Cooking Through “The Prevent & Reverse Heart Disease Cookbook” – Kale Burgers

Kale Burgers from page 227

Now that summer is here, I was looking for a healthy, delicious veggie burger. The ones in the store either had ingredients that I did not want in my food, such as oil or egg, or were dry and tasted like cardboard. There had to be a better alternative. I figured, I would have to make my own.

I tried a few recipes, and I will blog about them at a later date, but I wanted to tell you about my favorite burger so far. Kale burgers. Yes, you heard correctly…kale burgers.

You can find this fabulous recipe here.

I am always looking for ways to add veggies to recipes, and this one has tons of veggies….onion, sweet potato, kale. Put that together with the beans and the oats and you have one healthy burger! The recipe calls for optional mushrooms, which I did not put in. I only had a few shitake mushroom in the fridge and they were earmarked for Savory Smokey Oats.

The burgers came together quickly after I cooked the sweet potato. While the potato was cooking, I prepped and cooked the other veggies. When making a recipe like this, I like to water chop the veggies very fine in my VitaMix.

I used canned pink beans since I didn’t have kidney beans on hand, but they taste very similar, so I don’t think it mattered much. Once everything was cooked, I just threw everything in a big bowl and Chris squished everything together with her hands, leaving some beans whole.

We used this nifty little burger press that we found. The recipe says it makes 6 to 8 burgers. I got 7 nice size burgers.  This press works out really well as we can form the burgers as well as store them in the fridge. I definitely suggest chilling the burgers before cooking. I think this helps them to hold together and keep their shape.

Chris cooked these up in our non-stick frying pan. They took about 5 minutes on each side so the burgers were hot on the inside and browned on the outside.

We didn’t have any hamburger buns on hand, so we used rye bread. I am having trouble finding hamburger buns that fit in with our McDougall way of eating. Please…if you know of a brand that has no oil or animal products, comment below and let me know. My friend told me about some English Muffins that I think were by Food For Life that were healthy, but I haven’t found them yet. If I had those, that’s what I would have used, but the rye bread worked out just fine.

We topped the burgers with our fixings of choice, which were lettuce, pickles and ketchup. I was very surprised that the burger held up and didn’t just squish inside the bread. It was definitely softer than a store bought veggie burger, but it still held together nicely and had a nice mouth feel. I bet the texture would be even better with mushrooms, as they give a meatier feel to burgers and loaves.

Let’s see…prep time. 10 minutes to nuke the sweet potato,10 minutes to chop and cook the onion, garlic and kale (but that was at the same time the sweet potato was cooking), 5 minutes to add the other ingredients,10 minutes to combine and form patties, and 10 minutes cooking time.

Total time from start to finish – about 35 minutes.

NOTES:

• Shred the kale very fine for the best results.
• Frozen kale would work fine.
• The burger had a nice background spiciness to it from the Sriracha. Could use tomato sauce or salsa instead.
• Use an ice cream scoop so you get the same size burger each time.
• Will definitely try adding mushrooms next time.
• Not sure how they would turn out on the grill. Will have to try.

Cooking Through “The Prevent & Reverse Heart Disease Cookbook” – Ann’s Oats With Grapes

Ann’s Oats With Grapes from page 43

Well, I was bound to come across another recipe that I didn’t like from The Prevent & Reverse Heart Disease Cookbook. This one was it.

Simple enough….rolled oats, grapes and ground chia or flax seed. The recipe has the option to add other fruit, such as banana or berries, but I was at work when I ate this and didn’t have any of those items on hand. Ann also gives an option to squeeze the juice from a grapefruit into the oats for a more wet cereal, but again, I did not have that one hand.

Yuck…this was so dry, I couldn’t get past the first spoonful. While the grapes tasted fine with the oats and definitely added enough sweetness, the grapes did not add enough moisture.

Luckily for me, I keep unsweetened almond milk at work. I just added some and let my oats sit for a few minutes. At least this way I didn’t waste any food and I still had something for breakfast. I don’t normally cook my oats anyway (unless they are steel cut), so this worked out fine for me.

No prep time at all for this one. Literally putting the oats and seeds in a bowl (in my case a coffee mug) and halving the grapes.

NOTES:

• Just not a winner in my book.
• If you decide to try this, be sure to have liquid on hand in case you need it.

Cooking Through “The Prevent & Reverse Heart Disease Cookbook” – Susie Cuke Dressing

Susie Cuke Dressing from page 173

If you are like me, you will have everything on hand to try this dressing. I found the idea of using cucumber in a salad dressing a little odd, but figured how bad could it be? I put cucumber on my salad and then add another dressing, so, why not?

This clung to the salad leaves pretty well, which is important in a salad dressing. It was a very nice consistency. Sort of in between a creamy, fat filled dressing and a vinaigrette. It was light, but had a nice texture and a good mouth feel, which I think is important in a salad dressing. Let’s face it, plain lemon or vinegar is tasty on a salad, but it leaves something to be desired in how it feels in your mouth. This dressing takes care of that.

It gets body from the hummus and the cucumber, a tangy bite from the lemon juice, balsamic and rice vinegars, and a little spiciness from the garlic, mustard, and black pepper.

The recipe does not call for any salt. I used to add a little bit to salad dressings, but I’ve gotten over that. I do not add any salt to anything I make. If I really feel it needs it, I add a tiny bit at the table.

There was really not much prep to this. I already had hummus made, so making this salad dressing was really all about throwing everything in the Vitamix and blending. Voila! Nice, creamy salad dressing in less than 5 minutes.

The recipe says that it makes two cups, and that is just about how much I got.

I really liked this salad dressing, and I like the idea of getting another veggie. I also like the idea of not using nuts to add creaminess to a dressing. Honestly, if you are following an oil free diet and missing creamy type dressings, give this a try.

NOTES:

• Add more lemon for more tang.
• The recipe calls for white balsamic.  I just used regular balsamic.  The color is still light.
• So easy, no excuse not to make salad dressing.
• The recipe says to use a food processor, but a blender makes for a smoother dressing.
• I bet zucchini can be subbed out for the cucumber.
• This would make a nice dressing for potato or pasta salad.