Tempeh Burgers and other Goodness

Here's another of my wacky food pictures:

You're looking at a crash hot potato (courtesy of the Pioneer Woman site), tempeh burgers, and some broccoli. It was a pretty delicious dinner. Kids demolished the crash hot potatoes, ate some broccoli, and picked at the tempeh burgers. I think if I slapped the burgers on buns, they would be more appealing.

Anyway, the recipe for the tempeh burgers comes from New Vegetarian Cooking by Rose Elliot, and can also be found on the Internets, so I'll post it here too.

Tempeh Burgers

Makes 4

You need:

7 oz package of tempeh

2 tbsp oil

1 onion, minced

2 tbsp flour

1 garlic clove, minced

1/3 cup soy milk

2 green onions, chopped

1 tbsp lemon juice

salt and pepper

oil for frying

For the coating:

2 tbsp arrowroot

5 tbsp dried bread crumbs

Directions:

Boil the tempeh block for 15 minutes. Drain and mash well in a medium sized bowl.

Heat oil in a saucepan, add onion, cover, and cook for 7-10 minutes until onion is tender and lightly brown. Stir in flour and garlic, cook over low heat 5-7 minutes to cook the flour. Then pour soy milk into pan and stir to make a thick sauce. Remove from heat. Add to tempeh along with green onions and lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper.

For the coating, mix arrowroot with 2-3 tbsp water to make a paste. Shape tempeh into four patties, dip each into paste, then into breadcrumbs. Heat some oil in a skillet, add burgers, and fry 2-3 minutes on each side until lightly browned and crisp. Drain on paper towels and serve at once.

*****

Okay, I will admit I totally screwed up the whole paste and breadcrumbs thing. I don't keep breadcrumbs on hand because I'm too lazy to read a label to find a vegan brand. Since I have the handy dandy Vitamix, I usually just whirl some oatmeal in the dry carafe. For some crazy reason, I mixed the arrowroot, whirled oatmeal, and water on one plate. Don't do that. It's a huge sticky mess, although the burgers still turned out very tasty. Just, you know, READ the directions.

Anyway, these are good. I didn't have green onions so I just left them out. I used to be all "I must follow this recipe exactly!" but I'm not really like that anymore. I'm quick to sub something reasonable if I don't have an ingredient, and leaving something out like green onions in a recipe that already calls for a whole onion seems okay. Despite what we all heard growing up, it's okay to play with your food.