Vegan Quinoa Hippie Burgers

It's not really a secret that I'm a little bit of a hippie dirtbag deep down inside. I was vegetarian for 8 years, 2 of which I was vegan for. Although I now eat meat again, I still have a soft spot for the old classics of my vegan days.

Enter the vegan burger.

There's a lot of different ways to make vegan burgers. Most of the time, changing up the base ingredient is what makes each one special - people use things with lots of protein like black beans, lentils, pinto beans, kidney beans, or quinoa (a grain that is a perfect protein). I like using quinoa the most, since I'll make up a batch as a side dish for dinner and then have leftovers that I want to transform into something else...

VEGAN QUINOA HIPPIE BURGERS

Ingredients:
- 2.5 cups cooked quinoa (I cooked mine with freshly chopped rosemary to give it a little extra flavor)
- 1 cup roasted red pepper hummus (you can also substitute cooked chickpeas and a little water, or any other flavor of hummus, but it's not as tasty) (p.s. EXTRA BONUS PROTEIN!)
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 2-3 tbsp soy sauce
- 2-3 tbsp flax seed meal (harder to dumpster, but I lucked out with a 3 lb. bag one time, so I'm set for life)
- 2 cloves garlic
- Crap-ton of fresh basil (to taste)
- 1 tbsp fresh thyme
- 1 tbsp lemon juice (this brightens up the flavors of the spices and hummus)
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp paprika
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 4-5 tbsp wheat flour

Mix everything up in a bowl. Taste it to see if the spices balance in the way you'd like.
Make into big meaty patties.
At this stage, you can freeze the patties for use later by sticking wax paper between them and putting them in an air-tight container - they'll last up to about 3 months.
Fry on high heat in the olive oil so they don't fall apart and get super-crispy (the crispy texture is crucial or else the hummus can make the texture a little weird and the patties will fall apart).
Serve!

Wasn't that easy?

I'm was a total ex-vegan and put goat cheese and spring greens on mine, but you can add anything from avocado to homemade scented aolis (again, bad vegan) to tomatoes. I don't have any bread in my house either right now, so you'll have to use your imagination as to how these would look freaking amazing with burger fixin's on a bun (although, if you're gluten-free, never mind).


These are really great (and easy) to make for BBQs when you have friends who don't eat meat. I can tell you that being on the receiving end of a BBQ that has no substantial food options for you is a bummer ("What?! Just corn on the cob and fruit salad again? Awesome!").

A lot of folks assume that being vegan is really tough, but as long as you have an arsenal of high-protein, nutritionally balanced food, it's actually pretty doable and delicious.

Items not donated or dumpstered: Quinoa (from the Beet Food Co-op), garlic, rosemary (from garden), thyme (from garden), basil (from garden), cumin, paprika, salt & pepper

Turkey Stock & Turkey Soup

After Thanksgiving and Christmas, there were a lot of leftovers.

My mom donated her leftover turkey (and turkey carcass) to me after both holidays. This isn't necessarily dumpstering-related, but free food is free food.

I did end up eating some of the turkey, but decided to make turkey stock from the carcass, and modify my dad's chicken soup recipe (which is fucking awesome) to make turkey soup. (so you can do this whole process with chicken too)

TURKEY STOCK

Ingredients
1/2 Onion
1 large carrot (or 6 baby carrots)
1 large celery stalk
Turkey carcass
1 bay leaf
Pepper & salt

Cover the bottom of a large pan with olive oil. Cook all your cut-up veggies on medium heat until tender.
Fill your pot with water, then drop in the turkey carcass and spices.
Bring to a boil.
Simmer for a minimum of 2 hours (the first batch I made I simmered for 5 hours, the second for 3). Skim off any scum on the water's surface.
Strain the turkey stock. Remove any bones & the bay leaf from your strainer and throw the veggies back in the stock. Remove the meat off the carcass's bones and set aside for your soup.

TURKEY SOUP

Ingredients:
2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion
2 carrots (or 6 baby carrots)
1 large celery stalk
1 can diced tomatoes (or boil and de-skin/de-seed your own tomatoes by running them under cold water)
2 large potatoes (optional - makes a heartier soup)
2-5 tbsp rice (wild rice is my favorite in this recipe)
Turkey meat
Turkey stock (you can substitute canned chicken stock if you don't want to spend 3 hours making your own)
Salt & Pepper to taste


Repeat the same process of softening your veggies as you did when you made your stock (leave the tomatoes & potatoes out).
Pour in turkey stock, tomatoes (with or without the water from the can), and turkey meat
Bring to a boil.
Throw in potatoes, then cook until they're soft.
Throw in rice.
Cover and cook under medium heat for about 30 minutes (or until the rice is done).

This soup tastes especially good with bread and butter that you dip into it.

Et voila!


Items not dumpstered or donated: Olive oil, can of diced tomatoes, butter for bread, and rice (which I got from The Beet Food Co-Op)