How to Make Vegan Veggie Burgers for Lent and Weight Loss

Cookouts are great for anyone who isn't on a vegan diet, fasting from meat,  trying to  lose weight or eating gluten-free. Veggie burgers make great alternative protein sources, but they're pricey. $6 for 9 ounces of veggie burger is pretty steep. How about whipping up some delicious veggie burgers from scratch? They're so good that even the omnivores will be demanding seconds. Here are some optional ingredients. 

Beans: The basis of most veggie burgers is beans. Select vegetarian refried beans, garbanzo beans (chickpeas), kidney beans, turtle beans (aka black beans) or lentils. If you use dry beans, cook until very tender. Mash the beans into a nice soft paste.

Avocado, Egg or tofu: As with meatloaf, a veggie burger may contain egg to hold the burger together. You can substitute tofu to create a solid burger for your vegan or egg allergic diners. 

Grain: Grain also holds the burger together and provides a complex carbohydrates. Couscous is a quick cooking grain that you can add to your veggie burgers. Cooked brown or basmati rice can be blended into your burger. Oat bran, coconut, or almond flour work well also. My favorite is gram or besam (chickpea flour). All of these but couscous are gluten-free. You can add mashed avocado as a binder, too. 

Nuts and seeds. Make veggie burgers from ground walnuts, almonds, peanuts or pecans. I like to use up mixed nuts in my veggie burgers. Favorite seeds are sesame, chia, pumpkin and sunflower seeds. 

Vegetables: What would a veggie burger be without veggies? Choose your favorites. Mine are shredded carrots (vitamin A), green and purple cabbage, Portobello mushrooms, sweet or  Vidalia onions (selenium), broccoli, green (red, yellow, orange) pepper, cilantro, celery, radish (daikon and regular), garlic, watercress, cauliflower, alfalfa and spicy (clover, radish, broccoli) sprouts

 

Salsa. No time to chop or dice? Blend in a good natural salsa like Newman's Own (Artichoke-Lime is my favorite) or Muir Glen.

Spices and seasonings: Bragg's Liquid Amino ( healthy salt substitute), pepper, smoked paprika, ginger, cumin, turmeric, celery salt, sage, rosemary, thyme, dill. 

Sub water for lemon or lime juice and blend all ingredients. Fry in light olive oil or avocado oil. 

 

Here are some regional veggie burger variations:

German: Add a touch of sauerkraut, apple, caraway seed and onion to your veggie burger base.

Mediterranean: add pesto, tomato and mushroom into your burger base.

Southwestern: add salsa, corn, colored peppers, cumin and cilantro to your bean base.

Central African: blend beans with ripe plantain or bananas.

Middle eastern: blend in couscous, chickpeas, tahini, besam, cumin, eggplant and garlic. Serve with homemade hummus. 

Creole: garlic, onion, paprika and Tabasco sauce will make your veggie burger dance.

Polynesian: Add molasses, pineapple, pepper, onion, ginger, lime juice and sugar to your veggie burger.

Thai: Blend in peanut butter, liquid amino or soy sauce, ginger, bok choy, water chestnuts, mandarin oranges and brown sugar.

Shape the mixture into patties. Grill or griddle in a small amount of olive or avocado oil. Think "outside the hamburger" and have some fun with these delicious oh-so-healthy veggie burger options! Eating like this was part of how I lost 100 pounds without weight loss drugs or surgery. 

Vegan, vegetarian and Pescetarian Recipes for Thanksgiving Dinner

I originally wrote this article for Labor Day but these vegan, vegetarian and pescatarian recipes work great for any holiday or celebration with vegetarian diners. Here are meatless grill recipes using your broiler. Use these vegetarian fish recipes for

Lent. The Catholic Church observes a Lenten fast in the dead winter to follow Jesus to the cross and

Easter. For 40 days, Catholic families eat simpler. For some, a Lenten fast means avoiding meat, dairy

and sweets. And it also means a LOT of hungry people if you have a big family. 

So proactive Catholic moms develop an arsenal of meatless, vegetarian Lenten Kitchen recipes. Vegetarian and pescatarian is how most of the world eats, so these meatless grill recipes for Lent a Catholic in solidarity with the poor.

Lenten Kitchen Veggie Bean-y Burgers. Meatless grill recipes must include veggie burgers but they

don't have to be store bought. Save money and make your own recipes for Lent. Donate saved

money to those who always go hungry. This practices the Lenten virtue of almsgiving. Mash any

kind of canned beans (adzuki, garbanzo, white, kidney, lentils) and add a little flaxseed, chia seed and

avocado (for binder, fatty acids and fiber). Chop any of your favorite veggies--peppers, onions, celery,

carrots, squash or yams.

Lenten Kitchen Fish Haters Fish Recipes for Lent. The best fish for meatless grill recipes are marlin,

tuna or swordfish steaks. Season with lemon juice, dill, rosemary, garlic, light olive oil butter and

cracked pepper. These fish recipes will fool picky eaters into thinking they're eating chicken, beef or

pork. If you're eating kosher, you can have blue marlin and tuna but not the swordfish.

Lenten Kitchen Pescetarian Platter. If you like fish, try meatless grill recipes with trout, whitefish or

salmon. These medium-bodied lake fish grill beautifully on a lower flame. Wrap in foil and spray with

cooking spray or olive oil. These delicate saltwater fishes can be served baked or or broiled. Baste

with fresh lime, rosemary, dill and butter sauce. Pan fry delicate lake fish like perch, whitefish, smelt,

blue gill, sunfish and bass. For lovers of breaded fish, use cod, pollock or catfish (avoid tilapia and

swai as they're very fishy tasting). Try Cajun fried fish--wash fish fillets and leave wet. Make breading of corn meal, cracker crumbs, lemon juice powder, red pepper, crushed bay leaves, oregano, file, garlic, dill and onion powder. . Fry in high heat avocado or olive oil on medium. 

Lenten Kitchen Seafood Kebabs. All grill recipes are better on a stick! Baste fish chunks, crab, shrimp

or scallops or with olive oil or melted butter. Season with Parmesan cheese, minced garlic, pepper

and paprika. Add mushrooms, green or orange pepper chunks and grape tomatoes to kebabs. Spray

with cooking oil. Good luck getting at any of these recipes for Lent. You'll have to fight the hungry

mob off with a skewer!

Lenten Kitchen Quesadillas. Make seafood kebabs as you did above, but season with cumin and

cilantro. Wrap in toasted corn tortillas and add cheddar and Monterray Jack cheese, chopped onions

and tomatoes and baby spinach. Serve with fresh fruit and non-alcoholic Mojitos (limeade, mint

leaves, sliced limes and crushed ice). Perfect for a winter fiesta. These vegetarian fish recipes will feel

more like feasting than a Lenten fast!

Lenten Kitchen Very Vegetarian Fish Recipes. To grill, wrap fish aluminum foil coated with olive oil.

Add asparagus spears. Or, for a greener wrap, place fish in large grape leaf or romaine lettuce leaf.

You can place the skewers and heavier bodied fish directly on the grill, but watch them carefully.

Keep cooked and raw foods separate on your grill. Don't dribble juices from raw meats or fish onto

cooked foods to avoid contamination. Don't cook on a high flame; fish cooks quickly. Fish is done

when the flesh turns from translucent to opaque and separates or flakes away from bone.

Mincemeat Pie Recipe: Vegan, Vegetarian Alternatives

Mincemeat pie is the quintessential traditional Thanksgiving pie. Mincemeat pie is a love it or hate it dessert. If you love mincemeat like we do, you probably know that it is expensive. Here's an easy recipe for homemade mincemeat pie filling.

  Mincemeat pie is named so, because traditionally mincemeat contains stewed, shredded beef. Mincemeat developed in the middle ages as a way to preserve meats and prevent them from spoiling. Similar to smoking meat, pickling it in a brine, like herring or corned beef or salting it away like salt pork, beef cooked in stewed fruits and spices could be stored for a time also. The cooked fruits formed a sort of brine for the beef. When the mincemeat filling was baked into a pie, the pie was a dinner pie, such as steak and kidney pie or the more modern pot pie. Mincemeat pie was the entree.

  My original recipe called for a pound of stew beef stew meat to be cooked with the fruit and spices. For reasons of taste and for vegetarians and vegan diners, I've omitted the stewed meat from the recipe. If you've a yen for a good old medieval dish, add a pound of stewed beef to your recipe. I have done this in our homeschool when we were studying medieval Europe. But for the rest of us, here's the modified fruit only version.

  Nine cups cooking apples, peeled, cored and quartered (Macintosh, Jonathan, Ida Red, Jonamac, Granny Smith apple varieties make the best cooking apple; my personal favorite being the wonderful Macintosh from my home state of Michigan.)

  4 ounces avocado oil or ghee

  2 1/2 cups of sugar (I like Florida Crystals)

  2 1/2 cups of water

  15 ounce package raisins

  1/4 cup molasses

  2 cups dried currants (available near the packaged raisins; Sun-Maid makes packaged currants)

  1/2 cups chopped or diced candied fruits with peels, also known as citron; these are the same candied fruits used in holiday fruitcake (available seasonally in most grocery stores).

  1 teaspoon each shredded orange peel and lemon peel

  1 cup orange juice

  1/2 cup lemon juice

  1 teaspoon salt

  1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

  1/4 teaspoon mace

  In food processor, grind apples and oil. Place all ingredients, including apple-suet mixture in a large kettle. Cover, simmer for forty-five minutes, stirring frequently. This recipe makes enough for 2 nine inch pies. Use four cups per pie. Bake with a double crust pie. If you are using frozen pie crusts, use two crusts, fill one and use the other on top.