My new apartment has a balcony.
To me, that means fresh air in the kitchen while I cook. It also gives me a chance to envision my dream assuming that the two towering buildings in the distance is New York City.
To my meat-eating fiancé that means one thing: grilling season has officially kicked off. No lie, he’s grilled every single week that we’ve lived here. And at least two times each week.
I am not complaining. I got a lot of grilled corn out of the deal, which was delicious.
However, with all the aromas of my barbeque favorites like chicken, Italian sausages, and homemade burgers, I needed something different.
That is, if I was going to stick to going a year without eating meat. Only 28 more days to go.
When I came up with this recipe, my intentions were to grill these bad boys. I mean, just because my burgers are packed full of veggies doesn’t mean that I can’t partake a little more in grilling season, right?
But the idea of me on a grill is scary so I just went ahead and sauteed them adding some liquid smoke for that fresh-off-the-grill taste.
Ingredients:
– black beans
– black-eyed peas
– carrots
– onions
– green peppers
– baby spinach
– snap peas
– eggs
– bread crumbs
– liquid smoke
– seasoning: season salt, black pepper, garlic and onion powder and minced garlic
1. The first thing you want to do is soak your beans overnight unless you use canned beans. I chose black beans and black-eyed-peas because I had both on hand, but not enough to use one or the other. I believe in improvising so please feel free to do the same and use what’s on hand. There’s no point in going broke just because you want to try something different.
2. Chop up all of your vegetables, which you can also change based on what you have on-hand, and sauté them with your favorite seasonings.
3. Once everything has cooled down, you can begin forming the veggie burgers with an egg or two and some bread crumbs. If you have ever made homemade burgers, it’s essentially the same process just without meat.
4. Because everything is already cooked, you want to sauté the veggie burgers on low-medium heat for a couple minutes on each side. Be mindful that they will cook a lot faster than you think because it doesn’t contain meat. Trust me on that one.
I wasn’t feeling the bun so I ate mine with some chopped carrots and macaroni salad made with salmon.
Enjoy!
