Big news since I last checked out Trader Joe’s new snacks: I have an air fryer! (The Breville one). That means every Trader Joe’s frozen item is 1000 times better than before, as the circulating hot air, formerly known as “convection”, makes every item fried before it is frozen all over crisp. (The tempura cauliflower, wowwwwwwww.)
If you buy a lot of frozen TJ stuff, you need one. The new honey prawns are fantastic air-fried, as is the garlic pesto pizza with a deep fried crust.
Elsewhere this spring, Joe appears to have invested a lot of money in vegan comfort foods, with two types of vegan Bolognese made from plant-based nubbins and jackfruit doing their best to qualify as grilled pulled pork.
Reviews below.
New and exciting salty snacks
Crunchy crispy chips Pea and chickpea snacks
These pea and pea chips look like a flattened peanut packet and are curved, scoopable chips made from dehydrated This n ‘That. The taste reminds me of vegetable chips that (who are we kidding) are made from potatoes. In fact, potato starch is the second ingredient. A neutral vessel for salt and snack superiority complexes.
Crunchy crunchy mushroom and mushroom snacks
Suck most of the moisture out of a mushroom, fry it in sunflower oil, throw in salt and take all my money. I love these little buddies. Some of the mushrooms are tough, others burned, but life is not interesting without variety, which is why we keep the special mushrooms in the refrigerator. I don’t count (I count a lot) but one bag of these “snacks” contains about 30 grams of fat, so I eat them with the deliberate handful.
Straight-up candy
