Beet Burgers

Beet burgers are delicious (dare I say they can't be…. beat??).  I know there's a lot of beet haters out there (which is totally beat, dude), but these burgers deserve a chance.  (I'm sorry.  Had to get the beet puns out of my system.)  I'd venture to say that you don't even really taste a specific beet-y flavor in them, since the beets meld with everything else in the "meat" mixture.  The thing that these beets do impart on the burgers is their color: bright red, which makes the burger mixture look suspiciously like raw meat.  It makes me feel like a carnivore.  But the nice kind.  I guess I should also mention that I feel like a carnivore when I have to butcher a cauliflower or skin a roasted pepper.  But I digress.

The recipe for these burgers comes from my all time favorite food blog, Post Punk Kitchen.  I use recipes from the blog and the books that the blogger, Isa, has written, and have yet to find a recipe that I don't like.  You can find the original beet burger recipe here.  I didn't change the original recipe very much, but what I did change is the toppings.  Isa serves hers pretty much plain but I always add lettuce, caramelized onions, and tsadziki, which really puts it over the top.

Frying up that burger meat

Recipe notes:

• The original recipe calls for "shredded beets".  I have used both canned (cooked) beets as well as freshly cooked beets, and both have worked just fine.  My preference is to have raw beets which are roasted until al dente, as in they're soft enough to be stabbed by a fork but aren't quite cooked enough to be eaten alone.  I find that these beets give a little more texture to the burger, but feel free to use the soft canned beets if that's what you have.
• Tsadziki sauce needs time to meld after you make it, so definitely mix this up first and then let it hang out in the fridge while you ruthlessly wrestle beets (….beat up the beets?  Sorry.)  The more time the tsadziki has to let its ingredients mingle, the better.
• As you cook the beet burgers, have your oven on at a low temperature, like 250 f.  As the beets finish cooking in the pan, pop them into the oven to keep them warm and cook the inside a bit more.  I like my beet burgers done medium-well, not still mooing on the plate...err, beet-ing on the plate?  (Beating on the plate?? Last pun.  I promise.  Maybe.)

Click here for the Beet Burger recipe. Isa does such a fabulous job blogging it that I don't feel the need to re-do it here.  See below for the accouterments.

Tsadziki Sauce:

• 1 small container of Greek Yogurt (single serving size)
• 1/2 a cucumber, seeded and very finely chopped
• 1 1/2 tsp fresh chopped dill
• 1-4 cloves of garlic, minced (depending on your tolerance for spicy garlic flavor)
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• Salt to taste

Combine everything in a bowl and mix thoroughly.  Since it's a sauce, it's very forgiving- so taste, taste, taste, and adjust everything to your palate.  Cover and let sit in refrigerator until ready to use.  The longer you let it sit, the better the flavors will combine.

Caramelized Onions:

• 1 large onion, or 2 small/medium onions
• 1 1/2 Tbs olive oil
• 1 1/2 Tbs Smart Balance
• 1 tsp brown sugar
• Salt to taste

Thinly slice the onion.  Melt the oil, Smart Balance, and brown sugar in a pan over medium-high heat.  Add the onion and a sprinkle of salt, and mix so that the onions are coated by the oil.  Cook on medium high until the onions are lightly softened and some of the water has evaporated off.  Turn heat down to medium-low and let the onions cook, covered, stirring frequently, for about 20 minutes.  The onions are done when they are a deep brown color and really mushy looking.

You can make these as burgers, or put the burgers on top of lettuce and call it a salad.  Sometimes the burgers can get crumbly, in which case salad is a much easier option because of the whole using-a-fork thing.  Either way, it's delicious. 

Chickpea Pot Pie with Sweet Potato Crust

Pot pie is one of those things that's easy to love and hard to hate.  I mean, who can really have any bad feelings towards something that's such a great, warm comfort food, combining a stew-like interior with a deliciously crisp top?  No one, that's who.  Anyway as delicious and comforting as they are, traditional pot pies are not generally known for their health benefits.  Enter the Chickpea Pot Pie with Sweet Potato Crust: delicious and comforting as ever, but now veganized and healthy.  This pot pie was put together using inspiration from two different sources, this one for the crust and this one for the filling.  Some of the ingredients are changed to keep it vegan (helllooo, flax egg!) but the basics stayed mostly the same.

Some recipe notes:

• Make the crust first, then let it chill in the fridge while you make the filling.
• Due to my hatred of having to wash any more dishes than absolutely necessary, I made one giant pot pie in a casserole dish.  You can totally make single-serving pot pies in ramekins, just make sure to evenly split up the filling and crust.  Don't want any naked and crustless pies running around. (Editor's note: If your pie has legs on which to run around, it is probably not vegan.)
• The dough for the crust will be really soft, and thus difficult to roll out and lay on top of the pie.  My solution- roll the dough out on the plastic wrap that it's already been wrapped in.  Once it's the right size, ninja-flip it onto the casserole dish (and don't forget to peel the plastic wrap off).  If this results in dough flung onto your walls, floor, ceiling, and/or face, please find a set of extra hands to help you on the 2nd try.
• In the recipe I mention that you have to let the filling become thick and bubbly before baking it.  Don't skip this step- once the pot pie is assembled, the dough will be covering the top and the liquid won't evaporate any more, so you want to make sure it's thick before going in the oven.  Unless you like runny pot pies, but….ew.
• The pot pie mixture is very forgiving.  Add or subtract your favorite veggies to the ones I have listed to make this your own.

Sweet Potato Crust Ingredients:

• 1 Cup AP flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 Cup mashed sweet potato (cool, or at least not hot)
• 1/3 Cup vegetable oil
• 1 flax egg (1 Tbs ground flax seed mixed with 3 Tbs water) (Or you can just use an egg if you're into that kinda thing)
• 1/2 tsp minced thyme
• Ground black pepper

Sweet Potato Crust Directions:

1. Make your flax egg first, and let it sit for a few minutes while you do the next few steps.  It needs to sit to morph into an egg-ish texture.
2. In a food processor, pulse the flour, baking powder and salt.  
3. Blend in the rest of the ingredients (including the flax egg) until a dough has formed.
4. Cover the dough in plastic wrap, and let it sit in the fridge until you're ready to use it.

Pot Pie Filling Ingredients:

• 2 cups chopped white potatoes (or sweet potatoes if you prefer)
• 1/2 cup chopped carrots
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup AP flour
• 2 cups veggie broth
• 2 cups of cooked chickpeas (or 2 cans, drained and rinsed)
• 1/2 cup peas (I used frozen)
• 1/2 cup corn
• salt
• pepper

Pot Pie Recipe:

1. Boil potatoes and carrots until al-dente tender, a.k.a. soft but not mushy.  Pre-heat oven to 375 f.
2. In a large pan over medium heat, sauté onions in the oil until soft, about 5 minutes.  Add in the crushed garlic and cook for another minute.  Mix the 1/4 cup of flour.
3. Slowly whisk the veggie broth in with the flour and onions.  Don't rush this part- you want to pour in small amounts of broth at a time and let the flour incorporate with the liquid before adding more.  Rush it and you'll end up with a lumpy goo that won't thicken, which, in my humble opinion, does not make the most attractive pot pie.
4. Keep whisking the mixture until it's thick and bubbly, which should take 2 or 3 minutes.
5. Add in the rest of the veggies- the (drained, of course) carrots and potatoes, chickpeas, corn, and peas.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Keep cooking for another 4 or 5 minutes until the entire mixture is heated through.
6. Pour the filling into a 2-quart casserole dish.  Take the dough out of the fridge and roll it out on the plastic wrap so that it's the size of the casserole dish (don't be afraid to use flour-coated hands to manipulate the dough if it's too sticky to roll).  Use the plastic wrap to flip the dough onto the top of the dish (see above notes).
7. Place a baking pan under the casserole dish to catch any drips, then pop it in the oven for 10-12 minutes or until the top is browned.  Let it cool for a few minutes before serving.

Banana Bread Cookies

After (another) cold day of shoveling snow, all I want to do is drink hot chocolate and eat something warm that I've baked.  Today, these banana bread cookies did the trick- quick and easy to make, healthy, and most importantly, delicious.

These cookies also solved my issue of the Plight of the Single Banana.  (Spoiler alert- if you could care less about my neurotic rantings on bananas, skip this paragraph to get to the good stuff below.)  Maybe it's just me, but I feel like I very rarely have 2 or 3 overripe bananas sitting around to make banana bread.  In my house, bananas go quickly.  However, once in a while, there's that single banana that gets ripe on the sly, so that no one notices until it's just a tad too brown to be appetizing.  The Single Ripe Banana always gives me problems, because I want to put it to good use but don't really want to eat it, but also have no other ripe banana companions to make into bread.  Enter: banana bread cookies.  They only require a single banana, but still have full banana bread flavor.

The recipe for this comes from a vegan cookie book written by Isa Chandra, one of my favorite vegan chef/authors.  I tweaked things ever so slightly, but most things stayed the same.

Ingredients:

• 1 very ripe medium banana
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 3/4 cup plus 2 Tbs AP flour
• 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 cups quick-cooking oats
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips
• Cinnamon sugar, for sprinkling

Recipe:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and lightly grease two baking sheets.
2. In a medium size bowl, mash the banana (you can just use a fork).  Add oil, sugar, and vanilla, and mix together.
3. Add the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt, and mix until all the ingredients are just combined.
4. Add the oats, walnuts, and chocolate chips.  Make sure everything is mixed together well.  If the dough is really loose still, add a bit more flour.
5. Roll the dough into balls, and flatten slightly on the baking sheet.  If the dough sticks to your hands, you can wet your hands to smooth out the tops.  Or just leave them jagged and imperfect. They're homemade cookies, dammit.
6. (Optional) Sprinkle some cinnamon sugar over the tops.
7. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until lightly browned.  Let them cool for a couple minutes on the tray before transferring them to a cooling rack.

As you can see, I totally gave up on the smooth, perfect cookie and opted for the more rugged look.  I also may or may not have eaten about four of these cookies straight out of the oven and burned my tongue on molten chocolate.  Totally worth it.