I’m baaaackkk! After an almost week long hiatus from blogging and a couple urges from family, I got back my blogging mojo. It was nice to take a break, especially since last week I was very busy with real life activities. Last week I went to dinner with the girls, out to dinner with Dan and went to the James Taylor and Carole King concert and that was all during the week. Who am I? Danny and I got invited to see James Taylor and Carole King by one of my friends whose parent had extra tickets. Five of us went and it was an amazing concert. With all the did last week, I barely cooked and then we left for Jersey Friday night until Sunday, which left little to no time for blogging, obviously.
We had an amazing Father’s Day weekend with Danny’s parents down on the shore. We walked, ran and sat on the beach and his parents took us out for an incredible dinner at the Lobster’s Shantey in Point Pleasant. I also bought some of these juicy New Jersey tomatoes.
After work today I came home, did a little Summer Shape Up workout and a quick 20 minutes of Yoga Detox from yogadownload.com. Then I had to plot dinner. I haven’t cooked in what feels like ages, but it felt good to get in the kitchen and make a ginormous mess.
I ate one of them just like this with a little sea salt sprinkled on top. They are THAT good.
After opening my pantry and seeing what I had available to me, I went with a veggie burger. I started looking things up online, but I just went with it. I bought too many vegetables this week, so I knew I had to get going with those. I started chopping away at an onion, 6 button mushrooms, 2 carrots, and 2 roasted red peppers.
All the veggies chopped up.
Next, I threw them in the food processor and pulsed away.
This is the veggies, beans, barley and flax “eggs” all mixed together. It actually could pass for raw meat.
White Bean and Barely Veggie Burger
3/4 cup cooked white beans (cannelini beans)
3/4 cup dried barley
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
5-6 button mushrooms, chopped
1 white onion, chopped
2 roasted red peppers (from a jar) sliced
2 tbsp light soy sauce
4 fresh basil leaves
2 tbsp flax eggs (2 tbsp flax seeds, 2 tbsp water, let sit for 5-10 minutes)
1 handful fresh parsley
1 garlic clove chopped
1/2 tsp cumin
1/4 cup spelt flour
sea salt and black pepper to taste
Cook barley on stove in 2 1/4 cup water. After barley is cooked, set aside. In the food processor, add all of the chopped veggies and pulse 2-3 times. Add the cooked cannelini beans, garlic, basil and parsley. Pulse in the food processor until well combined. Place veggie and bean mixture in a large bowl. Next, add the barley, soy sauce, cumin, flax eggs,sea salt and pepper and mix well. After everything is combined add 1/4 cup spelt flour.
Spray a skillet with olive oil spray and set on medium-low heat. Make burger patties with the bean burger mixture and add to skillet. Flip after it is browned on first side, about 6 minutes. Cook through and serve on top a bun, salad, spaghetti squash, etc.
Danny’s plate with sweet potato fries.
These buns were courtesy of Foodbuzz as part of their Tastemaker program. The buns are 100% whole wheat and are delicious! I will write more about them in another post, but they are Nature’s Pride brand and have no high fructose corn syrup, a short ingredient list and taste very fresh.
My plate, served over spaghetti squash with brussel sprouts, served x2 for me.
So there it is! Thank you for being so supportive through my much needed time off from blogging/cooking/baking. It is so amazing to just unplug and live life with worrying about snapping photos or remembering recipes. It was a refreshing week, but I’m glad to be back!
What are you favorite burger options for right now?
{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
Those look yummy! I am currently loving Mama Pea's balck bean burgers. My husband loves them too!!
Yummy looking recipe! I will have to try it sometime
what a great idea! I really need to try making my own veggie/bean burgers!
welcome back and i am so glad you took the break to recenter yourself and find your mojo again
welcome back, nicole! i missed your genius creations – but i'm so glad you had some time off to enjoy the beginning of summer/last couple days of school
these burgers look great – i love the incorporation of barley!!
I'm a man who likes his meat and I don't do veggie or soy burgers, but this even looks good to ME!
So good to see you back in action! I am glad you took a little breather though. Sometimes we all need a a little time away to focus on something else! I have been loving my lentil quinoa burgers that are unfortunately gone! I need to make another batch now! I hope things have slowed down a bit and you have some time to relax! Have a great day!
Wow, that is one tasty and HEALTHY looking burger! I'm so impressed by all the veggies. Sadly, I don't even remember the last time I had a burger…of any kind. But that's not because I don't love 'em!
http://www.firednfabulous.com/
This veggie burger looks awesome, especially served over the spaghetti squash! Thanks for sharing!
Welcome back! You were so missed
These burgers look fantastic. Thinking I'll try them using buckwheat instead of barley to make them gluten free. Thanks for another great recipe!
Missed you!
As for burgers I'm a total cheater and get the Boca Vegan burgers. I've never made my own veggie burgers but these look delish! And the sweet potato fries? Perfection.
Welcome back! We all need a beak now and then, even from fun stuff. While your Jersey tomatoes look fantastic, I must still stand behind my luscious Maryland tomtoatoes! ; ) Yummy veggie burger!
Glad you had a nice blog break but you were missed!
I don't really eat burgers (for no particular reason) but these look good!!
I have been looking for a good veggie burger recipe! I was going to try Ani's…but this looks like it's a little easier to make!!!
Oh those look awesome. I love any kind of burger…meat or veg, doesn't matter. Though lately I've been getting into veggie burgers a lot more and loving it…
WELCOME back! Love those burgers. You came out with a nice healthy bang. Yum!
Shalom!
You have included an amusing spelling error in your page:
At the beginning you write, correctly:
“White Bean and Barley Veggie Burger”
And then, between the photograph of the finished burger (looks good!) and the recipe itself, you wrote
“White Bean and Barely Veggie Burger” – BARELY VEGGIE??
so, careful there, since it is not only veggie but vegan!
I have some already cooked barley and cooked white beans. I do not have any button mushrooms, but I do have dehydrated mushrooms that I will soak in boiling broth to rehydrate.
For me, an improvement in the recipe would be to indicate the amount of COOKED barley required (just as you have indicated the amount of cooked white beans). I am guessing that 3/4 cup dried barley = 1 1/8 cup cooked barley (50% more). Is that right?
looking forward!
Rahel
Jerusalem