Greens, grains, & garbanzo burger

I threw one of everything we had into this one.

You can pretty much substitute anything for anything in this recipe. A lot of times we'll make really simple patties with just 2 cups of lentils, 1/2 cup rolled oats, an onion, an egg, and some spices (Mark Bittman's simplest bean burger recipe). Since there was a lot of stuff left over in the fridge after two weeks of real cooking, I decided to be a little more adventurous.

Components
2 cups cooked chickpeas
1/2 cup cooked brown rice
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1/2 cup uncooked rolled oats
1 diced shallot
1 egg
small handful of chopped kale
1 diced carrot
2-3 spoonfuls of adobo sauce from a can of chipotle peppers
salt and pepper
bean cooking liquid or water

Procedure
Put everything in the food processor and pulse until it is a good consistency, adding a few spoonfuls of water as needed to bring it together. Our food processor is a weakling, so I had to do it in two batches, but that was okay (actually it worked out kind of well because one batch was too pureed and the other was too chunky, so they mixed together nicely). Refrigerate at this point, or form the mixture into small, thin patties and cook in a skillet over medium heat.

Or don't turn on the food processor and just call it vegetable parfait

Jicama salad and chipotle white beans

Kristen's creative brilliance is back in charge of the menu this week. As evidenced by:

Jicama, orange, and radish salad. Super easy, light, and fresh. And there is nothing that is more fun than cutting orange supremes. This was a great contrast to:


Heidi Swanson's Chipotle white beans with cilantro pesto. While the chipotle is an inspired addition, to me the bread crumbs made the dish (also don't buy bread crumbs! just put 1 piece of bread in the food processor, sprinkle it with olive oil, salt, and pepper and broil for 1-2 minutes). We used lima beans, which were great.

Man, isn't it weird how some of the best vegetables have been so universally (well universal to the US) cast as foods kids are supposed to hate? I didn't taste a brussels sprout until well into high school and never had a lima bean until, um, Sunday.