Tag Archives: vegetarian

Enchilada Poblano Burger

Spicy Enchilada Poblano Black Bean Burger

Spicy Enchilada Poblano Black Bean Burger.  That’s a long name.  It’s a solid name.  It’s weighty with deliciousness.  It sprang forth from the communion of two of my dear loves: black bean burgers and enchiladas.

Here’s the thing about black bean burgers: sometimes I love the idea of making my own delicious, spicy black bean burgers from scratch.  But other times…most times, really….almost all times, I don’t have the energy or the time or the desire to mold soft beans with my hands.  So then I turn to the next best thing: Morningstar’s frozen black bean burgers.

I’m not a fan of frozen beef burgers.  But veggie and black bean burger patties seem to do pretty well frozen.  I like that I can grill them like regular burgers and get a bit of that fire-kissed, smoky flavor going on, or I can fry them in a skillet at my house because I live in Michigan and we only have so much “grilling weather” to go around.  They’re ready in minutes and they are delicious.  They actually have flavor!  FLAVOR!

Enchilada Poblano Burger

But anyway, I have this disease, it’s called “Enchiladosis*.”  Essentially, every time I hear the phrase “black beans,” I immediately begin to salivate and crave black bean and poblano enchiladas.  Some days it’s not so bad; I can get to the market or to a nearby Mexican restaurant and satisfy my craving before it gets too terrible, but some days it can be pretty bad.  I mean, we had friends over for gaming last night.  You can’t game and eat enchiladas at the same time!  That’s madness!  It’s messy!  No, you need a hand-held meal for board game night and sadly, enchiladas are a fork-and-knifer.

But it’s ok, because I have found a treatment for Enchiladosis, so all of its long-suffering victims can rejoice.  Enchilada flavor in a delicious, meatless, hand-held format: the spicy enchilada poblano black bean burger.

Just say the words.  Just breathe it in.  Even the words have flavor.  Delightfully, it’s super easy to make a bunch of these at once, too, whether you can get to a grill or not.  And for you skeptical meat-eaters, trust me: this is a delicious burger in its own right and you will be thoroughly satisfied.

There recipe below makes 2 burgers, but is easily scaled up for more.  I also included some notes on possible additions or substitutions.  Enjoy!

 

*This isn’t really a thing.  But it should be.

Spicy Enchilada Poblano Black Bean Burger

Yield: 2 burgers, mucho deliciousness

Ingredients

  • 2 Morningstar Spicy Black Bean Burgers
  • 1 large poblano pepper, fire-roasted, peeled and cut in half
  • 4 tablespoons enchilada sauce, plus more to serve with
  • 2 slices pepper jack cheese or 2 oz grated chihuahua cheese or 2 slices of your favorite vegan cheese
  • 2 slices red onion
  • 1/2 ripe avocado, sliced and divided
  • 2 tbsps fresh chopped cilantro
  • 2 buns
  • 1 tsp ground cumin, divided

Instructions

  1. Cook the Morningstar Spicy Black Bean Burgers according to package direction, but I highly recommend grilling. Near the end of the cooking time, lay one slice of pepperjack cheese (or 1 oz grated chihuahua or 1 slice of vegan cheese) on top of each patty and let melt.
  2. Sprinkle 1/2 tsp of ground cumin on the inside of each bun. Lay the buns on the grill until lightly toasted.
  3. Assemble the burger: on the bottom bun for each burger, lay half the fire roasted poblano, 2 tablespoons of enchilada sauce (or more if desired), 1 slice of red onion, the Morningstar black bean burger, half of the avocado, and 1 tablespoon of cilantro. Place the top bun on top.
  4. Serve the burgers with extra enchilada sauce for dipping, plus salsa and tortilla chips on the side. Nom.

Notes

Possible extra toppings:

* Swap the poblano for roasted red pepper if you'd like it less spicy * Try adding a couple spoonfuls of fire roasted corn salad * Swap out the enchilada sauce for salsa verde * Add a spritz of lime to the avocado

http://haveforkwilleat.com/2013/07/spicy-enchilada-poblano-black-bean-burger/

Clementines and Thyme

Clemen-Thyme Roasted Chicken & Citrus-Scented Mushrooms and Tofu En Papilotte

Whew.  Say that three times fast.

Continuing with our citrus fest, let’s move on the main show, shall we?  If you remember from last time, Whole Foods sponsored a little bit of experimentation using their fresh, in-season clementines and satsumas.  And with these beautiful little balls of sunshine, we made a delightful feast.

Citrus Dinner Menu

So we covered the berry punch with clementine syrup (which I already have another request for—as one of our New Year’s Eve cocktails) and our lovely fresh satsuma, almond and goat cheese plate (still one of my favorite appetizers ever).

But there was more.  Oh, so much more.  I’d been wanting for a while to make a thyme-roasted chicken dish and figured that adding a bit of citrus would make it even better.  And I was right. Continue reading

Roasted mushroom spaghetti

I’m a simple person.  I don’t want much in life.  A warm home, a happy family, an elephant, and a few good, simple meals.  This dish basically evolved out of me wanting a tasty, light dinner but also not having gone grocery shopping in a week and not having any meat or anything thawed.

I had a few odds and ends in the fridge, including a tub of cremini mushrooms that I’d originally bought to make this garlic butter roasted mushroom recipe from Smitten Kitchen.  Instead of making the recipe as is, I decided to use it as inspiration for this pasta dish.  I want all of you health enthusiasts to note that there is no butter in this dish at all.  So there.

Oh, but there are two tablespoons of duck fat. Yeah. Continue reading

New Math: Amazing Additions

When I was young, I had one of the infamous Teen Talk Barbies.  She and I would have long, imaginary conversations about the sociopolitical unrest in the Middle East, the impending real estate bubble, the stylistic value of cinéma verité…you know, all the usual interests of a ten year old girl.  At least, I would talk about those things.  Barbie, dear sweet, plastic-headed Barbie, would spout delightfully silly exclamations, like “Wanna have a pizza party?” and “Math class is tough.  Let’s go shopping!”

Actually, that’s not true.  I never had one of those Barbies and I only know about the infamous Teen Talk version off the doll because it was later parodied in a Simpsons episode where Lisa’s Malibu Stacy doll proclaims, “Math is hard.  Let’s go shopping!”

But let’s pretend for the sake of this post that I did have one of those dolls and in that case, alternative-reality me would be reminded of it years later when various friends and readers would flop down in their chairs, sigh, or type frowny-faced emoticons into messages and declare, “Cooking is hard.  Let’s eat out.”

Now, I may never teach you to like math–I’m not even going to try; after all, this is “Have Fork, Will Eat” not “Have FOIL, Will Calculate.”  I will, however, try to prove to you that not only is cooking not hard but it can also make basic math terribly tasty like these delicious make-ahead recipes that can be added to future meals for a nice boost of flavor and are easy to multiply and divide so you can make as much or as little as you want. Continue reading

Meal for One: Eggs Out of Purgatory

When I was a little kid, my grandparents raised chickens.  I remember helping my grandma feed them and having to collect the eggs.  I remember the rooster strutting around and generally being absolutely nothing like Foghorn Legorn.  But mostly I remember them all chasing me around the yard.

Chickens are jerks.

But they do produce tasty, tasty eggs.  And I’ll admit that deep down I always hope that I’ll someday get to raise some chickens in my backyard that will be as awesome as Billina, the talking chicken from Return to Oz or even Chicken Boo from the Animaniacs.  That silly Chicken Boo.  He thinks he’s people.  But mostly, I really just like eggs.

Unlike other breakfast foods, which are often greasy or absolutely bursting with sugar which is not a good way for me to start off the morning, eggs are just complete little packages of deliciousness.  I like them scrambled, fried for sandwiches, hardboiled, deviled, baked with herbs and olive oil, and occasionally I like to go all out on the weekend and I very slowly scramble them over low heat for about 10-15 minutes with olive oil, butter, a touch of cream and shavings of my favorite flavored Monterey Jack cheese.  That last one, by the way, is deadly but delicious.  Eat lovingly but sparingly.

But I also like to make Eggs in Purgatory, which is basically eggs cooked in spicy tomato sauce.  One of my favorite egg breakfasts.  And you know what breakfast is really good for?  Dinner.  Continue reading

the Great Recipe Experiment: #8-Romano Zucchini Sticks

It’s been a busy spring.  So busy that I’ve fallen behind in my Recipe Experiments. But there’s one thing I never fall behind on:

Glee.

Yes, it’s true.  I’m a Gleek.  A huge one, too.  But I’m not alone.  There’s many of us.  We are legion.  We are loyal.  And we love to throw Glee parties and drink mojito slushies.  In fact, we had one such occasion this past Tuesday at the house of my fabulous friends, Brian and Rita.  We had a potluck dinner, complete with chicken marbella (delicious), quinoa (delicious), homemade bread (delicious), a corn-feta salsa (supremely delicious), more potato and corn chips than is probably healthy, homemade wine, the mojitos (of course) and these zucchini sticks.

Chase signed up to be the taster for this particular recipe experiment and he approves.  I’m in fact going to order a stamp that says “Chase Approves” and use it accordingly.  Seriously.  Well maybe not seriously.  But maybe seriously.  How much do stamps cost anyway?

This was a Parmesan zucchini recipe that I found originally on Cooking Light and then adapted a bit.  It makes a good appetizer, crunchy, delicious, and in there underneath the awesomeness and the bread crumbs is a vegetable.  So that counts towards your daily 5.  Just FYI.  And these are in fact so easy that I just prepared the parts of the recipe at home, brought it all to Brian’s and then assembled and baked them there.  About 5 minutes of prep, 20 minutes of baking and that’s all there is to it. Continue reading

Well Ain’t That Some Fancy Corn

The children of the corn give this two thumbs up

It’s officially summer here.  It’s sunny, it’s 80 degrees at 11am in the morning, my farm share is starting next week (!) and my husband can barely stand to go outside.  Yep, officially summer.

Every summer I seem to have a meal that I make on a regular basis, far more than anything else.  When I was 15, it was grilled chicken and rice.  Like every day of summer vacation.  Last year, it was hamburgers.  I seem to be coming into my groove when making burgers now.  It may sound weird, but ground beef brisket is the way to go, mixed in with a bit of ground pork if you’re of a mind, topped with a good flavorful cheese and onions that have been diced and cooked in butter with some dried herbs, and some guacamole.  But this year, this year my summer is apparently going to be embodied by simple evening meals of some good old grilled beef hot dogs and sausages.  Simple, quick, tasty, easy…perfect for hot weather, heavy on the sodium but light on my wallet.  But sometimes I feel the need to kick things up a notch and instead of slaving over an elaborate main dish, I instead serve the sausages simple and grilled (with some onions and peppers, of course) and pair them up with an awesome side dish instead.  Enter the corn. Continue reading

Green Eggs…and some ham

Sam-I-Am would approve

So you know that I’m not a huge fan of breakfast foods (my friends tease me because my favorite workweek breakfast is a bagel with chicken salad on top), but I do occasionally like eggs.  If I’m going all out, I like to scramble them slowly over low heat with cream, olive oil, herbs and parmesan for a very unhealthy delicious and creamy dish served over asparagus and next to bacon or ham.  And sometimes I like eggs in purgatory served next to black beans and tortillas.  But sometimes I just want simple, low-fuss eggs but with high-end taste.  And Sunday was one of those days.  So I threw together this little dish.

This is more of an idea than a recipe.  A no-recipe recipe, if you will.  Guidelines.  Suggestions.  You know. Continue reading

the Great Recipe Experiment: #7-Red Pepper Cannellini Dip

Imagine a scenario, if you will, in which you need to feed a few people.  Like, oh, I don’t know, 5000 people or so.  On a beach.  Near Bethsaida.  And like, these people are really hungry, right, because it’s late and this is way back a couple thousand years before the invention of segways and nobody wants to walk back to town on an empty stomach.  And it’s okay, because you’ve got the food to feed these people, you’ve got…five loaves of bread and two fish.  It’s like an embarrassment of…what?  You don’t think it’s enough?  Dude, it’ll be totally fine, just add one more thing to this meal and the people will be sated.  All you need is…

no, not love.  This is a recipe post, not a Beatles soundtrack.  All you need is this roasted red pepper and cannellini bean dip—and the people will rejoice. Continue reading

How Green is My Pasta: Penne + Avocado = Pastocado?

I know.  I’ve been neglecting you.  I haven’t written a real post for over a week.  And it’s sad.  But the truth is that…well, there hasn’t been much to write about.  I haven’t cooked a whole lot and what I have cooked hasn’t been very impressive, and definitely not worth sharing.  Although I did make chocolate granola bars last night.  And I will probably blog about them later.  I thought posting them would be much ado about nothing but then I realized that I keep eating them and that’s a good sign.

I have been busy doing one thing, however: reading.  One article I found today on the NY Times that I really enjoyed was all about…well, people like me.  You know.  Those people.  The ones who take pictures of every meal they eat.  The ones who fuss over lighting and crostini placement.  The ones who tweet their tastings, like “Just ate fugu from amateur chef…think I’m dying…bye cruel world.”  The ones who blog about their gastronomic adventures, posting picture after picture as though anybody else cares….cough…

Hey!  Who wants to see pictures of my dinner? Continue reading

Quiche Chic: the Tale of the Drunken Goat

Josh’s office held a potluck this week, which his coworker Sophia was kind enough to tell me about in advance (Josh is not very good about giving me advance notice of such things…it’s often a, “Oh, honey, I need a dish that feeds 20-30 people for a potluck…this afternoon” kind of thing.  But anyway…potluck!  Apparently this one had an international theme, in honor of the Winter Olympics.  Ooh là là.

Immediately I thought, “I’ll do something French.”  It’s my usual fallback.  I credit this to five years of French class and billions of hours spent watching Pepe LePew cartoons in my youth.  That crazy Pepe.  Doesn’t he realize that’s a kitty?

I had the perfect recipe in mind, too, something I saw recently on FoodTV: balsamic chocolate truffles.  While technically a recipe from Everyday Italian, I consider truffles French.  And even if they were Italian….still fits the international theme.  Also: chocolate.  Win-win.  But then I actually read the recipe and realized it would take like 4 hours to make those things and there was no guarantee they’d come out right the first time, and it’s a weeknight and well—maybe those were better left for a weekend project.  C’est la vie.

So now I had to think of a real dish.  Go go gadget brain!  So to speak.  I scrolled through the 15 or so recipes in my Evernote cookbook that are tagged “French” until I found one for a Roquefort quiche.

Hmm.  Quiche, you say? Continue reading

Brunchin’ Munchin': Freakin’ Fantastic Frittata

This is it.  The very last Sunday spent in my apartment.  Might as well celebrate it eggcellently (snicker).

Shortly before Christmas, my grandmother gave me a cast-iron skillet.  Gorgeous one, too, with nice high sides.  I have no idea how old it is but judging by the facts that it had been laying in the back of a cupboard, she couldn’t quite remember how she got it it and that the average age of items in her home is 53, I’m going to assume it’s probably about as old as me. But it’s nice high sides, ability to maintain a constant high heat and ease of going between the stove and the oven made it perfect for this morning’s potato and spinach frittata.

I’ve made frittatas before but I just want to reiterate how fantastic they are.  You can put anything into one, they’re fast and easy to make, very filling, easy to expand for as many people as you like and best of all, easily done in one pan. Continue reading

Silent and Savory: Roasted Squash-Stuffed Poblano Peppers (in Pictures)

Cut up one small onion, one medium summer squash and two cloves of garlic.  Mix together with a cup of sharp shredded cheddar, a tsp of salt, a half tsp of black pepper and a tablespoon of ancho chile powder.

Cut the tops off two large poblanos, clean out the seeds and insides and then stuff as much of the squash mix as possible.  Pour a bit of tomato or enchilada sauce on the bottom of a small pan, place peppers on top.  Pour any leftover squash mix over the peppers followed by more tomato sauce until peppers are fully covered.

Cover with tinfoil and bake at 425 for 40 minutes.  Uncover, sprinkle with more cheese let bake another 5 or until cheese is melted and gooey.

Enjoy!  Serves two.

Veggie Carbonara: it's mostly healthy. And tasty. I swear.

The first time I had a pasta carbonara was at a cooking class at Hollanders in Kerrytown.  I’ve long been interested in the whole “bacon and egg pasta” idea, but only in philosophy, because after all…I don’t eat breakfast.  I know, I know, just one more of my weird culinary idiosyncrasies.  Still, I wanted to try making carbonara on my own, particularly seeing how easy it was to do.  I wanted something a bit lighter and healthier tonight though (something about eating crushed lentil soup from Pita Kabob Grill makes me crave healthy things…at least until someone offers me something chocolate).  So I opted to throw together a healthier vegetarian version of the dish. Continue reading

Mushroom Ragout, from the “Keep Going Til It Tastes Good” Cooking School

My dear friend and fellow foodie/home cook and vegetarian extraordinaire Paul came over to hang out with us for a while tonight and in honor, I made a simple, tasty dinner of a mushroom and leek ragout.  Mostly because I had most of the stuff for pasta and needed to fill my quota of 2 or 3 pasta dishes a week.

Like…well, every dish I make, this is a fairly flexible recipe.  And by “recipe,” I mean “guideline.”  And by “guideline,” I mean, “loosely affiliated series of ingredients, directions and methods.”  Continue reading

Green Goddess Potato Salad…

…for when those ribeyes you grilled just aren’t fatty enough.

The inspiration from this came from FoodTV’s 5 Ingredient Fix, during an episode of which the host made a side dish called “Green Goddess Rice.”  Josh and I decided to grill steaks tonight and were thinking of a side dish.  He ingeniously suggested using up some of the couple pounds worth of redskin potatoes we got from our farm share this week.  I thought, hmmm.  Rice, potatoes…both starches, right?  Sure.  Let’s just make a potato salad with green goddess dressing instead.

So…that’s what I did.

I steamed a bit over a pound of redskin new potatoes.  I figured the steaming would be good, as it would retain the most nutrients from the potato skin, which I would then liberally coat with a layer of fat.  Mostly healthy fat, though…right?  Right…?  Yeah.  Anyway.  Recipe below! Continue reading