Black Bean "Burger" with Beet and Sweet Potato Roasted Fries

I finally found the time to spend a few hours in the kitchen, taking my time, making some good good food.  Last evening as a Spring rainstorm, that's been happening off and on all week, stormed on, I cooked up a storm in my happy kitchen.

Shout-out to my husband for helping me clean up the colossal mess that came with dinner.

I modified a black bean/quinoa burger I've made a few times before and here's the recipe I ended up using:

ingredients:

1/2 Cup uncooked quinoa

roughly chopped vegetables:
     2 carrots
     1/2 red onion
     1/4 of a small purple cabbage

2 cloves garlic

spice blend:
     1.5 tsp. paprika
     1.5 tsp cumin
     1 tsp Italian seasoning blend
     1/2 tsp. cayenne

1 can black beans, drained

2 Tbsp. tomato paste
1 tsp. soy sauce
2 tsp. sriracha

1/2-1 cup breadcrumbs

olive oil
salt and pepper

cook quinoa with water or vegetable broth.
meanwhile, wash and roughly chop the vegetables.
heat olive oil in a pan and cook vegetables until they begin to soften.
add cooked vegetables, spice mixture and beans to a food processor and begin to mash them together.  (the length of time you process the mixture depends on how chunky you'd like your burger.)

next, mix the tomato paste, soy and sriracha. then add to the bean and vegetable mixture in the food processor until combined.
transfer mixture to a large bowl.

the quiona should be finished by now.  add quinoa and mix everything together with your hands.  slowly add breadcrumbs until the mixture starts to hold together if you ball it up, and loses most of its moisture.  it will be slightly sticky.  make into round patty shapes and set in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

while the burgers were chilling and settling in the fridge I made beet and sweet potato roasted fries.

ingredients:
one beet & one sweet potato, both peeled and sliced into thin rounds

salt, pepper, olive oil

optional:  spices such as rosemary, cumin, cayenne...

I saw a recipe for beet chips with rosemary, salt and cayenne here, which I tried.

mix up a small amount of olive oil, a pinch of rosemary, cayenne and salt.
let the beets sit in this mixture for about 10 minutes.

I kept the sweet potatoes plain except for a small amount of salt, pepper and olive oil.

roast at 375 for about 20-25 minutes, turning the veggies over halfway.

Before I cooked the burgers in a pan on the stove, I chopped up some more purple cabbage, red onion and a half of an avocado to top the burgers with.  I also chopped up one adobo pepper (great fridge item to have on hand)... the kind that come in little cans that can be found in the Hispanic section of the grocery store and mixed it with mayonnaise.

Then, I heated some olive oil in the pan and cooked each burger for about 3-5 minutes per side.  The ingredients are all pretty much cooked, the mixture just needs to heat through.

Get that burger on a bun with some toppings and dinner is served!

The Annual Fall Squash Soup Experiment

Yes, it's finally a little chilly in the air and Fall is showing its signs.  That means, of course, squash soup.  I bought a kind of squash at the farmer's market that I'd never cooked with before:

what kind of squash is this?

The soup was delicious, warm, spicy not spicy hot but spicy from the garam masala and smooth! Serve with a side of roasted beet salad!

Here's how I made it!

1 squash -- (Honestly, I wasn't sure what I was going to do with my squash when I started cutting it up.  I decided to roast it, and cut it into long slices.  This was a mistake, it was really hard to get the squash flesh off the blazing hot squash rind and into the pot!  If you are going to roast your squash, just cut it in half, then roast, then scoop.  Or, you can peel it prior, cube it, then roast it. Or!  Just peel it, cube it and skip roasting. Add it to the pot with the potato, carrot and onion)

I roasted my squash at 425 degrees for about 30 minutes, with about 2T garam masala, salt and pepper and olive oil.

1 potato, diced.
1 carrot, diced.
1 onion, diced.

1 T olive oil
1 T butter

4-6 C vegetable broth, depending how thick you like your soup!
1 T curry powder
1 T ground ginger (I didn't have real ginger, but I'd rather use the real thing!!)
1 t cayenne
2 cloves garlic, roasted if you're already roasting, minced otherwise.

heat oil and butter in large pot.  add potato, carrot, and onion. sautee on medium heat, stirring often.  veggies should soften and become deliciously fragrant and caramelized a little.

while the veggies are working, prepare squash  then add squash (in my case, this involved me cutting the rind off and adding it to the pot, if I could go back, I'd just scoop the roasted squash out of the rind into the pot).
add garlic and seasonings.
add broth.
stir.

let simmer for 20 minutes, then blend with immersion blender.  slowly add more broth if you like it soupier, remember you can always add more, but you can't easily take it out!

garnish with cilantro, and sour cream!

Weekly Menu! September 17-23

Whew! Here it is.  The state of this weekly menu reflects the state of my mind as school is keeping me SO busy right now.  I like being busy, but WOAH.  I still need to eat!  Who knows if any of these plans will actually take place, a few of last week's did not.

Here's a Kitchen Table Friend confession:  I have been lacking inspiration a little lately which bums me out, so any suggestions or words or encouragement are welcome, friends!!

As I write this, Ryan is making a delicious meal for us:

pineapple, cashew fried rice with chicken and thai coconut shrimp soup!  It smells very good.

tomorrow I'll make:  pork chops with a tortellini salad (I was inspired by the recipe I posted last week, but when it came down to making it I went on my own...)

combine in a bowl:
1 package tortellini, cooked to package directions
1/2 C grated parmesan cheese
about a pint of grape tomatoes, halved
chopped red onion or green onion or both!
sliced kalamata olived
basil
spinach, chopped
chickpeas
basalmic dressing

and the plan for the rest of the week...

the famous fish tacos!!

 a roasted beets, goat cheese, walnuts and wild rice salad with spinach  (I've been waiting for time to roast these beets for over a week now.. more importantly I want to eat them!!)

Growing (and eating!) Our Own Food: Beets!

My Mom gave me these beets for my birthday (Thanks!!) As you might have read, the beet crop from my own garden was a little disappointing.  None the less I cooked, ate and wrote about my beets with pride.  Anyway, Mom's beets were bigger and growing more frequently than mine so she had some to spare.

Inspired by a delicious raw golden beet salad a friend shared with me recently, I veered from my usual path of roasting the beets to have on my own raw beet salad adventure.  Not surprisingly, I found a Bittman recipe online for raw beet salad that included a nice variation on the raw slaw like salad that paired beets with with carrots and ginger.  YUM!

I made a few changes. Here's what I did:

Raw Beet Salad

4 medium sized beets (about .75 pound), washed and trimmed
equal amount of carrots about 5 to 6 carrots (about .75 pound), washed and trimmed
1 inch piece of ginger, peeled
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
1 Tablespoon olive oil
2 Tablespoons red wine vinegar
a handful of cilantro, chopped

Grate the beets, carrots and ginger -- I used the food processor grating attachment.  Place in large bowl.
Mix the mustard, oil, and vinegar, pour into beet mixture.
Sprinkle with cilantro.

The dressing was subtle, allowing the beet flavor to shine.  I wonder what this would be like with mint in place of the cilantro... 

In lieu of a weekly menu...

With new veggies popping up in my garden every few days, and a lot more time in my schedule I haven't been planning weekly menus (or taking many pictures-- sorry!). 

But don't worry, we've been eating!

a nice fresh salad from garden greens

There have been a lot of salads from our abundant crop of arugula.


And lot of quinoa with garden veggies mixed with produce from the farmers market or supermarket.

our rhubarb red swiss chard-- see recipe below!

The other night, I pulled all the beets from the garden.  They were tiny, but Ryan and I grew them!  I was excited.  They made a great little salad.  I almost felt bad eating them.  Almost.

they had cool white spirals!

 

 I sliced the little beets and roasted them at 400 for about 15 minutes and put them with the arugula.  

I saved the beet greens and sauteed them like spinach for dinner the next day.  I have also been putting them in salads.  Don't throw them out, unless they are wilted or damaged.  Eat them! Here's an idea....

 

simple recipe for swiss chard 

or beet greens 

or any other greens!

greens, from a bunch of beets for instance, washed
olive oil
salt and pepper
walnuts or pinenuts
fresh lemon juice (greens go well with citrus, try lime or flavored vinegar!)
garlic, minced

heat olive oil in sautee pan
add garlic until softened
add greens and nuts, season with salt and pepper
sautee until greens have wilted
add lemon juice at the last minute, stir and cook for 30-60 more seconds
transfer to serving dish
enjoy!


The other night, as a friend and I were parting ways to head to our respective homes for dinner, she asked me what I usually made... did I cook vegan or organic?? 
No, I said... I just... 
-- cook yummy?  she interjected.
Well, yes, of course... 

I've been thinking about that a lot lately.  How do I describe what I cook in a simple conversation? 
I cook simple.
I appreciate complicated dishes, but usually leave that to the professionals.  At home, I really focus on the simple, solid flavors I have come to know and love, such as adding the citrus to the greens.  Knowing that cumin and coriander go well together.  That adding a drizzle of basalmic and olive oil to a tomato, basil mozzarella sandwich is divine.  Oh and you must add salt and freshly ground pepper.  That's how I do it...   it's simple and it makes me (and Ryan!) very happy in our kitchen. 

I hope you're enjoying your summer.