Tag Archives: budget recipes

Grilled Baby Back Ribs

Posted on by
4

The grilling season started early this year and I’m happy about it.

Whenever the weather’s even the slightest bit warm, I can’t wait to abandon my kitchen and head into the backyard to do my cooking.

In celebration of the warmest Spring in Chicago history, I decided to grill baby back pork ribs, one of my favorites. When it comes to grilling pork ribs, I usually use either baby back ribs or spare ribs.

Baby back ribs are shorter, meatier and more curved than spare ribs. They usually are a little more expensive than spare ribs, but they make for better grilling.

My secret to making the best ribs is to boil them in salted water for about an hour before putting them on the grill. This completely cooks them until they are nearly falling off the bone and it makes it easy to grill them just right.

Another option is to roast the ribs for about an hour, but this dries them out more. A third option is to smoke your ribs all day in a smoker, which gives them a rich, smoky flavor. But if you are pressed for time, boiling the ribs is the best solution.

You can boil them up to a day ahead of time if you want, then let them cool before refrigerating your ribs until you are ready to grill them.

Make sure you peel off the sheet of cartilage on the back of the ribs. It’s easily removed once they have cooled. Removing this piece makes the ribs easier to eat and taste better.

Finally, I finish my ribs by spraying them with pan spray, seasoning them with salt and pepper, and marking them briefly on both sides on the hottest part of the grill. Next, I brush on a generous amount of barbeque sauce, move the ribs to a cooler part of the grill with indirect heat, cover them and then cook the ribs until the sauce gets tacky, about 10 minutes.

The result are delicious, sticky and delightful baby back ribs that are fun to eat and taste amazing. I always serve extra barbeque sauce on the side and have plenty of napkins available, as well as a bucket to throw the bones.

I like to serve my ribs with some charred sweet potato discs. These are easy to make are great for plating just about anything because you can stack them any way you want.

Wrap a sweet potato in a paper towel, stick it a few times with a fork and then microwave it for 10 minutes. After it’s cooled, cut it into cross sections, spray them with pan spray, season them with salt and pepper, then put them on the hottest part of the grill until they get a nice char.

You can easily make these way ahead of time and just reheat them whenever you’re ready to use them. They are great for adding height to a plate or giving a dash of color. Plus they taste great!

Charred corn on the cob naturally goes with ribs, of course, but the final part is a cole slaw. The acidity of the vinegar cuts the fat in the pork ribs, so the two pair perfectly together.

This baby back rib platter is the perfect start to what hopefully will be a long and rewarding backyard grilling season!

Asian Cole Slaw

2 cups Napa cabbage, sliced thin

1 carrot, peeled and grated

4 radishes, grated

1/4 cup rice wine vinegar

1 TBS sesame oil

2 TBS Extra virgin olive oil

2 TBS honey

Sea salt

Fresh cracked black pepper

1. Combine cabbage, carrot and radish in a mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together the vinegar, sesame and olive oils and honey. Taste the dressing so that it is balanced between sweet and tart.

2. Dress the slaw with the dressing and season with salt and pepper. It tastes better if you refrigerate it for at least an hour before serving it.

What are your favorite things to cook out? Share your ideas in the comments section below. And thanks for looking at my blog!

 

Meat Free Mondays – Garlic Bread Vegetarian Calzones

Posted on by
4

I’ve been working to perfect my calzones recipe lately and after a few calzone disasters, I finally found one that I’m happy with.

First of all, for those unfamiliar with calzones, they are simply pizza that is folded up into itself, sealed and baked. The result is a mouth-watering pocket of gooey mozzarella, tasty tomato sauce and whatever toppings you prefer.

You can make calzones with any pizza dough recipe you would like, but I’ve been making this garlic bread pizza crust recipe that I found on the wonderful blog “Mom Makes” because it is really flavorful and especially delicious.

For the filliing, I wanted to use all vegetables, but I was concerned that they wouldn’t cook soft enough sealed inside the calzone, so I gave them a quick saute ahead of time. The pizza sauce was my super easy and dependable pizza sauce I always make, but since I’m avoiding white sugar, I replaced it with the same amount of honey.

Finally, I used cute little mozzarella ovalini, which are balls of fresh mozzarella that are about the size of a golf ball. I just cut them in half and put a few in each calzone.

But what really makes this recipe something special is making a garlic butter sauce then brushing the calzones with it just prior to baking. It really brought the flavor to an entirely new level and is something I probably will be doing all the time from now on.

Garlic Bread Vegetarian Calzones

For the crust

1 cup lukewarm water (baby bath temperature)

1 TBS active dry yeast (or one envelope)

1-1/2 TBS honey

1-1/2 TBS Extra virgin olive oil

2 cups all purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 tsp sea salt

1 tsp granulated garlic

1 tsp dried basil

1 tsp dried oregano

2 TBS unsalted butter

2 cloves garlic, crushed

For the pizza sauce

8 oz can of tomato sauce

1 TBS Italian seasoning

1 tsp honey

For the pizza

8 oz Mozzarella ovalini, cut in half

1/2 yellow pepper, ribs and seeds removed, julienned

1/2 red onion, julienned

4 oz can of sliced mushrooms, drained

4 oz can of sliced black olives, drained

1. For the sauce, combine tomato sauce, Italian seasoning and honey in a small pot and heat until bubbly. Turn off and set aside. Meanwhile, saute the peppers and onions, add the mushrooms and olives for the final minute to heat through and set aside. Melt butter in a saucepan, add garlic and cook until the garlic just starts to brown. Turn off and set aside.

2. In Kitchen Aid bowl, combine water, yeast, 1-1/2 TBS of honey and EVOO. Let sit for about 10 minutes until it starts to foam, indicating the yeast has activated. Meanwhile, in a mixing bowl, combine flours, salt, garlic powder, basil and oregano and mix together with your hands.

3. Add nearly all of the flour mixture into the yeast liquid — reserving about 1/2 cup for kneading — and blend on medium using the dough hook attachment until a dough ball forms, about three minutes. Sprinkle some of the reserved flour mix onto a work surface then transfer the dough ball and knead adding additional flour mix as necessary until dough is springy and no longer sticky.

4. Grease a clean mixing bowl with about 1 tsp of EVOO and place dough ball into bowl, turning so that all sides are oiled. This prevents a crust from forming as the dough rises. Cover with a clean kitchen towel and let rise in a warm, draft free place until dough has doubled in size, about an hour. Punch down and let it rise again if you want, but it’s not essential.

5. Preheat oven to 500F. Knead dough for a few minutes and let rest for a few more. Then cut dough into four peices. Using your hands and a rolling pin, form each peice into a thin circle, about 8 inches in diameter. When all four circles are complete, add a small amount of tomato sauce into the center of each, then a small amount of the sauteed vegetables, then about 3 or 4 ovalini halves.

6. Fold each circle over so that it forms a half moon, then roll the edges in toward the center about 1/2 inch. Use your fingers to pinch closed all the way around. Transfer calzones to greased baking sheets and brush generously with garlic butter.

7. Bake for about 15 minutes or until brown and crusty.

What sort of pizza variations do you like to make? Share your ideas in the comments section below. And thanks for looking at my blog!

 

 

Seafood Fridays – Steamed Mussels

Posted on by
5

Most of the time, budget cooking and seafood don’t belong in the same sentence, especially here in the Midwest where our fresh seafood options are limited.

But mussels are the exception to this rule. They are an affordable, delicious and easy to prepare fresh seafood that can fit into any budget.

Mussels are cheap, usually around $3 per pound or less, depending on where you live and the time of year. Although I have seen them sold frozen, usually you buy them while they are still alive for the best flavor.

You can tell if a mussel is alive because it will shut its shell tight. Sometimes, though, if  the mussel is refrigerated or goes from one temperature extreme to another, it will open its shell slightly. In this case, you simply pinch it shut slightly. If the mussel shuts all the way itself, it is still alive.

If a mussel’s shell is gaping open, it is dead and should be thrown away.

Some fish mongers will de-beard the mussels for you, but in some cases you will need to remove the mussel’s beard yourself. It’s super easy: You just grab the little furry seaweed-looking doo-hickey hanging out of the shell and pull it off.

Once all the mussels have been de-bearded, you should rinse them under cold water in a colander to remove any debris. If they still have mud or the occasional barnacle stuck to their shell, you can scrub them with a wire brush or steel wool.

Mussels grow just about anywhere there is water. There are even mussels in Lake Michigan here in Chicago! But most eating mussels in the US come from gigantic mussel farms in the Gulf of Mexico and on the West Coast. They are grown on thick ropes that are lowered into the water.

Mussels are also very versatile. They can be served hot or cold, and can accompany almost any dish. I have used them in the half shell as garnish for salads. I often featured a steaming bowl of fresh mussels as an appetizer on my restaurant menus.

In this recipe, I simply served them with some leftover pasta and marinara, garnished with a little chopped parsely for a delicious springtime lunch.

Steamed Mussels

1 lb live mussels

1/2 cup white wine

1/4 cup leeks, julienned

1/4 cup white onion, julienned

1 clove garlic, crushed

Sea salt

Fresh cracked black pepper

1/4 cup parsley chopped

1. There is nothing easier than cooking steamed mussels. Start by putting a pot with a lid on the fire and add your wine, leeks and white onions. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer. Cook until the leeks and onions are softened, about two minutes.

2. Next, add the mussels and garlic, cover tightly with a lid, turn heat back up to high and cook until all the mussels are opened, about three or four minutes. Occasionally shake the pot to stir up the mussels.

3. As the mussels cook, they release a flavorful liquid called the “pot liquor” which combines with the wine and juices from the vegetables to make an incredible natural broth. To me, that broth is the best part of steaming mussels.

4. Transfer mussels to a serving bowl and pour pot liquor over the top. Garnish with chopped parsely. Or plate the mussels as the garnish for another dish if you like, such as pasta or salad.

Are you mad about mussels? If so, what is your favorite way to prepare them? Share your ideas in the comments section below. And thanks for looking at my blog!

Mexicali Taco & Co.

Posted on by
3

I’m a fan of Mexican food and in the area of Chicago where I live there are a lot of places where I can indulge my craving for a good taco or burrito.

But on a recent trip to visit my brother and his new bride in Los Angeles, he took me to a place that blows away any Mexican restaurant I’ve ever eaten at in Chicago.

Carne Asado Taco and Chicken Vampiro

Carne Asado Taco and Chicken Vampiro

Mexicali Taco & Co., located at 702 N. Figueroa St., in downtown Los Angeles, started out as a taco truck in a vacant lot, but this past February it expanded into an attractive, if spartan, storefront restaurant across the street from an adult high school.

The food was incredible. The menu is small — offering less than a dozen items — but each was prepared lovingly and tasted incredibly fresh and delicious.

My brother is a passionate fan of the place and even had them cater his recent backyard wedding reception from their taco truck, so I asked him to order for me. I wasn’t disappointed because he ordered everything on the menu.

Everything we tasted was wonderful, but the standout was the chicken vampiro, which is a perfectly crisp quesadilla made with a soft, lush Mexican cheese and garlic sauce. I also enjoyed the carne asada cachetada, which is a tostada topped with beef, Mexican cheese and an aoli chipotle sauce.

But it doesn’t end there because diners are invited to customize their selections with a wide variety of homemade salsas and crisp fresh toppings. It’s like I died and went to Mexican food heaven!

Even though we went during the lunchtime rush and there was a long line of people waiting to order, the counterworkers were efficient in moving the line quickly and the kitchen had our food ready in just a few moments. There’s even a walk-up window where people walking past the restaurant on the sidewalk can order food to eat on the street.

The prices were extremely reasonable — $2.25 for the finest taco you will ever eat and $3.75 for the vampiro. The most expensive thing on the menu was the nachos, and it was only $6.

Despite its humble beginnings as a food truck, Mexicali Taco & Co. is no roach coach turned Mexican restaurant. The people who created this menu and prepare this food really know what they are doing and the entire experience – from the brightly colored dining room to the “old school” bottles of Coca Cola made with real cane sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup to the cheerfulness of the employees — made it simply an unexpected treat.

My brother, Kevin, in front of his favorite Mexican restaurant

My brother, Kevin, in front of his favorite Mexican restaurant

Apparently, a group called LA Taco runs an annual “Best of” contest, and Mexicali Taco & Co. has won the top prize in the past. I’m not surprised because the food was great and the quality of the experience was superb.

So if you find yourself in Los Angeles at lunchtime — or even late night, the kitchen’s open until midnight on Fridays and Saturdays — check out this treasure of a taco joint. I can’t wait to go back there!

 

Low Carb Chicken Roll-Ups with Spicy Avocado Sauce

Posted on by
6

I have been trying to cut out white sugar and white flour from my diet to drop some weight for the summer, but it’s been difficult.

Not so much that I have been craving these things, but because it seems like they are in everything!

So far, I’ve had to settle for drastically cutting back. This recipe, for example, features low-carb whole wheat tortillas, but they still contain some flour and a little sugar as well. Even the products that are suupposed to be better for you have sugar and flour!

This is a great use for leftover chicken. When I make chicken, I usually roast or grilll a whole chicken for just the two of us, so there is typically at least half of a chicken leftover. The next day, I separate the chicken from all the bones and skin, then pull the chicken into strips. Then I can either make it into a salad or toss it with some barbeque sauce and use it as a delicious pizza topping.

Avocados are one of our favorite foods, but because the weather has been so warm here in Chicago, we’ve had guacamole a lot already this year (OK, let’s face it, we never stop eating guacamole, even in the dead of winter).

So this time I went with a spicy avocado sauce that was super simple to make and was a delicious dressing for this wrap. The Sriracha sauce is very spicy, which was a refreshing compliment to the mellowness of the avocado and sour cream. But if you don’t like heat, you can reduce the amount or leave it out altogether.

This makes a delicious warm weather lunch or light dinner. I served it with plantain slices that I pan fried then simply seasoned with a little salt and pepper to give the dish a Carribean feel. The plantains were very good when they first came out of the pan, but they became soggy fast. Next time, I think I will either slice them thinner or grill them.

Low Carb Chicken Roll-Ups with Spicy Avocado Sauce

4 Low-Carb Whole Wheat Tortillas

1/2 lb chicken, pulled into thin strips

1/2 green bell pepper, ribs and skins removed, julienned

1/2 yellow bell pepper, ribs and skins removed, julienned

1/4 cup cabbage, sliced thin

2 green onions, sliced on the bias

4 to 5 leaves red leaf lettuce, chopped into thin strips

1/4 red onion, very thinly julienned

For the Spicy Avocado Sauce

2 avocados, mashed

1/2 cup fat free sour cream

1 TBS Sriracha Sauce

Sea salt

Fresh cracked black pepper

1. Basically, you are making a chicken salad. Put the chicken and all the vegetables in a mixing bowl and toss together.

2. Combine mashed avocados, sour cream and Sriracha sauce in a separate bowl and mix together with a fork or spatula. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

3. Combine chicken mixture with dressing and toss until evenly coated. Lay tortilla on a flat surface, spoon filling into center then carefully roll up into a tight wrap. Try to prevent the salad from coming out the ends. Seal with a toothpick placed in the center of the roll-up.

What kind of warm weather dishes are you looking forward to making in the summer months? Share your ideas in the comments section below. And thanks for looking at my blog!

Meat Free Mondays — Grilled Vegetable Salad

Posted on by
3

Now that the weather is warming up, it’s time to clean up the grill, get some fresh propane or charcoal, and start thinking about the best menus for cooking out.

Cooking on the grill can be more limiting for vegetarians than it is for carnivores, but for those looking to avoid meat the backyard barbeque need not be avoided altogether.

For example, I recently wrote about a party I catered that featured a California vegetarian menu — with meat options — that focused on grilled vegan burgers and tofu dogs.

Today we will consider the grilled vegetable salad, one of my personal favorite summertime vegetarian meals.

The grilled vegetable salad offers a lot of different options for the home chef: various kinds of vegetables to include, fun plating opportunities, and a variety of salads that can anchor the plate — including those made with greens, grains or even beans.

Any kind of vegetable can be grilled: If you can cook it, you can grill it. Some, however, benefit from being blanched — the process of steaming or boiling until softened, then immersing in ice water to halt the cooking process — before being “marked” on the grill. Among these would be asparagus, potatoes, carrots and other harder textured vegetables.

Others grill perfectly from the raw state. These include any kind of peppers, onions, eggplant, mushrooms and other softer textured vegetables.

When grilling vegetables, there’s a couple of key concepts to remember:

  • You are grilling vegetables, not charring or burning them. Usually, veggies work best if you simply mark them for a few moments over the hottest part of the grill, then move them to a cooler spot where there is indirect heat for them to complete their cooking without becoming overcooked.
  • While you can grill any kind of vegetable, try to include a variety of colors, shapes and flavors to liven up your final plate. If all your vegetables are green, for example, the final product will look boring.
  • Grilled vegetables give you a lot of freedom for creative plating. Think of your plate as a frame and arrange your vegetables artfully for the most appealing visual effect. Don’t forget about the 3-D opportunities your plating can include: Consider stacking your vegetables into “towers” so that they come up out of the plate.
  • Don’t forget to use pan spray and seasoning for all your vegetables. A tiny bit of salt and pepper will bring out the natural flavors of your grilled vegetables.

For this salad, I used zucchini, yellow squash, red bell pepper, asparagus and eggplant (it’s under the salad where I used it as a pedestal), then topped it with a chopped salad of red leaf lettuce, sliced cabbage for a crunchy texture, and julienned tomatoes and radish, all topped with crumbled Gorgonzola cheese.

Grilled vegetables can be served warm or cold and can easily be marked off hours before you serve them. In restaurants, we would arrange our intricate vegetable platters long before service then simply warm them up for a few moments under the broiler, in the oven or even in the microwave to speed up service.

Finally, leftover grilled vegetables can be chopped up and served again later as a ratatouille if you like.

Grilled vegetables are a welcome addition to any plate at any time of the year, but take on a more prominent role on summer dinner menus. As this year’s grilling season begins, it’s time to start thinking about the best ways to feature our vegetables by grilling them.

What grilled vegetable dishes do you love to make? Share your ideas in the comments section below. And thanks for looking at my blog!

Menu Planning

Posted on by
3

Cookout season is coming up so it might be a good time to talk about menu planning.

The most successful parties have a theme, either stated or implicit. For example, a typical backyard barbeque most likely would feature grilled burgers, dogs and maybe some ribs and chicken. Sides probably would include potato salad, cole slaw and perhaps a tossed salad.

Desserts would be ice cream and pie, or perhaps a cake if it’s a special celebration such as a birthday.

This menu all fits together because it is thematically united. In other words, the foods all go together.

Menu planning can be the best part of any occasion because it’s fun and everybody can get involved. Coming up with great ideas and then executing them so that your guests enjoy themselves at your party is one of the most rewarding of all experiences.

Restaurants do the same thing, only on a more permanent scale. The menus restaurant chefs create are thematically united – Italian, Asian/French Fusion, All-American Grille, etc. — but the menus are repeated daily, with only minor seasonal changes and daily specials thrown into the equation.

Once your menu is planned, you can build on your creation by adding the most appropriate decorations and even music if you like.

I recently catered my brother-in-law’s birthday party at the new house my younger brother and his wife recently bought in Los Angeles’s up-and-coming Highland Park neighborhood. Because many of the guests were first-time visitors to LA, I wanted to evoke the California vegetarian tradition, but with meat as an option.

Because we were grilling outside, I immediately thought of veggie burgers and tofu hot dogs. I added hamburgers, turkey burgers and turkey dogs to the protein list, all of which were served on whole wheat burger buns.

For sides, I chose quinoa salad, smoked mozzarella pasta salad, cole slaw, macaroni salad and Asian chicken salad.

As an appetizer, I served my homemade guacamole with soy chips, and a spinach and artichoke flatbread.

Dessert was a giant birthday cake bought from a nearby supermarket.

I asked my young neices to make handmade signs for all everything, which they enjoyed a lot and which added a nice homespun feel to the event.

The party was a huge success, and the menu was extremely well received. Those people who weren’t familiar with vegetarian food enjoyed sampling California vegan cuisine, adding to their vacation adventure.

Selecting a menu that will resonate with your guests and enhance their experience at your party can turn a simple backyard get together into an event your friends and family won’t soon forget.

Wine on Wednesdays – Malbec

Posted on by
8

I prefer red wines to whites and my favorite reds are zinfandels, shirazes and malbecs, in that order.

Each has a unique flavor: Zinfandels tend to be vegetable-like and spicy and usually have a distinctive green bell pepper flavor. Shirazes are a mellower version of zinfandels, sort of like the way merlot is a mellower version of cabernet sauvignon.

Malbecs tend to be in your face fruit bombs, which I like sometimes.

While malbec grapes are made into wines all over the world, there are two major types of malbecs. The first come from France, where they are mixed with other grapes to make Bordeaux. While these wines are quite delicious, they tend to be too expensive for me.

The second come from Argentina, which essentially has made malbec its national wine. Most Argentinean malbecs are grown in the Mendoza Province, although some vintners have been experimenting with growing the grapes at higher altitudes.

The grapes of the Mendoza Province are irrigated by mineral-enriched water flowing down from the Andes Mountains, which is nice to think about while sipping these wines.

While French malbec grapes tend to be large and loose, Argentinean malbec grapes grow smaller and in tighter clusters. Some wine experts contend that Argentinean malbecs are more closely related to the original French malbecs which were brought to South America from Europe in the mid-19th Century. Most of France’s malbec grapes were wiped out by a phylloxera epidemic.

This particular Malbec — Bodega Elena de Mendoza — is produced by Daniela Romero, whose family emigrated to Argentina from Italy in the mid-19th Century, about the same time the Argentinean wine industry was first getting up and running. It is named after Elena Napoli, the family’s matriarch. The brand is distributed by Gallo, the giant wine company.

I enjoy this particular malbec for two reasons: First, it tastes great. It has a bold fruity flavor but is still smooth enough to enjoy. Second, it is affordable, selling for $7.99/bottle at our local supermarket, which offers a 15% discount if you buy six mixed bottles of wine, bringing the final price to $6.79. This wine is a bargain at that price.

If you are looking for an affordable, lush wine that pairs well with strong flavors and grilled meats, check out Argentinean malbecs for a delicious alternative to cabernet sauvignons or zinfandels.

Corned Beef Hash

Posted on by
6

A confession: One of my guilty pleasures is corned beef hash.

The kind that comes out of a can and looks like dog food. I know, right?

Whenever my wife and I go out to breakfast at our favorite diner – or anywhere for that matter – I always order the same thing: Corned beef hash and eggs over easy with Greek toast. It’s become sort of a running joke between us that someday I will order something else, but that day has never arrived.

I just love the way corned beef tastes, especially when it’s all mixed up with the eggs and the hash browns. Health food, it’s not. But I could eat it every morning if I wasn’t afraid I would die of a heart attack before I turned 50.

After this weekend (St. Patrick’s Day, remember?), I found myself with some leftover corned beef and potatoes. So I thought, why not try to make “healthy” corned beef hash? At least healthier than the kind that comes out of a can.

Chef’s tip: In most restaurants that serve breakfast, the corned beef hash they sell still comes out of a can. They are just really big cans.

Anyway, it turned out delicious, although it didn’t hold together the way the canned stuff does. I think if I had a meat grinder attachment for my Kitchen Aid, I would have put it through the grinder to get that kind of consistency. But the flavor was still superior to the canned version and the crispiness as perfect.

So a belated happy St. Patrick’s Day to everybody. Now I have to figure out what I’m going to do with all this cabbage!

Corned Beef Hash

1/2 lb corned beef, cooked

2-3 red potatoes, cooked

Fresh cracked black pepper

1 TBS sunflower oil

1. Chop corned beef until fine. Cut potatoes into small dice size. Combine in mixing bowl and season generously with black pepper. You probably won’t need to add any additional salt because the corned beef already has a lot of salt in it.

2. Put cast iron skillet on the fire. When hot, add oil. When smoking, place corned beef hash in pan, being carefuly not to splash yourself with the hot oil. Use a spatula to form a rough patty shape.

3. Fry corned beef over medium heat until bottom is brown and crispy, about 3 minutes. Carefully flip patty with spatula then fry other side until brown and crispy. Remove to plate lined with paper towel to remove some of the grease, then transfer to serving plate.

I made hash browns out of the leftover red potatoes by passing them through a box grater, seasoning them and then frying them until crispy in a cast iron skillet. The corned beef hash and hash browns can be made ahead of time and kept warm in a 200F oven if you are making breakfast for a big group of people and want to make eggs to order.

What sort of guilty pleasures do you indulge yourself in every once in awhile? Share your story in the comments section below. And thanks for looking at my blog!

 

Meat Free Mondays – The Ultimate Vegan Burger

Posted on by
13

How do you define the ultimate vegan burger?

Is it the one with the best flavor? Is it the one with a texture closest to a hamburger? Is it the mouth feel?

Sadly, most commercial vegan burgers I’ve tried fail on all these criteria. They tend to be firm like ground beef, but sometimes they can be rubbery. Plus, store-bought vegan burgers are designed to appeal to the broadest audience, so they often lack any complexity of flavor.

I’ve been playing around with different vegan burger recipes trying to find one that has both the right texture and a lot of flavor. The biggest challenge has been finding a recipe that holds together without becoming crumbly when you cook it.

Ground beef has fat which binds the burger together, but vegan burgers tend to be low-fat or fat-free. Mashed up beans make a good binder, but they also can make the vegan burger taste pasty. Freezing the patties prior to cooking them will hold them together in the skillet or on the grill, but the burgers will still be crumbly once they are on the bun.

This recipe has plenty of flavor, plus it is made in the food processor. That combined with the beets make it bright red so that it actually looks like ground beef.

But it was still kind of crumbly. I thought the oatmeal would bind it better — and it did absorb a lot of the liquid — and the end result was delicious but could still be improved.

I served it with an Israeli couscous salad, which is pretty much the same recipe as the quinoa salad I made the other day, except I used Israeli couscous instead of quinoa, I used rice wine vinegar instead of lemon juice in the dressing, I included diced beets (which sort of stained it red), and I topped it with crumbled Gorgonzola. It was delicious.

Israeli couscous is just like regular couscous — both are made with granules of toasted pasta –  except the granules are much larger. Plus it’s from Israel.

Vegan Burger

3 cups brown rice, cooked

1/2 cup oatmeal, dry

1/2 cup lentils, cooked (okay, I used canned!)

1/2 cup carrots, rough chop

1/2 cup red onion, rough chop

1 medium beet, cooked and peeled, rough chop

1/4 cup celery, stem and leaves, rough chop

1/4 cup button mushrooms, sliced

2 TBS low-sodium soy sauce

3 cloves garlic, crushed

3 tsp Dijon mustard

3 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp fresh cracked black pepper

1. Place all ingredients in a food processor and pulse until combined, then run the food processor until the mixture has the consistency of ground beef.

2. Remove to mixing bowl. Portion and shape into 8 oz patties and place on a sheet pan lined with wax paper. Cover with a second sheet of wax paper and place in refrigerator overnight. This helps the patties to firm up so they won’t fall apart when you cook them.

3. Cook in a cast iron skillet or on the grill until cooked through. Serve on whole wheat buns with burger set ups — red leaf lettuce, sliced tomato and sliced red onion – and big kosher pickles on the side.

Have you found a great vegan burger? Help us out by sharing the recipe in the comments section below. And thanks for looking at my blog!