Adventures in Vegetarianism (is that even a word?)

So my young daughter declared she was going to go meatless during Lent. I quickly jumped on board with her, as I have always wanted to give it a try, and who knows, even if I don't stick with it full time, I hope to stay with it at least 75% of the time.  We are not doing fish, as I feel that is a meat.  I confess I love shrimp.  I like a good hamburger, and chicken is always yummy, and I can't resit lamb when ordering Indian.

Anyway, I digress.  Today is the second day as a vegetarian and so far so good.  However, as I see and smell the regular beef burgers the boys are enjoying, I am having a hard time waiting for the homemade veggie version is currently awaiting the oven to finish heating up. (maybe I should not have let myself get so hungry.  I did snack on a small bowl of plain brown rice to tide me over)

I am really excited for these as I have had some in restaurants.  I also like a giant portabella mushroom cooked up to substitute for that ole burger experience.

So here is the original recipe, from  Delicious Living magazines May 2012 edition.

Black Bean Burgers

3 cups coked black beans (or 29 oz can unsalted, drained and rinsed)
2 cups cooked brown rice
1 cup bread crumbs
1/3 cup finely chopped red onion
1/4 cup chili powder
3 Tablespoons ketchup
1 Tablespoon minced garlic
1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts, toasted
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
1/2 cup finely ground flaxseed
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 cup toasted sesame oil
1/2 cup water

1. Preheat oven to 400 and lightly oil an oven-safe dish and set aside.
2. In a food processor, combine all ingredients except sesame oil and water. Alternately adding the oil and water, process until mixture is sticky enough to hold together, but not wet, scraping down sides occasionally (process in batches if necessary). There will still be chunks.
3. Form into 10 patties and place in dish. Drizzle with a bit of olive oil and bake for about 25 minutes, rotating pan and gently flipping burgers halfway through.

Now, that being said, anyone who knows me knows I fiddle with a lot of recipes.  This time some of the fiddling came down to "oops, I didn't recall using the last of that, what can I substitute easily."  That would be the case with the chili powder, so I used 1/2 chipotle powder (which I love) and 1/2 chili lime powder. Tasting the mixture tells me this will be a bit on the spicy side, but then I like spicy. I had the same problem with my sesame oil, I had used it all and not replaced it, so substituted olive oil. I knew I did not have nutritional yeast, so had not planned on using that.  I had most of the patties done when I realized I had forgotten the ketchup!  I was not redoing them, as they are kind of a sticky mess.  So instead I just brushed some on the tops.

*sigh* I thought I would be eating by now, as I hoped they would be cooking while I typed, but I goofed and shut my oven off instead of setting the timer once it was finally hot.  (Don't ask) For some reason, my oven wont always come back on. So I am cooking one in the skillet.  I will 'bake' the rest once my stove will let me heat it again.

FINALLY, my stove top patty is done!

Topped with lettuce, tomato, avocado and grilled onions.

Well, it is yummo, and on the spicy side as predicted.  It's a little fragile, I don't know if I got it too moist, or if the nutritional yeast would have made a difference, or actually baking it will firm it up. I will know how at least one of those elements make a difference when I can bake the others.

Update:  They are out of the oven and seem firmer.  We will freeze the extras (it made 12!) and pull them whenever we fix the boys burgers.  Tasty!