In the last week or so, I’ve had, or created, several opportunities to eat vegetarian versions of meat dishes. On Thursday, for lunch, I had a sandwich made from slices of mushroom-pecan paté, really just vegetarian meatloaf, leftover from the first small plates buffet. It was a good, traditional, sandwich – the paté, grainy mustard, lettuce and tomato. The same night, for dinner, I had barbecued seitan on a bun at the co-op’s annual membership meeting. I was one of about 3,000 people who enjoyed the free meal. Tonight, I’m turning the tabouli that I made 4th of July weekend into veggie burgers – with a can of refried beans and lots of breadcrumbs. The recipe also includes a yogurt-red-onion-mint-cucumber sauce to serve with. I think I’m going to try Heidi’s recommendation to make the burger the bun –
We’re also going to have rhubarb-strawberry crumble.
Rhubarb-strawberry crumble
After eating, I’d have to say that tonight’s veggie burgers were probably the least tasty of the three – they were mostly brown, and mushy textured. The recipe included nuts, which is what gives the mushroom-pecan paté a good texture – but I think the walnuts in these burgers were just overwhelmed by the beans and being pureed in the food processor. And I used a can of refried beans in lieu of the whole pintos called for – plus, I made the burgers from leftovers – it’s probably still worth a try with fresh ingredients. And, I still have high hopes for the crumble. Which were fulfilled. I increased the sugar just enough (since rhubarb’s tarter than strawberries), the Nigella Lawson trick of adding leavening to the topping worked a charm (the principle being that if you add leavening, the topping rises when baked – so you have more topping, that’s crispy & light, without adding more butter, flour, or sugar, heavy-ing everything, and risking upsetting the ratio), and the orange zest & juice were a good sub for lemon.
