Cooking a Little Vegetarian Food In The House That Meat Rules

            There is nothing worse than seeing one of your friends forced to eat a plate full of side dishes while everyone else is gobbling down massive portions of roast beef, steak, or chops. This is the sucky nature of being a vegetarian. You can spot one at your dinner party in one of two ways they either have a sort of down trodden face when everyone is eating like no one loves them or they are overly enthusiastic about the stuff that they can eat. Sort of like “Oh my god yams are my favorite thing in the world.” When I have folks over for a meal the point is to try and feed everyone and have them enjoy it. So here I go, cooking a little vegetarian.

            I am going to qualify a bit here by saying that I am a total carnivore. I love my pork, beef and all other sources of meaty goodness. With that being said, I know and care for a great number of vegetarians and I want them to be well fed just like my meat eating friends. So this is an attempt to put a smile on my “veggie only” friends’ faces, something tasty without the meaty goodness.

            This recipe was inspired by the trying to recreate the only veggie burger that I really enjoyed. I was in Winnipeg and we found an underground cafe. I was shocked at how good it was. The other cool thing about this is that once you are done you can freeze the patties so if you have a vegetarian show up at your door you can feed them something tasty. About the music: I love this band and I enjoyed the city of Winnipeg you’ll get why I am saying this when you listen to the song. So he we go vegetarian recipe number one....

Homemade Veggie Burgers to the tune of “One Great City” by the Weakerthans

So a little qualifying statement in making this recipe I don’t use any real measurements, it is sort of a chuck the stuff in a bowl and mix it up kind of thing. As long as everything holds together you are sound. You can totally adjust the spices to fit your taste.

1 can of red kidney beans drained

1 can of white kidney beans drained

1 good handful of finely chopped walnuts

1 good handful of chopped sunflower seeds

6 shitake mushrooms finely diced

2 oyster mushrooms finely diced

1 small onion finely diced

2 tsp chilli powder

½ tsp ground cumin seeds

1 tsp smoked paprika

1 egg- this is optional but it binds everything together a little bit better.

Quickly sauté mushrooms and onion in a small frying pan until the onion is translucent and let cool

In a large mixing bowl mash the kidney beans using a potato masher or a fork, keep them a little bit chunky you don’t want a smooth paste.

Add in all of the other ingredients and mix together. Make sure that all the ingredients are incorporated though out.

Form into patties just like you would a burger. Salt and Pepper those little bad boys.

Throw them on a grill or a stovetop grill pan and cook until they are warmed all the way through. Just like you would a burger.

Give it a try. I hope your vegetarian friends enjoy it as much as mine did.