11.22.11_Ginormous Tofu Burgers

I know, I know. It's been almost a month since our last post. We're bad bloggers. November has been crazy busy with business travel, vacation, and Thanksgiving so sadly we have not had much time for vegetarian recipes this month. After realizing it was going on a month since our last post, I told Phillip he could pick out a recipe he wanted to try. Shockingly he came back to me with a recipe from (Never Home) Maker for tofu burgers that were literally too big to bite. Phillip, wanting a burger? Never.

I was a little doubtful of this recipe at first. While I have enjoyed most of the tofu dishes we have made, I still am not a huge fan of the taste of tofu by itself. I was worried that that patties (made primarily of tofu) would still taste tofu-y and I wouldn't like them. Luckily, I was wrong and the flavors of the burger turned out great.

For the burger patties, the recipe called for

• 1 package extra-firm tofu
• 1 small (or enough to make up 1 small) potato
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 3 tablespoons nutritional yeast
• 1/4 cup sesame seeds
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon curry powder
• 1 teaspoon cumin powder
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• Pepper to taste

A couple of things to note: I drained the tofu first. The recipe didn't say anything about draining the tofu but I have yet to use tofu without draining it so I stuck with what I know. We used 5 purple fingerling potatoes to make them colorful like the recipe used. I also had yeast already but it was not nutritional yeast. I used it anyway and it still worked fine. I think you could omit this completely if you wanted.

To make the patties all I had to do was combine the tofu and the potatoes in a food processor and mix. Then in a large bowl, combine the remaining ingredients and the tofu-potato mixture. The mixture itself was stickier than I imagined so if yours is like that too, don't worry. After the ingredients are combined, split the mixture into 4 equal parts to form patties. Place cheese on top of one of the patties and then put another patty on top. Then squish the edges of the two patties together so the cheese is hidden in between the patties.

These bad boys were MASSIVE.

To cook the burgers just add some oil to pan and pan fry on both sides for a couple of minutes. I also covered the pan with aluminum foil so that the burger would be cooked all the way through and to help the cheese melt. Flipping the burgers was a bit daunting and challenging because of the sheer size of these honkers. They stayed together better than I expected so we were able to avoid a kitchen meltdown on my part.

We served the burgers on rolls from Whole Foods, topped with avocado (and mustard for me) but decided to put the sweet potatoes on the side (the burger was big enough already!). I could only finish half of my burger, which I had to eat with a fork and knife. You can tell from the picture with Phillip holding the burger just how enormous these things really were. Both Phillip and I agreed that if we make these again we would make them like a normal burger and not double up the patties with the cheese hidden inside. I like to be able to bite my burgers! Overall though a fun new way to use tofu in a dish.