Beetroot and soy burgers

Hello there, welcome!

Let me paint you a picture, after another long day at work you come home, past hungry and you just want the day to end. You plod towards the fridge, open it. “Yoghurt?” No inspiration, no want, no desire, nada. It’s late and you can’t really find the energy to cook something, even though you know you probably should, and you also know that those few times you do cook, you never regret it.

That’s been my life lately, and by lately I apparently mean since march last year :O according to the blog anyways. I have had bouts of inspiration, cooked something, loved it, and then regressed back to “half a pepper?”. It’s been more of an obligation than love.

But, obviously, something has changed. I’m writing aren’t I?

Christmas over, New Year’s around the corner, I’m coming home after a slooooooow day at work and am met by the cooking magazine I subscribe to, immediately making the day a lot better. As I’m breaking into it on the stairs up to my flat I glance at Veganuary written across it and think “why not?”  And so with little ado I decide to go for it, four days to plan and find inspiration, I yank out all the cookbooks and magazines I’ve got and flip through finding new recipes to try.

One week to go of veganuary and I’m still in that exciting and inspired phase. I now come how, trudge to the fridge, open it, spy, the bag containing half a chopped onion and suddenly find myself making a full on meal, spinach, pasta, beans. YUM!

Even though the step to go vegan from what I ate before wasn’t at all a big step I’ve found myself learning so much, new ingredients, new techniques, new flavours. I’ve finally gotten myself a stick blender, and I’m making pesto and hummus and soups and beetroot & soy burgers. Which is what you’re here for, right? So let’s get to it! 😀

Step one, chop an onion.

Step two, fry the onion in 1tbsp of olive oil in a pan with 2 cloves of garlic an 2 tsp of thyme 😬 eh, two TEAspoons? Hehe, I used a lot more, and dried… so uhm aim for a minimum of 1 tbsp? I blame my shitty handwriting for this error, a good error that I insist you replicate but alas…

Step 3, realise that this recipe seems impossible to work as you’re supposed to add 9dl of water to 300g of soya mince and within ten to fifteen minutes the mince should have absorbed it? It absorbs water or cream or whatever you want but nearly a litre? That quick? No. Look up soya mince and realise that they’re using dehydrated and not frozen which is what you’ve got.

Add roughly 900g of mince to the pan along witch 4 dates which you’ve somewhat grazed with a knife as you’ve now studied the recipe and know that in a little bit you’re going to use a stick blender and the dates will end up chopped. Mix a veggie stick cube with about 3-4-5(?) dl of water and add some at a time, see how much vanishes and stop before it does. Oh, and you should’ve added 2tbsp of soy to the mince as well, light or dark, I’ve tried both and it works either way.

While the mince is cooking away on low heat, peel and grate a good amount of beetroot, the first time I used two somewhat on the mid-small spectrum, next time about 3-4? The recipe says 1 big, and who’s to say that my image of a big beetroot is too big? It’s gigantic by the way, so feel free to add even more beetroot.

Use a sieve to let any lingering water from the mince drip out, as you don’t want to wet a mixture as that will cause burger forming problems. Add the beetroot and a splash or two of ginger juice to the mince. Mix 1,5-2dl of rolled oats and 3 tbsp or thereabouts of potato starch, and then, mix it all together in a bowl, then blend it using a stick blender. Shape 10-12 patties and let them sit for at least an hour. Seriously, the wait is necessary, wait at least an hour or you’ll end up with a mince again. And that’s the starting point, not the end product. So practice patience, clean up, do something to forget about it for a little bit.

When the wait is finally up, add some oil to the pan and fry them until the surface is crunchy and they’re all lovely 😀 You can spread some hummus and spinach pesto, add some zucchini and pepper and enjoy a lovely burger or you can serve it with a nice salad and mango chutney or whatever you happen to find in the fridge when you open the door and go “beetroot?”.

The recipe I originated from is from a site called vegohjälpen. It’s a great site and an extremely useful app if you’re a new and somewhat unsure vegan living in Sweden as you can quickly scan things when you’re doing the groceries and it’ll tell you if it’s vegan or not, i.e. you don’t have to decipher all the e-numbers and secrets of the ingredients list. Do try it, you’ll love it! 🙂

‘Til next time, know that you don’t always have to saunter into the kitchen filled with life, energy and inspiration for it to turn out mouthwatering. Sometimes, it’s okay to find yourself staring into the fridge and the bag of chopped onion and go “nah, yoghurt?”, because that just wasn’t the day for that onion, it will be some day though. I promise.