A while back, when we first got our copy of The Best Veggie Burgers on the Planet the first recipe we tried was for the Denver Omelet Burger. While we really the idea, the resulting texture was described as pasty and it felt like the peppers and onions overwhelmed the vegan bac’n bits. I’ve always wanted to return to this and try changing a couple of things to create something very inspired by Joni Marie’s original recipe, but with a bit more texture and less oil. The Great Vegan Gluten-Free Burger Experiment is the perfect time to revisit the recipe!

I actually removed all the oil called for in the recipe save some spray oil for sautéing the pepper, onion, and garlic as well as some for the cast-iron drop biscuit pan. Once again this pan is the perfect thing for baking vegan burgers!

Other changes: I used a single, large orange bell pepper and only half a medium onion, both diced quite small. I used a couple of cloves of chopped garlic too. This I sautéed in a cast iron skillet until the onions started to caramelize.

I pressed the heck out of the tofu, thinking this was part of the texture problem the first time we tried. Next, rather than blend the tofu with oil and spiced, I just crumbled it up fine in a bowl, added all the spices in with the tofu and mixed it up by hand.

To bind this all I stuck with the chickpea flour (besan), but reduced to 1/2 cup and added 1/2 cup of gluten-free, instant oats as well. I also decided to throw 1/4 cup of nutritional yeast in there for stickiness and saltiness. I left out the salt the original recipe called for, but I think it should stay in with the next try with this revamped recipe.

One little change I make with all recipes calling for liquid smoke; I use smoked paprika instead. Since the original recipe called for 1/4 teaspoon of paprika, I just increased to 1/2 teaspoon of sweet, smoked paprika.

The results, all squished together by hand, were promising and held together well, especially after letting the mixture stand for five minutes to let the oats hydrate.

The drop-biscuit pan came out of the oven, heated to 350. I made 6 good-sized breakfast burgers and put them into the oiled cups.

These baked for 10 minutes. I turned them and then baked for 10 additional minutes. They came out nicely browned. Next attempt I’ll use red bell pepper for a more striking look. The oat/besan mixture gets a nice color and these held together beautifully in a nice patty.

I served them alongside hashbrown squares from Trader Joe’s, a pile of steamed broccoli, and a little avocado on top.

There’s a couple of small changes I’m going to make, and I want to see how these pass the “freeze test”, but these may become a great breakfast to-go, particularly for long travel days.

This week’s Burger Experiment comes to us from Lindsay S. Nixon‘s cookbook, Everyday Happy Herbivore cookbook. I have decided that in the Great Gluten-Free Burger Experiment I’m going to try substituting instant oats (GF, of course) any time I see Vital Wheat Gluten called for in a recipe. I also sub Tamari for anytime soy sauce is called for.

We’d already tried the recipe for the Pinto Burgers (same cookbook, page 86), which is already gluten-free, and loved them. In fact, they inspired my Summer Cilantro Slaw recipe! However, I wanted to try a new recipe and since this book has several bean-burger recipes to try I went for the Kidney-Qunioa Burgers (page 85) merely because I like kidney beans a lot.

First of all, this recipe comes together so quickly it is great. These could be whipped up from scratch on a weeknight. They were very flavorful, even though I totally forgot the tablespoon of Italian Seasoning it called for. The instant, GF oats worked perfectly, especially since I gave the “dough” about 10-15 minutes to rest and let the oats get sticky.

Last week, after the Scarborough Fair Burger Experiment, Christie had the idea of trying out our English muffin cast-iron pan for cooking the burgers. It would heat them more evenly and it would keep them in a nice, uniform burger shape (one which perfectly squishes out to fill an average bun). I heated the pan up in the oven while it preheated and sprayed lightly with oil before putting burger patties into each mini-pan. I must say, this idea is a winner and I will be using it for all burgers despite what cooking directions suggest.

Also known as a Drop Biscuit Pan, this works perfectly for English Muffins and scones too. Oh, and clearly vegan burgers as well!

Once again, the Wild Buns from Happy Campers Gluten-Free were the bun of choice. I loaded mine up with grainy mustard, vegan mayo, avocado, red pepper relish, a little ketchup, and some salad greens. It was pretty awesome (blurry, impatient photo indicates my rush to eat this all up).

On the reheat in the morning these, similarly to the Pinto Burgers, were a little dry. One patty is frozen to see how it does with the thaw/reheat test. One possible idea for these might be to par-bake them to help to retain the shape, freeze, and then reheat in a cast iron skillet.

On Christmas Day friends of ours brought us a pint jar with 2 halves of Meyer lemon preserved in salt. I’ve been kicking around the idea of a pulao using slices of of the lemon. The result was absolutely fantastic.

This dish could be made without the preserved lemon, but it adds such an amazing flavor to the rice that it is worth finding it, making them, or befriending people who make them and give you some!

The Stuff

• 2 cups* brown basmati rice
• Juice and grated rind from a large lemon
• 8 green cardamom pods
• 1 small shallot, cut in half, then into very thin slices
• 2 T Earth Balance (or your preferred vegan margarine)
• 1 t ground turmeric
• 1/2 t amchur
• 2 T cashew halves
• 4 cups* water
• 2 1/4″ slices of preserved lemon, salt dusted off and any seeds removed
• Additional salt, to taste (preferably the salt from the lemon if you have it)
• 3 T chopped, fresh coriander

The Making

Rinse rise and soak in water 10-15 minutes. Drain well.

Bring a skillet to medium-high heat, add Earth Balance and bring up to heat. Add shallot and saute 5 minutes, until the shallot beings to caramelize. Add in the cashews and continue to saute another 3 minutes before carefully adding in the well-drained rice. Saute the mixture for 5 minutes, stirring often, until rice begins to brown, then sprinkle ground spices over the top and mix in evenly.

Add rice into cooker pot along with lemon rind, lemon juice, cardamom and slices of preserved lemon. Add water in to the 2 cup mark f0r brown rice, close lid and set to cook.

After rice finishes cooking open lid, remove lemon slices, and stir. Remove any remaining lemon from the rind, cut up and return to pot. Slice rind into small pieces and add them back to pot. Stir in sliced up lemon and add salt to taste. Stir in fresh coriander.

*When I mention “cup” here it is referring to the measuring cup that come with the rice cooker. I also don’t measure the water with the same cup, I use the lines inside the cooker pot to get the right amount of water.

Yes, you can totally make this on the stove. Just saute shallot and rice in a 3-quart stock pot, add water, bring to boil, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until rice is tender.

Serves 6-8

On our last stock-up trip out to Bob’s Red Mill we picked up some of their Whole Grains & Beans Soup Mix. It has been sitting awaiting inspiration in a Mason jar since, but tonight’s the night! This hearty, thick stew is what a chilly January night needs!

The Stuff

• 2 smallish celeriac, peeled
• 2 large stalks of celery
• 3 large carrots
• a bunch of spinach, long stems removed
• fresh parsley (about 1/2 cup, chopped)
• 4 medium/smallish red, waxy-type potatoes
• 3 large cloves of garlic
• a good-sized onion
• 3 cups of the Whole Grains & Beans Soup Mix from Bob’s Red Mill
• 1 tsp. dried marjoram
• 1/2 tsp dried dill
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
• 1/4 tsp sweet paprika
• 2 T champagne vinegar
• freshly ground pepper

The Making

All the veggies except the spinach and parsley get a rough dice. The garlic is roughly minced.

Heat up an 8qt. (or larger) pressure cooker on high. Into the hot pot add a thin layer of spray canola oil, then the diced onions. Once they started to go translucent, about 3 minutes, add the garlic and saute until the onions began to brown, about 6 more minutes.

Then add the celery, celeriac, carrots, and potatoes into the pot. Then pour in the Grains & Beans Soup Mix and 3 quarts of water.

On goes the lid. Up to high pressure and then turned down, with the timer set for 2o minutes. Remove from heat when the timer goes off and let the pressure come down naturally.

While the pressure cooker is going wash the spinach and parsley. Roughly chop the spinach and more finely chop the parsley.

Once the lid comes off return the pot to low and add the remaining ingredients. Stir and let simmer for 15-20 more minutes before serving.

*Notes:

• This intentionally does not have added salt. If you feel it needs some, sparingly add it at the table or just add more nutritional yeast.
• This is a pretty seriously thick stew. We kind of like them that way. If you don’t, add some more water.
• White wine would be tasty as would red in place of the vinegar. You could also use the juice of one lemon instead.
• Kale, collards, chard or other greens would be great. I happened to have spinach on hand.
• This would be awesome with summer veggies, the Grains & Beans mix from Bob’s would go well with all kinds of veggies and it would make an extra-hearty minestrone-style soup – yum!
• All fresh herbs would rock, but it is January and I only had fresh parsley around.
• I’d likely add a couple of Bay leaves to this at the beginning the next time around.
• Winter squash would be awesome in this too.
• I’m not sure how long this would take without a pressure cooker, but you can look at this recipe for an idea (warning, #NotVegan).

Although rich dishes are enjoyable once in a while, our favorites tend toward simple soups, stews, stir-fries, and “monk bowls”.  We were inspired to make these simple bowl meals from a dish once available at Blossoming Lotus. Really it was a bowl of whole grains topped with steamed kale, legumes, and a tasty sauce. Truly simplicity and just what we want some meals.

Tonight, after all the Thanksgiving inspired dishes, we had a monk bowl variation for dinner. Brown rice topped with chickpeas and some broccoli crowns that had been chopped up and sauteed with a clove of elephant garlic.

I made a variation of my Ginger Miso Dressing as the sauce to top, with a few slight variations. I added more nutritional yeast, some garlic pepper, and about 2 tablespoons of some leftover toasted walnuts. I didn’t use any other oils or the Bragg’s, but I did have more white miso. The little bit of toasted walnuts gave the sauce a faintly pink hue and a rich flavor.

Delcious Monk Bowl

More Food Porn – really, this is just my way of gloating about something delicious I made so I can figure out the recipe later. Is that obvious?

Tonight was a discussion at the Dharma Center and we include some potluck food to share for our dinner. I’ve been trying to make something fairly hearty so we don’t end up feeling hungry during meditation afterward. Plus if no one else remembers to bring anything vegan Christie and I have something for us.

She made chocolate chip cookies earlier today. I was in charge of “dinner”.

First was to chop up all the cucumbers in the fridge and add in some vinegar. This was really was to get them out of the fridge to make way for the 1 “boothy blonde”, 1 suyo, and 7 lemon cucumbers that Chrsitie picked yesterday!

For the real meal I thought of using the last of the leftover red qunioa. In the afternoon I grilled up all the summer squash from the garden on the cast iron, let it cool and diced it up. In went thinly chopped up Italian parsley and the last of the slightly limp looking basil.

I sauteed half a sweet onion and diced tempeh, added a little red bell pepper, and when that was all fried up nicely I roughly chopped up a large, over-ripe, heirloom tomato the neighbor had brought over yesterday. This immediately turned into a thin sauce coating the temepeh. All of this went right into the qunioa, squash and herbs.

For a dressing some balsamic and white wine vinegars whisked up with raw tahini, rice milk, and a little whole-grain mustard.