Portabella Mushroom Veggie Burgers

This recipe is by far the most ingenious combination of vegetables with functionality and taste.  A regular 'ole Veggie Burger made new and exciting by the replacement of 2 buns for 2 grilled Portabella Mushroom Caps!! Can you believe it? It seems so obvious--Portabella Mushrooms look exactly like Burger Buns and you just switch the latter for the former.  Why haven't I thought about this before?! It's ingenious and delicious, clearly delicious.

For those of you who think that all mushrooms are the same, or worse, that all mushrooms are the simple white ones we buy in bulk at Walmart or another grocery store, it's pertinent that I tell you they're not.  Rather, mushrooms come in a variety of sporous veggies instead of just the regular white table mushroom.  They can be flavorful, rich, creamy (yes, creamy, like the mighty portabella), or smokey, earthy, and the like (see the rare expensive mushrooms one finds in specialty stores that are not nearly as attractive as a table mushroom.  However, these mushrooms make for excellent soups and flavors in sauces).  Better yet, they can be fungal bodies like the expensive French truffel (retailing anywhere from $80+ individually!). 

This recipe capitalizes on the creamier, highly flavorful portabella that when mixed with a simple veggie burger, some olive oil and thyme can create a serious taste sensation.

Portabella Mushroom Burgers
This recipe originated with an episode of the Biggest Loser with chef Curtis Stone.  Stone created these veggie delights as a way of cutting carbs and replacing their absence with flavorful nutrients.  If the original recipe from Stone is followed exactly (you can find it here), one will only be eating 280 calories per serving! Can you believe that? 280 calories? Good Golly.  You could eat 2 of these and bottom out with the amount of calories in 1 regular meat-lovin' burger.  Seesh.

My recipe is a little different.  Although it does not call for the sauce Stone makes (a delicious creamy chive sauce worth trying with a direct link above), it calls for a more intuitive preparation--make a veggie burger the way you always would make it and replace the buns with portabella mushrooms.  

Burger & Construction Ingredients
* 2 oversized Portabella Mushroom Caps, washed, with stems removed
* 1 tablespoon olive oil
* 1 veggie burger (I use the Morningstar Farms blackbean veggie burger, about 110-130 calories)
* tomatoes, optional
* onions, optional
* red peppers, optional
* spinach, optional
* 1 1/2 teaspoons Thyme
* Salt & pepper, to taste
* Stone's burger sauce, found here

1.) Cook veggie burger over medium heat in skillet (about 2-3 minutes on both sides).
2.) While veggie burger is cooking, wash, remove stems, and baste Portabella Mushroom Caps with the 1 tablespoon of olive oil.  Pepper to taste and grill on an isolated grilling unit.  For example, grill until juicy on a Foreman grill, or over a firey outdoor grill.  You'll know the mushroom is close to being done when it has flattened by about 1/4 and is juicy all over; they may even be mushroom juices to show the caps preparedness.
3.) Remove Portabellas from heat and onto a plate.  Slide the veggie burger in between the two caps much like you would a burger; sprinkle with Thyme.  From here, you can fix the burger exactly as you would any burger.  I prefer a combination of tomatoes, spinach, onions, red peppers etc.; as for sauces, feel free to whip up Stone's burger sauce--a combination of chives and natural yogurt.  Or, a tablespoon or two of mustard does the trick nicely too.  Enjoy!


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Roasted Vegetables and Fall Salad

What do you get when three PhD ladies who haven't seen each other, like really seen each other in waay too long, get together? Eat, drink cocktails, and watch a movie but of course, silly!

However, what happens when one of these ladies is a vegan, one a former vegetarian, and one a girl who just likes her peas? A meal that's primarily vegetable based (and very healthy) including roasted vegetables and a fall salad.  Yum.

The roasted vegetables recipe below is one of the easiest recipes to whip up, and a big crowd pleaser.  Eat it as the main course as we three veggie loving girls did, or eat it alongside a more carnivore-friendly dish like steak, or chicken.  Finally, the salad is one of my favorite ways to eat salad and I never make it any other way: walnuts/almonds, green lettuce, or spinach, lots of tomatoes and cucumbers tossed with garlic, herbs, and cranberries.  SOO GOOD!

Roasted Red Potatoes and Carrots
This recipe comes from no source in particular.  The combination of olive oil with balsamic vinegar, red potatoes, and other veggies comes from my friend Laura.  However, after making this recipe a good 10-15 times, I've perfected the combination of the below ingredients and the correct ratios for this combination.

 
* 1 bag of carrots (preferrably organic)
* 1 bag of small red potatoes
* 1/2 of an onion, chopped
* olive oil (to taste)
* balsamic vinegar (to taste)
* 5 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
* freshly grated pepper, to taste
* kosher salt, to taste
* 1-2 tablespoons of dried or fresh rosemary
* 1-2 tablespoons of basil, chopped

1.) Chop all of the vegetables (red potatoes, onion, and carrots) and throw into a roasting pan; red potatoes should be in eighths, or whatever size seems bite-size enough and will cook thoroughly, and carrots should be the size of carrot sticks.  I prefer using large carrots over baby carrots because they are higher in beta-keratin, and more flavorful.  Plus, organic carrots are even more flavorful in their larger form!

2.) Drizzle vegetables with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  I have not put a specific ratio of olive oil-to-balsamic vinegar above simply because I think this an issue of preference.  Laura prefers more balsamic vinegar and less olive oil, whereas I prefer an equal amount of both.  Just go with what you like!

3.) Sprinkle with remaining seasonings--pepper, basil, rosemary, and kosher salt.  Salt and pepper should be to taste because again, this is an issue of how you like to prepare your food.  Finally, press/mince garlic over the vegetables and stir to integrate.  Cover with an oven-friendly lid or aluminum foil.

4.) Roast in oven at 400F for 35 minutes and check for ready-ness (ready-ness = potatoes are soft enough to chew in your mouth, but not so soft that they will mash when being served).  It's possible you will need to cook the dish longer depending on the stove (in my gas stove, 35 mins. is perfect, but in an electric, it will possibly take longer).  Let cool, and serve!

Fall Salad
I have been making some variation of this salad for as long as I can remember.  Every now and then, I switch up the ingredients (i.e., dried cherries instead of cranberries, spinache instead of romaine, you get the picture), but the core ingredients are below.  

* 1/2 head of romain lettuce, or 1/2 bag of spinache
* 1/2 container of cherry tomatoes, or 1 whole regular tomato
* 1/2 cup walnuts, or almonds
* 4-5 cloves garlic minced/pressed
* 1/2 cucumber peeled and cut into circular halves
* 1/4 cup olives, black or kalamatta (heck, even green if you're into that sort of thing!)
*  1/2 cup craisins, or dried cherries

1.) Wash and chop vegetables--lettuce/spinache, tomatoes, cucumber.  Place in bowl.
2.) Add remaining ingredients--nuts, garlic, olives, and craisins.  Toss together.
3.) Add any salad herbs you might enjoy with your salad.  I sometimes toss ground pepper, mint, or basil in between, but these ingredients are not necessary.  Enjoy!