Day 1 - in advance. I skipped the last meal for last week because the thought of eating one more processed meal in this heat was making me ill. So we got a head start on vegetarian week and I discovered a few things righ toff the bat. To begin with, it really IS cheaper to eat vegetarian, if today was any indication. For lunch we had a mushroom and goat cheese frittata, for which I used about $1.25 worth of eggs, $0.75 worth of mushrooms, and $1.50 worth of cheese along with some oil, ground pepper and a spoon of minced garlic. It was delicious and very easy to make but we agreed that for us omlettes and frittatas are brunch, not really lunch. With a little parsley salad on the side it easily fed both of us without making us feel too full - all for a little over $3.50.
Then for dinner we had a burger taste-test. I cooked regular home-made beef burgers, home-made veggie burgers and Yves brand pre-made soy burgers and we sampled them all. The pre-made soy were completely tasteless. I even took it out of the bun and tried in, and nothing. It was like eating a sponge that looked like a hamburger. The beef burgers were what we are used to, but the veggie burgers definately had their votes, surprisingly. They tasted very good, and they looked the best of all three, being a nice bright orange colour from the grated carrot in them, but they didn't hold together very well. If everything was drained thoroughly and perhaps a better binding agent was added, like more breadcrumbs or some mashed potato, then I could see this being a real winner. Unfortunately nothing really beat the beef in this test.
The Yves burgers were $4.49 for four. The homemade veggie burgers were probably around $4.00 for eight.
I have some ideas to make a vegetarian burger that has some meat-like characteristics. I think this may be where ground soy or textured vegetable protein comes in handy to provide a ground meat-like texture. And a stronger flavour is definately needed, perhaps a spicy bean flavour, or a teriyaki and garlic. We're going to have to do better than this is veggie burgers make it in this house.
1 comment:
I've had some nasty veggie burgers and some SUPER yummy ones! I have some Amy's Kitchen ones that are organic and vegan and they are pretty good! Very different texture than a regular beef burger, but I think that should be expected. Isn't that kind of that point of vegetarian?
Anywho, I know this doesn't go with this weeks challenge but I do have a delicious turkey burger recipe that's full of veggies! If you want to try it sometimes let me know and I'll send it to you!
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