Trader Joe's Vegetable Pastry Puffs

The pros: Trader Joe's Vegetable Pastry Puffs are a good appetizer.

The cons: This is a very simple appetizer that can easily be replicated at home. Mine did not come out quite as cute as in the picture on the box. If you have food allergies, there are some unexpected allergens mentioned.

The verdict:  This is the time of year where I will come home tired enough to not want to put any effort into dinner. I will literally go to my freezer and take out a tray of appetizers and call it an evening. This was a recent dinner. While this was an easy appetizer, it is also one that can be replicated easily at home.

While Trader Joe's does sell Pastry Puff on its own, it has been difficult to find recently. Most other regular grocery stores sell pastry puff year round. In fact, this appetizer is just perforated puff pastry with what tasted like well seasoned marinara sauce on it. It was simple enough to break off and take just what you wanted to bake.

Out of the oven, mine did not puff up all that much. While the picture on the box was so pretty, what came out of the oven did not quite match expectations. It still looked like a sloppy glob of tomato sauce that was place haphazardly. It lacked the presentation of a nice bruschetta.

Speaking of bruschetta, this is a play on that appetizer. It's a similar formula of a toast with a tomato topping. Eating this was like having a warmed bruschetta (minus the freshly chopped tomato). The tomato just reminded me too much of a blob of sauce. The seasoning of herbes de provence added a lot of flavor here.

That being said, this left me wanting to melt some cheese on this to see if they would make good pizza bites. I think this is a spin on a classic appetizer, but wasn't overly impressed with it. It's good, it's edible, but I think a fresh bruschetta can run laps around this. For $3.99 this is a good appetizer, but not a great one. I think there are far better ones to reach for. The tomato sauce that makes these a "vegetable" pastry puff is really nothing more than a thick marinara with lots of herbes de provence added. I'll finish eating all of these at some point, but trying this once was enough for me.

Here is the visual run down of what you get if you buy this product:

The box of Trader Joe's Vegetable Pastry Puffs:

The nutritional information:

The ingredients:

How to prepare:

Out of the package you get:

After being cooked you get:

Would I buy this again? No, I would not buy Trader Joe's Vegetable Pastry Puffs again.

Want to see more items I've reviewed from Trader Joe's? Click on Thoughts & Reviews of Trader Joe’s for a searchable list.

Did you try it? Let me know what you think in the comments section!