Anasazi Patties with Rosemary Roasted Sweet Potatoes

Awhile back, when Brett and I first tried Anasazi beans, he said they reminded him of poultry, which I could go along with. Since then, when thinking about using Anasazi beans, I have tried them in applications where flavors similar to that of poultry would be conducive - mostly Mexican until now - and it has always worked beautifully. I mean no judgment, but I am not one of those vegetarians who is interested in recreating all my omnivorous favorites veg-style, personally, I did not stop eating meat so I could try to recreate it with fake things, I never really liked meat all that much anyway. However, I do not have a problem using particular flavor profiles. For example, I think the metallic, iron quality of green lentils holds up to the seasoning profile you would use with red meat quite well, so I will rock that seasoning combination with lentils. I will not, however, try to create something that is supposed to resemble, in taste and texture, say fajita meat strips.

Anywho, back to the topic at hand. Seeing as how Anasazi beans take on poultry-ish flavors very well, I have wanted to make a patty out of them and use poultry seasoning. I don't like calling something like this a 'burger' as to me that implies meat, but at the same time, meat doesn't have a license on the word 'burger' either - there have long been many different types of burgers, made from different types of meat, legumes, and veggies - so I was at a little bit of a loss for what to call these, I guess patties it is.

These were very, very good, though they do not taste anything (thankfully) like chicken; the beans just take on the poultry seasoning quite well. I put my food processor to work for the veggies (I so rarely think to do that and it saves a ton of time!), so the patties and the sides were all done in about 45 minutes - oh, and I was also left with 4 huge patties to freeze for quick, tasty meals in a hurry. I decided to serve these with my take on rosemary roasted sweet potatoes. Laura, from the wonderful CoMo blog Peace by Pastries, is always making something like these and various other delightful looking sweet potato dishes and I finally had a meal I thought they would go well with. They were pretty good, I would recommend (as I do in the recipe below) peeling the sweet potatoes first. And I'm honestly not sure how much I like rosemary. It has a strong "smaste" (smell-taste), and even after trying to crumble the pine needle like rosemary, it was still in large pieces that I wasn't super fond of. We also served this meal with steamed kale.



























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

Anasazi Patties
Makes about six huge patties.

4 cups Anasazi beans, cooked ****
1 carrot, peeled and shredded +
1 1/2 cup shiitake mushrooms, chopped +
1/2 yellow onion, chopped +
4 cloves of garlic, minced +
1/2 cup regular rolled oats
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 cup vital wheat gluten
1/4 cup chopped walnuts +
1 tbsp organic ketchup
1 tbsp safflower oil
1 tsp poultry seasoning
black pepper

Fixins:
whole wheat burger buns
mayonnaise (I used vegan mayo)
stone ground mustard
ketchup
zesty pickles +
lettuce

(I used my food processor to chop all the veggies and save time.)

In a large bowl, smash beans with a fork, leaving just a few in whole or half form. Stir in the veggies and combine well.

Slowly stir in the oats, flour, vital wheat gluten, and walnuts. You may need to use your hands to get everything all worked together.

Add the ketchup, oil, and seasoning.

Refrigerate the dough for about an hour.

Once dough has sat for an hour, form six large balls out of the dough and flatten as you would for a burger.

Spray a small skillet with safflower (or other) oil in a mister. Let pan heat up for about a minute over medium high heat and add a patty. Fry for about 6-8 minutes and flip. I like the patties to get firmer, so I will often cook them on both sides, and then do a lot of flipping for an additional minute or two. This will allow them to cook a little more without them getting burnt.

Put on your favorite bun with your favorite toppings (how we dressed them is listed above).

Rosemary Roasted Sweet Potatoes
3 small sweet potatoes, cubed (you can peel them if you like) +
2 cloves of garlic, minced +
1 tsp dried rosemary + (not sure if it is local or not)
1/4 tsp Spanish paprika
1/4 tsp salt
dash black pepper
1-2 tbsp safflower oil

Preheat oven to 375.

Toss cubed sweet potatoes with garlic and spices. Place in a baking dish that has either been sprayed with oil or lined with parchment or foil to keep the taters from sticking.

Roast for 35-45 minutes or until potatoes are soft.

I am really stoked that we have more of these burgers in our freezer. Using the vital wheat gluten gave the patties a firmer, more pleasant texture, and it also gave me something to do with the jar of the stuff that has been lurking in my cabinet.

A bit of a side note I just noticed, as of today, I have been blogging for a year. It is amazing how quickly the time goes by.

I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe New Years! I have the last post I am behind on scheduled to go up tomorrow and will finally be caught up (!!!!!). I will be back early next week with a local booty update and to catch up on your blogs (I may have a new recipe by then as well).

'Til next time.

Garden Update #18

The theme of the week with the gardens is that the butternut squash is winning. It's winning the battle to take over our garden, other people's gardens, and well, I think its plan is to take over the world. Every time we go down there we have more "escapees", new growth trying to make its way somewhere, even at the expense of the other plants. One of our tomato plants, as you'll see below, has really felt the wrath. The squash plant decided to grab a hold of it, and has proceeded to try to both strangle it and pull it over. This combined with all the rain we've had over the past couple of weeks doesn't provide a whole lot of hope for the plants survival. It's pretty yellow and gnarly looking - so we'll just have to see.

Otherwise, things are just moving along, lots of pepper growth, some even starting to ripen, and our zucchini and yellow squash all have a few little fruits on them

Check out the container garden:

















































Banana peppers.
































Our "regular" bell pepper plant. We've gotten a couple of small peppers off of this and they are really good. As I noted in yesterdays post, the peppers from our container garden don't get as big as the ones from the store, but there is no comparison with flavor.















The cayenne pepper plant is going crazy. It's looking like, after these all ripen, we might get another large round. This has been a very productive plant. I think next year we'll have two or three of these plants and we'll be set for cayenne and crushed red pepper!



















The Hungarian Wax plant is literally infested with blooms. If these all turn into peppers, we are going to have a serious Hungarian Wax supply!



















The gorgeous and lush jalapeno plant. Look at all those peppers!



















Petite bell peppers. A few are even ripening.















A ripening Super Chile. I think this plant has about had it. It is so waterlogged and it seems as if it always rains at the most inopportune times.

















The other container banana pepper plant.

Onto the community garden:
































This is a plant we haven't photographed for awhile. Anyone who has been following the Garden Updates for awhile - remember the two tomato starts we got at the beginning of the season from the market? Well we thought they were both dead, it seemed as if they had gotten something. We took out the Brandywine, but forgot about the Better Boy, and it's making a comeback!















This is the only banana pepper plant in our community garden that is easily visible in the tangled mess that is our butternut squash plants. There are three others besides this one, we have to dig through the jungle in order to check for peppers.















Yellow straightneck squash plant.















This is our first picked butternut squash - well right before we picked it of course.















Another butternut, it looks like it is quickly ripening, we should be able to pick it next weekend we think.















This is the poor tomato plant that has been terrorized by the butternut squash plants.

Our Roma tomato plant is really producing like mad. We took a series of pictures so as to illustrate its abundance.























I can't wait for them to ripen, but I'm a little nervous they are going to ripen all at once and I don't have a water bath canner yet, we might be eating a LOT of tomatoes!

















Our two zucchini plants. The larger one is mostly just for looks; we haven't actually gotten anything off the larger one.

We've also noticed quite a few clusters of these things. They appear to be the eggs of some sort of bug. It's weird; some of the "egg sacks" have cut all the way through the leaves as if they were sewed on. Anyone know what these are? Should we be removing the leaves with these egg sacks on them? Are they pests or beneficial? Any help would be much needed.

















As promised in the commentary to yesterday's post, here is Brett's recipe for refrigerator pickles.

The produce legend is:
no asterisk = from the grocery store
* = farmer's market
** = CSA
*** = Container or Community Garden

B's Famous Summer Pickles
sliced onions **
thickly sliced cucumbers (smaller ones work best)**
1 part water
1 part white distilled vinegar
salt
dash of ground black pepper
a drizzle of olive oil

Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Let marinate at least 24 hours before eating.

The marinade for this recipe can be used for multiple rounds of pickles.

'Til next time.

Roasted Veggies with Cranberry Beans, Marinated Roasted Portobello Mushrooms, and Brown Rice

This meal could have also been called 'Really Simple Food That Speaks For Itself'. I am always amazed at how good veggies are when roasted. They don't need anything, just a bit of salt. They have enough of their own flavor.

I was looking for a simple, yet tasty and healthy dinner the other night, and I think I found the perfect meal! Brett and I raved about this and were also happy with how good something so basic could be.

We made some long grain brown rice and cranberry beans to go with the roasted veggies.

The portobello mushroom was marinated in balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and about 1 tsp of juice from a jar of kalamata olives (Brett's idea - a good one too!) for a few hours and then roasted, along with a zucchini, red bell pepper, garlic, some small onions from our CSA, and some asparagus.

Once all the veggies were roasted, I sliced them up, tossed them with just a bit of olive oil, and layered them over plates of brown rice and beans. This was a really good meal.

Marinating the portobello.

Pan full of veggies ready to be roasted.

The finished product. Yum!

Remember when I talked about the lovely bagel sandwiches Brett and I have been enjoying the other day? Well, I had actually taken pictures of the sandwiches and fruit, but was too lazy to post them. So I'll do it now. :-)

This was Brett's sandwich. He had veganaise, spicy mustard, leaf lettuce, tomato, cucumber, and pickles. And of course, some beautiful organic cherries.

My sandwich was the same as Brett's less the pickles. I also had an organic peach and some extra cucumber slices on the side.

And finally, Brett and I made a really awesome find the other day. Now, I'm not sure how many Americans have noticed that Coca Cola does not taste like it used to, at least not how I remember it as a kid. I chalked it up to the fact that they now use high fructose corn syrup and a myriad of other crazy chemicals. As a result, I do not drink 'regular' soda anymore, I rarely drink 'non-regular' soda, but when I do it is generally Izze or Jarrito's (Mexican soda, are you surprised?). Well, when Brett and I were at the store the other day, browsing the 'ethnic' aisle, we noticed Mexican Coca Cola, in a glass bottle (how soda should be), sweetened with sugar, and with an ingredients list about half as long as American Coca Cola. It was far more expensive than American Coke ($1.69 a bottle for this stuff), but it is so much better than American Coke, seriously. I won't drink it very often, as it's expensive, comes all the way from Mexico, and, well, soda is not all that good for you, but it will make for a nice treat from time to time.

Check it out:

Refresco is right! ;-)

'Til next time.