Local Kidney Bean and Veggie Burgers

I was going to post about a meal of local Walnut Pesto and pasta, but I decided against it for a number of reasons. First off, I forgot to take a picture of the meal. Secondly, I have posted about our Walnut Pesto before and since I had plans for another local meal in mind, I decided to make this post our weekly One Local Summer entry.

One of the many things I really love about summer is bean and veggie burgers. I don't know why I associate these foods with summer, but I seem to. I have so many created recipes and ideas for bean, grain, and veggie burgers that it is often hard to know where to start. I've noticed now that I've been regularly going to market for a few years now, that we go there and let the produce plan the meals. Based on what is available, what looks best, a menu begins to form in my head and we just roll with it.

With the weather being warm and summer-like and the local veggies abounding, I decided to make a local bean and veggie burger. These burgers were amazing and they have so much potential to be even better. I will share the initial recipe, but let me tell you - this, like most of my other recipes will be tweaked to our liking over time until we get it just right. You all get what I like to call the "rough draft" of the recipe. Sometimes when we are done modifying these recipes, they are nothing like their originals, but that is part of the fun of evolving recipes.


We served our burgers with local garlicky roasted asparagus. I sliced up about 4 baby garlics, tossed the asparagus with olive oil, salt, and the garlic, and roasted it on 375 for about 15 minutes. So, so good.


The local booty legend (aka revealing my sources):
no asterisk = grocery store
+ = local produce from The Root Cellar
++ = The Peace Nook (will denote whether product is local or just from the Nook)
* = farmer's market
** = CSA
*** = Container or Community Garden
**** = the non-profit buying club, Blue Planet or Purcell Mountain Farms

Local Kidney Bean and Veggie Burgers
Makes about six patties.

4 cups kidney beans, mashed with a fork +
1 habanero, seeded and minced * (frozen from last year)
2 hot Hungarian wax peppers, seeded and minced *** (frozen from last year)
1/2 green bell pepper, seeded and minced *** (frozen from last year)
1 cup oyster mushrooms, minced *
6 spring onions, minced *
4 baby garlics, minced *
1/2 cup fresh cilantro, minced *
1/2 cup garlic chives, minced *
4 tbsp regular rolled oats
6-8 tbsp whole wheat pastry flour +
1 egg *
squirt sriracha
chili powder
cumin
black pepper
salt

Combine all ingredients and seasonings except egg in a bowl using the seasonings to taste. Add the egg.

Form into patties and refrigerate for about an hour to allow patties to get a bit more firm.

Preheat oven to 375 and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Bake burgers in oven for 15 minutes, flip patties and cook for an additional 15 minutes on the other side.

Remove from oven and let rest for about 10 minutes.

Serve on a bun with your favorite toppings, we used:
veganaise
organic ketchup
pickles +
sliced tomatoes *
leaf lettuce **

These were so good. I cannot wait to try out all the crazy combinations I have for burgers and patties in my head. I love summer!

There hasn't seemed to be too awful much interest in the It Seemed Like A Good Idea At the Time Writing Contest, but I'm not too upset by that. I am a fan of quality over quantity, so if just one person writes a good piece, I will think the contest has been a success.

A bit of house cleaning related to the Writing Contest - if you want to participate, but do not have a blog, just send your entry to jheartschilepeppers@live.com and I will post it on Veg*n Cooking as a guest post.

Also, while you can still vote for what you think the prize for the contest will be, the winner will ultimately get to decide between the choices given.

I hope you all consider writing a short (or not-so-short) piece for the contest, I know there are a lot of witty people out there with great minds, let's use 'em!

'Til next time.

Local Spring Veggies and Pasta!

I really love simple and tasty food - that is as local as possible. I love it when ingredients shine on their own, in their own glory. Until a few years ago when I started going to the farmer's market and growing my own veggies, I didn't know what I was missing - the amazing flavors, colors, textures available. Ordinary foods I used to eat without issue such as tomatoes, I know shun in the winter (unless canned from summer of course) as the store bought ones just don't cut it, they taste horrible and their texture is gritty.

Spring at the farmer's market brings out many things tasty and green. I threw this dish together in no time, and the only non-local ingredients are the few seasonings in the dish.

















This is my bowl, topped with crushed red pepper. It seems like if I can make something spicy, I will. :-)

The local booty legend (aka revealing my sources):
no asterisk = grocery store
+ = local produce from The Root Cellar
++ = The Peace Nook (will denote whether product is local or just from the Nook)
* = farmer's market
** = CSA
*** = Container or Community Garden
**** = the non-profit buying club, Blue Planet or Purcell Mountain Farms

Local Spring Veggies and Pasta
1 lb. penne pasta, cooked according to package instructions *
1 bunch of asparagus, woody ends removed, cut in half inch pieces *
6 spring onions, minced *
1 cup oyster mushrooms, chopped *
1 tomato, chopped *
6 cups spinach, chopped *
1/2 cup garlic chives, minced *
2-3 tbsp canola oil
splash of balsamic vinegar
pinch of salt
pinch of pepper

Heat oil in a medium skillet.

Add the asparagus and mushrooms and cook for about 5 minutes. Add the onions, tomato, and spinach. Cook for an additional 6-8 minutes, stirring often.

Add the garlic chives, cook for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently.

Toss veggies with cooked pasta. Season with balsamic vinegar, salt, and pepper.

If you are like me, add something spicy on top!

Well, we've got market tomorrow, it is the first week for our CSA and I hope there is a bunch of Dan's amazing asparagus. I swear we didn't get enough of it last year (though I'm not sure what enough would be exactly), it is some of the best, most flavorful asparagus I have ever had. I am also excited to see what other goodies we might score from the market this weekend.

It has been really rainy here, well, for the past few weeks, so getting things into the ground at the community garden has once again been difficult this year. We transplanted a bunch of peppers starts, and starts planned for the community garden that had outgrown their pots. I will be taking them down and sowing some more seed on Sunday. I may end up a mudball as I did last year, but the stuff is ready to go!

In other news, for the last few years we've had a common nighthawk roosting on top of one of the buildings in our neighborhood. It took us four years to identify what the bird who screeched all night and would dive bomb from the sky was. Anyway, once we figured out what kind of bird she was, we began to watch her at dusk when we could. It is really neat to watch them dive bomb for bugs. If they do it close enough to you, you can actually hear a whirring sound go by with them, they go really fast. Once they had migrated for the winter, we weren't sure if they would come back to the same spot to roost. We were happy to hear that familiar screech about two days ago and sure enough, there one was, soaring in the sky, screeching her rather unpleasant screech (you get used to it) and dive bombing for the year's first bugs. Nature is pretty cool, even in the city, if you just stop to pay attention. :-)

Well, I'll be back sometime this weekend for the weekly local booty update and our first CSA share!

I hope everyone has a good weekend and to those who go to market over the weekend, happy "hunting".

'Til next time.

Farmer's Market Spring Veggie Omelette-Type Thing - Vegetarian

So, I've never made an omelette before, so I am only assuming that this is what they are supposed to be like, or that at the very least, I got the general idea correct. After getting home from the farmer's market on Saturday, inspiration struck and I headed straight to the kitchen to create this wonderful, almost completely local brunch for us.

This was incredibly good - I am not the biggest egg fan, but I loved this. My only recommendation would be to split one of these between two people. They are huge and filling, I didn't realize how filling they would be. Both of us only ate half of our omelette's before wrapping them up and putting them in the fridge for a snack later.




























This is a picture of Brett's omelette, I added a little bit of chevrie to his.

The local booty legend (aka revealing my sources):
no asterisk = grocery store
+ = local produce from The Root Cellar
++ = The Peace Nook (will denote whether product is local or just from the Nook)
* = farmer's market
** = CSA
*** = Container or Community Garden
**** = the non-profit buying club, Blue Planet or Purcell Mountain Farms

Farmer's Market Spring Veggie Omelette-Type Thing
4 eggs, whisked *
1/3 cup garlic chives, minced *
1 cup asparagus, chopped into half inch pieces *
4 cups of spinach, rinsed and chopped *
1 cup of oyster mushrooms, minced *
4 spring onions, chopped *
canola oil
salt
pepper

In a bowl, combine the eggs and the garlic chives, sprinkle with just a bit of salt and pepper.

Meanwhile, heat about a tablespoon of canola oil in a medium skillet. Add the asparagus and mushrooms and cook for about 8 minutes. Add the spinach and spring onions, cook an additional 5-8 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

In a medium flat bottomed skillet, add 1-2 tbsp of canola oil. Once the pan is good and hot, pour the egg mixture and allow it to cook thoroughly. Flip the flat egg over to cook both sides - this should take about 10 minutes.

Add the filling to the middle of the egg "pancake" and fold the egg over. You can cook it just a minute or two more on each side and this will help it "seal" a little bit.

This was a pretty darn good meal. I will be back soon with the recipe for a super tasty local pasta dish I made earlier this week.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful week so far. Brett is off in homework land tonight, so I'm on my own this evening - I smell veggie sushi and a good book.

'Til next time!