It’s Meatless Tuesday! Okay so most days are meatless around here right now but I know many of you are incorporating a meatless meal or two each week with your own food plan. With the cost of meat going up it’s a great way to stretch your food dollar and still eat healthy. As you might imagine with “chorizo” in the title of this recipe, these patties have some heat and some spice to them. The P.S. stands for plant strong – there is no meat in these patties but you won’t miss it.
This recipe comes from my newest cookbook My Beef With Meat by Rip Esselstyn and it includes 140 new plant based recipes. Last week I made the Adonis Chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. It was as good as it sounds. Not an everyday food of course but a wonderful occasional treat. Most of the recipes sound amazing and I can’t wait to try more. I have two more recipes on the menu for today – reviews to come. I highly recommend this book – it’s a great way to get started with a plant based food plan or to use as a reference to add some meatless meals to your menu.
You could go all Southwest and adorn the chorizo patties with avocado and salsa or they are equally as tasty with traditional ketchup, mustard, lettuce and pickle. Mmmm – good!
The recipe called for black quinoa which I didn’t have so I used Trader Joe’s Organic Tricolor Quinoa, subbed smoked paprika for regular and used Chile Ancho Powder instead of regular chili powder. Low and behold I didn’t have any fresh cilantro but the recipe only called for 1/4 cup so I didn’t think a trip to the store for one item was necessary. The patties had plenty of flavor without it but next time I will surely add cilantro since it’s a flavor we enjoy. I so wish I had doubled this recipe so I would have extras for the freezer. These will be going on the regular menu rotation when we need something spicy!
I like to tuck my veggie-bean burgers into half a whole wheat pita bread with greens and I happen to be on a mustard kick right now. The recipe said it made 4-6 patties but I found that it made 8 good size burgers. Any bigger and they wouldn’t fit on a bun or in a pita! If you are feeding guys take note that hubby Tom usually eats two veggie burgers at a meal. I find one to be quite filling.
P.S. Chorizo Patties
My changes are in red
- 1 cup black or tri color quinoa and 2 cups water or 2 cups cooked quinoa
- 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
- 2 tablespoons low sodium tamari sauce
- 1 teaspoon granulated garlic
- 1 1/4 teaspoon granulated onion
- 1 teaspoon paprika – or smoked paprika
- 1teaspoondried oregano
- 1 tablespoon chili powder or Chile Ancho Powder
- Dash of ground cinnamon
- 2-3 tablespoons ketchup or tomato paste
- 1 tablespoon prepared yellow mustard
- 1/8 teaspoon liquid smoke – skip if using smoked paprika
- one 15 ounce can pinto beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 cup old fashioned rolled oats
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic granules
- 1/2 –1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon chipotle powder
- 1/2 tablespoon chili powder
- Hot Sauce to taste
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
If using uncooked quinoa, in a sauce pan combine the quinoa, water, vinegar, tamari granulated garlic, granulated onion, paprika, oregano,chili powder, cinnamon, ketchup or tomato paste, and mustard, bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and cover, cooking until almost all liquid is absorbed, about 15-20 minutes. If using add the liquid smoke, stir to combine and let cool for 15 minutes.
If using already cooked 2 cups of quinoa, in a medium saucepan over medium low heat add quinoa, vinegar, granulated garlic, granulated onion, oregano, chili powder, cinnamon, ketchup or tomato paste and mustard, stir to combine. Add liquid smoke is using and let mixture cool for 15 minutes.
In a food processor, pulse the beans – don’t puree leave them kind of chunky for texture. Transfer to a bowl and add rolled oats and quinoa mixture, mix well. Add the garlic granules, cumin, chipotle powder, chili powder, hot sauce and cilantro. From into 8 patties.
In a non stick frying pan over medium heat cook each side of patties for about 3-4 minutes or until they are nicely browned.
Yield: 8 patties
Serving Size: 1 patty
Nutritional Information
Per Serving: 165 calories, 2.3 g Fat, 0 mg Cholesterol, 164.1 mg Sodium, 31.2 g Carbs, 6.3 g Fiber, 7.7 g Protein WWPP 4
Recipe from My Beef With Meat by Rip Esselstyn
Nutmeg Notes
We had an action packed weekend here. It all started Friday night with dinner at our favorite Vegan restaurant then on to see the new Star Trek movie. It was actually really good! Saturday we got up super early and headed for a morning hike. We explored a new trail and managed to get our 9 1/2 mile hike done by noon. It was a good thing too as it was a hot day.
On the way home we stopped at a street fair in a small town and walked around looking at the car show. There were hundreds of restored vehicles on display – we were too tired to look at all of them but enjoyed what we saw. Once we got back home we showered and ate a huge salad for lunch. We met up with the rest of the family for dinner at PF Changs to celebrate hubby Tom’s birthday. They do have some vegetarian options and brown rice so it’s pretty easy to eat there and stay on plan. I also enjoyed a few bites of some chicken entrees – staying with in my 10 % of animal products for the day. Of course I think the sodium level is quite high but that’s restaurant food for you.
Sunday we got up and went for a morning bike ride. My muscles were sore from the hike the day before so I couldn’t make it up this huge hill we were trying to climb. I hate defeat but had to get off my bike and walk it to the top. Next time I hope to conquer the hill! We decided to have lunch at Chipotle – another high sodium restaurant meal but it tastes so good. Since changing our food plan and cutting back on sodium we have become very sensitive to salt. I love the new sofritas Chipotle offers, it’s a marinated shredded soy product that is really spicy. I think it’s only available in Norther CA right now but it seems to be quite popular here so hopefully they will roll it out nationwide.
After lunch we headed to the mall to get a new food processor. It will come as no surprise that I adore kitchen appliances. When you cook as much as I do it’s nice to have appliances that make things easier. I do enjoy hand chopping veggies – it’s like therapy to me – relaxing and fun but some recipes are just too big for doing by hand. This thing is huge with a giant 16 cup work bowl, it also has a 13 cup bowl and 4 1/2 cup work bowl so all bases are covered. It is a work horse with so much power. Perfect for making all the veggie based recipes we are enjoying. I can’t wait to try the shredding disks. I’m off to the farmer’s market this morning in search of some veggies that need a little processing!
Hope you are having a fantastic week!
Tami
Thanks for taking the time to read my post. Feel free to leave a comment or ask a question.
What was the last kitchen appliance/gadget you got?
