Meatless Monday: Red Lentil Burgers

Since completing grad school a month ago, I've been wanting to get back to blogging recipes, but haven't made anything lately that I thought was blogworthy...Until today. As you can see, it's Monday. Yeah. That's right. Meatless Monday. One of my favorite days of the week! And as I've mentioned before, one of my favorite things to make on Meatless Monday is some variation of a veggie burger.

I bought a bag of red lentils a few months ago from my beloved farmer's market, and knew I wanted to do something epic with it. And we all know that nothing is more epic than a burger.



Red Lentil Burgers


Ingredients

1.5  C         cooked red lentils
3     tsp       curry powder
1     tsp       cumin
1     tsp       chili powder
1/2  tsp       ground coriander
salt and pepper to taste
1                small onion, chopped
1                large carrot, finely chopped
3                cloves of garlic, finely chopped
olive oil
1/2   C       parsley, chopped
1                handful breadcrumbs
juice of 1/2 a lemon

Loverly chopped veggies and lemons

1. Drain cooked lentils to get rid of excess liquid. Transfer to medium bowl.
2. Combine curry, cumin, chili powder, coriander, and salt and pepper in small bowl.

Hey spices. How ya doin'? 

3. Heat 1-2 teaspoons of olive oil in frying pan over medium fire.
4. Add onion, carrot, and garlic to pan. Sautee until soft, about 3 minutes.
5. Add half of spices to pan, and mix to coat vegetables with spice mixture. Sautee for an additional 2 minutes, constantly stirring.

6. Add sauteed vegetables to bowl of cooked lentils. Add remainder of spices, juice of lemon, and parsley. Mix well to combine ingredients.

You can use panko breadcrumbs. I didn't have any so I opted for regular ol' seasoned bread crumbs.

7. Add breadcrumb to lentil mixture, and mix well.
8. Use 1/2 C measuring cup to scoop out lentil mixture to form 4 burger patties.
9. Place patties on a baking sheet, and let firm in fridge for approx 1 hour.

Look at these beauties!

10. Bake or pan fry.

I served mine with 1 slice of whole grain toast, arugula, garlic aioli, tomato, and avocado. I found these to be the perfect accompaniments for this burger. The bite of the arugula coupled well with the texture of the lentil burger, and the garlic aioli gave it just the right amount of acidity. Nomnomnom!!

Garlic Aioli: 2 cloves of garlic, 1 tablespoon of mayo, juice of half a lemon. Mix well.

Meatless Monday: Rice Noodle Soup

I try to let my step-sons each pick a meal from my healthy cookbooks that they want to have for dinner during the week. This way, they get involved in the process of food preparation--even if it's indirectly--which, hopefully, would get them open to eating new things. So far so good. A week or two ago, Giovanni had the honor of choosing the Meatless Monday dinner. He decided to go with a Soba Noodle Soup he found in a Vegetarian cookbook we have, since we're a house of soup lovers. I went to the store to get the soba noodles, but couldn't find them! So I had to settle for rice noodles, which, though probably not as nutritious, were damn delicious in their own right.


Rice Noodle Soup

Adapted from cookbook, "Vegetarian: Tasty Recipes for Every Day" by Helen Aitken

8 oz   rice noodles
4        baby bella mushrooms, sliced
64 oz veggie or chicken stock (organic or homemade)
4 oz   snow peas, cut into thin strips
3       small carrots, cut into thin strips
3       cloves garlic, finely chopped
6       spring onions, cut diagonally into 1 inch strips
1 inch piece of ginger, julienned
1/3 C  tamari (or soy sauce)
1/4 C  mirin (or saki)
1 C    bean sprouts
Fresh cilantro, to garnish

1. Combine veggie/chicken stock, mushrooms, snow peas, carrot, garlic, spring onion, and ginger in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil. Add rice noodles, then reduce heat to low and simmer for approx. 10 minutes, until veggies are tender, and noodles are finished cooking.
2. Add soy sauce, mirin, and bean sprouts. Cook for another 5 minutes.
3. Divide among serving bowls, and garnish with cilantro.

Serve with Sriracha sauce and be extremely cautious, as this much deliciousness from a 20 minute meal has been known to cause minds to be friggin' blown.

Meatless Monday: Sweet Potato Leek Soup

Hi there, friends! It's been a while since my last post, but I swear I haven't been neglecting you! I was finishing up the semester, and those last few weeks tend to be the most hectic part of the entire semester. Only two more to go, and I'm finished with my Master's! How exciting?!!?

Anty-way, I've completely dropped the ball on my meatless monday meal posts, so I may as well start with what I had today for lunch to kick this thing off. I wanted to work with what I had on hand, and figured I could do potato leek soup... However....I didn't want just potato leek soup. I happened to have a sweet potato on hand that I had zero plans for, so... why not? Sweet Potato Leek soup, baby! Now, this soup is crazy easy to make. It's not a complex soup, and honestly, I may do a little tweaking to this recipe over time. But, I found it delicious and a good accompaniment to the veggie sandwich I ate it with.

Adapted from this recipe .

Sweet Potato Leek Soup

1 leeks (dark green stems removed), sliced into rings
1/2  of a large white onion, chopped
1 medium sized russet potato, chopped into 1 inch pieces
1 medium/large sweet potato, chopped into 1 inch pieces
1 Tbs butter
4 C chicken stock or veggie stock (organic or homemade)
1/2  C  Milk
salt & pepper


1. Fill a large bowl with water, add chopped leeks to the bowl. Separate the rings of the leeks and swish them around in the bowl of water. Let sit for 5 minutes or so for dirt to separate to the bottom of the bowl. Trust me, don't skip this step, unless you like your soup with a side of grit and earth. I'm not here to judge.

2. Melt butter in a medium pot over a medium flame.

3. Add leeks and onions. Let cook for about 2 minutes, stirring frequently.

4. Add russet and sweet potatoes, and chicken stock. Bring to a boil, then cover and reduce heat. Let simmer for 20-30 minutes, or until potatoes are tender.

5. Use immersion blender and blend soup until smooth, adding milk during the blending process.

6. Add salt & pepper to taste.


If you're looking to recreate my little lunch I have there, let me tell you, quickly, how I made this sandwich--it's a favorite of mine. Ok, Boom. Here's what you'll need:

whole wheat/multigrain bread, a few slices zucchini, sliced red pepper, thinly sliced onions, sliced mushrooms (about 2),handful of spinach, few thin slices of mozzarella cheese, slices of tomato, some balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and salt and pepper.

- mix together equal amounts of balsamic vinegar and olive oil to use as your sandwich dressing. VERY little goes a long way. A half a teaspoon of each should be fine. Add a pinch of salt and pepper if desired.
-put a frying pan on medium high heat, spray with cooking spray or olive oil, add sliced zucchini, and red pepper. Cook on each side for about 1 minute. Remove, and put in a dish until it's time to assemble your sandwich.
-add sliced mushrooms to pan. Cook for about 1-2 minutes, flipping halfway through to make sure each side gets browned. Remove from pan and add to same dish as other grilled veggies.
-Brush one side of each slice of bread lightly with oil and vinegar mix. Assemble grilled veggies, onions, spinach, tomato, and mozzarella cheese.
-(Optional) Wrap sandwich in parchment paper, tightly. Place it in the pan on medium heat. You can either press on the sandwich, or put a small saucepan on it to weigh it down. After 2 minutes or so, flip the sandwich over, and weigh it down again.
-Cut in half, serve with soup. Voila!

Meatless Monday: A Series

In the continual quest to eat healthier and take better care of myself, and my family, I try to find new ways to keep things interesting. Contrary to what many people think, healthy-eating isn't the monotonous consumption of iceberg lettuce, tomato, and cucumber drowned in blue cheese dressing. Healthy eating is freakin' delicious...especially if you're constantly finding ways to switch it up! One way I've been doing this is participating in "Meatless Monday" for the past month or so. Carnivorous Kimora would have never imagined a day when she had a meal without meat--on purpose! But, Meatless Monday has become sorta like a celebration to me now, and I look forward to the challenge of figuring out my yummy meatless meals.

Why go Meatless?? Meat is AWESOME!

Meat is, indeed, pretty awesome. However, according to Meatless Monday's website (yeah there's an actual website. I know! Thats what I said!) there's lots of benefits to going meatless for one day a week:

-Limit cancer risk
-Reduce heart disease
-Fight diabetes
-Curb obesity
-Live longer

Besides the obvious health benefits, you'll also be helping the planet, which is way in line with my conscientiousness!

-Reduce your carbon footprint
-Minimize water usage
-Help reduce fossil fuel dependence.

You can read more about it here.

What does this mean for Uncreatively Conscientious?

Meatless Monday meal ideas!! I'll post a few of the meals I've had in the past few weeks of participating in MM, and for the upcoming ones, I'll post recipes that I use. The point here is to inspire you to make better choices and discover the yumminess of healthy meatless cooking!

But eating meals without meat has to be hard! What am I gonna do about protein??

It's one day, buddy. You'll live without eating a chicken boob for 24 hours.

Past Meatless Monday Dinners

Remember that basil quinoa cake? Well here's another use for it! Quinoa cake topped with baby spinach, a bit of marinara, a slice of mozzarella, and a slice of tomato, baked like regular chicken parm. For the "pasta" I simply julienned zucchini and carrot.

 From my vegetarian cookbook: Homemade sweet potato ravioli with a garlic cream sauce. Here's the recipe.

I stole this idea from Instagram! lol! I saw someone posted something similar and I just had to recreate it. Baked acorn squash with brown sugar and walnuts, stewed lentils, and a yummy salad. 

  

 Another stolen idea from Instagram, with a few tweaks. Baked plantains, brown rice with cilantro and lime, cuban black beans, and a salad with avocado slices on the side. This was absolutely delicious.

Past Meatless Monday Lunches

 A vegetable tart with salsa verde recipe from my vegetarian cookbook. This was so yummy! I put the store-bought pie crust into the oven to bake by itself to bake and get nice and golden. The vegetables (zucchini, red pepper, onion, potato, capers, artichoke hearts, and probably some other things I can't remember) were sauteed in a pan with herbs. They were put into the baked pie crust, topped with chopped spinach and salsa verde. It didn't stay together well but it was another yummy recipe I'll be revisiting.

A veggie sandwich on whole wheat. Always a delicious staple meatless lunch. 

Homemade black bean burgers on whole wheat with various veggies, and a sriracha mayo. 

The naan bread "pizza" with black bean "hummus" from my previous blog post!



Experiment with your meatless meal options. Browse Pinterest, and Instagram, and steal those ideas! You'd be surprised the amount of delicious vegetarian or meatless meals you can find on there. Oh, and check in with Uncreatively Conscientious to get regular Meatless Monday meal ideas! You tell your friends, to get with MY friends, and we can BE friends! We could do this every weekend. Is that aight? Is that aight with you?? *Obvious Hip-Hop reference from the 90's*