fajita burger

Day 13 VeganMoFo is this loaded Fajita Burger with Avocado Sour Cream. It is packed with fajita seasoning and fajita veggies, all stuffed onto a corn and bean burger. What do you add to a fajita? Cheese, sour cream and avocado! Done!

This was one terribly delicious burger! I charred the bun a little to give it an extra smoky flavor, but those veggies deliver on their own.

Fajitas are my absolute favorite meals to grab at  Mexican or Tex-Mex places, so for me this was a must make burger. It's an easy one to make that takes you to a Mexican mom-and-pop joint without leaving your kitchen.

Don't miss my twitter chat with The Food Duo tonight at 8 EST and 5 PST.  If you haven't checked out their List-mania theme for MoFo, get a move on.

HERE is the twitter chat link (and you should also follow me on Twitter): @ZsuDever.

Last order of business, remember to enter the giveaway for "Vegan Tacos"  HERE.

Back to the burger...

FAJITA BURGER PRINTER-FRIENDLY RECIPE

Fajita Burger with Avocado Sour Cream

Makes 6 burgers

2 tablespoon olive oil, divided

1 cup frozen corn kernels, frozen

1/2 medium onion, minced

4 garlic cloves, minced

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon dried oregano

Sea salt and fresh ground black pepper

1 (15.5-ounce) can kidney beans, rinsed and drained

1/2 cup chopped cilantro

3/4 cups vital wheat gluten (Stirred before measuring)

1 tablespoon fresh lime juice

1 tablespoon reduced-sodium tamari

1/2 teaspoon chili powder

4 burger buns, toasted

1/2 cup shredded vegan cheese

Fajita Veggies, recipe below

Avocado Sour Cream, recipe below

1. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. Add the corn, onion, garlic, cumin, oregano and salt and black pepper, to taste and stir and cook until the corn is golden, about 5 minutes. Add the beans, stir and cook for 1 minute. Remove from heat and cool thoroughly.

2. Add the cooled mixture to a food processor. Add the cilantro and pulse just to break up the beans, about 6 (1-second) pulses. Transfer to a bowl and add the gluten flour, lime juice, tamari, chili powder and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Knead until the mixture forms gluten threads. Form the mixture into 4 burgers.

3. Preheat oven to 350-degrees F. Spray a baking sheet with oil and arrange the patties evenly. Bake for 30 minutes-flipping after 15 minutes.

4. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the burger patties and cook for 2 minutes. Flip, add 2 tablespoon cheese to each burger, divide the fajita veggies evenly on top of each burger, add 1/4 cup water to the skillet, cover the skillet and cook until the cheese melts.

5 Make the burgers by spread the bottom buns with avocado sour cream, add a burger and add the top bun. Serve.

Fajita Veggies

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 small bell peppers, mixed colors, sliced thin

1/2 medium onion, sliced thin

1/2 teaspoon oregano

1/2 teaspoon chili powder

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

1. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the vegetables and spices and stir and cook until crisp-tender. Remove from heat and set aside.

Avocado Sour Cream

1/2 cup vegan sour cream

1 medium ripe Hass avocado, mashed well

2 teaspoons fresh lime juice

Salt and black pepper

1. Combine all the ingredients in a small bowl using a spoon. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt, black pepper and lime juice.

© 2014 Copyright Zsu Dever. All rights reserved.

Pint it!

I am linking to these recipe parties: Healthy Vegan Fridays, What I Ate Wednesday and Virtual Vegan Linky Potluck. 

 

spaghetti and vegan meatballs

Catt chose Spaghetti and Meatballs to cook this week. Typically I can print the recipe from this blog (the founding intent of it) and let the kids loose on the kitchen, but this time I realized the only encounter I have had with meatballs has been making the Swedish Meatball recipe. Since this menu choice was not Swedish and I wanted something different and perhaps easier, I decided to make the meatballs myself and let the kid continue to hole-up in her room while I prepared the meatballs. This caused a slight delay in dinner, oh, about 2 days' worth; I'm sort of what you call a procrastinator. 

Since I have been recently messing around with seitan and gluten, I decided to continue experimenting and created a meatball with maybe a little less complication, a little more flavor and a better texture. Maybe.

Animal derived meatballs have a flurry of names. Vegan meatballs should not be left out of the nomenclature game. Before, I had made Swedish Meatballs using TVP for the filling, this time I made Italian Meatballs using Tofurkey Italian sausage for the filling. Next time it might be Soy-free Hungarian Meatballs or Gluten-Free Mexican Meatballs. Again, I used vital wheat gluten to bind, but instead of cooking the balls at a high temperature, I baked these in a low temperature oven. These tasted great right out of the oven, but after simmering in the Tomato Sauce for 10 minutes, they were light and fluffy... and 

did not fall apart... at ... all.

Dinner: Possible. 

Should I call Food TV?

Cost Breakdown

meatballs: $5

pasta: $3

sauce: $4

Total to make 6 servings:

$12.00

Italian "Meat"ball Recipe

FNF + reuben meatball sliders

Ground meat formed into a patty = burger

Ground meat formed into a loaf = meatloaf

Ground meat formed into a ball = meatball

Ground meat formed into small balls = polpettini

Ground meat stuffed into a casing = sausage

Any other way to name or make something that is essentially just ground meat?

This month's Food Network Friday, brought to us by the very talented Tami Noyes of Vegan Appetite, is, you guessed it, a form of ground meat, Reuben Meatball Sliders. Now, I can totally see the appeal of this recipe - Reuben. Name anything a Reuben and the folks over at Vegan Appetite will hear its calling. I am no exception and have made my fair share of the sauerkraut sandwich. This 'Reuben' is the ground meat version of our beloved dish.

The chef who created this spin on an old classic, Jeff Mauro, is the latest Food Network Star winner. He has us adding the cheese into the ground meat, along with the rye bread in the form of breadcrumbs. So far so good. Naturally, he loses me at the ground flesh and eggs. No problem. We'll just make our own ground plants in lieu of the animal parts and eat a better burger as a result. 

As a nod to Jeff, however, he did manage to make tofu delicious during one of the Star challenges, which Paula Dean, who is now diabetic and is pushing pharmaceutical drugs to 'treat' the very same diabetes that her diet no doubt plays a huge part in perpetuating if not outright causing, found delicious. If only she'd adopt tofu instead of bacon as a staple.

Tangent!

The sauerkraut and the 1,000 Island Dressing go on top of his meatballs and the whole thing is between slider buns. To veganize the slider, I made a 'burger,' only smaller. I used black beans and gluten in this one because I wanted to take a break from adding tofu to my burgers. Except for adding some pickle relish to the burger, the only thing I changed was the meat, eggs and used vegan dairy. Otherwise, this is a darned fine sandwich and I am getting some really great experience making vegan burgers.  

Reuben Sliders Recipe

FNF - stuffed chicken with smoked mozzarella, rapini and roasted tomatoes

           

Food Network Friday

FNF, hosted by Tamasin Noyes of American vegan Kitchen, Grills Gone Vegan and an upcoming sandwich cookbook, is recreating Robert Irvine's Stuffed Chicken with Smoked Mozzarella, Rapini and Roasted Tomatoes. Irvine happens to be one of my favorite Food TV chefs mainly because he isn't afraid to cook vegetarian. On the Dinner: Impossible show, he has always made sure to have at least one vegetarian option, as lame as his choice sometimes happen to be.  When he was replaced by that clod "Iron Chef," Michael Symon, my blood boiled - only Emeril and Paula beat him out for being more anti-veg.

This recipe was another something-stuffed with something and then baked.  I have posted two stuffed seitan recipes: one that was braised and one that was baked. I chose the straightforward approach here and just  baked the stuffed gluten with the smokey Daiya and roasted rapini and tomatoes. There are no commercially available smoked vegan cheeses, but it is a simple matter of adding a few drops of liquid smoke to the gluten stuffing. The gluten was very pliable and soft (another gluten recipe that needs more testing, but for which I will post the recipe as is). After stuffing, I rolled the gluten in some panko crumbs and baked them for about an hour. You must make sure to seal up the raw gluten around the filling very well otherwise you will wind up with more melted cheese on your pan than in your seitan.

The potatoes that accompany Irvine's recipe are simply roasted in the oven along with the seitan. I sprinkled ours with smoked salt to echo the smoke in the gluten rolls. They turned out buttery and creamy with just a slight smokey flavor.

The kids, especially Kate, really enjoyed this. In fact, while Mikel and Cat were picking out the strings of rapini stems, Kate casually glanced over as she meticulously cut her stuffed seitan and nonchalantly commented that, "Honestly, you can't even taste the rapini." As an adult, I can testify that you can indeed taste it, but as far as I am concerned, if it isn't discernible to a ten year-old, that's just fine by me.


Cost Breakdown

gluten: $1
olive oil: $1
tomato, rapini: $7
Cribari Tokay: $15
(Opici Marsala is vegan - thanks, Tami!)
shallot, veg stock, thyme: $1.50
Daiya: $5
potato, butter: $2.50
chives: $.25
Total to make 6 servings:
$33.25

route 66 seitan sandwich

American Vegan Kitchen brings us another fantastic sandwich. Tami has the best sandwiches eva! This one is a seitan sandwich that was easy to make. I kneaded the gluten for a cycle in the bread machine and then rolled pieces out on my cutting board. A tip to help the gluten roll easier is to begin rolling one and set it aside while you finish rolling them all. By the time you get back to your first piece, it will have relaxed and you can roll it some more to get them bigger.

I sauteed these to get them browned and crispy and then sliced them before putting them on the toasted bread. These are garnished with lettuce, tomato, vegan mayo and a sweet pepper and tomato relish. A couple of pickles to top them off and these were scarfed in no time.

The Sandwich Queen strikes again. Thanks, Tami!

Cost Breakdown:

seitan: $3

buns: $3

lettuce, tomato, pickles: $2

veganaise, relish: $.75

Total to make 8 sandwiches:

$8.75

southwest wheat-meatloaf

This recipe, Southwestern Wheat-Meat Loaf, is out of American Vegan Kitchen by Tamasin Noyes. This was terrific, held together and the flavors were wonderful, but the gravy she recommends you serve with it, Jalapeno Gravy, is worth its price in gold. I exaggerate not when I say we were all licking our plates. Just make sure to toast your flour with the nutritional yeast when making the roux. A golden roux (cooked for about 5 minutes) with the nutritional yeast and the adobo sauce combination gives this gravy such a unique and lovely smoky flavor.

 Outstanding.

I served it with garlicky Swiss chard and mashed potatoes. There was hardly anything left over to put away. Saved fridge space.

Cost Breakdown

TVP, gluten, seitan, flour: $4

oil, veg. broth, nutritional yeast: $2

potato, chard: $6

spices, chipotle: $1

onion, pepper, jalapeno,garlic: $2

tamari, corn, ketchup: $1

Total to make 5 servings:

$16.00

swedish vegan meatballs

Swedish Meatballs!

Swedish meatballs are supposed to be light and fluffy on the inside. Since I am not using meat, I made a  version of Bryanna's Neatballs. These are made with TVP and gluten. I am positive that they can be made with bulgur instead of TVP to make it soy-free. These are first baked, then cooled and then simmered in the gravy or tomato sauce. These little guys stay together really well and are light and fluffy - just as intended.

The gravy is a cashew cream based gravy with a dark rich stock to replace the veal stock in the original recipes. 

My husband commented that he had not realized how much he had missed Swedish Meatballs until I made these. He also said that they kicked-butt.

Serve these with mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce in lieu of the authentic, but hard to locate, lingonberry jam. 

Cost Breakdown:

TVP, gluten: $4

cashew: $1

onion, garlic, veg stock: $3

bread: $1

potatoes: $5

cranberry: $.50

Total to feed a family of 6:

$14.50

Swedish Meatballs Recipe

twice-baked crispy gluten

Happy last day of August!

It is that time again, when this blog participates in Tami's Vegan Appetite's Food Network Friday challenge. If you do not know of Tami, she is the fabulously talented author of American Vegan Kitchen, a must own cookbook.

This Friday's challenge was Tyler Florence's Double Dipped Fried Chicken. As soon as I saw fried chicken, I immediately thought of my Twice-Baked Crispy Gluten. This is not any of my typical gluten/seitan recipes since there is nothing in the gluten recipe except vital wheat gluten and water. It is kneaded by hand for a few minutes, allowed to sit for 30 minutes to relax the gluten, kneaded by hand for another few minutes and allowed to sit for a few more.

Then it is portioned into pieces, rolled out thin, thin (the gluten can do that with the above described method since the gluten strands would have been developed) and filled with a savory nutritional yeast-onion-tahini-paprika filling. It is rolled up into the gluten, dredged in seasoned saltine cracker crumbs and baked on an oiled baking sheet. 

At this point it can be eaten as is or, and here is the great part, frozen and broiled on low for 10 minutes when you want some! I make bags and bags of the stuff to freeze and have ready at a moment's notice! It is incredible!

The Twice-Baked Crispy Gluten is crunchy, savory because of the filling, chewy a bit, but not too much and the rolling of the thin gluten pieces around the filling make it happen in every bite. Not to mention that it isn't fried! Some gravy and mashed potatoes is what this loves to be eaten with and it is worth every minute of rolling - which is the most time consuming part. 

We love! love! love! this!

I ship them domestically for a nominal fee :)

Cost Breakdown:

gluten flour: $1

nutritional yeast, tahini: $2

cracker, onion, garlic, spices: $1

Earth Balance and oil: $.50

Total to make 8 pieces:

$4.50

5 out of 5 stars

Twice Baked Crispy Gluten Recipe

tex-mex veg burger

I have this thin cookbook of burgers: Meatless Burgers , and every one of the burgers we've tried from this book has not turned out quite right. The book has great burger ideas, but the execution leaves something to be desired. So I used their Tex-Mex Burger recipe as inspiration rather than cooked it as written.

It uses tofu and gluten as the base of the burger. I added roasted corn - fresh off the cob (CSA) - roasted peppers, grilled onions, garlic and chili powder. I baked the burgers first to make sure the gluten was cooked and then I briefly sauteed them in my cast iron skillet to add some color, flavor and texture. This was a great way to make veggie burgers that hold together well enough, do not need to be fried in lots of oil, but not have that dried-out texture that comes solely from baking.

   To accompany the burgers I made a Chili-Lime veganaise by adding some chili powder and lime juice to, you guessed it, veganaise. Toppings for the burger included cilantro, avocado, red onion slices and tomato.

Quick, easy, light lunch.

The kids are on vacation from cooking this week; they are planning their menus for the next ten weeks. The kids liked this one a lot - and not just because they didn't have to cook!

Cost Breakdown:

tofu: $2

gluten: $.50

onion, pepper, garlic, corn: $2

avocado, cilantro, lime, veganaise: $3.50

bread: $3

tomato: $2

Total to make 6 burgers:

$13.00

Tex-Mex VegBurger Recipe