Veggie Quinoa Burgers

At Mud Hero, I tried a delicious alternative to beef burgers, a quinoa burger.  Unable to eat beef due to my ulcerative colitis, both the burgers and hot dogs were out of the question.  These were all served on a flat bread rather than a bun and with some zesty sauces that I have no idea what they were any more.  I decided to attempt making my own and found a recipe for a quinoa burger.  Now this was also my first attempt at making home made burgers of any kind, so it was a learning process as well.  Below is the recipe I followed.

Veggie Quinoa Burgers

    1/2 cup quinoa
    1 cup water
    2 teaspoons olive oil
    4 carrots, peeled and minced
    2 stalks celery, minced
    1/2 red bell pepper, minced
    1 onion, minced
    4 cloves garlic, minced
    2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger root
    2 cups minced fresh mushrooms
    1 (19 ounce) can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
    1/2 bunch fresh dill, chopped
    2 cups chopped fresh spinach
    1 egg (optional)
    1/2 cup dry bread crumbs
    2 tablespoons sesame oil
    4 slices shredded mozzarella cheese
    salt and ground black pepper to taste
    1 tablespoon olive oil

Directions

    1. Preheat an outdoor grill for high heat and lightly oil the grate.
    2. Combine quinoa and water in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, place lid on saucepan, and cook until water is completely absorbed, about 15 minutes; Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
   3.  Heat 2 teaspoons olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Cook and stir carrots, celery, red bell pepper, onion, garlic, ginger, and mushrooms in the hot oil until softened, about 10 minutes; set aside to cool.
    4. Mash kidney beans with a fork in a large bowl; add quinoa and the carrot mixture to the means and mix.
    5. Mix dill, spinach, egg, bread crumbs, sesame oil, mozzarella cheese, salt, and pepper into kidney bean mixture; shape into 8 patties.
    6. Brush the 1 tablespoon olive oil evenly both sides of each patty.
    7. Arrange the patties into a large baking dish.
    8. Grill on preheated grill until hot in the center, 7 to 8 minutes per side.

So as I've said before, I don't fully follow recipes.  I omitted the carrots, celery, ginger root, egg and mozzarella.  I also only used 2 cloves of garlic and half an onion, although it was a fairly large onion.  Spices, I added dill, garlic powder, seasoning salt and pepper.  Now after preparing the mixture, I scooped them into a hamburger press or whatever you call it, which I borrowed from my mom.  After a semi successful burger, I intend to invest in one.  I started off by making 4 burgers and did a poor job of making equal portions.  2 were the right size, one was rather thick and the other was too thin.  I put them on the BBQ and  prepped the remaining mixture and came out with 3 more burgers which I refrigerated.  Dan arrived with Carrie so she could borrow my tent for the long weekend.  I gave her the tent and chatted with them out front for a short while.  They were on their way to Dan's brother's for supper and finally ended the conversation to leave.  Ih no!  I forgot about my burgers.  I raced through the house to the BBQ in the backyard.  I flipped them over and discovered them to be a little charred on one side.  The thin burger had also broken into 3.  I probably should have used an egg in the mixture to help keep them intact.  I cooked them a little longer on this side and removed them from the grill.

Quinoa Burger

 I decided to have the thick and thin burgers for supper and placed them on some flat bread buns, dressed with Dijon, hickory BBQ sauce, jalapeno Havarti cheese and spinach.  Hindsight, I probably should have sliced some onions while chopping them early and had sliced tomato available.  Next time.  Now it was time to try them.  I chose the thick burger first.  It was delicious.  Being thicker, I probably should have cooked it longer, because with each bite, it started to squeeze out the sizes.  Now there's no meat or egg in there, and most of it was cooked before grilling, so being under cooked wasn't a concern.  I also couldn't even taste the little bit of char.  I suppose they didn't burn too deep and I caught them just in time.  Upon consuming the first burger, I ate the thin burger.  This one broke apart and pieces fell out.  No big deal.  I ate those rogue pieces afterwards.  Now I was fully satisfied with how these tasted, but they could have still been better in terms of portion sizes and durability.  This being summer, I will definitely attempt this recipe again as well as other non beef burgers like ground turkey or pork.


Today TeeFury features a TwoFury of Transformers inspired shirts.  This is a head to head battle by two different artists, occasionally the same artist designs both, to sell the most shirts over the 24 hour span. I'm not sure if the winner gets anything more on top of commission, but they have a little graph to show the current leader.

A Grim Find vs Transform Tessellation

I love both designs and am currently deciding on whether I want one or both.  This site you can choose between three colors each. The Grimlock shirt comes in dark chocolate, black and yellow.  I prefer the brown, as it emulates the look of the earth a bit better.  The Starscream shirt comes in deep purple, navy and black.  I like the navy best for this shirt. 


Here is a video a friend posted on facebook the other day called  Appearances can be deceiving.  I found it to be very interesting.  There are a few lessons to be learned from this video, but without spoiling it, I'll just allow you to watch it without commenting.  Enjoy.