This recipe from Super Natural Cooking: Five Ways To Incorporate Whole and Natural Ingredients into Your Cooking sounded pretty interesting — it’s not your Garden(burger) variety veggie patty. With this recipe, the veggie patty is the bun, so you don’t end up with such a dry burger. You can then fill it with whatever strikes your fancy: we used avocado, sauteed shrooms, tomato, and sprouts.

Ha, these are awesome! It’s like an inside-out burger.

Lisa says:

I know — not only do they taste delicious, they look pretty fancy. We should make them for our next party.

Chris says:

I could totally see that — have a tray filled with these guys already assembled. Yum.

Lisa says:

I bet these would be good with guacamole…

Chris says:

That holds true with most things, IMHO.

Lisa says:

…or crispy shallots.

Chris says:

Did you bring that up just because I burned that one batch?

Lisa says:

Hmmmm… now why would I do that? Just saying they’d probably be so delicious on these mini-burgers… mmmm, so goood….!

Chris says:

O burnt shallots! Why must ye torment me so, cruel devils!?

Lisa says:

Whoa. What was that?

Chris says:

Not sure.  I just really want those on my burger now.

Ultimate Veggie Mini-Burgers
2 1/2 cups canned garbanzos, drained and rinsed (a little less than 2 15-oz cans)
4 large eggs
1/2 tsp fine-grain sea salt
1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 onion, chopped
zest of one large lemon
1 cup alfalfa sprouts, chopped
1 cup toasted bread crumbs
1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

Combine the garbanzos, eggs, and salt in a food processor. Puree until the mixture is the consistency of a thick, slightly chunky hummous. Pour into a mixing bowl and stir in the cilantro, onion, zest, and sprouts. Add the breadcrumbs, stir, and let sit for a couple of minutes so the crumbs can absorb some of the moisture. Form into twelve 1 1/2″-thick patties. (Remember, these are mini-burgers, so they’re not very wide). If the batter seems too moist to form into patties, add more bread crumbs a bit at a time to firm it up. Or, if too dry, add a bit of water to moisten the batter.

Heat the oil in a heavy skillet over medium low, add 4 patties, cover, and cook for 7 to 10 minutes, until the bottoms begin to brown. Raise the heat if after 10 minutes there is no browning. Flip the patties and cook the second side for 7 minutes, or until golden. Remove from the skillet and cool on a wire rack while you cook the remaining patties. Cut each patty in half — like a bun! — fill with your favorite treats, and eat!

Makes ~12 mini-burgers

Update: As suggested by one commenter, I’m submitting these little guys to Equal Opportunity Kitchen’s Tried, Tested and True 3: Wedding Edition .

One thing that can be a challenge if you subscribe to a CSA is, well, not wasting vegetables! Sometimes you get way more of a certain ingredient than you’d normally buy at the store, or you end up with vegetables that you’re not used to cooking with. That actually ends up being a bonus for us, as it’s forced us into finding completely new dishes or to adapt and explore ways to incorporate new ingredients into old favorites. A few days ago I looked in the fridge and realized that we had most of a bunch of celery and a fennel bulb left over from last week’s delivery. Just a couple minutes of searching turned up this extremely simple salad recipe from Gourmet magazine — the only thing I had to pick up was the mozzarella. Great success!

Lisa says:

Such a fresh-tasting salad!

Chris says:

It was extremely simple and quick to make.

Lisa says:

I really like the crunch from the celery and fennel.

Chris says:

The light dressing really brings out the flavor of the fennel — I’m a fan.

Lisa says:

Now I’m ready for dinner!

Fennel and Celery Salad – Dama Bianca
1 medium fennel bulb, stalks discarded
3 pale inner (white) celery stalks, leaves discarded and stalks thinly sliced
1/4 lb ball mozzarella, roughly torn
1/4 tbsp grated lemon zest
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1/8 tsp fine sea salt
freshly ground pepper

Cut fennel in half lengthwise, then thinly slice crosswise about 1/4 inch thick. Toss with celery and arrange on a platter with mozzarella. Whisk together zest, juice, oil, sea salt, and pepper and drizzle over salad.

3-4 starter-size servings

Hmm, a tapas-style treat of quickly pan-fried peppers, with the odds that 1 in 10 will be incredibly spicy? Sounds like a slam-dunk to me! I saw these guys on YumBlog a few months ago, and thanks to a tip on ChowHound discovered that the Spanish Table sometimes carries Pimientos de Padrón in the summer. A quick walk down there this week confirmed their availability, so I picked some up for a quick Friday-afternoon snack.

Lisa says:

Are these spicy?

Chris says:

According to the write-up/legend/whatever, I’ve read that anywhere from 1 in 10 to 1 in 30 is hot.

Lisa says:

With my luck, I’ll get the hot ones.

Chris says:

With my luck, I won’t!

Lisa says:

Oooh, these are good!

Chris says:

I knew you’d like them… simplicity itself! Peppers, olive oil, salt!

Lisa says:

I heart sal… whoa! Can I get some water?

Chris says:

Did you get a hot one?? Lucky!!

Lisa says:

Actually it was really hot to start, but now it’s not that bad.

Chris says:

Well, hopefully that wasn’t the only one in th… Yikes! I just got one too — that IS hot! I really want more of these. I hear that they actually grow pretty well here; I sense some seeds in our future…

Pimientos de Padrón
Pimientos de Padrón
olive oil
coarse sea salt

Take a pan and pour just enough olive oil to cover the bottom of the pan. Turn the heat up to high. When the olive oil starts to sizzle toss the peppers in whole. Lower the heat to medium-high, and shake the pan occasionally so the peppers cook evenly. When the peppers start blistering and browning, they are ready. Remove to a plate lined with paper towels to soak up some of the extra oil, then transfer to a bowl and sprinkle with coarse sea salt. Eat ‘em whole and wait for a spicy one!

We had originally planned to roast some garlic for the housewarming party last weekend, but with all the other dishes we had, we decided to skip it. We had already purchased quite a few heads of garlic, however, so having Thad and Abbie over for dinner was the perfect opportunity to go for it! Many recipes for roasted garlic involve brushing the garlic heads with olive oil, we made it by just filling a roasting pan with olive oil to coat the bottom, and placing the heads cut-side down. This allows you to serve the now roasted-garlic-infused olive oil as an additional dip. The inspiration for this method comes from this post over at Desert Candy.

Thad says:

Pretty garlicky!

Chris says:

I like that you can taste a hint of garlic and caperberries in the oil.

Abbie says:

What? Those are caperberries? They look like olives!

Chris says:

Nope, try one — they’re like ginormous capers.

Lisa says:

These rule… you don’t even need the bread. I like just sticking a fork in and eating a whole clove by itself.

Chris says:

You heart garlic!

Roasted Garlic with Caperberries
——————————–
6 heads of garlic
olive oil
caperberries
salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 325F. Cut the top third off of the heads of garlic — if you’re cooking something else that night, you can save the top bits, otherwise toss ‘em. Pour oil into a small roasting pan, then place the cloves of garlic cut-side down. Add the caperberries, salt, and pepper, and cover tightly with foil. Roast for 50 minutes or until the garlic is soft and golden brown. Remove the garlic cloves to a serving dish, and pour the oil into a bowl for dipping. Serve with warm baguette and get your dip on.

Jeremy and Autumn came over for dinner one night this week — Lisa made these fresh rolls, which filled us up much more than the tiny seafood salad I made. The peanut sauce was also really, really good.

Chris says:

Yay, I love these; we haven’t made them in a while…

Lisa says:

I’m glad I made as many as I did. That dinner you made was barely enough for one, let alone four!

Autumn says:

How’d you get the tofu to not get all mushy?

Lisa says:

Apparently the trick is to roll it in a bit of flour first. It works really well!

Jeremy says:

These are tasty, thanks!

Chris says:

Um, did the four of us just eat 17 of these things?

Vietnamese Summer Rolls
———————–
12 medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
3 ounces rice noodles/sticks
4 Ounces firm tofu
1/4 cup flour
1 tbsp oil
16 round rice paper sheets
1 medium carrot, peeled and julienned
1/2 cucumber, peeled, seeded, and julienned
1/4 cup fresh mint leaves
1/4 cup fresh basil leaves, preferably Thai
1/4 cup fresh cilantro leaves

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Reduce to a simmer. Add shrimp; cook until pink and cooked through, about 2 minutes. Slice cooked shrimp in half lengthwise. Set aside. In a medium bowl, cover rice noodles with hot water by 2 inches; let soak for 15 minutes. Drain, and rinse under cold water. Set aside. Cut tofu into sticks, roll in flour and lightly fry in oil. Place on paper towel to drain.
Fill a shallow dish with warm water. Working with 1 rice-paper wrapper at a time, soak in water for 30 seconds; immediately lay flat on a work surface. Place 3 reserved shrimp halves, cut sides up, on bottom third, leaving a 1/2-inch border. Place 1 piece of tofu over shrimp. Top with 1/4 cup assortment of rice noodles, carrots, cucumbers, mint, basil, and cilantro. Fold bottom of wrapper over fillings; roll over once, tuck in sides, and finish rolling.
Place finished roll on a plate; cover with a damp paper towel. Repeat process with remaining ingredients. Serve with peanut dipping sauce.