Recipe Edition: How to Make the Best (and Easiest) Veggie Burgers

Burgers have always been a favorite meal of mine. They are such a filling lunch or dinner and the BBQ is one of my favorite things about warm weather! After becoming a vegetarian a few years ago, I have been on a mission to find the best vegetarian burger. This is what I've come up with.

There are many great ways to make veggie burgers using ingredients from mushrooms or sweet potatoes to nuts and maple syrup. This recipe is my favorite because it is the easiest and cheapest to make while tasting like a delicious unhealthy burger.

I found this recipe while trolling Martha Stewart's vegetarian recipe section (you can find the original recipe here) and made a few slight changes to cut the cost and use things everyone has in the cupboard.

What you need (serves 4):
1/2 cup of any kind of rice, quinoa, or Martha suggests bulgur (I used jasmine rice)
1 15 oz can of pinto beans (preferably rinsed and drained)
1/2 cup sliced carrots
1/2 cup grated cheese (I used crumbled feta, but your favorite cheese will do)
1 small onion or scallion minced
1 egg
olive oil or cooking spray

What you do:
Make rice, quinoa or bulgur substance in boiling water or in a rice cooker (everyone should have a rice cooker because they are amazing). Once the water has boiled off, take the rice substance off the heat and set aside.

Combine pinto beans, carrots, cheese, onion and egg in a bowl. Then mix in rice. Add a pinch of salt and pepper if you like.

Put a bit of olive oil or cooking spray into a frying pan on medium heat. Add burger-sized spoonfuls of the mixture to the frying pan and flatten, so they cook evenly. Cook for 3-5 minutes or until crispy and golden brown on each side.

Serve on your favorite hamburger bun with lettuce, tomato, sprouts, avocado, mushrooms or even salsa. Substitutions work very well with this recipe, so get creative people!

Recipe Edition: Chili with Pumpkin Penne

I created this twist on chili when I had a deep craving for warm, hearty food in one of my first weeks living in the ski town, Ohakune. It is as easy as making spaghetti but much more satisfying. I have never cooked much with pumpkin before, but the Kiwis put it in a lot of dishes to add more flavour. And with chili and cheese, it is a combination to die for.

You need (for a pot that serves 4):
1 can vegetarian chili (you can also make your own chili unless you are living out of a motel room like I am and need recipes that are simple and light clean up)
½ block of Vintage cheese (sharp cheddar or any smoked or sharp cheese will do) grated
3 tablespoons of salsa
1 bag of penne pasta
1 can of pumpkin soup

To prepare:
Add ½ a can of water to the can of pumpkin soup in a pot (or if you’re like me, to the rice cooker that you use for everything because you have no stove). Add the penne to the mixture and bring to a boil. Once boiling, lower the heat until the penne is cooked and the pumpkin soup has boiled down to a thick sauce. Add salsa and grated cheese. Add the chili and cook until the cheese is melted. Serve with a bowl of spiced wine or apple cider for the perfect fall or winter meal.

Recipe Edition: My Favorite Breakfast of All Time

I ate my favourite breakfast of all time in Christchurch. And that is saying quite a bit because I am a loyal pancake girl and this meal was not pancakes. Additionally as a vegetarian, I cannot eat a majority of the breakfast options on most menus. When I was a meat-eater I could choose any one of the options with bacon stacked high, but now I often feel limited for my favourite meal. Vegetarians want a hearty breakfast too! And I got it at the Beat Street Café on the corner of Barbados and Armaugh.

My best guess at how they made it is as follows.

Stuff you need:
2 pieces German dark bread (incidentally my favourite bread!)
1 soft boiled or poached egg
A handful of shiitake mushrooms
1 tomato
½ zucchini (or aubergine?)
¼ white onion
½ avocado
Hollandaise sauce
Cooking oil

What you do:
Slice the onion and put in frying pan with cooking oil. Cook for only a few minutes before adding mushrooms, tomato, and zucchini. Boil or poach the egg in a pot. Toast that German dark bread. Slice the avocado into thin pieces. Throw that toast on a plate, and pile your pan-fried vegetables around it. Slice the egg on top of the toast, and pile the Hollandaise sauce on top. Place the avocado slices into a cute design on top of the sauce, and enjoy your breakfast feast. I dare you to find a breakfast better than this. Meat or no meat!

Recipe edition: Making Mexican food in New Zealand

A travel blog I read made a great point about people when they travel. The blogger, Lauren, wrote that since we are always moving to new places and people, we serve as our own anchor, our own home. Travelers can only know themselves well to feel comforted and at home.

Whenever I find something when I am traveling that I know and like I become obsessed with it. It is a small piece of home in a foreign place.

At home, I like Mexican food. Here, I am a missionary for the cuisine, talking to everyone I meet how good it tastes.  But there are not many Mexican immigrants in New Zealand, so when Abe and I arrived here we were disappointed to find that even Wellington, the capital and 2^nd biggest city in NZ does not have a Mexican restaurant.

As the weeks passed we visited many cities and towns all with no Mexican restaurants, so we decided to take matters into our own hands. We scoured the grocery store shelves for any Mexican-looking ingredients we could find, and planned to feast that very evening. Grocery-shopping for Mexican food is no small feat in New Zealand because supermarkets (or as Kiwis say, "dairys") here do not even sell tortilla chips. You have to go to a natural or organic foods store to find them, and there aren’t very many of those in NZ either.

But we were motivated, like most travelers ravenously cooking up a storm in hostels, by an intense desire for a slice of home. The result was a masterpiece worth sharing. If you are in NZ, you need to try this (you’ve been missing out), and even if you’re somewhere in the US surrounded by lovely burrito carts or even Chipotles, you will love this recipe too.

Things you need:

White long grain rice (or your favourite kind is fine too, since Abe and I have quite different opinions on rice)

3 small gold potatoes (we snagged these from an organic vegetable truck that visits our hostel each week!)

5 or 6 white mushrooms

1 can Mexican-style tomatoes (these are diced and seasoned)

1 can black beans in chilli sauce (oddly all black beans in NZ come in this sauce)

2 avocados

Shredded white cheddar cheese (since NZ doesn’t call cheese by the actual name, you will find it under “Tasty Cheese” here)

Black pepper

Your favourite all-purpose seasoning or beloved Goya seasoning, but we can’t get that here

Jumbo tortillas

Cooking oil

What to do:

Chop up your potatoes and throw them in the frying pan with some oil, black pepper and all purpose seasoning. Let the potatoes cook until they’re soft and golden. Throw in chopped mushrooms next and allow to cook for a few more minutes. Add the beans, chopped avocadoes, and tomatoes and cook until all ingredients are mixed in and sizzling. Shred some cheese over a tortilla and slap your delicious cooked mixture on top. And you’re done! This recipe is clearly perfect for backpackers since we hate to wait, but it is also extremely tasty.

UPDATE:
If I had been lucky enough to be friends with my lovely Kiwi friend, Tessa, (who is a fantastic guide to all things Kiwi, by the way) when I was in Wellington I could have satisfied my Mexican food craving with a visit to the South American restaurant The Flying Burrito Brothers. Thanks, girl!