red lentil burgers: a discovery

During grad school I used to hang out at Harrison Street Cafe, this great little vegan/vegetarian restaurant with killer coffee and iced tea. I think if graduate school had a taste it would be that of a red lentil burger with veganaise...those days I spent in the library were nourished by H street...and their chai tea lattes.

Since I don't get a chance to get down to campus much anymore, I've been searching for a recipe that rivals THE red lentil burger from HSC. To be honest, I haven't had much luck making red lentil burgers, or any veggie burgers for that matter. They just fall apart or become dry.  Enter Whole Foods Recipe for Red Lentil Burgers. So good! Even Jon, who sometimes turns up his nose at veg fare wolfed them down! We actually did not eat them as burgers, we ate them as tacos, with cooked zucchini, and cucumbers and tomatoes salad on the side.   I certainly modified the recipe quite a bit, and added extra spices because I felt like it.  I think the link recipe would be great, but if you are brave, try mine :)

Ingredients

• 1 pound (1 1/2 cups) red lentils
• 5 cups water, salted
• 1 cup minced onion (1 medium)
• 1/2 cup minced carrot (1 large)
• 2 teaspoons minced garlic (2 cloves)
• Olive oil for the skillet
• 2 cups chopped crimini mushrooms  We didn't have any, and I wasn't going to the store.
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 3/4 cup Japanese bread crumbs (panko)
• 4 1/2 teaspoons lemon juice
• Extra ingredient! Kitchens of India: Rich Creamy Tomato Cooking Sauce:  preservative free, which I found at Ellwood Thompson's, our local grocery store.
• 
  Extra - cumin and chili powder to taste!
• 
  
• 10 ounces firm tofu, pureed in a blender  We did have tofu but it had a sell by date of early June and smelled super sour - anyone have any experience with sour tofu? To use or not to use? I chose not,  which worried me, as I thought tofu would be a major binder, but it didn't hurt my recipe. 
• 
  

What you do:
In a large pot, simmer the lentils in salted water until tender. Drain and cool. So I cooked my lentils till their was no water left. It made them a little paste like, but I think that allowed the burger to stick together better.

In a large skillet, sauté the onion, carrot and garlic in 1 teaspoon olive oil until tender, about 2 minutes

Add the mushrooms, oregano, and salt and pepper to taste. Cook until mushrooms are tender and liquid has evaporated, approximately 5 minutes, and allow to cool.

Add the bread crumbs, lemon juice, pureed tofu, 2 tablespoons olive oil and cooked lentils and mix to combine. Add half a jar of the tomato cooking sauce.  Transfer to a large bowl. Chill for 30 minutes and then shape into 8 patties. 

Pan fry in olive oil in a large skillet until each side is crisp and golden (we cooked ours along side delicious squash from our garden). Finish in a 350°F oven if necessary to heat through.

they taste so much better than this picture looks, I promise

We at ours as tacos, but they would be delicious with buns as well! We'll definitely be making them again!  I hope you enjoy! What is your favorite veggie burger recipe?

Food diaries: When best friends get together we make my grandmother's peach crumble

What you'll need:

six peaches, peeled and sliced*

one cup of flour

one cup of sugar

tblspn of cinnamon

one egg

one stick of butter

What you do:

- Preheat the oven to 425 and put your peach slices in a pan

- mix one cup flour and one cup sugar, add a dash of cinnamon, maybe more

- Use your fork to make a little hole in the sugar/flour mixture and drop in your egg

- Mix until the batter resembles cornmeal then dump over top of your peaches

- In a separate bowl melt your butter, pour your butter all over the sugar flour mixture

- Throw it in the oven for 25 - 30 minutes (or until nice and crisp)

- Eat with friends on the porch with ice cream or whipped cream. 

* To peel your peaches, boil up some water and drop those suckers in for 45 - 60 seconds. Drain and rinse in cold water and those skins will fall right off! 

2011 and the Moosewood Cookbook

Hi Friends, I hope you all had a wonderful New Years holiday! I've been sick the last few days, including new years eve, but that didn't stop me from putting on my sparkles, enjoying time with some excellent friends and substituting grapefruit juice for champagne. I'll post my goals and resolutions for the New Year in a bit, but I wanted to share with you one of my favorite gifts from 2010.....

Introducing the Moosewood Cookbook! My mom lives by the moosewood and I grew up with these delicious veggie entrees for dinner almost every night. I am stoked that I now have a cookbook of my own, primarily because I'm hoping it can convert my meat and potatoes husband to be more open to vegetarian fare.

The first recipe I made (by request from the husband) was the Moosewood's Hungarian Mushroom Soup. We didn't have any dill, as is suggested in the recipe, but it was still a good hearty winter soup.

Be forewarned, I've already tried out more moosewood recipes so get ready for some vegetarian deliciousness. Have you ever tried a moosewood recipe?

sweet potato soup

Though the fall weather has been quite mild, I've still been craving hearty soups and stews. We've been getting a plethora of sweet potatoes from our CSA and so the other week I whipped up some sweet potato soup. I don't have a recipe, I just called my momma and guestimated....

EBD's modified Moosewood Cookbook Sweet Potato Soup!

one onion, diced

one clove of garlic, diced

3 large sweet potatoes

1/2 cup of OJ

tblspn of butter

evoo

cumin

ginger

salt to taste

pepper to taste

1 cup of veggie broth (you can also use chicken broth or you can omit this all together...my mom told me not to use any broth but I chose to use it because I already had an open container of veggie broth and needed to get rid of it anyways :-))

Boil sweet potatoes until they are done (nice and soft, stabable with a fork). Meanwhile, saute onions, garlic with one tblspn of butter and a tblspn of olive oil until soft (listen, this is how my Italian mother taught me to saute, it makes everything delicious, just trust me, the rest of the recipe is healthy enough. USE THE BUTTER- unless of course you are vegan). Add cumin and ginger, salt and pepper to the onions and garlic.

Once everything is nice and soft, put the sweet potatoes and half the onion/garlic mix in the blender (you can put all of it in but I like chunks) and blend with the veggie broth and OJ- hit liquefy!!!!!! Once everything nice and smooth (also, you can adjust the veggie broth and OJ depending on how thick or thin you want the soup) pour it back into the pot, add the remaining garlic and onion mixture and heat back up. You may want to taste it now and see if you want to add more salt, pepper, cumin, ginger or some spices of your own.

I hope you enjoy!

seeking blueberry recipes!

Thank you so much for the sweet comments about the earrings. Your encouragement is so sweet! I'm thinking about getting an etsy store up and running, and if I do you will be the first to know!

This week my mom and I braved the heat and went blueberry picking. I ended up coming home with two big buckets full of berries! Whoohoo antioxidants!

I will probably be freezing a fair amount, but I also plan on using them in some recipes!

How do you like your blueberries cooked/prepared??

At least you are getting your vitamin c

So good, yet so bad



I made these carrot cake whoopie pies for a work potluck. Not the healthiest thing in the world, and I'm sure I could have modified them, but I prefer to stick to the recipe the first time around- and besides they were delicious!

Recipe found here