Veggie Seed Burgers

Much, much better than the Black Bean Chipotle Burger that didn't work out a few weeks ago, this new burger recipe comes from Angela's Oh She Glows blog. While a little on the complicated side, this burger is the perfect texture and has a yummy nutty flavor. When you've just gotta have one, this burger recipe will definitely do the job.

Veggie Seed Burgers

The first step is to saute 1/2 of diced onions and 1 clove of garlic with a tiny bit of olive oil. While that is going on, mix up a flax 'egg' by adding 2 and 1/2 tbsp roughly ground flax seed and 1/2 a cup of warm water in a bowl. Stir and set aside for now.

Add to a large mixing bowl:

• the sauteed onion garlic mixture
• 1 cup of oats processed into flour
• 1 and 1/2 cup bread crumbs
• 1 cup of grated carrot
• 1 cup roughly mashed cooked black beans
• heaping 1/4 cup of finely chopped parsley (cilantro could also be lovely)
• 1/3 cup chopped almonds
• 1/2 cup sunflower seeds

Combine thoroughly with a spoon.

Now, in a separate small bowl stir together:

• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 and 1/5 tsp chili powder
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1 tsp salt
• black pepper to taste

Dump the flax egg and the spice mixture onto the burger mixture.

Now it's time to get your hands dirty. Knead and mix until thoroughly combined. The mixture should be sticky and like a very chunky dough.

Form dough into palm-sized patties. We got eight of them.

 

 

The last step is to fry in a tablespoon of olive oil, just long enough to brown both sides, and serve with any toppings. We did avocado, tomato, and lettuce, which was really good. I am thinking that some crispy onion straws would be delicious too! We did find that the burger could use a bit of salt though, so feel free to sprinkle some on your fixin's before putting putting on the top bun.

Chipotle Black Bean Burger

This recipe has gotten pushed back several times, and so I decided today it was finally time to explore the vegan realm of burgers.

Chipotle Black Bean Burger

Unfortunately, this one didn't quite turn out so well. This was a little bit of a pain to make simply because there were a lot of odd ingredients and the beans had to be mashed and whatnot. Once I added the oatmeal and panko to the wet black bean mash, the dough had to set for a few minutes.

Black bean and bread crumb "dough".

After that I formed the dough into patties and dropped them in a hot pan to brown on both sides. The first burger immediately burnt and then I accidentally dropped it on the floor. No good. I was much more careful with the second burger, and it seemed to be perfectly seared. It even smelled amazing!

Frying the burger was harder than I thought it would be--it burnt quickly.
This is the second one I made; you can tell because it's not completely black.

The taste really wasn't too bad, but the texture was completely off. The outside was good, but the center was mush, kind of like the consistency of raw hamburger meat. I ate most of it, but only because I was hungry. I was thinking that maybe a sliced tomato on top would make it a little more palatable, but I found my tomato to be frozen completely solid in the back of the fridge. So much for that.

One thing that did turn out pretty good earlier today however was the roasted sweet potato with breakfast.

Roast Sweet Potato

Salt, pepper, and a tiny bit of Pam spray is all these babies needed. Well, that and maple syrup for dipping, of course. I'm thinking I'll have to do some savory garlic and herb ones next time for dinner or a snack. Yum!

Perfect Portobello Burger

This was my lunch for day six of the 21-Day Weight Loss Kickoff. Carla, Helen, and I are going out to dinner at supposedly very nice Asian food buffet tonight, so I decided to keep lunch light and skip the Sweet Potato Fries (again, argh!). This recipe was quick, easy, and small enough to be a nice sized portion snack, so it was the perfect choice.

While I did really like this sandwich, it didn't really photograph very well. The whole wheat bun was dark brown, the portobello was black, the caramelized onions were dark brown, and the lettuce was a very dark purple. Not to mention that the whole thing got kind of soggy and messy immediately. So, unfortunately, no pictures for this one.

I was a little nervous about that great big mushroom since I had never had one before. I love mushrooms, but I recently got a bag of shitakes that were infested with mushroom fly maggots (which you could not tell by looking, only breaking into) so I'm a little weird about the larger ones now--who knows what nasty surprises could be hiding inside! I ended up breaking this one in half once to inspect for any holes, and it turned out to be sound. In the end there was nothing to worry about at all, and I thoroughly enjoyed the mushroom.

The portobello went in a pan with a quarter inch of water, some halved garlic cloves, salt, and smoked paprika. It was done when the water had completely evaporated. I slapped that on a toasted whole wheat bun with the other ingredients and that puppy was good to go. The sandwich originally had roasted red pepper on it as well, but I picked that off half way through because it didn't really fit and it covered up the mushroom flavor too much. I thought I would miss some sort of condiment on mushroom burger as well, but it turned out just fine without it. I would most likely make this again.

This is what I imaged the Perfect Portobello Burger should look like.
Picture taken from http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/portobello_mushroom_burger/.

This morning's breakfast was alright. I made the scheduled pancakes with strawberries and Caribbean Passion Smoothie. The pancakes, being only whole wheat flour, soy milk, and baking powder, were not at all delicious. Last time the mango added some sweetness while the lime added flavor, whereas this time it was basically like cardboard. I ended up eating the strawberries off the top and drenching them in maple syrups, and even then I couldn't even finish the two of them. Next time the menu calls for plain pancakes, I think I'll add a tablespoon or two of cane sugar and some vanilla extract.

The smoothie was interesting. I almost didn't like it at first, but it grew on me over the course of the morning. I bought a smoothie blender yesterday with a travel lid so that all you have to do is blend, pop on the top, unscrew the base, and go. It was very convenient as I was rushing to get ready for my 8 am Organic Chemistry. The smoothie consisted of one banana, one orange, one mango, some pineapple, a cup of soy milk, and some cinnamon. I forgot to freeze the fruit last night so I had to blend some ice with it as well. Pretty tasty, and very filling!



This is actually the Mango Spice Smoothie, but the Caribbean Passion was almost the same except that it had cinnamon in place of serrano pepper.