A veggie burger full of flavor!

Chickpea burgers

Ingredients
Makes 20

410g tin chickpeas, drained and rinsed (about a 15 oz can)

410g tin red kidney beans, drained and rinsed (about a 15 oz can)

1 carrot, trimmed, peeled and finely grated

1 small onion, peeled and finely grated

50g sunflower seeds ( 3 and 1/2 table spoons, I use the shelled sunflower seeds)

2 tbsp tahini, drained of any excess oil before measuring (you can find this in the peanut butter area of the store )

1 garlic clove, peeled and chopped

1 handful chopped fresh coriander

1 tbsp wheat-free vegetable bouillon powder (you really need this or it really bland)

You should also add Salt and pepper to taste. Paprika would also be great to spice things up.

Method

Preheat oven to 220°C/Gas 7. 428° F

Place all the ingredients in a food processor and blend for 5-10 seconds, until the mixture is fairly coarse (you can use a hand-held blender). Push the mixture down with a spatula and blend for a further 10 seconds.

Remove the blades from the processor, wet your hands under the cold water tap and shape the mixture into 20 small balls. I made them the size of a meatball and then flattened them a bit into patties. This only made about 8 balls.

Line a large baking tray with greaseproof paper. Place the balls on the tray and flatten slightly with the back of the spoon.

Bake for 15-18 minutes until lightly coloured. I cooked them on one side for 10 minutes then flipped them over and cooked the other side for another 10 minutes. They are not the most firm so be careful when you take them off the baking tray and place them on the bun, lettus wrap, or tortilla. Remove from the oven and allow to rest. Serve with sweet potato wedges and a crunchy raw salad of mangetout, radishes, grated carrot, sliced celery and fennel dressed with a squeeze of lemon juice.

Easy Shepherd's Pie

As an Irish girl I can't help but love Shepherd's Pie! Its great you just throwing in what veggies you have on hand with mashed potatoes and lamb. Its just a great dinner to share with the family as the weather starts to cool. Now in the current economy you might not be able to buy lamb because it is more expensive than beef, but thats fine because beef tastes great in place of lamb. I will tell you though this is not really a "Shepherd's Pie" its called a cottage pie. But most Americans don't know the difference so we will just call it Shepherd's Pie.

Easy Shepherd's Pie Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 lbs ground round beef (I use 1/2 lbs of beef in an 8x8 baking dish, for 4 people. If you use all the beef use a 9x13 baking dish)
• 1 onion chopped
• 1-2 cups vegetables - chopped carrots, corn, peas
  
• 1 1/2 - 2 lbs potatoes (3 big ones)
• 8 tablespoons butter (1 stick)
  
• 1/2 cup beef broth
  
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• Salt, pepper, other seasonings of choice

Method

1 Peel and quarter potatoes, boil in salted water until tender (about 20 minutes).

2 While the potatoes are cooking, melt 4 Tablespoons butter (1/2 a stick) in large frying pan.

3 Sauté onions in butter until tender over medium heat (10 mins) (I can't eat dairy products due to my food allergy so I use olive oil or vegan margarines.). If you are adding vegetables, add them according to cooking time. Put any carrots in with the onions. Add corn or peas either at the end of the cooking of the onions, or after the meat has initially cooked ( I over load on the veggies because I cut back on the beef. you can use other veggies if you like. I used the holly food trinity onions, carrots, and celery. And at the very end I add frozen peas because they cook very fast.).

4 Add ground beef and sauté until no longer pink (I personally use less beef because I'm only cooking for three, and if you uses an 8x8 baking dish you can get away with 1/2 lbs of beef). Add salt and pepper. Add worcesterchire sauce (I didn't have this when I first made this recipe so I subbed 1 teaspoon of soy sauce and two dashes of hot sauce, and I think it tasted better thanWorcestershire sauce) . Add half a cup of beef broth and cook, uncovered, over low heat for 10 minutes, adding more beef broth as necessary to keep moist (Freeze the other half of the broth can or rest of the broth you don't use.).

5 Mash potatoes in bowl with remainder of butter, season to taste. Spread mashed potatoes over the meat mix in the baking dish. Then place the baking dish under the broiler until the potatoes get golden on top.

Happy Vegetarian Day!

Not all my dishes are vegan or vegetarian but they are the easiest to work with since they do not usually contain milk ingredients. And since today is World Vegetarian Day I thought Dinner should be sans meat, and I have been looking forward to trying quinoa. Quinoa is one of those "new" super foods everyones been talking about recently. I say "new" because its new to the American supper market, but it was a staple in the Inca diet... So its not so new to the world. Its know as a super food because it beats all grains when it comes to its protein content. I got the following nutritional info from wikipedia.org Quinoa's "protein content is very high (12%–18%), making it a healthy choice for vegetarians and vegans. Unlike wheat or rice (which are low in lysine), quinoa contains a balanced set of essential amino acids for humans, making it an unusually complete protein source.^[5] It is a good source of dietary fiber and phosphorus and is high in magnesium and iron. Quinoa is gluten free and considered easy to digest. " But enough about nutrition lets get to the recipe!

Quinoa and Black Beans

INGREDIENTS (Nutrition)

• 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
• 1 onion, chopped (I think a red onion would taste best)
  
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
• 3/4 cup uncooked quinoa
• 1 1/2 cups vegetable broth
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 cup frozen corn kernels
• 2 (15 ounce) cans black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro

DIRECTIONS

1. Heat the oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the onion and garlic, and saute until lightly browned.
2. Mix quinoa into the saucepan and cover with vegetable broth. Season with cumin, cayenne pepper, salt, and pepper. Bring the mixture to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 20 minutes,
3. Stir frozen corn into the saucepan, and continue to simmer about 5 minutes until heated through. Mix in the black beans and cilantro.

This turned out amazing! I think that it would be great if you used Chicken broth instead of the vegetable broth. I think I will also be using a red onion next time instead of the yellow one I had on hand. Its also important that you wash the quinoa because it has a bitter outer coating, and make sure there are no non-quinoa items or you might have a split pea soup chipped tooth. I am also considering other vegetables I can add to the dish perhaps some jalapeños or bell peppers.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I did. Till my next non dairy kitchen adventure good bye