106: Curry Beet Burgers

Chomp! Ok, so. Still haven't worked out the patty cohesion situation (you can see it smushing there), but definitely improved in the flavor department.

While working on my prior beet burger experiement, the thought occurred to me to do an Indian one. Not sure what sparked it, other than my always craving good Indian food. So I did that thing, and attempted some of the changes I'd mentioned in my prior post to help keep it together. Those definitely didn't work. Anyway.

Ingredients (as always, approx. as always, I'm a little sorry):

Pinch of hing

~3/4 tsp curry powder

~1/8 tsp tumeric

~1/8 tsp cumin

~1/8 tsp coriander

Pinch cinnamon

Pinch smoked paprika

~ salt, pepper

1 beet, diced

1 smallish onion, diced fine

1 jalapeno (or some kind of spicy pepper), mostly deseeded and diced

2 garlic cloves, grated

~1/2 tbs ginger, grated

1/3 cup spelt

1/3 cup cannellini beans

Spoonful of flour

1/2 beaten egg

Paneer

Cilantro

Similarish methodology. I started my onions and pepper  in a pan until they got soft. Then I remembered the hing, so I took those onions out, heated a little more oil, then fried the hing and most of those spices above. Added the onions back in, then the ginger, garlic and beets. Let that go for a bit.

Mixed and mashed my spelt and beans, then in an attempt to dry those out, added them to the pan for a few minutes.

Put that mix in a bowl, let it cool, then added the egg portion and flour. Cooked them up in a pan and topped with paneer and cilantro. Had a few bites then remembered that rest of egg, so fried that up and added that to the burger, too. Nom!

These fell apart pretty quickly. I'm always hesitant adding flour, as I feel it'll make the burger bland, but these were spicy enough that they could've stood up to a bit more binding. I used high gluten flour, too, but it didn't help that much.

After a quick search on the internets, I'm not sure if I did anything wrong, per se. I just need to toy around with it a little more. Suggestions: leaving it in the fridge overnight, cooking it in the oven- though I'd really like to not heat up my apartment every time. Using potato is an option I was considering, but I was running a bit short on time and didn't want to fuss too much with an extra step.

I had luck last time getting a good sear on the patties. A hot pan does wonders. These were in a low pan for a while, and it was obvious when flipped that they were only lightly browned, and already splitting a bit. a uniform patty shape would help, too.

Onto the good, though. They were DELICIOUS. Sweet and spicy (spices-wise) up front, then a nice building heat from the peppers. And oh how bloody and raw they looked. Definitely want to do this again in front of people, but not tell them they're veggie burgers and freak em out a bit. Unfortunately I'm out of beets. For now.

104: Kale, Spelt and Beet Salad

Just a few little additions made all the difference.

I started with the dish on the left. No wait, I started with some kale that was on it's last legs (stems?). Sauteed it up with some onions, garlic, salt pepper and smoked paprika. Tasted fine, a little bitter. Needed a little sweetness, but I wasn't about to add honey. Then I remembered the leftover roasted beets from my burgers- perfect! Added some spelt, too, because why not?

The end result was a nice hearty salad. If I had the full bunch of kale (it'd been picked over for polenta and thrown into some frozen chili and otherwise nibbled on), it would've made a decent meal or two. As it was, it was a nice side salad.

I think if I knew I were doing this from the outset, I would've diced the kale instead of chopping into ribbons, but didn't affect my enjoyment of the dish at all. And I still have one beet left.

103: Balsamic Beet Burgers

So bloody! Completely veggie. Vegan, even, though if I remake them they probably won't be. I based my recipe off this one from Macheesmo. A lot was adapted. Had the beets, obviously, but had cannellini beans on hand instead of black, and no rice so I used spelt. (What? I'd been meaning to try it). This weeks' herb is basil, so I went with that, and continued the trend with balsamic instead of cider vinegar.

Ingredients (approx, and you'll want to adjust per my little discussion below):
1 beet, roasted and diced fine
Half an onion diced fine
~1/4 jalapeno diced fine, seeded
1/3 cup spelt
1/3 cup white beans
5-6 leaves basil, diced fine
1/2 tbs balsamic vinegar
~ salt, pepper, olive oil
~ flour

My beet was already roasted, so I started the jalapenos and onion in a pan with some olive oil and salt. Once those started to brown (low heat, took a bit) I added my garlic then beets and cooked a bit longer. Added the basil towards the end, then the balsamic vinegar. Tasted and adjusted spices. 

Cooked up the spelt like rice in this write up from the kitchn. I really like this stuff. People always say brown rice has a nutty flavor...I never taste it. This has an actual nutty flavor. It wasn't essential for this recipe (and may have hurt things a little), but super glad I cooked it up.

Put the pre cooked beans and spelt in a bowl, mashed a bit. Added the beet mixture and mixed. Tasted and adjusted spices a bit. Then added flour until I felt it would hold together. Two to three big spoonfuls. My ingredients were wet.

Cooked these up in a pan (they held together yay) and ate on some scratch focaccia, topped with a little pecorino cheese. 

I liked these overall, but if/when I make them again, I'm going to change a lot. The flavors were mild, next time I'll add a lot more basil, or maybe a range of spices instead of the one. I've been wary about those jalapenos after that one batch of baignan bharta was crazy spicy, but this definitely needed more heat.

I heart this bread but it wasn't a great choice. The burger held together but was still very soft, much softer than the bread. Regular burger buns would help, or maybe a English muffin if I'm feeling fancy. 

Speaking of the texture, the mix was way too wet. The spelt was still a bit al dente so it didn't mush to help keep things together, next time I'll cook the grains a little longer (and maybe actually use rice or quinoa), or omit them in lieu of more beans. I was debating using an egg instead of flour as a binder, except I didn't have any. Womp womp.

Honestly though, the next time I do this (I have another beet in the fridge, so it may be tonight!), part of me wants to do a very different flavor profile. Something a little smokier, or maybe curry.