Black bean and kale burgers with a big KICK

I'll tell you about the kickin' cookin' in a minute. If you want to skip the recipe and go to the story, go down to the line divider. Otherwise, keep reading... Saturday night: I was making an approximation of this recipe from "Oh she glows," a great food / vegan blog. (And she originally got it here.)

I say an approximation of the recipe because I never follow recipes. I always adapt or change based on taste preferences, to add in extra veggies, or reduce the fat. I'm putting the version I made, below. (I increased the spices by quite a bit. Plus, I added kale for some greens, flax (for omega-3s), removed the oil, and added more oats because the burger mix, with my addition of kale, was way too moist.)

1-2 carrots
1 cup (frozen) kale
1-2 garlic clove(s)
1/4 cup pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
1 tablespoon cumin
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tsp coriander
1 chia egg (1 tbsp ground chia + 3 tbsp warm water, mixed well)
1/4 - 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 - 1 tsp sea salt
2 cans black beans (rinsed and drained)
1 cup dry rolled oats
1/3 cup ground flaxmeal


Directions: Preheat oven to somewhere between 300 and 350F*. Add carrots, garlic, and kale to the food processor and process until finely minced. Next, add pepitas and spices to your food processor and process until close to the texture you desire. (If you want the pepitas more chunky, then add these later.) Add 3/4 of the beans, the chia egg, 1/2 the oats, and the flax. Process until lightly mixed.

Spoon the mixture from the food processor into a mixing bowl and mix in (by hand) the rest of the beans and oats. Form into 10-12 good-sized patties. Place patties on a lined baking pan. (I use a silicone mat and I love my silicone baking mat. The one I linked to is close to what I have, but I can't find the particular mat I have.)

Bake the burgers at 325F for 30-40 minutes, turning once very carefully after 15-20 minutes (Note: The patties are fragile, but I think the addition of flax and extra oats makes these burgers more able to stick together than the original version.) Hint, use a metal spatula for getting underneath them to flip them.

(Note from the other blog, I haven't tried it. If you want to grill these, pre-bake them for 20-30 minutes at 300F, then throw them on the grill to get a little extra cooking / browning.)

*My notes: I baked these in my convection oven at 300. It seems to take between 30 and 40 minutes to get these done depending on the moisture content of the carrot(s) and kale.

---

Okay, so now I'll tell you about how things got really hot! It took me two attempts to make the burgers.

First time around, I was almost done mixing things. I had added the beans before I added all the spices and was working on putting in the remaining spices. I grabbed (what I thought was) the chili powder and poured in a big heaping tablespoon, maybe closer to 2. I started the food processor and went to search for the coriander.

As I found the coriander, I thought, "Ruh-oh, I think I put in cayenne pepper instead of chili powder." With trepidation, I tasted the mixture...whew, it's okay, 1,2,3 WHOA BABY! Nope, it was cayenne that I poured into the recipe in mass quantities. How did I manage that?

I stood and wrung my hands for a few seconds; I was very upset for having wasted so much food. I tried to think creatively so I decided to take most (3/4s) of the mixture out from the food processor to see if it would work as a bean dip. My oldest daughter, tried it and deemed it edible, nay really good, but with a big kick. (She thought it was hilarious that I said WHOA BABY when I tried it.) All my girls liked it as a bean dip and they ate quite a bit of it. They amused themselves with eating the dip and then trying to cool their mouths down. Oh to be 6, 7, and 10, again. Heh.

I was a little happier and I decided that the "accident" would work well spread on tortillas that could be stuffed with broccoli or spinach. Whew! The food was not wasted! (I can't wait to try this spread on tortillas! I'll let you know how it is.) (I love vegan cooking because you can eat stuff RAW!)

After pulling 3/4s of the burger mix out, adding in new ingredients, and re-making the burger mix, I still had really spicy burgers, but at least this time they weren't too hot to handle. These burgers are really good when you put in the right amount of cayenne. To end this really long post, here's a picture of the two jars of spice that managed to confuse me. Don't make the same mistake as me!

How embarrassing! At least it turned out tasty!

Approximate calories and nutrition analysis added 9/2017

Ridiculously Easy Baked Falafel Burgers

Veggies burgers make a great Sunday night dinner. I was looking for a new recipe, found a recipe for falafel burgers, didn't have all the ingredients so I changed it up and made this!


2 cans of garbanzo beans
1 cup of oats
2 tablespoons of flax meal
1 tablespoon cumin
2 tablespoons dried parsley
1-2 teaspoons onion powder
2-3 tablespoons of lemon
1/8 - 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Garlic to taste (I used ~1 medium clove)
Salt to taste (I used about 1 teaspoon with unsalted garbanzo beans)
A little of the garbanzo bean liquid (from the can) may be necessary for the mix… (I used about 1/4 of a cup, but add it slowly--a tablespoon at a time.)

Put the garbanzo beans and the oats in the food process to process them first. Add EVERYTHING ELSE in at once and processed until well mixed and very smooth in texture. (You may need to add a little of the liquid from the garbanzo beans.)

Form into patties and bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes flipping half-way through.

This recipe made 10 medium patties. They had a great texture and held together very well. They weren't too moist, so they cooked up really well, too.

Here they are right before the oven.

Serve with hummus on top if you like. (We had tomatoes and pickles, too. The girls did ketchup and vegan mayo.)

The nice thing about this recipe is that you can make it and then make hummus in the food processor WITHOUT washing. It is very exciting to me when I can make 2 things in the same food processor or blender without a wash in between… What does that say about me?

Oh wow… I just went back to this recipe. How funny. I made this new recipe from another site, but it is so similar! I guess there are only so many ways to make a garbanzo bean burger.

More burgers

I've been meaning to make these burgers for a while. Hummus is my second daughter's favorite food and I figured she'd love these burgers. She did!  I simplified the recipe a little.  Here's what I did. 

2-3 large garlic cloves
1/8 cup dried parsley

1/2 teaspoon onion powder

2 14.5 ounce cans chickpeas (garbanzo beans), rinsed and drained-reserving some of the liquid
1 cup rolled oats
2-3 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp salt (or not)

1/4 tsp pepper

1/4-1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

 

Put everything but the oats in the food processor and pulse or process until mixed to the texture you like. We like things smooth around here (see second daughter for more on why). 

 

Add oats and mix them in.

 

Form patties--we made about 10.

I baked at 350 for about 20 minutes each side, but they were still a little moist. I'm going to try making them in my scanpan next time.  

Flavor is nice!  Everyone liked it.  Kira, daughter #2, really liked them!

Verdict: we'll make these again!

Picture... see other site.  

Biggest difference between what we did and the original recipe: We left out the cilantro.

Black bean burgers with Kale

I always forget about my my black bean burger recipe.  They are actually are "green black bean burgers" because they have so much Kale. I love them.  The vegan who doesn't like vegetables loves them, too.*  I need to remember to make them more often. They take a while to cook, but the prep isn't too bad. I notice that I'm much more comfortable using the food processor in the kitchen than I was even a year ago. If you're new to cooking as a vegan, it will get easier!

*Surprisingly, the vegan who loves veggies doesn't like them--she's a purist when it comes to her black beans.) 4 out of 5 in our family love them and so do others outside the family who have tried them.

Curry Burgers

I found these and they inspired these:

 
(not  pretty, but VERY tasty!) 

2 tablespoons of Chia Seeds (ground)
6 tablespoons water
make Chia eggs set aside for a minute



1 big carrot
1 cup oats
2 teaspoons onion powder
1 tablespoon curry
1/2 teaspoon tumeric
1 teaspoon cumin
2 cloves garlic (minced)
1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon salt (use less salt if your beans are already salted)

2  (15 ounce) cans of unsalted garbanzo beans

Put the carrot in the food processor and process until small chunks. Add the oats, and all the spices.  Process to the textutre you like.

Add the drained garbanzo beans. Process. My food processor had a hard time with all the mixture so I had to pull out 1/2 of the carrots/oats and do 1/2 at a time.

Form into patties. I made 12.5.

Bake at 350 in a convection oven if you have it, or regular if you don't. I baked each side for 15 minutes.


We love these buns for our burgers.

Our Sunday night dinner with some leftovers.  (I <3 leftovers.)

Here are the Nutrition facts.  I don't know why this got an A-.

Sunday night burgers

I made so much soup last week that I just can't face my soup pot today. (Plus, I froze a lot of soup last week and don't have a lot of room left in the freezer.) Instead, I decided to make these burgers from Dreena Burton's site.

Of course, I had to change a couple of things... Here's what I did:

1 1/2 cups raw almonds

1 cup raw walnuts

1 small clove garlic

1/2 tsp sea salt

1 tbsp tomato paste

2 tbsp nutritional yeast (She said to add it and that it wouldn't be strong; I did even though I was worried about it. It was good.)

1 tbsp tamari

1/8 tsp each of dried thyme and ground sage (I didn't have thyme, so I just put in sage)

1 medium carrot

1 cup fresh kale (packed)

~1 cup rolled oats

Process the almonds, walnuts, garlic, and salt; make it a pretty fine consistency. Take most of the mixture out of the food processor to process the kale and carrots. (My food processor isn't big enough to handle nuts and the veggies at the same time.) Get kale and carrots into very small pieces. Add the nuts back and the tomato paste, nutritional yeast, tamari, and oats.  Pulse until mixed well. Now add the oats. My poor food processor couldn't really do it all so I helped by stirring in the oats up by hand.  (I need a new food processor.)

I made 10 patties and baked them at 400 on a silpat for 10 minutes on each side.

These are savory and nice. The whole family ate them. Yay! (I love meals that the whole family will eat.)  I'll try to get a picture of them soon, but take a look at Dreena's site if you want to see a picture sooner than I get to it. 

Lazy vegan weekend!

Last weekend was a lazy vegan weekend.  I didn't feel like cooking so I got vegan hot dogs and burgers at the store and the girls loved it.  They enjoyed these hot dogs* and these burgers,  while Nick and I enjoyed vegan chicken masala.   We got sprouted wheat buns for the girls and we ate our masala with kale (me) and brown rice (Nick).

These were super easy meals--we'll save them for those nights I just don't feel like cooking. I really prefer to prepare whole foods, but every now and then, a little break is nice!


*The girls are very excited by the hot dogs.  I'm not sure why.  We didn't eat hot dogs before going vegan, but I guess hot dogs =  happy kid food.  Life is good.

Black bean burger wrap

I love to make wraps for lunch! I either eat a wrap or a salad (pretty much) everyday for lunch. (Salads when I go to work and wraps when I work from home.) I made black bean burgers the other night and I had some left over. I broke one up, added steamed broccoli, and dijon mustard and voilà, a burger wrap!

 

I did manage to close it, see?

 

However, I can't let go of the wrap.  Oh well, I'll just eat it!

Philly

I'm a little over a month behind on many things...

We went to Philly in June and who knew there was such good VEGAN food there?

https://puresweets.com/

This was dinner one night.  OMG, so good.  I would go back in a heartbeat to eat there again.  They had a super fun "cheese" board as a starter, awesome pizza, good burgers (the buns weren't my favorite, but that is my only mild complaint).  Amazing desserts--brownies, tiramisu, ice cream sandwiches on delicious cookies.

And then there was

http://hipcityveg.com/

Fast food vegan, with all compostable wrappers/plastic ware.  So tasty -- we ate there twice.  They had fun milkshakes!  I loved the Philly "cheesesteak" wrap and the curry wrap ... I had a bite of the Bistro Bell....YUM!  I could have eaten there a few more times, but we were only there for 3 days.

I am hopeful that when I go to DC for work I'll get to go to the Hip City Veg there.

We also had dinner at my nephew's house and he made is what I am now calling "the Philly burrito."  I'll share what I've done with it since I've come home.

I didn't get pictures of food 'cause I was too busy shoving the food in my face... Here's a picture of the girls with their cousin at the Ben Franklin Science Museum.  We enjoyed Philly!

 

Happy New Year's!

For 2017, I thought I'd start with a list of dinners that we like.... You know, the age-old question, what's for dinner?  Here's a start and most can be found on this blog (and I'll keep adding the ones that aren't here yet).

Veggie Burgers (so many choices)
French Toast
Pinto Beans & Rice
Black Beans & Rice (I make my Pinto Beans and Black beans almost the same.) 
Spaghetti & Marinara Sauce
Tofu Stuffed Baked pasta
Baked Tofu
Quiche
Socca bread  -- good with red sauce and stir fried kale and onions
Soup (so many choices! Curry, Veggie, Potato, Split Pea etc.)
Mexican Lasagna
Teggs & fakon (fake bacon)
Grilled Sandwich of some sort (really yummy with a homemade vegan cheese)
Mexican Quinoa Casserole
Mexican Garden Quinoa
Peanut Sauce with noodles and a vegetable
Pizza (on bread, on crust, on tortillas)
Curry Quinoa (not on the blog yet)
Roasted Red Pepper Sandwiches
Italian Meatballs with pasta
Indian Comfort food
Hasharole (2 kinds)
Enchiladas
Gyro "meat" (made with soy curls)
Chipotle Hummus  (Adobo Sauce + Hummus)
Chickpea Scramble
"Tuna"
Black Bean Dip
Nat's teriyaki noodles (now only Nat and I like these, but she'll eat a LOT of them so it's good to make them)
Bean Dumplings
Turkey dinner and lunch meat (coming soon). 

Red Pepper Spread

Inspired by Oh She Glows, again, I made this delightful, delicious red pepper spread.  Hers was more of a muhammara than mine, 'cause I left the bread out, didn't toast the walnuts, and I used sweet red peppers. You know I can't follow directions and I like doing mash ups of recipes (pun intended).

What did I do?

I roasted about 8 red peppers, with olive oil.  I just put a little olive oil on each pepper and broiled for about 20 minutes at 450, then I flipped them over and watched them (probably about another 15-ish minutes.) I only used 4 in this recipe. The others will be used when I make this for our Saturday get together.


Put all the ingredients in your food processor:

4 roasted red peppers
1 cup walnuts
2 cloves of garlic
2 teaspoons smoked paprika (my new favorite spice!)
1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon of ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons of tomato paste

Process until mostly smooth and serve with bread.

 

So delicious! I didn't toast the walnuts, but it was still excellent.  Next time I may toast the walnuts, just for fun. For the record, it was delicious with raw walnuts.  

We think it will be excellent on wraps, (vegan) burgers, and just as a dip. This was Nick and my favorite part of Thanksgiving dinner.  (Natalie kind of liked it, Kira wouldn't try it, and Tia said it was okay.) (I don't care if the girls eat it or not--more for us!) 

P.S. See the pictures at Oh She Glows!

Sunday dinner

You may remember Sunday night was all about soups for a while, then burgers, and now I'm trying to make at least one new recipe a month. I've already made one this month, but I have time so why not two?

I can't decide which one to try...

http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2013/02/healthy-hash-brown-casserole.html
http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2011/11/creamy-vegan-broccoli-and-rice-casserole.html

I think I'm going to do the first one--they are very similar, but potatoes sound good.  Oh, but I'm going to be crazy and stick broccoli in the first one instead of Kale.  (We have lots of both in our garden, but more broccoli.) I'll report back later.

(Maybe potatoes sound good 'cause Kira and her friend made these beauties last night--two trays worth. Yum!)

Christmas Fun

 Hey, what is it?


A new food processor!!


One that I've been dreaming about for a couple years.  It's HUGE.  I can make tons of Chipotle Hummus.  I'll be able to make so many things more easily--my old food processor was small, so I couldn't make too much of anything at once; that made it hard to do vegan burgers, but it's all changing now!

So exciting!