Savoury Noodle Kugel Burger

From The Best Veggie Burgers on the Planet, Joni Marie Newman, Fair Winds Press, 2011.

I enjoy making burgers. I enjoy even more eating them though occasionally there will be one that just doesn’t work. This burger is an example.

It was easy to make. You just had to pile all of the ingredients into a bowl: 200g cooked macaroni, 200g grated potato, 300g firm tofu broken into grain-sized pieces, 50g cream cheese, 50g margarine, 1 teaspoon Vegemite, 60g ground almonds, 1 tablespoon each of onion powder, garlic powder and miso, a pinch of paprika, salt and pepper and a cup of breadcrumbs. These were mashed well with the hands until well mixed. This was then formed into eight burgers. I had a few doubts at this stage whether the mixture would hold together as it was being fried. Some of the burgers stayed together, others fell apart.

I really didn’t enjoy these. There was an odd sour after taste to them that was a little unpleasant. It actually made me check back on all of the ingredients used to see if any had perhaps passed their use-by date, but they were all  good.

I am not sure about the use of garlic and onion powders. These, to me, do not taste like their namesake. Rather they have a flavour all of their own which is why I followed the recipe in case their particular flavour was a necessary ingredient. If I made these again—which I won’t—I would use real onions and garlic and fry them up beforehand.

Taste: ✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔

Pineapple-Orange-Pomegranate Relish

From The Best Veggie Burgers on the Planet, Joni Marie Newman, Fair Winds Press, 2011.

To go with my Jamaican Jerk Burger I made this relish. One cup of pineapple juice was mixed in a saucepan with ½ cup orange juice and ¼ cup of olive oil. One cup of crushed pineapple was added to this and it was brought to a boil then simmered for about half an hour.

The heat was turned off and a cup of pomegranate seeds was added with a little chopped spring onion and a touch of salt and pepper. It was now ready.

This relish worked wonderfully with the burgers. Its cool sweet/savouriness contrasted with the hot spiciness of the burgers.  

Taste: ✔✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔✔

Jamaican Jerk Burger

From The Best Veggie Burgers on the Planet, Joni Marie Newman, Fair Winds Press, 2011.

I have been looking for ages for somewhere to purchase seitan. Finally I have found somewhere, The Vegetarian Butcher. I immediately came home with a packet to try out, as well as a packet of vegetarian sausages.

Naturally, when I browse through vegetarian cookery books I always find mention of seitan but when I have the product I don’t remember where I saw it mentioned. But then I found this burger recipe.

Firstly the Jamaican jerk sauce had to be made. It was easy, only a matter of putting all the ingredients in the blender and processing them until they became a type of paste. While I used the same ingredients (spring onions, ground allspice, pineapple juice, garlic cloves, chillies, dried thyme, ground cinnamon and nutmeg, salt and black pepper) I did not follow the measurements given. I just approximated them roughly, tasting as I went to get a hot spicy mix that I was happy with. I tipped it all into a bowl.

The burgers were then made. I chopped half a red onion and placed it in the blender with the seitan, about 300g. These were processed until they broke up and became crumb like. They were tipped into the bowl with the jerk sauce and mixed together. I tried to form this mix into burger shapes but they did not hold together very well. I thought that perhaps the pieces needed to be processed more to become a little finer. So I now processed the whole mixture in the blender. They held together a little better though not perfectly.

The oven was now heated to 180ºC. The mixture was formed into burger shapes and placed on a tray covered with baking paper. A pineapple ring was placed on top of each burger. They then went into the oven for 45 minutes. Since the oven was on I roasted some potatoes and carrots to have with the burgers rather than eat them in buns.

I also made a pineapple-orange-pomegranate relish to have with the burgers.

The burgers turned out to be very spicy, perhaps a little too much so when eaten by themselves, but when combined with some of the relish the spiciness was modified a little and they were chewy and tasty. The sweetness of the pineapple and the relish worked nicely with the hot chilli.

Taste: ✔✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔

Ortega Burger

From The Best Veggie Burgers on the Planet, Joni Marie Newman, Fair Winds Press, 2011.

I was intrigued with a burger that had fresh salsa as one of its main ingredients. So I made a fresh tomato salsa for my burgers.

The next stage was to boil a cup of water and pour it over a cup of TVP granules. It was let stand until the granules had reconstituted. The little bit of extra water was drained off.

I made taco seasoning from the recipe in the book and it was amazingly accurate to bought ones. A couple of tablespoons went into the TVP. Then in went half a cup of flour, half a cup of salsa and a tablespoon of a hot sauce. It was all left to stand for about half an hour.

The quantity made four patties that were quickly fried and just as quickly eaten with more fresh salsa on the side and broccolini for greens.

These were nicely juicy burgers with a touch of the Mexican about them from the salsa. My intention had been to serve them on a plate with quacamole, sour cream, salsa and corn chips but, as is often the case, intentions fall apart as the last moment.

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔

All-American Burger

From The Best Veggie Burgers on the Planet, Joni Marie Newman, Fair Winds Press, 2011.

I really have no idea what ‘all-American’ means. It seems to be applied to anything at random—possibly to make it sound good. Whatever it means, this burger so far has been, for me, the best I have made from this book.

The base for the burger was mushrooms. These were chopped and fried with garlic until softened a little. About a third of a cup of vegetable stock was then added and brought to the boil and turned down to simmer. This was not the full amount of liquid required by the recipe—which was three-quarters of a cup. It calls for TVP granules to be added at this stage and the heat turned off for the TVP to soak. However, I do prefer to have TVP soaked first and have the water drained off, which I had done, so I added less liquid with my soaked TVP.

This was all left to cool. Nutritional yeast was now to be added. I used Vegemite. Some mustard to taste, onion powder and seasoning also went in. The flour, sufficient to make a good mix, and it was all mixed together. Hands were the best tools for this.

It all went in the fridge for about half an hour and was then formed into four burgers ready to be fried.

The burgers were tasty and had a good texture to them that was somewhat similar to that of meat burgers. They were served on a bed of rocket with a minty yoghurt dressing.

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔

Sun-Dried Tomato and Pesto Burger

From The Best Veggie Burgers on the Planet, Joni Marie Newman, Fair Winds Press, 2011.

I’ve tried several burgers from this book and while they tend to be all right and interesting in their own right I have still to find one that might be classified as ‘the best veggie burger on the planet’. The best veggie burge I have found to suit my tastes was found in Plenty. This was a broad bean burger. But I still continued my search and tried a sun-dried tomato and pesto burger.

To begin I put on some rice to boil, sufficient to make 2 cups.

Next an onion and 250 grams of chopped mushrooms were fried until their quantity had reduced to about half.

While this was cooking I made a pesto. The recipe called for a quantity of their own pesto recipe to be made but I make pesto so often, and I like my own pesto so much, that I whizzed up my own. Half a cup was required for the burgers and more for the bread.   

This, as well as the other ingredients (one half a cup of sun-dried tomatoes chopped, 2 cups of cooked rice and half a cup of pesto, were placed in a food processor until mixed and broken down, though still somewhat chunky.

Rice flour was now added to make a good consistency for burgers. At this stage I found hands were the best implements for doing this. The mixture then went in the refrigerator to allow the flour time to meld well.

When it was time for cooking, the mixture was taken out and made into burgers. It made eight.

Buns were not used to accompany the burgers, but a baguette was sliced on an angle, given a light toasting and spread with pesto.

I enjoyed these burgers better than some others I have made from the book. The sun-dried tomatoes gave a pleasant tang as you bit into the burgers and the pesto highlighted the mushrooms well.

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔

Baba Ghanoush Burgers

From The Best Veggie Burgers on the Planet, Joni Marie Newman, Fair Winds Press, 2011.

The idea of using what is basically a dip as the basis for a burger was interesting. I’m not totally convinced that this one really worked but I did give it a try.

I’ve made several burgers from this extravagantly boastfully titled cookery book. They have usually worked in various degrees of successfulness. Whenever they don’t quite match up it is in their moistness; they are usually a bit on the dry side and require plenty of sauce to overcome this.

The baba ghanoush burgers started off by frying eggplant in some sesame oil. When it was ready garlic, chopped onion, cumin and seasonings were added. They were cooked for a quarter of an hour.

Stock was then added with TVP granules. The mixture was covered, removed form the heat and left to stand for about 10 minutes.

Chickpea flour was then added. The mixture was covered and placed in the fridge for about half an hour. It was suggested that the mix be left for as long as possible for the flour to absorb the flavours. I left mine for about an hour and a half.

The mix was shaped into patties and baked for 20 minutes. They were then given a few minutes in a frying pan to give them a crunchier crust.

I served them with garlic artichoke spread from the same book. The burgers certainly needed plenty of moistening. I suspect it is the chickpea flour which this book seems to favour as a binding agent. Next time I make something from here I’ll watch this element. I think they could do with less, or perhaps a flour which is less drying.

To accompany the burgers I made River Cottage garlicky flatbread.

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔