Buns, Fries And Your Best Bean Burgers

Over the weekend, we went to an awesome vegetarian restaurant that got two thumbs up from my omnivore husband and son.  They shared a bean burger that they both loved, so I’m on a mission to recreate it at home.  The bun was obviously freshly-made at the restaurant, so yesterday I decided to try my hand at making burger buns from scratch.  I found this recipe, and I highly recommend it.  As I was kneading bread dough, with my three-year-old helping and the baby on my back in a sling, it occurred to me that if my 18 year-old self could have flashed forward 15 years to see this ultra domestic scene, she probably would have thought that this baker lady must be an imposter.

Anyway, here are the finished buns:

My husband walked in while they were cooling on the counter, and said “wow, those are great-looking buns.  Nice work!”  So of course, I replied “Thanks sweetie – I’ve been doing Bodyrock for 4 months now.  Glad it’s paying off!”  (all joking aside, I freakin’ love that site – go check it out if you haven’t already).

I reduced the honey in the recipe to 1/3 cup (I pretty much always cut down on the amount of sugar called for in recipes, and they almost always turn out just fine anyway), and sprinkled hemp seeds over the top of the buns before I baked them (that was what I had on hand).  I used 4 cups of whole wheat pastry flour and two cups of white flour, but they’re still quite light – I think I could bump the whole wheat up to five cups next time.  I ended up with 16 buns (four on another tray), so I have a large bag full of them in the freezer now for future meals.

Now I’m looking for awesome bean burger recipes.  I’ve tried lots of them, and they’re usually quite tasty, but they they tend to fall apart.  So if you have a recipe for a good bean burger that doesn’t fall apart when you’re eating it (or cooking it!), please let me know!

I’ve been having more fun with my spiralizer too.  These are curly sweet potato fries (all that, from one spud!) ready to go in the oven:

And a great salad made from the garden harvest yesterday (a zuke, a cuke, a bell pepper, and a few carrots):

I’ve been freezing swiss chard and so far I have 11 quart bags in the freezer.  It’s a bit of a process, since I have to blanch the chard before I can freeze it, but I’ve been doing a few bags a day and I’m making progress.  I’ve also diced and frozen several bell peppers (love them – just dice and freeze on a cookie sheet, then toss in a bag).  Tomato canning season will be here before I know it, so I figured I better get a head start on the other stuff while I have time.  I’m excited to freeze lots of greens this year.  We have tons of them right now, and it will be nice to not have to buy as many bunches of greens during the winter for our green smoothies.  I prefer fresh greens over frozen ones, but the “fresh” ones in the stores in January have been trucked here from somewhere else anyway, so frozen greens that were harvested from our own yard the previous summer are probably just as good nutrition-wise (even with some of the goodness blanched out of them).

Hope you’re all having a great week!