White Bean and Roasted Carrot Burgers

Veggie burgers: when they are terrible, they are really terrible. Dense, dry, and flavorless. I think they're hard to do well. Partly it's because people tend to think of them as mere meat replacements rather than allowing them to speak for themselves. 

Notes: There are plenty of things you can do ahead of time for this recipe. I made the carrots the day before. If you're putting sliced tomato or onion on your burgers, slice those up as early as the morning you plan to serve them. Just put them in separate plastic containers in the fridge.

If you have a grill pan, you can use that to cook the burgers. I wouldn't put them on the actual grill. They're soft, so they'll fall apart far too easily.

You could season these burgers a number of different ways. Some lemon zest and fresh oregano would be delicious, if you wanted a Greek-inspired flavor. You could also do a Moroccan-style combo with some ginger and some allspice. I think next time I make them I'll use some chipotle.

Have fun with your burger fixin's, too. I had some leftover sun-dried tomato pesto, so I made some pesto mayo. 

Ingredients:

2 15oz cans of cannelini beans (or Great Northern beans)

2 cups baby carrots (or "adult" carrots cut into 1-inch pieces)

1 cup bread crumbs (not Panko)

1 egg

2 tablespoons cumin

2 tablespoons chili powder

2 teaspoons onion powder

1/4 cup chopped fresh parlsey

2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint

Hot sauce to taste

Salt & pepper

Olive oil

You favorite burger fixin's

Directions: Heat the oven to 400. Toss the baby carrots with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Roast them for about 40 minutes until they're brown and can be pierced easily with a fork. 

Let the carrots cool for a few minutes. Use an immersion blender or a food processor to buzz them into a paste. Set aside (or put in the fridge if you do this ahead of time). 

Drain (but don't rinse) the beans. In a large bowl, mash the beans with a potato masher (don't break them up completely, you want some whole beans for texture). Add in the carrots, egg, the spices, and hot sauce and combine. Season with salt and pepper. Add in the bread crumbs and herbs until everything is mixed together. Form the mixture into four patties and set aside. 

Heat olive oil in a large skillet on medium-high. When the oil is hot, add in your burger patties. Cook for about 7 minutes per side or until each side is crispy and brown. Put them on a plate lined with a paper towel to drain slightly. 

Dress up your burger buns with your favorite stuff and enjoy!

(The Perfect?) Hard Boiled Egg Wrap with Microgreens

Made it to Pennsylvania safe and (mostly) sound! There are still boxes in various places around the house, but the kitchen back open for business. Speaking of which, by the looks of things I might have to change the name of this blog to A Professor's Tiny Kitchen.

Good things come in small packages, right? Guys?

It's a galley kitchen. In this picture it was missing a fridge. Apparently it's not standard for apartments in the Northeast (my place in Mass was the same way). We bought one, so now I am fully equipped and ready to cook.

The new kitchen will probably change the direction of the blog a bit. Unlike my Louisiana kitchen, I now have no dishwasher. I didn't have one in Mass either. It's not a big deal, but it does make me mindful of how many dishes I use. You might see some one-pot meals because of that. I'm also sans slow cooker at the moment. It's probably for the best right now, since I have no clue where I would put it. That might have to change soon, though. I'm not sure how long I can go without my slow-cooker beans.

The first recipe from the new kitchen is not so much a recipe as a method. It also stems from another feature in my new apartment: no central air. Now, the weather in Philly is not nearly as hot as the weather in Lake Charles, but it still gets up into the 90s. When it does, turning the oven on is not exactly the thing I want to do. As such, I've been eating some cold meals. And in my increasing efforts to cut out meat and yet still eat sandwiches, I have created this one.

Notes: I have been in search for the perfect method for hard boiling eggs for some time now. Everyone claims to have the perfect method, but only one has worked for me time after time after time. And I have tried many. I share my secret with you.

Directions for What Could Be the Perfect Hard Boiled Egg

I'm not one to insist on certain ingredients, but if you love eggs, it is 100% worth it to find yourself a farm or farmers market and buy eggs from pastured chickens. Not cruelty-free, not vegetarian fed, not even organic. All of these eggs can be fakers. I mean the eggs you can only get from a farm or farmer's market that come from chickens that still live outside. You won't find them at your local grocery store, unless you're like me and your local grocery store happens to be a hippie, granola co-op. What's that you say? You don't know how to find farms or farmer's markets that sell eggs? Oh yes you do. It. Is. Worth. It.

Once you have your delicious farm eggs:

1.) Take your eggs directly from the fridge and put them in a pot. Don't let them come to room temperature.
2.) Fill the pot up with cold tap water. Not warm, not hot. Cold tap water. Put enough water in the pot so that the eggs are covered well.
3.) Put the pot on high and let it come to a boil. At this point, most recipes tell you to turn the heat off. Don't listen to them. They lie.
4.) Let the eggs boil for approximately 15 seconds. THEN turn the heat off. Leave the pot on the same burner.
5.) Most recipes tell you to leave them in pot for 5 minutes. Don't listen to them. They lie. Set the timer for 7 minutes.
6.) When 7 minutes is up, take the eggs out of the water and let them cool completely on a kitchen towel. Once they are completely cool, remove the shell. You will have a perfectly cooked egg: the whites and yolks will be totally done, but the yolks will not have that weird greenish tint that over-cooked eggs have.

Like so

Store them in the fridge. That way they will be ready for you when you want to make the following sandwich:

Ingredients:
1 (perfect?) hard boiled egg
1 whole wheat tortilla
2 teaspoons of whole grain mustard
A small handful of microgreens
Salt
Pepper

Directions: First, spread the mustard on one edge of your tortilla leaving enough room so that you can tuck and roll later.

It has a face!

Slice your (perfect?) hard boiled egg and lay the slices on top of the mustard.

Like so

Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Add the microgreens.

[Aside: I used a rainbow mix. Again, because I have a hippie grocery store, I can find things like this. If you don't, just use whatever your favorite salad greens are.]

I use a tuck and roll method for my wraps. So, pull the edge over the sandwich ingredients and tuck it under them just a little. Then tuck in the sides and roll once. Tuck in the sides again and roll one final time so that the seam is on the bottom.

More or less

You can eat as is or cut it in half on a bias. Either way, enjoy!

BONUS: Omit the greens and mustard and you'll have a tasty and healthy breakfast wrap!