Burger Cook-Off Episode 1

Well, it looks like I am having a cook off against myself since Anu is too busy (or too popular!) to cook this week. This burger competition may go on indefinitely as we try to find the best homemade vegan burgers. I have a few that I have wanted to try so this has given me the incentive. I assume that the ones I make will have a bit of a Southwestern flair since that is what we seem to enjoy. This weekend, I made Red Bean Chipotle Burgers from www.blog.fatfreevegan.com. This is a fabulous blog by the way-check it out! I have picked up quite a few tips from this blog. This time, I learned to toss the entire can of chipotles in adobo into the food processor and then just scoop out what you need for recipes or freeze the extra. I often chop up one chipotle and then forget about the rest of the can as it rots in my fridge.

(By the way, my husband is home now and taught me how to create a link rather than writing out the entire address for some of the recipes I have tried. I realize that it is pathetic that I am just learning these things at my age. I went back and tried to fix some of my older posts. Hopefully they work!)

The Red Bean Chipotle Burgers were great. They remind me of the Amy's burgers a bit in terms of the texture. I like my burgers to have some texture and not be too soft. These really fit the bill! I used regular red kidney bean since I don't think we have light red kidney beans around here unless I have just never noticed them. They use oatmeal as a binder which I thought would be odd but it was great. There is also some brown rice mixed in. I forgot to add the rice while processing so I just stirred it in after and I think I prefer it this way. I froze a few and threw them in the micromave for 1 minute today. They made a great lunch.




The picture really does not do them justice. I took it very quickly so I could eat my burger. We had them with a caesar salad (I used a vegan dressing made from tofu that was in this month's Clean Living Magazine. I had to doctor it a bit for our tastes, but it was good enough) and some roasted baby russet potatoes with a little sprinkle of rosemary, garlic powder and olive oil.

I give these a thumbs up and plan to make them again. M thought they were good but a little gritty.

On a different not, I realize I will need to get some more attractive plates if I am going to be taking so many pictures of food! My dull brown ones look so boring on here!)