It’s almost Memorial Day! One of my favorite weekends of the year as it means summer is OFFICIALLY here. While summer has been here for a while for me, it’s the time of year when everyone gets outside & fires up the grill.
I’ve never been abroad for an American holiday before, not sure if it will feel any different or if I will miss celebrating. I do know that I will miss a good cookout. Besides a pool or beach day, there are few things in life that are more summery to me than a BBQ.
Whatever your plans are this weekend, make sure there is good food involved, k?
Recipe & Photo: 86 lemons
Recipe & Photo: The Dirty Vegan
Grilled Peaches with Balsamic and Rosemary
Recipe & Photo: The framed table
Wishing you an enjoyable and delicious Memorial day!
I love coleslaw. Love it.
Come May 1st, our weekly dinners contain lots of vegetable burgers, grilled vegetables, and coleslaw.
It’s one of the foods that BL won’t let me compromise on. There are certain things that I have to make correct, and can’t experiment much with. He let’s me add curry to our ketchup, cumin to our hummus, but I have very little leeway with traditional coleslaw. 
While I might not change up his favorite side dish, it doesn’t mean I won’t take a few shortcuts now and then.
A few weeks ago I made these awesome BBQ tempeh sandwiches and right before we sat down, decided that we needed some coleslaw and baked beans to go with it.
Trust me when I say this is the easiest coleslaw you will ever make. If you’ve got 5 minutes, you’ve got coleslaw. I let this sit for 20 minutes and it was great, go longer and it will taste even better.
Ingredients:
1/3 cup vegan egg-free mayonnaise thinned with 1 tbsp. milk
3 tbsp white vinegar
1/2 tbsp sugar
1 head green cabbage, sliced
3 carrots, grated
Whisk together the mayo, vinegar, sugar, and pinch salt/pepper. Toss with carrots and cabbage and gently toss to combine. Let sit for at least 20 minutes.
Ta-da! Easy-peasy coleslaw!
There are some thing that the Veg community tries to keep secret. Well, I’m about to let the cat out of the bag: most vegan burgers suck.
It’s true.
I know, because I’ve tried about 10,000 of them. While most are OK and can pass for a decent patty filled with vegetables and beans, none are convincing anyone to give up their favorite hamburger.
At least not in my experience. It’s funny, before giving it up, I was never a big meat person. Chicken was whatever, I never liked pork, and fish was delicious but rare. Beef though, yum, I used to love steaks and burgers.
I went back and forth between being vegetarian and not for a few years before I finally gave it up for good… it was always the burgers that pulled me back. And so my quest was born- a delicious, meaty vegan burger that rivals any un-kind one.
While this isn’t going to fool anyone into thinking it’s beef, it’s pretty damn good. Hearty, full of savory, umami flavors thanks to the addition of roasted eggplant, mushrooms, and caramelized onions. Yes, this will take a bit longer to make than your usual black bean patties but they are worth it. Just make a bunch and freeze.
You’ll then be ready for cookouts all summer long.
Meaty Vegan Burgers
Adapted from Serious Eats
1 lb. button mushrooms, halved
1/4 cup olive oil, divided
1 tsp. dried oregano
1 tbsp. cumin
1 tsp. chili powder
1 small japanese eggplant, chopped into 2″ pieces.
1 onion, chopped
1/2 cup chopped celery
2 cloves garlic, minced
3/4 cup arborio rice
3 cups vegetable broth
1 can white beans, drained and rinsed
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tbsp. nutritional yeast
1 cup toasted cashews
1 tsp. soy sauce
1 1/2 cups panko bread crumbs
Preheat oven to 350°F. In a large bowl, toss the mushrooms and eggplant with 1/4 cup oil, oregano, chili powder, cumin, and pinch salt and pepper. Wrap the mushrooms and eggplant in foil and place on a baking sheet. Bake for 45 minutes, until mushrooms are browned and eggplant softened. Remove from oven and let cool.
Heat 1 tbsp. olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion, celery, and cook until softened. Add garlic and cook another minute. Remove from heat and set aside.
Bring 3 cups vegetable broth to a boil. Heat 1 tbsp. oil in a sauce pan over medium-high heat. Add the Arborio rice and stir until lightly toasted. Add 1/2 cup of vegetable broth and stir until all liquid is absorbed. Continue to add liquid, 1/2 cup at a time until risotto is al-dente. You may not need all the liquid. Let cool and place into a large bowl.
In a food processor, combine 1/2 cup white beans, flour, baking powder, soy sauce, nutritional yeast, and eggplant. Process until a paste forms. Add mixture to bowl with risotto.
Add the remaining white beans to the food processor along with the cashews and mushrooms. Pulse into a mixture forms, finely chopped but still course in texture. Add to the risotto mix.
Lastly, add the cooled onion and celery mixture to the food processor and pulse 10 times. Add to the risotto bowl and mix together until completely mixed.
Since you’ve done so much work- you can refrigerate the mixture for up to 5 days or freeze up to 3 months in a sealed air-tight bag.
Season to taste.
Add breadcrumbs and mix in with your hands. Once you add the breadcrumbs, start to form the patties. You don’t want the breadcrumbs to become soggy.
Bring a skillet or grill to medium-high heat. Lightly spray and add the patties. Flip burgers after 4-5 minutes, until bottom is lightly-browned. Cook another 4-5 minutes. Serve!
For an awesome treat, top with caramelized onions.
I’ve proclaimed my love for lentils before: lentil stew, lentil tacos, lentil-walnut loaf, the list could go on for days.
Inexpensive, high in protein, fiber, folate, iron, and almost fat-free. I eat them almost every day. Recently, I’ve been bored with our usual lentil dishes and decided to experiment with some new flavor combinations. Totally hooked.
This is one of those big pot meals you can make and eat throughout the week. Delicious over rice, on naan or by itself, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!
What’s your favorite way to eat lentils?
Red Lentil Curry
Ingredients:
2 cups red lentils
1 cup diced onion
2 tbsp. red curry paste
2 tbsp. Indian Curry Powder
1 1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. tumeric
1 tsp. chili powder
2 tsp. minced ginger root
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 can tomato puree
1 tsp. maple syrup
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
Brown rice, cooked
Directions:
Rinse the lentils very well until water runs clear. Add lentils in a pot and add enough water to cover. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium-low and cook until lentils are tender.
Heat 2 tbsp. oil in a large skillet or pot. Add the onions, a pinch of salt, and cook until reduced and caramelized. Reduce heat to low and stir in the maple syrup.
While the onions are cooking, mix together the curry powder, paste, cumin, chili powder, turmeric, pinch salt, garlic, and ginger. Increase the heat on the onions back to medium and add the spice mixture. Cook 2-3 minutes, stirring often being sure not to burn.
Add the tomato puree, stir together and cook another 2-3 minutes until warm. Add drained lentils and stir together. Stir in chopped cilantro and serve over rice.
