"I Made My Husband Try Vegan Pigs In a Blanket. What Happened."

Everyone has their favorite comfort food: Mac and Cheese, Lasagna, Chili, and Pigs in a Blanket. When you go vegan or plant-based it can be tough to leave these behind. For my husband, just the mention of having company over makes him go straight to the store to buy his favorite hors d'oeuvres, pigs in a blanket.

We buy these, but of course, you can make pigs in a blanket, and even if you are eating vegan or mostly plant-based you can buy vegan pigs in a blanket these days!

Since I am trying to get my husband to eat healthier and go more plant-based with me, I wanted him to try vegan Pigs in a Blanket. There are new store-bought varieties of vegan pigs in a blanket now on the market these days that look especially promising. So I got a box of Savorly Puff Pastry Dogs – what they call their version of Pigs in a Blanket – made with plant-based ingredients. I put two boxes of these plant-based sausage bites in the freezer and waited for my moment to try them. Here's how it went.

First of all, not all party bites have to be unhealthy. These appetizers are vegan and made with pea protein plant-based sausages and the expected pastry ingredients (margarine, palm oil, more rapeseed oil), ketchup and vinegar, and other flavorings in the mix and a sprinkling of poppy seeds on top. Anyway, I figured they were better for you than pork.

Are Vegan Pigs in a Blanket Healthier?

The nutrient contents of these vegan puff pastry dogs break down like this:

One serving is five mini hot dogs wrapped in puff pastry.

The calories were a scant 190 (so far so good, I figured, since anything less than 200 calories is considered a snack in my book).

The fat profile was a little less optimal, with 11 grams of total fat, 4.5 grams of which is saturated fat. Since I know to avoid saturated fat if you're trying to be heart healthy because it can drive up LDL or so-called bad cholesterol levels, this was a bit high from where I sit – making up 23 percent of your recommended daily value of saturated fat. (Daily values are based on a total caloric intake of 2,000 a day, so adjust as you need to.)

Let's be honest, though. No matter what you make vegan pigs in a blanket from, they are never going to be a "health food." Here is our recipe for homemade vegan pigs in a blanket, with all plant-based ingredients. Do you think they are any healthier? Think again!

Compare these vegan puff pastry dogs to a regular pork hot dog pig in a blanket, which has about 280 calories for 4 pieces (each one slightly larger than the puff pastry dogs).

Traditional pigs in a blanket made from pork contain about 20 grams of total fat, with 9 grams of that being saturated fat, so about double what the vegan dogs contain, which meant score points for the pea protein pigs in a blanket if saturated fat matters to you. (The source for these general numbers is a nutrition site called eatthismuch.com.)

The five pieces of vegan puff pastry dogs' Nutritionals are:

18 grams of carbs
4 grams of protein
2 grams of fiber
470 mg of sodium

Compare that to four pork pigs in a blanket and you would be getting:

17 grams of carbs
7 grams of protein
1 gram of fiber
430 grams of sodium

So if health is your reason for eating vegan pigs in a blanket, this may not be your jam. On the other hand, if you think that avoiding animal products is the best way to eat to lower your carbon footprint (or carbon "foodprint") and you are consciously avoiding supporting the farming of animals, due to how those animals are treated, then these are a great choice for your next party or gathering.

I Gave My Husband Vegan Pigs in a Blanket. Here's What He Thought

First of all, we used the toaster oven and I broiled, then baked them (the instructions say to put them into a preheated oven at 390 for 12 to 18 minutes) so being impatient, I thought that would heat up the little toaster oven faster. It worked, and actually ended up slightly over-cooking the pastry, which meant it was crisp, brown, and flaky. The tiny poppy seeds on top were crunchy and a nice touch.

The vegan hot dog was the weak link for my husband, who thought it tasted a little bland. But, he said, if you put these out on a tray and add mustard, everyone would dive in and thoroughly enjoy them. The only issue for him was that he missed that real hot dog taste that includes a bit of a tangy bite to it.

I tasted them and thought they were delicious! For me, as someone who never liked hot dogs and has never counted pigs in a blanket as a favorite finger food, these puff pastries had just the right amount of flaky pastry wrapped in a soft center. The fact that they were a little too soft probably had more to do with my overheating them (the first few minutes on broil) than the fact that the protein is not holding up.

Bottom Line: Would I recommend these to a party host? Absolutely yes.

These vegan puff pastry dogs would be a popular item at any of your upcoming holiday parties. Even non-vegans would love them. The bottom line is, they could fool anyone who didn't know they were vegan. And for my husband, they will take the place of pigs in a blanket in the weeks and months ahead!

For more plant-based recommendations, check out The Beet's Product Reviews.