I’ve blogged about Nutburgers before.  They are my favorite burgers, hands down.  I still think they would be my favorite even if I still ate beef- that’s how good they are.  I decided that it was time to revamp my recipe and the result was AWESOME!  They are a bit crumbly, so be forewarned that you must pack them together very tightly before frying.  For those of you who may be inclined, resist the urge to add an egg.  They come together fine and will hold up well after they are cooked.

Awesome Nutburgers

1 cup cooked lentils (about 1/2 cup dry)

1/4 cup raw walnuts

1/4 cup raw pecans

1 medium carrot, grated

1/4 of a large white onion, grated

1/4 cup roasted red peppers, chopped

1 TB flour

1 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp salt

Freshly ground black pepper

In a food processor, pulse together the lentils and nuts.  In a separate bowl, combine the rest of the ingredients and add the lentils and nuts.  Stir together to combine well.  Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.  When ready to fry, use a non-stick skillet sprayed with cooking spray.  Form patties out of the nutburger mixture and pack them together tightly.  Fry over medium-high heat for about 7 minutes per side.  If they fall apart when you flip them, use your hand or a spatula to push them back together.

I’ve been craving a big, messy burger lately. There are only a few brands of frozen veggie burgers that I like and I didn’t have any on hand, so I decided to make falafel burgers. They were amazing! The falafel, v. 2 recipe is so perfect for this because the combo of the dried chickpeas and flour hold the patty together so well that it doesn’t slide off the bun or fall apart like other homemade veggie patties. These were also so filling that I could only eat half. I’m almost ashamed to admit that our side of fries came from the freezer section of the grocery store. Oh well… sometimes you need a little of that.

Prepare the falafel recipe as directed using the full 6 TB of flour. Refrigerate for a few hours before cooking. Shape 6 (even) patties out of it and lightly pan fry in a teeny bit of canola oil. After pan frying, place in the oven for about 15 minutes to allow them to completely firm up. My oven was set to 450 degrees because that’s the temperature my fries needed to cook at. One note of advice: try to get your patties as thin as possible because they will poof up a bit as they cook.

The sauce was a combo of Tofutti BTSC, lemon juice, some finely diced cucumber, and fresh dill. These were super good and so much easier than making the little balls for traditional falafel.

I wasn’t really in the mood to cook anything last night, so I decided that some frozen veggie burgers were the way to go. The burgers were a “tex mex” variety- with corn, black beans, etc., and I decided to try out Carrie’s twist on tabbouleh for a side dish. I didn’t have her recipe in front of me and I was too lazy to turn on the computer, so I decided to wing it. The outcome was awesome! The leftovers are even better. Here is how I made my version of Carrie’s version of Mexican style tabbouleh :

Mexican Style Tabbouleh Salad

1/2 cup bulgur wheat

1 cup water

1 cup frozen corn kernals

1 cup beans (any kind will do)

1/2 red onion, diced and soaked in several changes of water *

1/2 tomato, diced

1/2 mango, diced

1/2 cup cilantro

juice of 3 limes

1/4 cup olive oil

Put the bulgur in a pot with the water and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer for about 15 minutes until the water is adsorbed. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, add the frozen corn (no need to defrost- the hot bulgur will do that for you), beans, tomato, onion, mango and cilantro. When the bulgur is cooked, add it to the bowl too. Add the lime juice, olive oil and S&P. Serve at room temperature or chilled.

* I really don’t care for raw onion too much, mostly because of the gross after taste it leaves in my mouth. I find that by soaking raw onion in several changes of water before I add it to a salad, it helps to counteract the yucky after taste.

I especially loved the addition of the mango. When I was a kid, my mom would make pasta salad in the summertime and would either add in some chopped nectarine or some grapes. It was so tasty to have a sweet bite of fruit in the middle of a savory, refreshing salad and I thought the mango would serve the same purpose here. If I would have had a jalapeño on hand, I may had added it as well. I will totally be making this again!

One of my favorite things to have for dinner are sandwiches and/or burgers. They’re so easy to make and are really satisfying. I have myself convinced that I can make veggie burgers just as good as the ones sold in the store, but for much less money. So far, I have tried a few recipes, none of which hit the mark, except for this one. I’ve made these “burgers” a couple of times and they come together really quick and the recipe is pretty versatile. I have changed up the nuts a few different ways and they always come out tasty. My recipe is adapted from the Three-Nut Burger recipe in Vegan Planet. Since I changed it up a little, I think it is probably safe to post here:

Nut Patties

1 cup of pecans, roughly chopped

1/2 cup each almonds and pistachios, roughly chopped

1 cup of cooked lentils (I used brown)

1 TB parsley, chopped

1 small onion, chopped

1 TB olive oil

1/3 to 3/4 cup breadcrumbs

1/2 cup roasted red peppers, chopped

2 TB any nut butter

S&P

Start by sauteeing the onion in the olive oil until it is softened. In the meantime, chop up your nuts, if they aren’t chopped already. I did this by giving them a quick whirl in the food processor. Add everything into the food processor and let it whirl until the mixture comes together. Form into patties and cook- either pan fry in a little olive oil or bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes, flipping them once halfway through. I baked mine because I find that pan frying any burger makes it gummy in the middle. This batch was tasty, but turned out really dry and I don’t know if it’s because I baked them too long, overdid it with the breadcrumbs, or because I forgot to add in the peppers. That’s why I suggest starting with 1/3 cup of breadcrumbs and increasing it if you feel the mixture is too mushy. Part of my problem could have been the bread that made it dry since I used sandwich bread instead of a burger roll.

We served ours up with some sliced tomatoes and lettuce and, on mine and Emma’s, a generous dollop of mayo. Yes, you read that right, mayo. I know it’s not vegan, but I have an enormous tub of it in my fridge that I need to use up. What’s worse- throwing it out to buy a vegan mayo or using it up even though it isn’t vegan? I say that wasting it is way worse.

To my surprise, Emma really liked them. I think the dryness started getting to her because she would chew it up and then spit it out, as if it was too much trouble to chew and swallow. Oh well. Lucky for us, she has no food allergies, which leaves us lots of options for meat-, egg- and dairy-free foods.

On the side, we had a very simple salad consisting of the few veggies we had in the fridge- organic salad greens and radishes. I enjoy making my own vinaigrette’s (those bottles of dressing take up too much space in my fridge). To make the dressing for this salad, I put about a tablespoon of organic apricot preserves, S&P, a splash of red wine vinegar into the bottom of my salad bowl. I whisked that together and then added a little bit of olive oil. Easy to make and very tasty! This has been my favorite dressing to make lately.