ethiopian sweet potato + peanut burger

Day 5 of #VeganMoFo #Burger Extravaganza is an Ethiopian Sweet Potato and Peanut Burger with Nitter Kibbeh Aioli. Both the name and the burger are a mouthful, but, I promise, really damn good!

This burger requires the making of the Ethiopian spiced butter (oil, in this case), Nitter Kibbeh, however, that only takes about 2 minutes to assemble and 15 minutes to simmer. At this point anyone entering your home will be hypnotized by the aroma of simmering cinnamon, cardamom, clove and garlic and crash your dinner; be sure to make plenty of burgers.

As Kittee from Cake Maker to the Stars, aka Vegan Ethiopian Queen [can't wait for her cookbook!], will undoubtedly tell you, Nitter Kibbeh and Berber are the two top Ethiopian flavorings that you simply cannot do without.

To simplify this burger, but keep all the flavors, I've combined the two into one easy to make oil. This super spiced oil weaves its magic through the burger and right into the sauce. Ginger, garlic, clove, cinnamon, cardamom, coriander, paprika and cayenne will fill your kitchen. THAT right there is reason enough to make this.

Long burger post short, sweet potatoes, peanuts and lentils are the burger base, the Nitter Kibbeh Aioli is the sauce and a cooling celery-tomato salad is the crowning glory.

Time to gather your spices.

ETHIOPIAN SWEET POTATO AND PEANUT BURGER PRINTER-FRIENDLY RECIPE

Ethiopian Sweet Potato and Peanut Burger with Nitter Kibbeh Aioli

Serves 4

1 pound sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped

4 teaspoons plus 2 tablespoons Nitter Kibbeh, divided, recipe below

½ cup brown or green lentils

2 cups water

⅔ cup quick-cooking oats

⅓ cup roasted peanuts, chopped

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon ground coriander

Sea salt and fresh ground black pepper

3 scallions, minced

2 celery ribs, minced

1 medium ripe tomato, chopped

¼ cup chopped cilantro

1 tablespoon lime juice

1 tablespoon neutral oil

½ cup vegan mayonnaise

4 burger buns, toasted

1. Preheat oven to 450-degrees F. Combine sweet potatoes and 2 teaspoons nitter kibbeh on a baking sheet. Bake 15 minutes or until tender. Cool lightly and transfer to a food processor.

2. Combine the lentils and water in a medium pot. Bring to boil, reduce to simmer and cook until the lentils are tender, about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Drain and add to the food processor.

3. Add the oats, peanuts, paprika, coriander and 2 tablespoons nitter kibbeh to the food processor. Season with salt and black pepper to taste. Pulse just until combined and you can form burgers that will hold together. Form into 4 burgers about 3-inches in diameter.

4. Combine the scallions, celery, tomato, cilantro, lime and oil in a medium bowl. Toss well to combine and season with salt and black pepper. Set aside.

5. Combine the mayo and 1 tablespoon of nitter kibbeh in a small bowl. Stir well and set aside.

6. Heat a large grill pan over medium heat. Spray the burgers lightly with oil and grill the burgers until grill marks appear, about 3 minutes per side.

7. Assemble the burgers by spreading aioli on the bottom buns, adding a burger and topping with the salad. Serve with the top bun.

Nitter Kibbeh

½ cup neutral oil

¼ cup chopped onions

1 tablespoon chopped garlic

1 (1-inch) piece of ginger, sliced

6 cardamom pods

2 whole cloves

1 cinnamon stick

2 teaspoon coriander seeds

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

½ teaspoon black peppercorns

½ teaspoon fenugreek seeds

¼ teaspoon ground turmeric

1 tablespoon paprika

1 to 3 teaspoon cayenne

½ teaspoon sea salt

1. Combine the oil, onion, garlic, ginger, cardamom, clove, cinnamon, coriander, cumin, pepper, fenugreek and turmeric. Bring to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes. Strain and stir in the paprika, cayenne and salt. Cool and store in an airtight container. It will keep in the refrigerator for up to 2 months.

© 2014 Copyright Zsu Dever. All rights reserved.

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

 

blackened cauliflower w/ roasted garlic pesto burger

Day 4 of #VeganMoFo #burgers is a Blackened Cauliflower Burger with Roasted Garlic Pesto.

By now we have all been privy to the notion that vegetables can become "steaks" and consider this my hat being thrown into the pile of already fast accumulating hats.

This recipe differs in a few ways. One, the cauliflower is first steamed to just shy of being tender, seasoned with blackening spice and then sauteed until tender and succulent.

The second difference is the Roasted Garlic Pesto. Put roasted garlic into a pesto and it becomes a hard to resist condiment.

That's not all, though. This burger is served with Garlic-Lemon Potatoes, which also happens to be an integral part of the recipe because the garlic for the pesto is roasted with the potatoes. Forget plain old fries! Bam! Side dish complete at the same time the burgers are. That's how we roll during MoFo!

BLACKENED CAULIFLOWER BURGERS PRINTER-FRIENDLY RECIPE

Blackened Cauliflower Burger with Roasted Garlic Pesto

Serves 4

1 large (about 2 pounds) cauliflower, green leaves removed, kept whole

Blackening spice, recipe below

2 pounds new potatoes, halved

¼ cup plus 3 tablespoons vegetable broth, divided

1 tablespoon olive oil, plus more for sauteeing

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1 teaspoon dried basil

1 teaspoon sea salt, divided

Fresh ground black pepper, to taste

2 whole heads garlic, cut in half through the middle

¼ cup toasted walnuts

1 cup fresh basil leaves

½ cup fresh spinach, plus more for garnish

4 ciabatta rolls, split and toasted

Slices of red onion

1. Preheat oven to 425-degrees F. Cut the whole head of cauliflower into 1-inch slices through the stem. Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon of blackening spice and steam the cauliflower for 5 minutes. Transfer the cauliflower to a baking dish and rub the remaining blackening spice over both sides of the slices. Set aside.

2. Toss the potatoes with ¼ cup of broth, 1 tablespoon olive oil, lemon juice, dried basil and ½ teaspoon salt in a large bowl. Transfer to a baking dish, cut side down and tuck the garlic halves, cut side down among the potatoes. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes. Uncover, flip the potatoes and garlic over and continue to bake until tender, about 15 more minutes. Remove the garlic from the dish, cool enough to handle and pop out the garlic bulbs by gently squeezing the heads.

3. Combine the garlic, nuts, fresh basil, spinach, 3 tablespoons broth, ½ teaspoon salt and black pepper, to taste, in a personal blender or food processor. Blend until smooth. Taste and adjust seasoning. Set aside.

4. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the cauliflower slices and cook until blackened and the cauliflower is tender, about 3 minutes per side.

5. Make the burgers by spreading each bottom bun with the pesto, topping with a few slices of spinach and slices of red onion. Add a cauliflower steak and spread with more pesto. Top with the bun and serve with the roasted potatoes.

Blackening Spice

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon thyme

1 teaspoon fennel seeds

2 teaspoons paprika

½ teaspoon red chili flakes

¼ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

Grind all the ingredients in a spice grinder or personal blender until finely ground.

© 2014 Copyright Zsu Dever. All rights reserved.

mediterranean chickpea + tabouli sliders

Day 3 of our Burger Extravaganza is brought to you by these lovely Mediterranean Chickpea and Tabouli Sliders. These sliders are perfect when you are craving good old' fashioned hummus and tabouli, but prefer to have them in every single bite.

These particular sliders are made with freekeh tabouli and cooked chickpeas.

Last year I tested for Tami Noyes' and Celine Steen's upcoming cookbook, The Great Vegan Protein Book, and it is no secret that Tami loves to use freekeh - which is toasted and cracked green wheat. The very best thing about freekeh is that it is loaded with protein.

You can use regular cracked wheat in this recipe (you will need 1 1/2 cups cooked cracked wheat), but I recommend you find freekeh because it is delicious and nutritious.

I love sliders because they are cute as a button, easy to eat and your burger stays relatively together during consumption.

I top these adorable sliders with Tahini-Lemon Sauce that is spiced with just a tad bit of Sriracha, because you can't really go wrong there!

MEDITERRANEAN CHICKPEA AND TABOULI PRINTER-FRIENDLY RECIPE

Mediterranean Chickpea and Tabouli Sliders

Makes 10 sliders

1 cup packed parsley leaves

½ cup mint leaves

4 scallions, chopped

1 garlic clove, chopped

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 ½ cups cooked freekeh, cooled

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice (zest lemon first)

Sea salt and fresh ground black pepper

¾ cup quick cooking oatmeal

¼ cup vegetable broth

1 (15.5-ounce) can chickpeas, rinsed and drained

1 teaspoon paprika

½ teaspoon red chili flakes

Zest of 1 lemon

10 slider buns, toasted

Garnish: lettuce leaves, thin slices of red bell pepper

Tahini-Lemon Sauce (recipe below)

1. Combine the parsley, mint, scallions, garlic and oil in a food processor. Process until fine and transfer to a large bowl. Add the freekeh , lemon juice and season with salt and black pepper. Set aside.

2. Heat the oatmeal and broth in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir and cook until the oatmeal thickens. Transfer oatmeal to the freekeh mixture.

3. Add the chickpeas, paprika, chili flakes and lemon zest in a food processor. Pulse only to break up the chickpeas into smaller pieces, about 4 (2-second) pulses. Transfer to the freekeh. Mix the burger mixture well using a large wooden spoon or hands. Taste and adjust seasoning. Divide the mixture into 10 portions and form into small 2-inch burgers.

4. Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Spray with cooking oil or add 1 tablespoon olive oil to the skillet. Cook the burgers until golden, about 2 minutes per side.

5. Make the sliders by adding a lettuce leaf, a slider burger, a tablespoon of sauce and a few slices of bell pepper to each toasted bun. Serve with extra Sriracha.

Tahini-Lemon Sauce

¼ cup tahini

3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

2 tablespoons water

1 to 2 teaspoons Sriracha sauce

3 tablespoons finely minced parsley

1 garlic clove, minced

Sea salt and fresh ground black pepper

1. Combine all the ingredients in a medium bowl. Stir well and adjust seasoning with salt, black pepper.

© 2014 Copyright Zsu Dever. All rights reserved.

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

 

     

portobello adobo burger + "vegan chocolate" winner

Day 2 of our burger extravaganza is a Portobello Adobo Burger with Roasted Corn and Guacamole. This is a gluten free burger, depending on the bun used. What makes this burger an adobo is the marinade, which is a dried pepper puree, spiked with a few seasonings, including cumin, oregano and garlic.

It is important to remove the gills of the portobellos, otherwise you end up with an unappetizing black mushroom instead of a lightly seared, red-ish colored masterpiece. Use a spoon to scrape out the gills and discard or compost them.

Guajillo peppers used in the adobo are not all that spicy, so it makes for a perfect adobo. You can use other dried peppers, but be wary of the heat level. You can procure dried chili peppers in the produce section of most grocery stores or hit up your local Mexican market, where you will find more varieties of dried chillies than you'll know what to do with.

I served our mushroom burgers with rice and beans flavored with lime zest and cilantro. Another great side dish could be this Creamy Macaroni Salad, the Tex-Mex Variation (EVE, page 98), from Everyday Vegan Eats.

As a quick reminder, Vegan Richa is giving away a copy of Everyday Vegan Eats in the next few days. It's easy to enter to win! Go HERE.

And now for the recipe:

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PORTOBELLO ADOBO BURGER PRINTER-FRIENDLY RECIPE

Portobello Adobo with Roasted Corn and Guacamole

Serves 4

1 ounce (about 6) guajillo peppers

2 tablespoons neutral oil, divided

½ small onion, chopped

6 garlic cloves, chopped

1 teaspoon ground cumin

½ teaspoon dried oregano

¼ cup water

½ teaspoon sea salt

½ teaspoon natural sugar

½ teaspoon apple cider vinegar

Fresh ground black pepper

4 portobello mushrooms, stemmed and gilled

4 burger buns, toasted

½ cup corn kernels, thawed if frozen

Guacamole, recipe below

Spinach leaves, as needed

1. Toast the peppers in a dry skillet over medium heat until the peppers are pliable and lightly toasted, about 2 minutes. When cool enough to handle, stem and seed the peppers. Soak the peppers with fresh water just enough to cover in a medium bowl for about 20 minutes. Drain and transfer the peppers to a blender.

2. Heat 1 teaspoon oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until golden brown, about 4 minutes. Add the garlic, cumin and oregano. Stir and cook until the garlic is fragrant, about 1 minute. Transfer the mixture to the blender.

3. Add the water, salt, sugar, vinegar and black pepper, to taste, to the blender. Blend until smooth. Transfer the mushrooms to a large baking pan and add the adobo marinade. Rub the mushrooms with the marinade on both sides. Set aside to marinate for at least 15 minutes or overnight.

4. Heat a few teaspoons oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. Add a few mushrooms and cover the skillet. Cook until the mushrooms begins to soften, about 3 minutes. Flip the mushrooms and continue to cook on the other side, covered, for another 3 minutes. Flip the mushrooms again and continue to cook if the mushroom is not tender.

5. Heat a small skillet over medium heat. Add the corn and stir and cook until golden brown, about 6 minutes.

6. Divide the spinach among the burger buns, top with a mushroom, gill side up, add about 2 tablespoons of guacamole and top with 2 tablespoons of roasted corn. Add the top of the burger bun and serve.

Guacamole

2 avocados, peeled, pitted and mashed

1 small ripe tomato, finely chopped

3 scallions, finely chopped

¼ small jalapeño, finely minced

2 tablespoons minced cilantro

1 tablespoon fresh lime juice

Sea salt and fresh ground black pepper

1. Combine all the ingredients in a medium bowl. Stir well and adjust seasoning with salt, black pepper and lime juice.

© 2014 Copyright Zsu Dever. All rights reserved.

Now for the winner of  "Vegan Chocolate - Unapologetically Luscious and Decadent Dairy-Free Desserts" by Fran Costigan. Drum roll, please....

The winner is comment number 13: Turtle. I'll be contacting you! Thank you everyone for playing along. Stay tuned for more giveaways, as it is, after all, MoFo and I'll be giving away 4 more cookbooks this month, including Vegan Tacos by Jason Wyrick.

schnitzel burger + veganMoFo

Vegan MoFo 2014! Yeah! At least for the first week, then it'll be more like..."what to do I post now?!?"

This will be my FIFTH year participating (attempting to participate?) in what started as Isa's and PPK's answer to NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), which was itself a challenge to folks to write as much as they could in the span of a month. VeganMoFo challenges us to blog (and therefore, write) about vegan food (adding cooking to writing) for a month.

I think a lot of us forget that the challenge in the first place is to cook and write and not worry about themes or perfection or precision. We tend to get so excited about MoFo that we also stress the hell out.

Word of advice to those new to MoFo-ing - when you hit a snag in your blogging, just remember that you actually did, indeed, consume a meal that particular day and can blog about that particular meal or experience.

As many MoFo-ers, I, too have a theme for MoFo 2014 - burgers. This month I plan on making tons! (20) of vegan burgers and blogging about them. Join me, won't you?

I'll be out and about visiting as many MoFoErs as I can, since I am not only participating in the event but also participating as a Round Up writer. I will be writing the Round Up of MoFo 2014 on Sundays - can't wait to actually have an excuse to HAVE to peruse all the wonderful blogs out there!

Back to my blog and post...

My first MoFo offering in my burger-themed extravaganza is .....

Schnitzel Burger. You saw up there, didn't you? There goes the surprise.

Why choose this burger as my FIRST? Because I'm Hungarian and have served thousands of Wiener Schnitzels (unfortunately) to customers in Florida in my parents' restaurants. Back then the fried protein was an animal, but making a few compassionate alterations, the Schnitzel becomes a vegan delight.

This sandwich is made using a simple seitan recipe I love (my own!) and served over pretzel buns. It turns out that vegan pretzel buns are quite hard to find and I discovered that making my own was as close as a recipe... from Everyday Vegan Eats.

That happens to be my new cookbook which has a recipe for soft pretzels. With a few adjustments to the recipe (such as forming the dough into a bun), the pretzel bun became an easy reality. In case you need an easy, simple and great recipe for seitan, the on I use is in Everyday Vegan Eats (EVE, page 40).

After I battered and fried the seitan, and served it over the homemade pretzel buns with horseradish sauce, I also made my German Potato Salad (EVE, page 96) - such a perfect accompaniment to a schnitzel.

If you happen to be one of the very few folks who do not have Everyday Vegan Eats, you have a few days to enter to win it from Vegan Richa, who is giving away a copy to one lucky winner. If you haven't entered, yet, just look at the German Potato Salad and Soft Pretzels above and don't delay.

And as a side note, I am choosing the winner of Vegan Chocolate: Unapologetically Luscious and Decadent Dairy Free Desserts. There is still a scant few hours to enter to win this incredible cookbook by Fran Costigan.

Who wants the recipe for this super incredible burger?

SCHNITZEL BURGER PRINTER-FRIENDLY RECIPE

Schnitzel Burgers with Dill-Horseradish Sauce

Serves 4

3 tablespoons vegan mayonnaise

3 tablespoons vegetables broth

Sea salt and fresh ground black pepper

½ cup dry bread crumbs

½ teaspoon paprika

¼ cup unbleached all-purpose flour

4 seitan cutlets, gently squeezed of excess moisture

Neutral oil for frying

4 pretzel buns or other soft bun, toasted

Horseradish Sauce, recipe below

4 thin slices red onion

½ cup arugula

1. Combine the mayo and broth in a shallow pan. Season with salt and black pepper. Combine the bread crumbs and paprika in a separate shallow pan. Season with salt and black pepper. Add the flour to a separate shallow pan and season with salt and black pepper.

2. Heat ¼-inch oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add 2 popcorn kernels. When the popcorn pops, the oil is at the correct temperature.

3. Dredge each seitan cutlet first in the mayo mixture, then in the flour and finally in the breadcrumbs, but do not press on the breadcrumbs. This will keep the crust crisp.

4. Cook the cutlets in the hot oil until golden brown, about 2 minutes per side. Do not crowd the skillet; cook the cutlets in batches. Drain the cutlets on paper towels.

5. Make the sandwiches by spreading the toasted buns with Horseradish Sauce, add a slice of onion and some arugula. Add a fried cutlet and the top bun. Serve with German Potato Salad.

Horseradish Sauce

6 tablespoons vegan mayonnaise

2 tablespoons prepared horseradish

2 tablespoons minced fresh dill

¼ teaspoon natural sugar

Sea salt and fresh ground black pepper

1. Combine all the ingredients in a small bowl and season with salt and black pepper. The sauce will keep in the refrigerator, covered, for up to a week.

© 2014 Copyright Zsu Dever. All rights reserved.

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