vegan « (y)our food choices™

All the flavor without the guilt.

To paraphrase the 80’s hit, “Turning Japanese,” I think we’re turning vegetarian. Yes, we do eat meat and fish, but for the last few weeks, ever since our first juice fast, we have eaten so little meat, fish, and dairy, that multiple days have gone by without any animal products showing up in our meals, and without either one of us conscience of our eating habits until days later. It’s been such an unusual change in our dietary habits that we’ve even started eating at vegan restaurants and, gasp, liking it!

In the midst of all that juicing and fasting, our thoughts drifted to daydreams of big juicy burgers. A trip to [your favorite burger shop] was tempting but we knew that if we were to succumb to the temptation we’d regret it.

Now, veggie burgers are not the sort of thing that either one of us likes to eat – usually – but after purchasing a big container of crimini mushrooms, Jason’s thoughts turned to creating the meatiest, meatless burger he could muster. Using a basic veggie burger recipe from a Vegetarian Times he swiped from the laundromat as a template, an idea began to take shape. The burger that was created has a similar taste and texture to ground beef but without the meat. Mushrooms, miso, and soy sauce gives the burgers the umami that many veggie burgers lack.

For those of you who are die hard carnivores, and aren’t willing to exchange a veggie based patty with your beloved beef, nothing we say is going to make you want to try our burgers. But if you’re willing to try something different, or if you’re looking for a hearty but easier to digest fast breaker, we suggest you break one of these burgers. It will help you ease back into the meat world and you won’t feel guilty for breaking your fast with that greasy cheese burger.

From beans to burger.

Black Bean, Mushroom & Quinoa Burgers

½ cup quinoa
1 medium onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
8 ounces Crimini mushrooms
2 tablespoons olive oil
¼ cup Miso
1-2 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
2 cup cooked black beans (1 15 ounce canned rinsed and drained)
Salt & pepper

Rinse quinoa in several changes of water. In a small saucepan, add rinsed quinoa with 1 ¼ cups water with 1/8 teaspoon salt. Bring to a boil, cover and reduce the heat to medium-low. Simmer for 20 minutes (all the liquid should be absorbed when the quinoa is fully cooked). You should have about 1 ½ cups cooked quinoa.

Peel and rough chop the onion and add it to a food processor. Clean the mushrooms and add them to the food processor. Pulse the processor 5-10 times or until the onion and mushroom mixture comes to a small rough consistency.

Heat olive oil in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add the mushroom onion mixture and a pinch of salt, to draw out the moisture in the vegetables, and sauté until the mushrooms and onions are dry, 5-10 minutes. Add the soy sauce and miso and mix together. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

In the food processor, add the black beans, quinoa, and mushroom mixture. Pulse about 10-15 times or until thoroughly mixed together. Taste and season with salt and pepper or more soy sauce to taste.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. With about ½-3/4 cup of the bean mixture, form the patties. You should get about 8. Place the patties on a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the patties are crisp on top, then flip the burgers. Bake for 10-15 minutes more, or until the other side is also crisp.

Serve on top of a bun with all the usual “burger” condiments or on a bed of lettuce with a crumble of goat or feta cheese.

Note: The bean patties can be frozen after shaping. Add 10-15 minutes to the baking time for frozen patties.

A bowl of golden comfort food.

Almost all recipes evolve from a previous one. Very few occur out of thin air to the point of being new and original. This recipe is an adaptation of a Melissa Roberts recipe for Gourmet (Pasta with Beet Greens/Diary of a Foodie: Season Three: Farm to Fork). We have prepared Melissa’s recipe more times than we can count, but we thought it was time to replace the pasta with Arborio rice and to include both the beet greens and the beets they were once attached to. The concept of roasting beets in the oven until they are tender and sweet is something we enjoy any time of the year and we thought it might be interesting to replace the traditional winter squash with roasted golden beets in a creamy risotto to take the edge off our cool Winter/Spring weather.

Our evolved roasted beet risotto has a beautiful golden hue that looks almost too good to eat – almost. One bite and we knew that this dish was a winner that could easily be served in as a gorgeous first course or main course for vegetarians (or vegans, if you omit the Parmesan cheese). No one will miss the meat with the earthy and sweet flavors, plus all the olive oil and pine nuts give it just enough fat to satisfy and comfort your inner carnivore.

Thank you Melissa and Gourmet for the inspiration. If Melissa or the folks from the now defunct Gourmet are reading our blog (we miss you Gourmet) give our recipe a try. We think you’ll agree that your beet green pasta recipe has evolved into something truly golden.

Roasted Golden Beet Risotto

1 bunch golden beets with stems and leaves (about 3-4 medium sized beets)
4 cups water
2 teaspoons kosher or sea salt
1 cup dry vermouth
1/3 cup golden raisins
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup pine nuts
1 medium onion, minced
1 cup Arborio rice
1 cup grated Parmesan Cheese (optional)
Salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Cut the stems and leaves from the base of the beets and place in a bowl of water to wash thoroughly. Cut the stems from the leaves and separate. Chop the stems into ¼” pieces and the leaves into ½” strips. Scrub the beets and place on a layer of aluminum foil, fold the foil over the beets to form a “package.” Place the beet package on a cookie sheet. Roast the beets for 40-60 minutes or until a knife can be easily inserted. Allow to cool before handling.

In the meantime, heat the vermouth in a pan until just simmering then add the raisins and cover. Allow to seep until you are ready to add the vermouth to the Arborio rice.

Heat four cups of water with 2 teaspoons salt in a separate pan until barely a simmer. In a large Dutch oven, add the olive oil over medium heat. Add the pine nuts and toast, watching very closely so they don’t burn, for just a few minutes. Remove the pine nuts from the pan. Add the minced onions and beet stems to the pan and sauté until the onions are translucent. Add the Arborio rice to the pan and saute for 3-4 minutes until the rice is slightly toasty. Strain the vermouth into the pan and stir until all the liquid is absorbed. Set the raisins aside for later. Gradually add ½ cup to 1 cup of water to the rice and continue to stir. Allow the rice to absorb the water before adding more water. Total cooking time should be about 20-30 minutes. Before the last addition of water, add the beet greens and stir thoroughly.

Once the beets are cool enough to handle, using paper towels, gently rub the beets to remove the skins. Dice the beets into ¼” pieces.

When the risotto is completely cooked, remove from heat and add the Parmesan cheese, beets, and toasted pine nuts. Stir one last time before serving and top with additional Parmesan cheese or a drizzle of olive oil or both.