02.03.12_Thai Quinoa Chili

Ever since Phillip and I made the Butternut Coconut Stew, I have been on the look out for another recipe that we could use quinoa in since we barely used half the bag last time. I came across a similar dish, Thai Quinoa Chili and thought it would be another easy, tasty dish that would be good for the winter months. The recipe called for:

• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoon red curry paste
• 1 tablespoon cumin
• 4 cups vegetable broth, divided
• 1 small onion, diced
• 1 large green pepper, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 small sweet potato, peeled and diced
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 3 cans dark red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 3/4 cup dry quinoa, rinsed
• 1/2 cup light coconut milk
• 1-28 ounce can crushed tomatoes
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• Sliced green onions, for serving (I omitted these for Phillip)
• Plain Greek yogurt, for serving (omit to make the dish vegan)

After reading through the list I thought 3 cans of beans was a lot, as was a 28oz can of crushed tomatoes, but we rationalized that all the beans would take the place of the meat that was typically in chili.

As always, this recipe could not have been easier. I whisked together the chili powder, curry paste, cumin and a few tablespoons of stock in my largest soup pot. I then added a little olive oil before dropping in the sweet potato, onion, green pepper and garlic. I also added one Thai chili to give a little kick. Make sure you wash your hands good and several times after using these bad boys. They are hot! After sauteing for a few minutes, I dumped in the drained kidney beans, the quinoa, and the can of tomatoes. Finally, I added the coconut milk and remainder of the veggie stock, praying it would all fit. It was literally filled to the brim. Needless to say this recipe made an ABSURD amount of chili. We ended up freezing half of it and the other half was more than enough for both of our dinners and lunches for another day so I'd definitely recommend halving this recipe if its just for two people.

The chili was delicious but I was a little disappointed that I couldn't taste the coconut milk. It was very subtle, maybe because it called for light? I definitely was hoping for more of a Thai flavor. I topped my bowl with a dollop of Greek yogurt which added a nice tang to the chili that I really liked. Obviously you can omit this and the dish would be vegan.

On the side we decided we would make cornbread, but I wanted to change it up a bit to go with the Thai flavors I was expecting with the chili. I used the box mix, but added 1/4cup of frozen corn kernels, a Thai chili, and instead of 1/4cup of milk, I did half milk half coconut milk. Again, I didn't get as much coconut as I wanted so if I were to make these again I would use all coconut milk to get more of the flavor. The Thai chili gave a nice kick though and the corn added texture to the muffins. Cornbread mixes are not vegan, FYI, so if you did want to make this a vegan meal you would have to make these without the box.

01.31.12_(Not so) Drunken Noodles

Ok so this recipe is nothing like Drunken Noodles, rather noodles I made drunk the other day. I'm so clever, I know. Phillip and I decided to take advantage of the unseasonably warm weather on Tuesday and go to a Happy Hour where we could sit outside and have a drink after work. By the time we got home I did not want to make some elaborate dish. I had found this recipe for Fiery Noodles that basically consisted of noodles, peppers, and a sauce made from chili paste. We thought this would be a good day to try them since it would be quick and require very little knife work after a couple of drinks.

As always we decided we wanted leftovers so we used an entire pound of pasta. While waiting for the water to boil, I sliced two bell peppers (we used a yellow and a red) and minced two cloves of garlic. Next I made the sauce, following the recipe I had found. I looked at the amount of sauce, looked at the pound of pasta boiling, and knew there was no way it was going to be enough. Our sauce was also not nearly as red as the pictures from the recipe post. I decided it was time to just improvise and see how it turned out. I ended up adding Sriracha and adjusted the amounts of all the other ingredients until I was satisfied with the amount and flavor of the sauce.

In the end I used:

• 1/4 cup of soy sauce
• 2 Tbsp rice wine vinegar
• 2 tsp roasted red chili paste
• 2 tsp Sriracha
• 1/4 tsp of red chili flakes
• 1/4 cup chopped peanuts (for garnish)
• cilantro (for garnish)

The noodles were super tasty and we had a ton of leftovers (as expected). We served the noodles with veggie dumplings I had in the freezer. Obviously not a groundbreaking recipe but a tasty, quick and easy one to keep in your arsenal for an easy (drunk) weekday meal.

01.29.11_Homemade Spaghetti-O's

Hello again! Phil here with another yummy vegetarian dish for you all. Jonathan found this lovely Spaghetti-O's recipe from the blog Tracey's Culinary Adventures last week, and we knew this one would be a winner. I can't speak for Jonathan, but I am a huge Spaghetti-O's fan, which is why we decided I would take the initiative on this one.

If you recall from my last post, I am not the world's best cook, but with Jonathan across from me in new (large!) kitchen, I figured I could handle it. It's important to note that we made mini-sized version of the eggplant meatballs from a previous post as opposed to her chicken ones to make the meal fully vegetarian.

Mini "meatballs" ready to go into the oven.

After chopping an onion, a stalk of celery, and three small carrots, I sauteed them in a large pot. While they were sauteing, I (poorly) minced three cloves of garlic and added it in. I mixed in 2 1/2 cups of veggie stock and a 28-ounce can of diced tomatoes then simmered the mixture for 20 minutes.

Anybody can cook!

After the carrots softened, I used Jonathan's new immersion blender to make the soup. It took a few minutes of dealing with rogue carrots, but we could really see that creamy orange color coming out of the mixture. I added some salt and pepper and brought the soup back up to a boil.

I have no idea what I'm doing, clearly.

Once the soup mixture was at a boil, I put in two cups of ditalini pasta and let simmer for another 15 minutes. I used a little bit more pasta than she recommended, so we'd have enough for the next day's lunch. The mini meatballs came out at around the same time and looked perfect! Not bad for my first time working with eggplant.

I'm actually surprised with how much it tasted like Spaghetti-O's from the can, though this was much healthier! We both loved the meal and enjoyed it again the next day for lunch. We definitely recommend giving it a try if you're in the mood for a nostalgic meal - without all the sodium!

01.25.12_Kung Pao Potatoes

I was really excited when I found this recipe that took frozen french fries and added them to an Asian stir-fry. I love french fries. I love Asian food. Sounds perfect. The shopping list was super short for this recipe as well since I had almost all of the ingredients in the house except the fresh produce and the fries.

While the rice was cooking in the rice cooker (we used brown rice because it's what we had) we cooked the fries like you normally would in the oven. As the fries were cooking I did all the prep work. All I had to do was cut up a red onion, a red bell pepper, and mince some garlic and ginger. I also went ahead and made the sauce that consisted of water, soy sauce, vinegar, cornstarch (the recipe calls for cornflour), ketchup, chili sauce, and sugar. We left out the red chilies because I didn't have any and decided to add some extra chili flakes to the stir-fry to make up for it. Once the fries were cooked, I threw the garlic, ginger, onion, bell pepper, and chili flakes into a skillet with some oil. After a few minutes I added the the sauce and fries, brought to a boil and simmered for a few minutes.

We forgot to top the Kung Pao Potatoes with peanuts which I did not even realize until right now. I also just realized that the recipe called for sesame oil, which I did not use. Sad. We also served edamame on the side for some veggies. Perhaps the fact that we botched the recipe pretty badly is why we were both underwhelmed by the recipe. The sauce didn't have as much flavor as I hoped but it was fine (perhaps because I didn't have the red chilies and forgot to use sesame oil?). I also realized as I was making it that it was a starch on top of another starch. I think if I were to change the recipe a bit I would use tofu instead of potatoes to remove one of the starches, and I would change the ratio of the ingredients in the sauce so it was a bit more flavorful and less watery. At least the recipe was super easy!

01.22.12_Homemade Hummus and Tzatziki

A while back my grandma had called me from the grocery store. She was thinking about buying the mix to make falafel after having read it on our blog. I told her it was incredibly easy, and would be just like making latkes so she should definitely try it. She ended up buying the mix and a can of tahini paste. A month or so later, I saw her at a family function and she told me she had something for me. She pulled out the falafel mix and tahini paste and told me that she chickened out and wasn't going to make it so I could have it.

After Phillip and I moved, I wanted to have her over for dinner. Her and my Zayde apparently had one of their first dates right next door to our apartment so I thought it would be nice for her to see the area again and would give me a chance to make the falafel for her and show her how easy it is. Since she had given me the tahini, I also decided to make homemade hummus for the first time. After googling for recipes for a while, I found a recipe for a classic hummus that had great reviews.

I decided to double the recipe because Phillip and I love hummus and thought it would be nice to have some leftovers. I did one batch at a time and I'm glad we did because after making the first batch, using the modifications the author of the recipe recommended, the hummus came out pretty runny. I was able to make some changes when I added the second can of chickpeas and the final product came out great. We used:

• 3 cloves garlic
• 2 cans garbanzo beans, 1/2 cup liquid reserved
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice
• 4 tablespoons tahini
• 2 teaspoon salt

I mixed all of the ingredients in my new full sized food processor I got for the holidays (very exciting I know) and then garnished the hummus with a few whole chickpeas, pine nuts I had on hand, a dusting of cumin and parsley, and then before serving drizzled the top with good olive oil (how Ina Garten of me). The hummus was super delicious and was a good texture. I would definitely make it again.

To go along with the falafel, I made the cucumber tomato salad I made from our first blog post ever and also wanted to make a real tzatziki sauce for dipping. I found a lot of recipes that were all a little different so ended up choosing the recipe with the highest ratings. The only changes I made was using white wine vinegar (I didn't have red at home), using half a cucumber (so I could use the other half in the salad) and I added a tablespoon of fresh lemon juice. I got to use another new toy and grated the cucumber on my mandolin! This is what the recipe looked like after my modifications:

• 2 8oz Greek-style yogurts
• 1/2 English cucumber, peeled, grated, then squeezed to remove excess water
• 3 garlic cloves , mashed to a paste
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar 
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh dill
• salt
   

The recipe made a TON of tzatziki. Luckily my mom loves the stuff and took an entire Tupperware container of leftovers home with her. The meal turned out great and I was able to make everything in advance so that when Grandma and Mom came over I didn't have to do anything. A great Sunday night.

01.13.12_Roasted Chickpea Fajitas

I don't know if all vegetarians eat a lot of chickpeas, or if it's just us. I feel like chickpeas have been the most repeated ingredient in our blog. Maybe it's just because we both like them. Who knows. Regardless, I found a recipe for Roasted Chickpea Fajitas and added to the list of things to try.

Super simple as always, all we had to do was mix together:

2 teaspoons chili powder
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
2 tablespoons water
1 (15 oz.) can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed

Then we put the chickpeas into a 400° oven for 25-30 minutes, stirring once halfway through. While the chickpeas were roasting, I sauteed onion, garlic, and two bell peppers (we used orange and yellow) in some EVOO. After a couple of minutes I added in another mixture that consisted of the following:

1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon oregano
Salt and pepper, to taste
Juice of 1 large lime
1/3 cup chopped cilantro


After the chickpeas were done roasting, I added them to the veggie mixture, tossed everything together, and dinner was ready! We served the fajitas with veggie refried beans and also a boxed Mexican rice mixture. I topped my fajita was sour cream, cheese, avocado and salsa. The fajitas were super filling and I didn't miss the meat!

01.08.12_Slow Cooker Lentil Taco Salads

Happy New Year! This winter I am making a conscious effort to use my crock pot more. Every time I use it I love that I literally had to cut stuff up and then I come back 6 hours later to a warm, delicious meal. On Sunday we planned on painting our bedroom so I thought that would be a good time to throw something in the crock pot and not have to deal with it. I had found this recipe for Lentil Taco salads that you make in the slow cooker so I was excited to try it since I had never made lentils before.

The recipe called for:

1 red pepper, coarsely chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1 cup brown lentils
½ cup brown rice
1 garlic clove
2 teaspoons chili powder
¼ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon dried oregano
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
4 cups vegetable broth

When I went shopping for the ingredients it was right after New Years and shelves were barren. The red peppers looked a hot mess so I grabbed one of the only orange peppers instead. Lentils were hard to come by as well. I found black lentils, instead of brown. I did a little research later of the difference between brown, green, and red lentils but I still don't really know the difference. Something to do with the texture after they are cooked. I assumed that after cooking for 6 hours they would all end up about the same. Luckily, the black lentils worked out just fine.

After prepping the pepper, onion, and garlic, I put all the ingredients into the crock pot, turned it on high, and left it there for 6 hours while we painted and did stuff around the apt. When we were ready for dinner we crunched up some tortilla chips, then topped the chips with shredded lettuce and then the lentil mixture. I added salsa, fresh diced tomato, avocado, cheese and sour cream to mine while Phillip just added cheese and avocado. It was really really good. Phillip kept going back for more which is always a good sign. There was enough for us to have leftovers today too!

12.27.11_Fresh Corn Soup with Roasted Corn Guacamole

Happy Holidays! Man has it been a busy couple of weeks! Phillip and I just moved into a new apartment right before Christmas so needless to say we've been all over the place. We finally got the chance to cook the first meal in our new apartment. One of the gifts Phillip got me for the holidays was an immersion blender so I wanted to make something that I could use the blender for. We decided on a soup and I thought a corn soup would be good since I had never made it. We found this recipe that they served with a roasted corn guacamole so I thought that would be perfect since in my mind I wanted to soup to be tex-mex-y.

This was the first meal where Phillip and I were actually able to cook together because our kitchen is finally big enough to have two people standing in it! To get the corn ready for the guacamole we added a tablespoon of olive oil, salt and pepper to 2 cups of defrosted frozen corn. I spread the corn out evenly on a foil-lined baking sheet before putting the corn into a 450° oven for 20 minutes. Phillip decided he wanted to tackle the guacamole so he diced a tablespoon of red onion, a seeded jalapeno, and then zested and juiced a lime over an avocado before seasoning with salt and pepper.

Phillip zesting in the new kitchen!

While Phillip was dicing, I made the soup. All I had to do was defrost some frozen corn, then blend 3 cups of it. I then had to saute half a red onion, a clove of garlic, and a jalapeno after it was seeded. After the onions were translucent I blended the sauteed veggies and added it to the corn mixture. In a pot I combined the blended veggies and cooked them for a few minutes before adding in 1.5 cups of vegetable stock. The soup simmered for 15 minutes while we finished making the guacamole.

After the corn had roasted for 20 minutes we took it out and let it sit for a few minutes to let it cool before adding it to the guacamole Phillip had made.  After the guacamole was finished and the soup had simmered it was time to eat. We ladled the soup into our bowls before putting a large spoonful of the guac into the center of the bowl. I then drizzled some good olive oil (another gift for the holidays) over the soup. It was super tasty and as always incredibly easy. The recipe didn't make as much as I had expected. I would say it was closer to 4 servings but luckily we had refried beans on the side and extra guacamole to eat as sides.

12.14.11_Butternut Coconut Stew

A group of friends and I have started having a "dinner party" once a month. We rotate who hosts and use it as an opportunity to try new recipes that we've been wanting to try. I love butternut squash. And I love coconut. So when I saw this recipe I knew I definitely had to try it. The recipe also called for quinoa which I had never made before so I was excited to try something new.

I went to Safeway because they always sell peeled and diced butternut squash. Of course, it was a sale item this week so they were completely sold out. I was forced to buy a fresh butternut squash which, if you remember from my butternut squash risotto, is quite the process to peel. Once the squash was peeled and cubed, the process was significantly easier. I also decided to double the recipe since there would be five of us for dinner and I always like leftovers so there was a lot of stew!

While the 4 cups of squash were cooking in boiling water for about 15 minutes, I sauteed a large onion, a jalapeno, 4 tbs fresh ginger, and 4 cloves of garlic then seasoned with a little salt. After the squash was cooked I drained it, put it back in the pot, then added the sauteed onion mixture. I then added a 28 oz can of diced tomatoes, a 28 oz can of drained and rinsed chickpeas, and then a cup of coconut milk. The recipe called for lite coconut milk which we could not find so we combined 1/2 cup of the coconut milk with 1/2 cup of water to thin it out a bit. I didn't want the coconut flavor to compeltely overpower the dish. After all the ingredients were combined I just had to bring the pot back up to a boil, then cover and reduce to a simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

I waited until everyone had gotten to my apartment before I put the quinoa on. It was super simple. I just added 1.5 cups quinoa to 3 cups of water, brought to a boil, then covered and reduced to simmer for 15 minutes. Once the quinoa was cooked dinner was ready! I scooped a little bit of quinoa into everyone's bowls then laddled on the stew. It was super yummy and perfect for a cold winter day. My photographs came out terribly for some reason so if you want to see really amazing pictures of the stew, check out the original post I got the recipe from!

12.11.11_Spinach Stuffed Shells

A few months ago I made Giada's stuffed shells with arrabbiata sauce. The recipe was in one of the first cookbooks I ever received as a gift. They were super delicious but had pancetta in them. We were trying to figure out what we could make for dinner without having to buy a ton of ingredients and I noticed that we still had half of the jumbo shells left from the last time we made these. I decided we could make it vegetarian by leaving out the pancetta but I added spinach to make it a little more than just noodles, cheese and sauce.

After bringing water to a boil and dumping the remaining half of the box of jumbo shells, I sauteed a bag of spinach. I went ahead and used the entire bag because it wilts so much. I added some fresh grated nutmeg ("That little something that makes you go, hmm what is that?" - Rachael Ray), salt and pepper. I then let the spinach cool a bit while I mixed together the cheese mixture which consisted of:

15oz of ricotta cheese
1/2 cup of shredded mozzarella
1/2 cup of parmesan
2 egg yolks
1 tsp of salt
1 tsp red pepper flakes
Black pepper to taste
1 tsp of dried parsley 
1 tsp of dried basil
1 clove of garlic

Once the spinach had cooled, I added it to the mixture. I then drained the noodles and sprayed a baking dish with nonstick spray. I stuffed each shell with about a tablespoon of the cheese mixture then put them into the baking dish. After the shells were all stuffed, I poured some marinara sauce I had in the fridge over top of the shells. I used about 2 cups. The shells baked for 30 minutes in a 350°. The shells were super yummy and I even had leftovers to take for lunch the next day!

12.08.11_Pineapple Fried Rice

When I went to Thailand last year I think I ate fried rice more than anything while I was there. Since then I randomly crave Basil Fried Rice. A couple of months ago I made it and it came out really well, but it had chicken. I decided I would try to make Pineapple Fried Rice for a vegetarian version. I just googled pineapple fried rice and came across two different recipes that were very similar. I just randomly chose one of the recipes of the two and went for it.

I cooked jasmine rice while I chopped up 2 shallots, 3 cloves of garlic, and a green chili. While the rice was cooling, I sauteed the shallots, garlic, green chili, and a shredded carrot. Then I added an egg and basically scrambled it into the mix. Once the egg was cooked I dropped in the pineapple, added the rice and a mixture of soy sauce and curry powder. Once it was all mixed together I cooked the rice for a couple of minutes before garnishing the rice with some green onions for some color.

I chose to leave out the currants and the cashews to keep it simple. Apparently I was super out of it when I made this because I forgot to add the peas and coriander. I really wish I had a wok! I did 1.5x the amount of rice to have leftovers and folding all that rice into the mixture of vegetables, pineapples, and sauce was super difficult in a small saute pan. Other than the difficulties of mixing the rice and being a space cadette and leaving out two of the ingredients the rice came out good. Phillip really enjoyed it so that's always a good sign.

12.06.11_Chickpea Spinach Sliders

So I'm not sure why the recipe we found for these burgers was called Chickpea Spinach burgers. True, there are chickpeas and spinach in them, but that's only two of a long list of ingredients and they are probably two of the more subtle flavors in these burgers. I will say, however, that the name alone got me to try them. We decided to make sliders because our previous experience with "burgers" resulted in a mushy center (see Edamame Burgers, Falafel Burgers, and Ginormous Tofu Burgers) so we figured if we made them smaller that would be cute and practical.

The recipe called for:

-1 medium onion
-3 cloves garlic
-1 c. chickpeas
-3 c. packed spinach leaves
-1 carrot
-2 tbsp. soy sauce (I used Tamari instead)
-1 tsp. cumin
-2 tbsp. peanut butter
-1 tbsp. yeast
-1 tsp. sriracha hot sauce
-1/2 c. chickpea flour (I used whole wheat flour)

Cook the onions and garlic, then add the spinach and carrot until the spinach has wilted. In a large bowl, combine the cooked mixture and the remaining ingredients until thoroughly mixed. Then let the mixture cool. I went ahead and portioned out the mixture into patties and lined them up on a cutting board, because I figured they would cool faster individually then all together in one big bowl.

After the mixture has cooled some, form patties, and pan fry in some oil. I used olive oil and cooked each slider for 2-3 minutes per side. We served the sliders on potato slider rolls alongside, what else, french fries. The burgers were very flavorful. I tasted the peanut butter the most but it gave them a nice creamy texture. Phillip had an issue with the number of onions (considering he doesn't like onions) but overall they were tasty!

11.28.11_Curried Broccoli Couscous

Ok. So maybe I felt guilty for doing so few posts this month. We decided to try and fit in one more veggie meal this month to try to make up for our delinquency. Lucky for me, Real Simple tweeted out a recipe for Curried Broccoli Couscous that sounded super yummy yesterday so I decided to give it a try.

Now I know we talk about how easy all of these recipes are but really, this recipe was insanely easy. All you had to do was saute broccoli florets (I used fresh broccoli but I'm sure frozen would work just as well) in a sauce pan with olive oil then add curry powder to coat the broccoli. Next add in golden raisins, chickpeas, and water and bring to a boil. Finally, add the couscous, remove from heat, cover the pan and let sit for 5 minutes. That's it. I was afraid the couscous wouldn't cook completely because I had never cooked couscous with other food in the same pan but it came out great.

To add some more texture and flavor I decided to use more than just the golden raisins. We found a mixture of golden raisins and craisins at the store and thought that the craisins would add a nice color and tart flavor. I also topped the couscous with sliced almonds for a little bit of sweetness and for a nice crunch. We ended up making 1.5 times the recipe so that we would have enough leftovers for lunch the next day. So scrumptious!

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.