Vegan Mofo #23 - Celine & Tamasin’s Bean and Nut Burgers...

Vegan Mofo #23 - Celine & Tamasin’s Bean and Nut Burgers 

The Book - Vegan Sandwiches Save the Day!
The Author - Celine Steen & Tamasin Noyes
The Recipe - Bean and Nut Burgers
Page # 108
Difficulty - Easy
Duration - Roughly 30 minutes

These are super simple burgers that are quick and easy to whip together making them perfect for a midweek or busy weekend meal. They also utilize simple pantry-staple ingredients and emphasize whole foods which I like. The majority of the burger is made from either black or cannellini beans and walnuts. Then you add in your onion powder, garlic, cayenne, sea salt and black pepper. Some breadcrumbs - I used home made - and Barbeque Sauce - I used a store bought BBQ sauce as I didn’t have time to make it from scratch. Also I wanted to use cannellini beans rather then black beans but didn’t have any so I used navy beans - another white bean - instead and they were delicious. White beans are a little more subtle in flavor then black beans and that’s what I was looking for. I wanted a bean and nut burger that didn’t taste like ground up beans and nuts. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, it’s just I wasn’t in the mood for that sort of flavor. These burgers with their addition of BBQ sauce really fit the bill, and even my husband who’s a bean and nut hater loved them.

I served my bean and nut burgers on a pretzel roll, with a smear of Dijon Mustard, Vegan Mayo, and extra BBQ, then topped them off with tomatoes, bibb lettuce, red onion slices, and pickle. So delicious! I highly recommend making them if you have this cook book, and if you don’t own a copy of “Vegan Sandwiches Save the Day” yet then you need to pick one up! So far every sandwich I’ve made from this book has been spectacular, as well as fairly quick and pretty easy. It’s the perfect go-to book when you’re in a rush but want some home cooked food rather then take-out.

Vegan Mofo #19 - Celine & Tamasin’s Protein Happy Quinoa Wraps...

Vegan Mofo #19 - Celine & Tamasin’s Protein Happy Quinoa Wraps 
The Book - Vegan Sandwiches Save the Day!
The Author - Celine Steen & Tamasin Noyes
The Recipe - Protein Happy Quinoa Wraps
Page # 74
Difficulty - Easy
Duration - Roughly 20 minutes.

I absolutely love these wraps! They’re incredible, seriously. They’re super simple and so full of flavor, I could probably eat one of these every day and be very, very happy. Again my favorite thing about them is their emphasis on wholesome ingredients, all of which are pantry-staples for me. I also like that it’s a super quick meal. The most time consuming thing about it is cooking the quinoa but even that doesn’t take long. To make it even simpler you can always cook up a big batch of quinoa in advance along with preparing the spread in advance and then you have quick and simple lunches to throw together all week.

I also really liked the combination of flavors here. The spread is made from sun-dried tomatoes, olive oil, kalamata olives, capers and red pepper flakes. While the filling is made from combining cooked quinoa with white beans, golden raisins - I used regular - apple cider vinegar, lemon juice, olive oil, red pepper flakes, red onion, garlic, sea salt and black pepper, parsley, basil and roasted pepitas though I just used raw pumpkin seeds because that’s all I had. To serve you slice up some red bell pepper and cucumber really thin and layer it along with the filling into a whole wheat tortilla. Wrap it up and enjoy!

These are super filling too but not in a way that makes you feel weighed down. You can eat two of these and still not feel ‘stuffed.’ It’s the perfect late afternoon lunch. You could also opt out of using a tortilla and instead serve the quinoa and spread over a bed of mixed greens, it would be equally as tasty as a salad. Or you could eat the quinoa filling as is, it’s that good just on it’s own. Trust me! You need to make these, I know I’ll be making this a definite go-to lunch for work days.

Mesquite and Lime Marinated White Bean and Kale Salad...

This salad was born of a need to start re-introducing large quandaries of leafy greens back into my diet. While I never give up on leafy greens altogether sometimes over the course of the winter I get so bogged down with warming soups, and stews that I neglect my salads. By spring I’m really starting to feel the need for green and sometimes it’s a hard cycle to break. I’ve also been trying to find ways to work more beans into my diet, and different kinds of beans. I absolutely love black beans and chickpeas but that’s about it. The other beans for the most part I can take or leave, which makes me a very inconsistent bean eater. Some weeks I eat lots of beans and lentils and some weeks I eat none. In trying to make different kinds of beans a more regular part of my diet I needed to come up with some new and interesting ways of eating them. After my Cannellini Beans and Ramps feast I realized that Cannellini beans were actually quite good if prepared in the right way, and so my desire to use them creatively has been piqued.

On the day that I decided to make this for lunch, I had a couple of beautiful limes sitting around and a lovely avocado just begging to be used. I also happened to be in the mood for something spicy, smokey and vaguely Latin inspired. This is what I came up with and it knocked my socks off. A really great, tasty, hearty lunch that fills you up, and is relatively healthy yet feels like a decadent treat! What more could you ask for, really?

Mesquite and Lime Marinated White Bean and Kale Salad 

15oz can Cannellini Beans
Zest and Juice of 1 Lime
1 ½-2 tsp Mesquite Seasoning
4 cloves Garlic Minced
1/4 C Olive Oil
2 Tomatoes diced
1 Avocado diced
Minced Cilantro to taste
1/3 C Sliced Green Onions
2 tbsp Capers
Smoked Paprika
Black Pepper and Sea Salt to taste
1 tsp Agave
3 C Kale chopped in bite-size pieces

- Combine beans, minced garlic, 2 tbsp of lime juice, 1 tbsp of olive oil, half the lime zest and the mesquite seasoning in a small bowl.  Marinate in the fridge for 45 minutes to an hour.

- Heat remaining oil in large pan over medium heat. Add the white bean mixture, the diced tomatoes, half the green onions and capers. Season to taste with black pepper, salt and smoked paprika. Saute for 5 minutes.

- Add remaining lime juice, and lime zest, along with agave stir and saute another 2 minutes.

- Divide Kale amongst individual bowls and evenly distribute the white bean mixture over each bowl. Top with remaining green onion, avocado, and cilantro.

The Beauty of Ramps - and Terry Walters ‘Cannellini Beans with Sun-dried Tomatoes and Ramps’

Yesterday I ate ramps for the first time, and my tastebuds totally exploded! Now if you’re unfamiliar with ramps let me enlighten you, because they are a whole world of awesome.

Ramps belong to the onion family, and go by the alternate names of ramson, spring onion, wild leek, wood leek, and wild garlic. They’re native to North America where they grow from South Carolina all the way up to Quebec. They are particularly popular in the cuisines of the rural upland South and Quebec, and have been gaining in popularity amongst upscale restaurants throughout North America. Throughout Appalachia they are considered particularly special, and many festivals are often held each spring either in their honor or with ramps as a culinary focus.

Ramps are characterized by smooth, flat, broad green leaves and stems that are somewhere between red and purple. Their stock/bulb is very similar to that of a scallion. Taste wise their flavor falls somewhere between that of garlic and onions with their leaves having a milder flavor then their bulbs.

Now that you know what they are, let me tell you about how I happened to come across them.

Until I purchased the cook book “Clean Start” I didn't even know what a Ramp was, but once I knew it didn’t matter because I couldn’t find them for sale anywhere. As a lover of all things garlic and onion the one recipe that calls for ramps in “Clean Start” had caught my eye and piqued my interest, but as badly as I wanted to try it, I could not. Ramps you see have a very short season, and are usually available for only a short time between end of March and Early May. Not being able to find them, I forgot about them entirely, until ast weekend.

I was doing my grocery shopping, and I was in the mood for Garlic Scapes. Another delicious spring vegetable only available for a short time in spring. I asked my friend SC who works in the produce section of my local grocery if he had any scapes in or if it was still too early for them. He said that they’d just gotten scapes in the day before. Excited I followed behind him as he directed me to a produce shelf. However once we got there I saw immediately that they were not scapes but ramps. “Aren’t they the same thing?” he asked, and I informed them that they were not. I was all set to leave disheartened by not having found any scapes when I suddenly remembered that recipe from “Clean Start” and how rare it is to find ramps. Finding them right then, on that particular day seemed like a miracle and so I bought two bunches to bring home.

Yesterday was my first chance to try them out, and of course I decided to use Terry Walters recipe for Cannellini Beans with Sun-dried tomatoes and ramps. Generally speaking I’m not a fan of Cannellini beans, not canned at least but that’s all I had, and I figured why not at least try it? I am so, so glad I did. I made this dish for lunch and it was the most amazing, mind-blowing thing. The flavor of the ramps was incredible, kind of like a strong chive mixed with a bit of garlic, and it paired beautifully with the sun-dried tomatoes and the creaminess of the beans.

Honestly, I couldn’t stop Mm-Mmming the entire way through the meal and I don’t typically do that. I fell instantly in love with the dish and the ramps and have made the decision that buy oodles and oodles of ramps when I go grocery shopping today. I can not wait to find out what other delicious configurations I can come up with for these delicate wild onions.

Please do yourself a favor, next time you’re out look for ramps, and if you find them buy them! You won’t be sorry, really!