Munchie Monday: Burgers Again

The recipe that was the basis for the Burger Dogs I made last week is from EmilieEats though I made a fair number of changes.


Black Bean Quinoa Veggie Burgers

Makes about 8

2 Tablespoons flax meal (ground flax seeds)
1/2 cup dry (uncooked) quinoa
1 onion, finely diced
1 bell pepper, finely diced
1 jalapeño, seeded and with membranes removed, then very finely chopped
1 can drained and rinsed black beans
1 cup finely chopped kale or other green (or use whatever cooked vegetables you have in the refrigerator.  We used an unpopular Mexican cauliflower dish that I mashed up in good shape so it was unrecognizable...)
1 teaspoon (or less) salt
1 teaspoon granulated garlic
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
Dash of cayenne, if you dare
1/2 cup oat flour

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Combine the flaxmeal and 5 Tablespoons of water in a bowl and mix well.  Let sit while you do following steps.
In a small saucepan over high heat add 1 cup water and 1/2 cup dry quinoa (any color).  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover and let simmer until water is absorbed and quinoa is tender.  This takes about 15 minutes.  (I used the Instant Pot and place 1/2 cup dry quinoa and 3/4 cup water in a bowl which I set on the trivet in the bottom of the Instant Pot which had 1 cup of water in the inner liner bowl.  I set the timer to ONE minute on HIGH pressure and when it was done, let the Instant Pot reduce pressure naturally for 10 minutes.)

In a skillet over medium heat, water (or broth) sauté the onion for about 5 minutes then add the bell peppers and jalapeño.  Cook for 3-5 minutes then add your greens for one minute or so.

In a large bowl place the beans and mash up somewhat, though I mashed quite a lot so there were very few whole beans visible.  Add the cooked vegetables, the cooked quinoa, the oat flour, and all the spices.  Stir with a long-handled wooden spoon until very well combined.  If you waited until things were cool, you could squish everything up with your very clean hands.  You can stir in more oat flour if things do not seem to hold together.

Taste the "batter" to see if you need to make additions to the seasonings.  Everything is already cooked so it will not hurt to taste it.

Shape into 8 patties (or in our case, 5 patties and 3 burger dogs!) and place on Silpat or parchment covered baking sheet.

Bake for 20 minutes then, using a VERY thin-bladed spatula, carefully flip over the burgers and bake an additional 20 minutes.  Or longer.  It depends on how crispy you want them to be.  I wanted them crispy enough that I could pick them up and dip into hummus or some other sauce so they cooked about an hour all together.

Munchie Monday: Dr. Praeger Veggie Burger and Oatmeal Pancake Bun

Well, doesn't this sound interesting!  In the interests of getting away from bread which has a bad effect on our scales, and probably our inwards as well, I thought of using #Life is NOYOKE's oatmeal pancakes for buns for a Dr. Praeger veggie burger.

This is what we had for lunch this weekend!  It was not bad.  Dear One did say that if he had a choice, he likes hamburger buns...but then, he is not a very adventuresome eater!

He did manage to choke down two of them, though!  I thought that was pretty good.

You can find the recipe for the oatmeal pancakes here.

The only things I did differently were:

1. I left out the dried dates because I did not want this to be sweet, and

2. Our aquafaba had been in the refrigerator a little too long so I mixed 1 Tablespoon of ground flax seed with 4 Tablespoons of water and let it sit while I put the other ingredients into the blender jar. That is more water than you usually use to make a "flax egg" but I wanted the batter to be a little wetter than Lenny's recipe turns out.

This worked great.

Munchie Monday: Sweet Potato and White Bean Burger

Over the weekend I saw a recipe for Sweet Potato and White Bean Burgers and thought I would see if I could improve it...without trying it first.  I am always trying to make a good veggie burger; good meaning: tastes good, has good texture,  mostly fat-free, and holds together.

Well, this one was about three-quarters good.  It did not hold together.  Dear One said it was okay.  High praise, indeed.  

This is the way I made these burgers.  For some reason I did not save the original recipe.  That recipe had corn in it, some more spices, and they were fried, something we are trying to avoid.  I am sure they was taste even better fried in a cast-iron skillet with your favorite cooking oil.

Sweet Potato and White Bean Burgers
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Makes 12 burgers

2 medium sweet potato, roasted and peeled

2 15-ounce can of white beans, drained and rinsed

1 large onion, finely chopped

2 teaspoon granulated  garlic 

1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

2/3 cup nutritional yeast

1  cup Italian parsley, finely chopped

2 tablespoon lemon juice

1 cup bread crumbs

1 Tablespoon Italian seasoning

Salt

Black pepper

Place sweet potatoes and beans in a large bowl.  Mash with a potato masher until well mashed but not totally mush.  Add onion, parsley, nutritional yeast, lemon juice, and seasonings.  Mix very well then add in the bread crumbs to make a good consistency.

Using a 1/2 cup portion scoop, dip out the mixture and place on a parchment-paper lined baking sheet then flatten to about 3-3 1/2 inches across.  Bake 30-40 minutes.  Let cool a bit  then remove from pan.  Eat plain or in a bun with all the fixings.  These are really good.  In my opinion.  Some people in the family used Frank's Red Hot sauce on his.

Munchie Monday: Breakfast Burger, Surprisingly Good!

We have been cleaning out a lot of things from our home to make the house more live-able for two families for the next few months.  This morning Dear One cleared off the table that has been used as the "desk" for bills and other claptrap.  He kept bringing piles to me to look at/dispose of.  Nice.  Anyway, one was a recipe.  Which I made for breakfast.  Never mind that breakfast was at 11:30 AM.

The sheet of paper called the recipe  Bakin and Egg Breakfast Burger.  The person who posted this recipe somewhere online where I found it, had not remembered the URL.  No problem. I didn't include her URL either!  So I just went online to see if that recipe was available, and it was!

The recipe was at EverydayDish.tv.  I was thrilled to find it so I could attribute it to the creator of this burger.

Bakin and Egg Breakfast Burger  (the way I made it...)

1 16-ounce block extra firm tofu
1 Tablespoon granulated garlic
1 Tablespoon granulated onion
1 Tablespoon prepared mustard
1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
1/4 teaspoon coarse kosher salt
1/4 cup fake bacon bits
1/2 cup flour
A little oil for the skillet

Remove the tofu from the container and drain the water.  Double-wrap the tofu block in a kitchen towel and place a weight on top of it to help extra water drain out.  I used a cast iron skillet but a plate with a heavy can of food would have worked.  Stay near by in case the weight falls off the tofu package! 

After the tofu has pressed for 10 or 15 minutes (or when you finish the other things you are doing,  remove the kitchen towel wrapping and place in a large bowl.  With your very clean hands (and fingernails!)  crumble up the tofu.  Add all the seasonings except the flour.  Stir with a wooden spoon to mix.  When they are well-combined,  add the flour and mix with your hands.  The mixture should cloy together into a ball. If it does not, add more flour a tablespoon at a time.

Form into 6 patties then sauté 3-5 minutes in a hot skillet with 1-2 Tablespoons of heated oil. 

Serve on toast with catsup.  Or anything else you like.  Next time I will serve on a large Romaine lettuce leaf. 

When asked how the burgers went down,  Dear One said, "Hmmm.  They did not fall apart."  High praise indeed!

These were surprisingly good.  Maybe a bit more spice.

Food Friday: Homemade Veggie Burger Sandwich!

We eat veggie burgers around here.  I am still trying to make one that works as far as flavor, texture, ease of construction, and enjoyment.

This is the one I made this week.

This picture was an open-faced sandwich that I had to start eating with a fork.  It was delicious!  The layers were: toasted one hundred percent whole wheat bread, smear of Homemade Balsamic Mayonnaise, one Roma tomato sliced sort of thin, slice of sweet onion, Homemade Veggie Burger, sauerkraut on top then sprinkled with Montreal Steak Seasoning.  It was so good and stuck with me for hours.

Here is how I made the veggie burger.  I am sorry I don't have a really specific recipe just the method, but the method worked.

We had some leftover squash soup, some leftover rice glop (my term for rice and other ingredients that have become a more or less solid mass since I failed to stop the cooking in time), some leftover cooked pinto beans.

Started heating our cast iron skillet on the stove over medium heat then made the veggie burger mixture.

In a large bowl I placed the very flavorful squash soup--about 2 cups of it, 1 1/2 cups of the cooked rice, and 2 cups of cooked pinto beans. I used a potato masher to smush them up until I was satisfied with the texture.  Some of the beans were still mostly whole.  At this point I added about 3 Tablespoons of leftover thick pizza sauce, about a teaspoon of Montreal Steak Seasoning, and a good big glug of Worcestershire sauce. Then I threw in about 2 cups of old-fashioned rolled oats. I mixed these all together very well.

By this time the cast iron frying pan was hot so I added a Tablespoon of coconut oil and let it melt.  Using a 1/2 cup portion scoop, I scooped four mounds of the veggie burger mixture into the pan, pushing down on each mound with the back of the scoop to make a nice neat round burger about one-half inch thick.  I let them cook, still over medium heat, for 2-3 minutes or until I thought they were solid on the bottom. I then flipped them, cooked them longer on the second side then served to Dear One along with French fries. I had some mashed potatoes and salad with mine.

The upshot:  these taste really good.  When they came off the frying pan they were too soft for my Dear One's palate but he did think they tasted good.  This was for lunch.  At supper time I got the two leftover ones out of the refrigerator and found that they had become much more firm. Yay!  When I warmed up one for my own supper (Dear One did not want a repeat...usual story there...) it softened up again but still worked as you can see on the sandwich photo.

There was enough of the "batter" to make four more veggie burgers the next day using a smaller scoop, which was quite large enough.  I felt justified in eating two of them!  After all, what could be wrong with beans, rice, oatmeal, and squash?!

This is still not the perfect veggie burger (especially since I don't have an accurate list of all the ingredients in all the components) but is on the way to getting there. Something about the oatmeal firms them up, I think.