Vegan Memorial Day

No reason to feel left out when the grills are being fired up on this sunny holiday!  Our Memorial Day burgers:

Black Bean Burgers

The original recipe is courtesy of Veganomicon and are prepared in a skillet with olive oil. We cooked them on an indoor grill covered in cooking spray.  We covered the burgers with guacamole and tomato slices and served them on whole wheat buns.

Makes 6 burgers

1 can black beans, rinsed and drained

1/2 cup vital wheat gluten

1/2 cup bread crumbs

1 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp cumin

1/4 cup water

1 tbs tomato paste or ketchup

1/4 cup cilantro, chopped (optional)

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1/2 small onion, grated

Mash the beans with a fork in a mixing bowl. You don't want to puree them; just get them mashed so that no whole beans are left, but you should leave half beans.

Add the wheat gluten, bread crumbs, chili powder, cumin water, tomato paste (or ketchup), garlic and cilantro.  Grate the onion in.

Mix everything together with a fork and then kneed with your hands until the mixture is firm and uniformly mixed (about a minute).

Divide the mixture into six balls and then flatten in patties. 

Grill 6-7 minutes on each side until heated through.  Or heat in skillet.

Tempeh Fajitas

This was a variation of a recipe from cookinglight.com with a few modifications. We kept the original grilling instructions, but we used our indoor grill instead. Apartment living! Also, the original recipe called for bell peppers and we hate them! Of course any number of goodies can be used to your taste.

We used the Tofutti soy sour cream as a glue to hold the tortilla together, but we thought it was a little chalky. We will probably skip it next time. Maybe some guacamole instead!

After we put the filling in the tortillas, we seasoned with a little salt to make the flavors pop. We made a double batch and they were just as good for lunch the next day!

Tempeh Fajitas

Ingredients:

1 (8-ounce) package five-grain tempeh
1 cup pineapple juice
1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons canola oil
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided
1 garlic clove, minced
2 cups (1/2-inch) vertically sliced onion
2 large portabella mushroom caps (or your favorite mushroom)
1 large tomato
1/4 cup fresh cilantro
Cooking spray
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 (8-inch) whole wheat tortillas
soy sour cream (optional)

Preparation:

Cut tempeh in half crosswise; cut each half lengthwise into 1/2 strips. Place tempeh in a shallow dish. Combine pineapple juice, soy sauce, lime juice, cumin, oil, 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, and garlic in a small saucepan; bring to a boil. Pour pineapple juice mixture and half of the cilantro over tempeh. Marinate at room temperature 30 minutes or up to 2 hours.

Chop tomato and mix with remaining cilantro. Set aside.

Prepare grill.

Lightly coat onion and mushrooms with cooking spray; sprinkle with salt and 1/4 teaspoon black pepper. Arrange onion mixture in a wire grilling basket coated with cooking spray. Place grilling basket on grill rack; grill 5 minutes or until lightly browned, turning occasionally. Remove the tempeh from marinade, reserving marinade. Place tempeh on grill rack coated with cooking spray; grill 2 minutes on each side or until lightly browned, basting occasionally with reserved marinade.

Warm tortillas according to package directions. Arrange the tempeh, mushrooms, onions, tomatoes or goodies of your choice in tortilla and enjoy!