Spinach-Chickpea Burgers

From Veggie Burgers Every Which Way, Lukas Volger, Wakefield Press, 2010.

When the author states that this is one of his favourite burgers then you must give it a go to see whether it also suits you.

It was an easy burger to make. Firstly, a teaspoon cumin seeds went into a pan with hot olive oil. They were followed by a goodly amount of baby spinach leaves (about 5 cups). When the spinach had wilted it was taken off the heat and let cool. It was now squeezed tightly to remove as much liquid as possible. The spinach was then chopped.

In the blender a can of chickpeas, drained, 2 eggs, salt and the juice of half a lemon were churned until blended and reasonably smooth. They went into a bowl and the spinach mixture was added. Now besan (chickpea flour) was added a tablespoon at a time until the mixture was a consistency that was sticky but held together reasonably well.

It still felt a bit loose to me so it went into the frying pan a heaped tablespoon at a time and was formed into rough burger shapes as it was cooking. It was fried for a couple of minutes on each side and then went into the oven (180ºC) for about 15 minutes more.

I served it with baked vegetables rather than in a bun. Perhaps it would have been better in a bun with a good sauce, some mayo and salads. As it was it was dry and not overly tasty. I do find that whenever besan is used as a thickening agent in burgers that the result does tend to come out like this. The besan appears to soak up the juices and flatten out the result. I may try these again but use a different ingredient. I suspect that breadcrumbs would have worked much better.

Taste: ✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔ 

Eggplant Bake (Masbahat’a Darwish)

From Mezze to Milk Tart, Cecile Yazbek, Wakefield Press, 2011.

This looked to be so easy to make I was not too sure whether it really would work. When you just dump everything into a casserole dish and put it in the oven to cook you have the vague feeling that there’s something wrong—but all turned out okay. 

I placed in the casserole dish the following: an eggplant, a potato, an onion and a carrot (all chopped), half a green capsicum cut into pieces, a tomato cut into eighths, 100g haloumi cubed, a bay leaf, pepper and salt, ½ stick cinnamon, ½ teaspoon ground allspice, and ¼ cup water. I mixed them up well and then dribbled 2 tablespoons olive oil on top before covering the casserole and placing it in a 200ºC oven for 1 hour. Towards the end of the time I took off the casserole lid.

I had a look at the contents of the casserole about half way through the cooking and saw that it had formed a lot of sauce. Before I started I had thought that I might serve it with a green vegetable like broccoli but when I saw the amount of liquid I put on some rice to have with it.

While I wouldn’t rave over this dish it was quite tasty and went well with the rice. Occasionally a chewy lump of haloumi was met, making a pleasing textural difference from the vegetables.

Taste: ✔✔✔        East of cooking: ✔✔✔✔✔

Edamame Burgers with Brown Rice and Apple

From Veggie Burgers Every Which Way, Lukas Volger, Wakefield Press, 2010.

I have two vegetarian cookbooks based entirely on making burgers. This one is by far the better of the two. The recipes are just of themselves whereas in the other book the recipes seem to be trying too hard to be something else—like in vegetarian restaurants where they have meals that are trying to be meat.

This burger began with sautéing some pumpkin seeds in a dry pan until they had become golden. They were put aside and the pan was used now for doing the same with some sesame seed. They have a shorter cooking time so needed to be done separately.

They went into a blender and a cup of defrosted edamame seeds and a tablespoon ground flax seeds (linseeds) were added. The mixture was pureed, though still leaving some texture to it. This was now placed into a bowl and the following ingredients added: two tablespoons rice flour, 1½ cups cooked brown rice, a tablespoon molasses, 2 teaspoons soya sauce, 1 teaspoon sesame oil, and one apple peeled and cut up finely. The mixture was now complete and only needed cooking.

When I looked at the burger mix I had some doubts about whether this was going to hold together but the instructions warned that it should hold together if cooked correctly. The method described was to have a very hot pan, place the burger in and cook it for 2 minutes then turn down the pan to medium heat and continue the cooking. I tried this; the burgers fell apart somewhat, especially at the turning them over stage.

They were served with potato casserole and baked zucchini. The burgers—or burger crumble—were very tasty, so much so that I didn’t mind that they had fallen apart. They had a crunchy chewiness from the brown rice while the savoury edamames were enhanced by the sweetness of the molasses and apple.

These are worth trying again, possibly taking the pureeing a step further although I did enjoy the texture as it was. I had thoughts of using an egg but that would quite alter the flavour. A possibility would be to add a little more rice flour to bind it.

Taste: ✔✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔

Eggplant Patties

From Mezze to Milk Tart, Cecile Yazbek, Wakefield Press, 2011.

The vegetables for this recipe had to be shredded. The author suggests shredding rather than grating, and she explains shredding as putting them through a food processor. So in went an eggplant, an onion and a tomato. A selection of flavourings was now added to the mix: chopped mint, chopped parsley, salt, pepper, cinnamon and allspice. To this lot went binding ingredients: olive oil, flour, baking powder and an egg. It was an easy mix to put together.

An oven tray was now prepared with a sheet of baking paper on it. The mixture was spooned on in patty-sized quantities and baked in a moderate oven for about 20-30 minutes.

I did not really enjoy these overmuch. The texture was a on the rubbery side. I think it would have been much better to have fried these in a pan rather than baking them in the oven. At least then they would have perhaps had the chance to develop a crisp crust which might have helped them.

Taste: ✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔

Corn and Bean Loaf

From Mezze to Milk Tart, Cecile Yazbek, Wakefield Press, 2011.

There is a great number of flashy cookbooks in the bookshops. They are glossy, full coloured, almost coffee table books. And hidden among these large showy books there are some small soft-covered books with no illustrations that could easily tend to be overlooked.

This one caught my eye because I stopped to work out what the title was: Mezze to Milk Tart. I guessed it meant from appetiser to dessert. But the subtitle made me look further: From the Middle East to Africa in my vegetarian kitchen. I thought this needed investigating a little further so I picked it up and flipped through the pages. There was a wide selection of recipes worth checking out. Not being one of the large colourful books it was not over expensive to buy.

The author has an interesting background. She grew up in South Africa, the daughter of Lebanese parents. She eventually migrated to Sydney and there ran Cecile’s Vegetarian Kitchen, a cooking school. She has now retired.

The corn and bean loaf began with an interesting sweated vegetable base, which the author uses for many of her recipes. Carrots, onion and celery are grated and placed in a saucepan with a little oil, some salt and a bay leaf. The saucepan is covered and the vegetables are sweated over a very low heat for about 20 minutes.

A measure of this sweated vegetables was placed on the bottom of a casserole dish. An egg was beaten with about a cup of stock, a cup of cornflour and 2 teaspoons of baking powder. This was seasoned and a can of beans was added. This lot was poured over the vegetable mix.

Over the top of all of this went a chopped tomato, a sprinkling of paprika and some grated Parmesan cheese. Some chopped thyme was sprinkled over the top and the casserole was placed in the oven to cook.

This was a very simple loaf to make and it turned out a reasonable one. It’s not one I would make again but with some sweet chilli sauce and a few other vegetables it made a comfortable meal.

Taste: ✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔

Red Cabbage Slaw

From Veggie Burgers Every Which Way, Lukas Volger, Wakefield Press, 2010.

I have never been one for cabbage slaw. I enjoy cabbage, but I need it cooked. Occasionally you might gain a cabbage slaw with a pub meal and, while they go down all right, they are not my favourite. So I can’t really understand what prompted me to make this red cabbage slaw. I guess it’s some kind of puzzle in the back of my mind as to why I don’t like it and yet other people do so I keep going back to check on it. I thought possibly red cabbage would be different from the green. I still don’t like it.

The cabbage was sliced very thinly. It was then mixed with rice vinegar and salt and left to stand for a while. The recipe says until it begins to wilt. My didn’t wilt. You then had to drain off any liquid from the bottom of the bowl. There wasn’t any liquid in my bowl.

Finally you added yoghurt, dill and pepper. It was ready.

It looked a pleasant colour on the plate. I didn’t enjoy it.

Taste: ✔ 

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔

Watercourse Foods Tempeh Burgers

From Veggie Burgers Every Which Way, Lukas Volger, Wakefield Press, 2010.

I wanted something to go with a vegetable dish so decided that hamburgers without the buns might just do the trick. I turned to Veggie Burgers Every Which Way because I’ve enjoyed burgers from it before.

Watercourse Foods is apparently a restaurant in Denver and this is one of their favoured burgers so this should work.

A little wild rice had to be precooked before getting on with the main job.

Vegetables were then fried (onion, celery, carrot and capsicum). Then flavourings were added (garlic, parsley, cumin, onion and garlic powder, ground fennel and seasoning—a bit of a mix). After this, the main ingredient of tempeh was broken up and added to be fried with this mix a little longer. Then some more ingredients: lemon juice, soy and vinegar. I left out two ingredients; I do not use liquid smoke or Worcester sauce so I substituted other flavourings. This was cooked until it became drier. Again more ingredients to be added: the wild rice and arame (which I was unable to find in the shops and I don’t really enjoy seaweed anyway).

The mix was not finished yet. Half of it had to be pureed. Then chickpea flour was added and the mix, at last, was able to be made into patties and baked.

There was a heap of ingredients in these burgers and I’m not sure that it was totally worth it. Of course, I left out the arame and had to make a couple of small substitutions so can’t totally blame the recipe. I just felt that it was a bit on the dry side and possibly could have done with less chickpea flour because that seemed to dominate too much for my liking.

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔