One of my all time favorite burgers is a Patty Melt. I love everything about it. The meat...the cheese, grilled onions...and the grilled rye bread.
A looooooong time ago, Sir Sportsalot bought me a bread machine for Christmas. I was thrilled!! Wooo hooo...home made bread. Look at me, I'm Betty Crocker and Little House on the Prairie all mixed together....I'm providing wholesome homemade bread in a modern, doable way, for my family......Until I tasted it. Oh how I wanted to believe it was wonderful. I wanted to hold on to that inner pride of being able to make bread from scratch. But there was just something about the flavor that was....off. I was in denial for a long time. I even tried to figure out what to do with that bottom slice....the one with the hole from the little kneading paddle. I bought a bread machine cookbook. Only I never used it cuz I couldn't remember what capacity mine was. But I did try other recipes provided by the manufacture....and really almost enjoyed the herb bread recipe which consisted of caraway seeds, dill and parsley. All those flavors almost successfully masked the machine flavor and the whole family would devoured the loaf. The bread reminded me of rye bread.
Fast forward 15 years and here I am....bread machine in the garage (where it belongs) yet I'm still providing fresh, homemade bread for my family. Without the help of a machine. And I am really proud of myself. I use to be very afraid of yeast....and rising, and resting...and just knowing bread dough. With that knowing though, comes confidence...and sometimes nerve. It's ok to add, and adjust. So with this HBin5 assignment for Dilled Rye Whole Wheat Bread came memories of the rye wanna-be bread of my past.
Sooooooo....I added caraway seeds and parsley to this dough. Which happened to be a very wet dough and required quite a bit of flour dusting in order to handle. But all in all, it turned out wonderfully!
Great crust, great crumb......delicious flavor.
One of the joys I get when I make my bread is seeing my kids friends come by and devour healthy bread.
Now that I have these two loaves of amped-up Dilled Rye, naturally my mind thinks 'Patty Melt!!!!'.
I've made my fair share of patty melts over the years so this time I chose the full blown healthy route.
makes 6 burgers
Instead of lentils, I used black beans
I doubled the celery
I omitted the leeks (didn't have any on hand)
I doubled the garlic
I omitted cashews (didn't have any on hand and it didn't appeal to me)
I used greek yogurt instead of mayonnaise
I used corn flake crumbs instead of panko ONLY because I had nothing else!!!!
With all that said, here's how things went.....
1 15 oz can black beans, drained and rinsed (thinking back, that may not be necessary)
Salt and Pepper as needed
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons bulgur wheat
vegetable oil as needed
1 medium onion, chopped fine (about 1 cup)
1 celery rib, sliced
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1/2 lb mushrooms, sliced (although I only had a couple on hand...wish I had more)
1/4 cup greek yogurt
1 cup bread crumbs or panko crumbs
In a small saucepan, bring 1 cup of salted (1/4 tsp) water to a boil. Stir in the bulgur wheat and cover immediately. Remove from heat and let stand until all the water has absorbed...about 20 minutes.
In a heavy skillet, heat a couple of teaspoons of vegetable oil. Saute the onions, celery, garlic and mushrooms over medium heat until tender.
In a medium sized bowl, combine the bulgur wheat, black beans, sauteed veggies and yogurt.
Transfer the mixture to a food processor and pulse until coarsely chopped...about 15 - 20 times. Transfer back into the bowl and add the bread crumbs and salt and pepper to taste.
Guess what? There's no raw egg or raw meat in this mixture. You are free to taste it and adjust the flavors as needed.
Which I highly recommend you do....I'll explain that in a minute.
Divide your veggie burger mix into 6 equal sized balls.
And shape them how ever you want them....round, square....oval? Yes, I made mine oval because I wanted them to fit nicely on my slices of bread. These will not shrink or change shape. Make them the size you want.
Pour a bit of oil in a skillet, and fry, turning carefully because they aren't as sturdy as meat.
But these babies do brown nicely. At a quick glance you might not realize they're not meat.
I was thrilled with the visual of these burger patties.
The flavor? Not so much. It wasn't awful or anything....just bland.
Not being a vegetarian myself....I didn't realize how important large quantities of herbs and spices are needed for some things. Next time, I'd add more garlic. More salt and pepper....maybe some creole seasoning or old bay. Something. A-1?
Anyways.....I melted some american cheese (cuz for a Patty Melt...that's the only cheese that will do for me), grilled up some onions......
And did enjoy a healthy Veggie Melt.
With a little tweaking, I think this recipe could be a real winner. The ultimate? I think that should be determined by a vegetarian.
What changes would you suggest for this veggie burger recipe?
Posts
Looks & sounds good!
ReplyDeleteYour bread looks amazing.
ReplyDeleteI plan to give these veggie burgers a try - no harm to cut down on my meat intake!!
I loved patty melts as a kid. Your veggie patties sound really good and so healthy too!
ReplyDeleteLooks good! Agree on the cheese.. only American will do for a melt.
ReplyDeleteThank you for using Voskos Greek Yogurt!
This is a great and delicious way to decrease someone's meat intake. I want to give veggie burgers a try. Your bread looks fabulous!
ReplyDeleteI love black bean burgers and you made them all the more delicious with this melt and your homemade bread! I add a can of green chiles or diced tomatoes/green chile mix and use lots of spice like chile powder and cumin.
ReplyDeleteBrava to you for trying this out. I agree that a little more tweaking and more herbs would make this dynamite.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was young, I used to always get a patty melt when we went out to eat, which was not very often, so you know that it was special. Your's looks very tasty. Grilled onions and american cheese. Yum.
ReplyDeleteRye bread is my all time favorite bread. Lovely patty melt and I really like how you kicked it up a notch.
ReplyDeleteSam
I'm so glad that you've gotten over your fear of "yeastie beasties" LOL Wow, you have the bread thing down girl, it all looks/sounds wonderful! As for the veggie burger, I'm a carnivore but I'd even give this one a try! How was the texture btw?
ReplyDeleteGreat job. I liked this bread OK, but did not notice much if any dill flavor. Your additions would have helped. And I am impressed with your adventurous veggie burger experiment!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful looking bread! It does look like a wonderful crumb, with nice open holes. Good job with the veggie burgers! Yes, I think with some tweeking the burgers would be wonderful. I tried black bean burgers before and they were dry, but I plan on trying them again this summer, even though hubby does not think highly of beans.
ReplyDeleteThanks everyone!! Yes, it does need some tweaking. The texture was almost dry but not bad....but nothing like meat. After talking with a few people (mom included)...I think I'll add some cumin, cayenne pepper, more garlic, more salt....an egg and I'll probably use oatmeal instead of the crumbs. Red bell pepper and a jalepeno would also be good. Sooo, if you're planning on making this recipe, please please please add more flavor!!!
ReplyDeleteLooks great! Thanks for the recipe. I'll have to try it. I am glad knowing that it worked so well with all the substitutions!
ReplyDeleteJudy (couldn't get my ID to work)