Recipe 2: Black bean burgers are heaven on earth.

Hey there, all of my beautiful vegetarian and semi-vegetarian friends!

Tonight's recipe is for one delightfully yumtastic Black Bean Burger.

Aside from the ingredients posted in the recipe, this burger is best served on a soft, chewy bun- as it helps to contain the soft nature of the filling.  I also like it served with a dill pickle spear, and some homemade mac and cheese (which I absolutely promise to give you the recipe for later on this week!)

For the burgers, you will need:

1 1/2 cups black beans

3 cups of crushed Crispix cereal

1 egg

1/2 cup of Grapenuts cereal

2 tablespoons of crushed/minced onions*

1 clove of garlic, pressed

1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning

1/4 teaspoon garlic salt

Pretty simple instructions:

Mash 1 cup of the black beans with a potato masher, then mix in the rest of the ingredients with a fork.
Refrigerate for 45 minutes, until the consistency of play dough.  

Form into patties (should make between 4-6, depending on how big you want your burgers!) and then fry in 1 tablespoon of olive oil.

Serve with your favorite burger toppings- we like ketchup, mayonnaise, and tomatoes. 

*I hate onions. I do. An easy way to not get that nasty onion texture is to send the onion chunks through the garlic press along with the garlic. Yummy taste and no nasty onion texture.

Get your burger on!

-- Katee

Recipe 1- Tomato and Basil Pizza

First of all, I'd like to apologize for the lack of photograph in tonight's post. I am currently working on the whole, my-memory-card-reader-is-broken ordeal, but until all is resolved, recipes will still be posted.

Tonight we're making basil and tomato pizza, topped with goat cheese, on a honey-wheat crust.

Let's start with the crust.

Ingredients:

1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast

1 cup warm water

2 cups whole wheat flour

1/4 cup wheat bran

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon sugar

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Let stand until dissolved and creamy- this usually takes about 10 minutes. 

In a second bowl, combine flour, wheat bran and salt. 

Make a well in the middle and add yeast mixture, honey, and sugar.

Stir well. Cover and set in a warm place to rise for a 5 minutes.

Roll dough on a floured pizza pan (or cornmeal, if you have it sitting around) and poke a few holes in it with a fork.

Bake in preheated oven for 5 minutes before topping. 

Speaking of topping...

Next is the sauce:

Ingredients:

1 (6 oz) can of tomato paste
3/4 teaspoon dried basil
1 pressed clove of garlic

1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon garlic salt

Combine everything in a small bowl, then spread onto pre-baked pizza crust.

And finally...

The yumtasticness.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups of shredded Italian Cheese

1/2 cup loosely packed fresh basil leaves

1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved and de-juiced (by squeezing over the sink...)

1/4 cup goat cheese.

Place on pizza, respectively.
Bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes, checking often.
Pizza is done when the cheese is golden.

Best served with garlic bread, a tossed salad, and your favorite summer ale.

And there you have it- recipe one of many on "An Apple or a Rabbit."

Happy Cooking!
- Katee

A list of things that every vegetarian needs in their cupboard.

Before I even get started posted recipes and pictures and all of those glorious things, we must first go grocery shopping. Everything on this list MUST be in your pantry if you are to succeed at making wonderfully yumtastic vegetarian meals.

Lentils. This is a key ingredient in several of my everyday recipes. They are worth their weight in gold when it comes to making meat-substitutes, as well as the vegetarian staple, Lentil Soup. Lentils have oodles of protein in them, to make up for what we're otherwise lacking.

Black beans. Not only are black beans fantastic in a salad, or a burrito, but who doesn't love a classic black bean burger every once in a while?

Vegetable stock. You need it for rice, soup, and when preparing Seitan and Tofu. Always have a carton or two handy.

Rice. It's filling, healthy, and cheap. It also completes your bean proteins. 

Breadcrumbs. I use breadcrumbs in most of my meat-substitutes. They're a wonderful binding agent.

Fresh vegetables. You're a vegetarian. Eat your veggies! Make sure you have plenty of lettuce, tomatoes, squash, beets, kale, carrots, and onions. 

Yogurt. Breakfast is not complete without yogurt. Calcium, vitamins, protein. Start your day off right.

Olive oil. Perfect for salad dressings and pesto. Also a healthy cooking alternative (as opposed to vegetable oil or butter.)

Seasonings. Italian seasoning, garlic salt, rosemary, basil. And your basics- salt and pepper.

Fresh fruit. Bananas, cherries, apples, peaches, berries... especially berries- studies show that berries (and black beans!) help balance out hormones and help you lose weight. I like using frozen berries- they have just as many nutrients as fresh berries, but they stay good 10x as long. 

Yeast. Homemade bread is much healthier than store-bought. Also, all good pizzas start with homemade dough. 

Firm Tofu. Despite what you may think, Tofu can actually taste good- when done right.

Eggs. Eggs are a huge part of a vegetarian's diet. Not only are they super healthy, but they are a very key ingredient in most meat replacement recipes. 

Milk/Soy Milk. I cannot emphasize this enough- since we don't take in protein from meat sources, we have to get it in other ways. An 8 oz glass of milk generally has 8 grams of protein (even soy milk!)

Wheat Gluten.  This is the main ingredient of seitan- an up and coming meat replacement- resembling tofu, but without the spongy texture.

Now it's time to set you free, my vegetarian friends. Get to the store and buy the goods. We'll be cooking up something fabulous very soon.