Trader Joe's Shoppers Are Divided On Its New Soy Chorizo Tofu Scramble

For Trader Joe's fanatics, it's been an awesome summer of new product releases like chocolate mochi cake mix, loaded potatoes, and even beautiful olive wood cutting boards. It looks like the exciting new finds are still coming, because Instagrammer @TraderJoesList just came across another one: Tofu Scramble with Soy Chorizo. The frozen entrée, which looks like it'd be just as tasty for lunch or a light dinner as for breakfast, has chunks of "scrambled" tofu and soy chorizo along with spinach, red and green bell peppers, and vegan cheddar cheese shreds. Each box is a single serving.

In addition to being a vegan entrée, the Tofu Scramble with Soy Chorizo is gluten-free. The frozen meal also packs a whopping 25 grams of protein and 7.2 grams of iron. If you happen to have a lot of time on your hands, the directions say you can heat up this scramble in the oven for 45 minutes ... but more than likely you'll just zap it in the microwave for about three minutes. It seems there's a lot to love about this new Trader Joe's find: A couple of commenters on the @TraderJoesList Instagram post have already tried it and say it's delicious. However, there's one thing about this frozen meal that has some fans concerned. 

A few commenters on the @TraderJoesList Instagram post sharing the new Tofu Scramble with Soy Chorizo noticed one glaring point of concern, that for them overshadowed the rest of the nutritional info: The sodium. The single-serving package lists the sodium content in this entrée at 980 milligrams, which is 43% of the recommended salt intake for one day (based on the standards set by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration). Considering that the American Heart Association says that we eat nearly twice the amount of salt that we should, it's rough to start the day with a breakfast dish that contains such a high level. One user said on the post, "I was gonna buy it yesterday but those sodium levels are just too high." 

So why is this Trader Joe's Tofu Scramble so salty? It's likely the fault of the soy chorizo. According to The Kitchn, soy chorizo does have benefits: Being meat-free is the most obvious one, but it also has a decent amount of protein and is much lower in saturated fat than pork chorizo. However, The Kitchn says that soy chorizo does tend to have high levels of sodium. Well, maybe we'll have to keep this Trader Joe's find as an occasional indulgence. As one user noted on Instagram, "Won't be picking this up very often ... worth a try though!"