SmarterFitter Daily

I have a stash of various veggie burger incarnations in the freezer, many of which come from recipes in Lukas Volger's Veggie Burgers Every Which Way book. I love this stash because they make lunches sooo easy. And I'm all about using veggie burgers in non-sandwich motifs, treating them as more of a "steak" rather than a bread filler. To that end, I love using veggie burgers to turn raw kale salads into a complete meal. 

Here, it's Lukas Volgers tempeh burgers to the rescue, a good match for this Asian-esque raw kale salad with curly kale, orange wedges, spring onion, grated carrot, toasted almonds, lemon juice, olive oil, and the magic: Sriracha sauce. A little requisite avocado and this was a total win.

Handy tip: frozen veggie burgers heat up pretty well in the toaster, giving them a crisp outer crunch that makes them also crouton like in the salad. I dig it.

Basically raw kale salad anything makes me really happy at the moment. 

Veggie burger is this one: Red Lentil Veggie Burger

Recipe: Red Lentil Veggie Burger

The burger was FINE but it wasn't very interesting. No texture. A bit mushy. Fairly bland. But good fodder for chutneys and sauces. I had this with Gloria Nicol's Rhubarb Ketchup and some African Volcano Peri Peri. Not sure if it's a crime to combine those two but I don't care: it worked. Still, the quest for the ultimate veggie burger continues. 

Roasted cauliflower on the side, seasoned with fragrant curry powder, paprika and garlic salt. Better than french fries - seriously!

Whoa, this was like, one of the best burgers I've ever made. EVER. Two words: "basil mayo".

Check it:

• 1 portobello mushroom, basted in balasmic, olive oil, a little garlic, salt, pepper and dried thyme, then grilled in the oven
• 1 roasted red pepper cut into thick strips (from a jar, some phenomenal red peppers I got as a Christmas gift from Cookery School / Rosalinds Kitchen - Pequillo Peppers Navarrico from Brindisa - my god they are good)
• A good scatter of pine nuts
• Homemade mayonnaise mixed with chopped basil and a little fresh garlic
• Slice tomato, raw red onion, lettuce
• One of Ottolenghi's crusty bread rolls

On the side, one of my favourite simple salads: crispy lettuce, cucumber, red onion, lemon juice, olive oil, salt, pepper, fresh oregani (from the garden!).

Total victory.

Recipe: Baked BBQ Tofu

I am slowly honing in on the ultimate marinade for a portobello mushroom burger. Here I used 

• 1/2 Tbsp grapeseed oil
• 1/2 tsp vegan worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 tsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp balsamic
• 1 clove garlic 
• lots of black pepper

This was a very tasty marinade, but the amount was too much for the size of my mushroom. I poured most of it on the gill-side and let it really soak in, and as a result, I could taste a lot of marinade, but not a lot of mushroom. 

This is a balancing act.

I also treated myself to mozarella cheese and homemade mayo. This is Friday night, after all! 

On the side: sauteed leeks and savoy cabbage with caraway seeds. One of my favourite things, which also happens to make a nice burger topping.

Had some baked apples, blackberries and yogurt for dessert.

I'm trying to work out the optimal ordering of condiments on a burger. Here I took a clue from "Meathead Goldwyn" in his Huffington Post article The Zen of Burger Condiments. My only deviation was in the tomato, which I put as a "bottoming" rather than a topping. 

The ordering was: bun, mayo, tomato chutney, pickles, tomato, portobellow mushroom, cheddar cheese, grilled onion, lettuce, bun.

I served this with a raw kale salad and some grilled leeks (not visible in the photo, alas).

In retrospect, this would have been better with the inclusion of mustard and raw onion rather than grilled (I can't believe I'm saying that, but the grilled onion didn't stand up!). I would like to play with the ordering of the pickle and tomato... I think tomato on cheese could be quite nice. I also need to play with my mushroom marinade. I've been going with the basic balsamic, oil, garlic and herb marinade in this recipe, but think some mustard or worcestershire sauce could help, plus a bit more generousity with the salt and pepper.

One last thing, my mayo wasn't really mayo, but a tofu-based "vegannaise" recipe from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian book. It's actually very good, though a bit runny, which I blame on the particular silken tofu I used. Next time I will probably make my own mayo, probably one of the best things on earth. Aioli might also be nice.

I lied, this is actually the last thing: the tomato chutney is the bomb. It's a green and red tomato chutney that I made myself from tomatoes in the garden (go me). The recipe is a winner, and I will selflessly not keep it to myself: Tomato and Sultana Chutney.

The mistake here was layering the lettuce on the sauce. Big no. And since I shredded it, it all became a gross lettuce noodle gloop. The feta and onion toegher were awesome, though. And that's a tomato from the garden!

Served with raw kale salad. Yums.