Vegetarian Refried Beans?

old elpaso vegetarian refired beans picture
The other night, my family was invited to have dinner with my brother’s family. We enjoyed tacos. As a side dish, we had refiried beans, made by Old El Paso. Halfway through dinner, we were informed that the refried beans were eating were vegetarian style. I thought for a minute, then asked “What kind of meat is in the traditional style?”. Nobody knew for sure. I knew they had Traditional and Fat Free refired beans, but wasn’t sure about vegetarian. This prompted me to visit my local Kroger store to do a little research. This is what I came up with comparing nutrition labels of the Traditional, Fat free and Vegetarian style Old Elpaso Refried Beans.

Content Traditional Vegetarian Fat Free
Calories
100
100
100
Total Fat
.5g
1g
0g
Cholesterol
0g
0g
0g
Sodium
570mg
560mg
570mg
Total carbs
17g
17g
17g
Dietary Fiber
6g
6g
6g
Sugars
1g
2g
1g
Protein
6g
6g
6g

Aside from the obvious, the biggest difference I could tell was between the traditional and the vegetarian’s ingredients list. This was a portion of the traditional style:

“Partially hydrogenated lard with BHA and BHT added to protect flavor”

Where as on the vegetarian, that part was replaced with:

“soybean oil”

I don’t want to come across as a tree huggin’ vegetarian, but since I could not tell a difference in the taste, I think I would rather eat the soybean kind.

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