Beet and Bean Sprouts Burger

Milk solids. Two words that are increasingly cropping up on things I have bought. Two words that are making me question how I can in good faith call myself “100% vegan”?! A miniscule amount of milk isn’t the greatest sin in the world, but still.

First my cracker biscuits and now my store bought burger buns contain milk solids. What does ‘milk solids’ even mean?! And why the heck is it mindlessly added to everything? As a former non-vegetarian, I am just not used to scrutinizing food labels – It may be unhealthy, but there’s nothing on those food labels that would make me stop and go “Oh, I can’t buy this. This contains XXX”. That habit of mindlessly picking up stuff that I think should and ought to be vegan will have to be seriously managed.

But I believe in learning my lesson and moving on. I just don’t see the point of just throwing away a perfectly good burger bun that I already wasted my money on. I’ll eat it now, but will never buy the same brand again, and examine all burger bun food labels now that I am aware there might be milk solids. After all, this is a journey and I’m still learning – only about 3 months since going completely vegan. At least I do not consciously crave more obvious no-go items like meat and milk.

Anyhoo…there are a ton of vegan burgers that mimic various meats. I especially liked this burger recipe that uses beets to mimic meat. It looks great, but there is so much effort involved with making stock and cooking and grinding up various nuts and seeds. So, my version – not nearly as pretty or great tasting, for sure – uses beets and bean sprouts. You just grind it all up and deep fry the pattie. However, you do need some sort of flour or beans to hold the whole thing together because beets will start to shed water, and you – like me – risk having a runny pattie.

Beet and Bean Sprouts Burger

Ingredients:

For the pattie:

• 1 beet
• 1 cup mung bean sprouts
• ½ cup fried onions
• 1 teaspoon chilli powder
• ½ teaspoon curry powder
• Juice of half a lime
• Handful of coriander
• Corn starch or plain flour (if needed)
• Dash of semolina

Other trimmings:

• Burger bun
• Green chutney (coriander and chillies with some coconut)
• Tomatoes, sliced
• Lettuce, finely chopped
• Jalepeno peppers

To make:

• In a blender, blend together all the ingredients except corn starch/ plain flour.
• Make a pattie. If it’s too runny, add some corn starch or some sort of flour.
• Let the pattie rest in the fridge for 4-8 hours so that the wateriness goes away.
• Coat the pattie in semolina (or bread crumbs if you have them).
• Fry for 2-3 minutes on each side.

To assemble:

• Cut the burger bun and gently toast it on both sides.
• I added a green coriander and chilli chutney to my buns, and added tomato, lettuce, jalepenos.

Sweet and Sour Bean Sprouts Salad

I had a really good day yesterday – for the first time in a long time, I was completely raw yesterday. Well, the flax seed chikki is technically cooked, in that the jaggery is heated until it melts. But I will slot this under the raw category as there was hardly any jaggery and a ton of raw flax seeds. So, this morning, I thought I’d continue the raw trend. But dumb that I am, I put my endive lettuce in the freezer for lack of space in the veggie compartment below. I thought it would nicely thaw out like my frozen peas. But sadly, it’s all not looking too appetizing right now, so I laid those out in the sun today to dry out. Which meant, I had one less – and important – ingredient to work with for today’s lunch. Let’s face it – Salads with lettuce are so much easier to scarf down. So, a mung bean sprout salad, it had to be!

Mung beans - I've had them tons of times cooked as lentils in daals. But the first time as sprouts. I got a batch from Nature's Basket last week, but looks like they are quite easy to make at home. At least I think they are mung bean sprouts. Aren't they?

The salad's got peppers, ginger, mint and is dressed with (Korean) miso and maple syrup. So, its quite tangy and refreshing at the same time.

Sweet and Sour Mung Bean Sprouts Salad

Ingredients:

• 1 cup bean sprouts
• 1 red pepper
• 1 green pepper
• 1/2 inch knob of ginger
• 1/2 cup of mint

Dressing:

• 1 tablespoon of maple syrup
• 1 teaspoon of miso paste
• 1 teaspoon of vegetable oil
• Juice of one lime

To make:
Slice your peppers, mint, and ginger finely.

Add to the bean sprouts.

Heat a little water and add to the miso paste till it dissolves. Add that to the maple syrup, lime juice, and oil mixture.

Add the dressing over the salad. Mix well.