complex carbohydrate” role on a plate, not the “fiber and phytochemicals” role.
And I get the resentment in having them in veg mix, since they’re basically tossed in there as cheap filler to displace the thing you’re really coming to the show for. They’re the veg mix equivalent of peanuts in the mixed nuts canister.
If we’re gonna get botanical, I think the only items in common mixed nuts that are true nuts are hazelnuts and Brazil nuts. The drupes, including cashews, walnuts, almonds, and pecans, are “it’s complicated” but generally not considered “true nuts”. Botanically speaking.
Dietetically there’s good sense in treating the peanut separately from the so-called “tree nuts” (including everything in mixed nuts that’s not a peanut), since their allergen profiles are rather different; likewise there’s good reason to lump the tree nuts together, since allergies tend to be triggered by multiple members of the group. (Peanut allergies and tree nut allergies can also be comorbid, of course, but the tree nuts tend to cluster together, allergy-wise, a lot more.)
Culinarily speaking, if you use it like a nut, it’s a nut, and in that context, sure, peantuts are nuts.
(Disclaimers: I am not a botanist or an allergist. I’m a reasonably competent cook.)
In states where it is not illegal for a dog to stay in a vehicle overnight, misdirection is another option: