SUMMER FOOD! Lemony Chickpea Quinoa Burgers

Howdy friends! I know I’ve been lacking on posts lately and for that, I apologize! The summer has been awesome so far and super busy. I haven’t been dedicating much time to writing, because I’ve been so busy doing other stuff like camping,

gardening,

cottaging, cooking and lounging in the backyard!

 

How has the weather been in your neck of the woods?  It’s been a bit random here with some crazy rain (hello Toronto floods!), but we are having a wicked heat wave this week. I’m not complaining, I love the heat, but sometimes it’s too hot and muggy that you don’t feel like eating or cooking much.

I wanted to share a recipe for a vegetarian ‘burger’ that I really love for those hot summer nights. It’s easy to put together and holds up well on the grill. There is minimal prep for this dish, and the lemon gives it a really refreshing scent and taste. This recipe could be adapted to be vegan by replacing the egg with Ener-G (may need to add a tsp of soy milk if you need more moisture).  I topped the burger with tomato, avocado and some carmelized onion ‘jam’. No bun and it didn’t need it, but if you need the bread it would hold up for that.

I served this up with a simple spinach salad with strawberries I picked at a local farm. For the dressing I whisked up some balsamic vinegar, dijon mustard, olive oil and a pinch of salt and pepper.  Voila. Summer at it’s best. Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 1 (540 mL)can Chick Peas, rinsed, drained and patted dry
• 1/3 cup chopped red onion
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 2 cloves                garlic, chopped
• 1 tbsp each lemon zest and juice
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1 1/2 tsp each salt and pepper
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup cooked and cooled quinoa
• 1/4 cup rolled oats

Optional ingredients:

• 2 tbsp ground flax
• 1/4 cup chopped mushrooms of your choice
• 1/4 cup panko if you find the mixture too wet to shape into patties
• Pinch of cayenne pepper (to taste)

The good thing about this recipe is that you can taste it as you go (before adding the raw egg), so you can adjust seasoning along the way.

Directions:

1. PULSE all ingredients in a food processor until well combined and fairly smooth. Shape mixture into 4 equal-sized patties. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until needed.
2. PREHEAT barbecue to medium-high. Grill patties with lid closed for 8 to 10 min., flipping once.

Garlic and Cheese Omelet

Good Morning Lover Faces!

I have been away for a while, and for that I’m sorry. Life in the burbs has been keeping me ultra-busy! This month alone there has been Mother’s Day, dinner parties, BBQ’s and friends coming over to see the new house.  This past weekend I had a bachelorette DAY for my cousin Marisa, and coming up two weddings, back to back weekends.  Needless to say between dinner parties with friends, cleaning the house and keeping on top of laundry I just haven’t had an opportunity to sit down and write.

I DO have the time now and really want to share this delicious omelet with you!

I often shy away from ordering omelets in restaurants because they are usually really skimpy with the cheese (even when I ask for extra because I’m forecasting that they will be skimpy).  They also never fill it to the edge so you end up getting a whack of dried out crispy egg edge without any of the goodness in the middle (or the skimpy cheese they threw in).

This morning I thought I would reignite my love of omelets.  But first, I need to tell you about frozen garlic.  Yep, you read it right, let me explain.

For those of you who know me, I am a bit of a garlic snob.  I usually buy my garlic from a local garlic farmer, and can only get my order once a year. I usually spend $60 on a bag of different types, all grown locally by this wonderful farmer named Daniel Hoffman.  He and his wife own two farms and he started off as a garlic farmer. I have volunteered on the farm before and learned so much about farming, garlic and local, sustainable produce.  Check out his site The Cutting Veg, if you’re interested in learning about REAL garlic.  Trust me, you will be blown away.

A few weeks ago my mom picked up some fresh local garlic for me from the local Foodland since I haven’t ordered from Daniel (not my fault, he actually wasn’t selling his last harvest in order to double it for next year).  Whenever I go visit her or she comes to see me, I put in an order. It’s grown by local Mennonites and it’s really awesome.  I don’t know the variety, but it’s fresh and lovely and NOT shipped in from China. I have nothing against China, but I absolutely HATE any garlic that is grown there. It pains me to buy from the grocery store. It really does. I whine a lot when I have to buy from NoFrills, Loblaws, or FreshCo.

Anyway.

So because I didn’t see my mom right away and the garlic was super pungent smelling, she froze it. Four heads of it. She gave it to me this past weekend and since it had defrosted, and the cloves felt a little soft I thought I’d roast it.  Roasted garlic is amazing in almost EVERYTHING. It stores well too, and you can take the roasted cloves, drop them in some good-quality EVOO and use it while cooking or add to salad dressings.

While I was thinking about what I wanted in my omelet (beside cheese, obviously), I thought why the hell not add some freshly defrosted garlic! Ha!

So it looked kind of green but the smell was just as fresh. Here are a few pics of the garlic. You can see I popped one clove out from one of the heads.

The tops of the garlic chopped off, ready for roasting!

I chopped up fresh crimini mushrooms and a bit of left over red onion. I sautéed the garlic, mushrooms and onion in some butter and olive oil, until softened.  Mmmm the smell of garlic makes me crazy. I absolutely love it. I removed it from the pan, re-added a tsp of olive oil and a nob of butter for the omelet.

They key to a good omelet is not over cooking it (and adding enough cheese, of course!)

Ingredients:

–          3 eggs

–          Pinch of salt

–          Pinch of pepper

–          Chopped filling of your choice: mushrooms, tomatoes, asparagus, peppers, onions.. the list goes on.

–          CHEESE

Directions:

1. Whisk the eggs together.  I don’t add cream or milk or anything, just a pinch of salt and pepper. Set aside.
2. Lightly cook your filling ingredients until softened and set aside.
3. Add a tsp of oil and butter to a really good non-stick pan that’s on medium heat (non-stick is essential as it won’t give you any grief and your omelet will slide right out). You don’t want to cook the eggs too fast, so medium heat only. Don’t rush!
4. Add the whisked eggs. You can move them around in the pan with a fork, and swishing around the liquid egg into the empty spaces of the pan. Kind of like you’re about to scramble, but don’t. Keep moving it around in the pan for another 20 seconds.
5. Add the fillings and cheese when you see that the egg is still a little bit wet on top. Just a little wet, not totally raw. That moisture will help melt the cheese and give you a velvety, soft, creamy inside to your omelet. Make sure you go to the edge with the filling!
6. Pick up the pan by the handle and lightly move the open faced omelet to one side, allowing your spatula or flipper to get underneath. It should move really easily.
7. Fold over one edge, and voila. You should see a lightly browned top flipped over. Allow it to sit there, folded for another 20-40 seconds. Slide off onto your plate and ENJOY.

 

Oh wow, the garlic is sweet but garlicky. The aroma is amazing. I wish this was a smell-a-blog.  Freezing it must change the taste of the garlic, because I’ve never tasted cooked garlic like this. It’s really lovely with the onion and mushrooms, which also taste earthy and sweet. I used Dubliner cheese for the cheesy part. It was perfect and nutty and melty. A great choice.

This is a fantastic hard ripened cheese, perfect for the omelet!