Archive Recipe: Beet and Carrot Burgers

Until just the other day, I hadn’t made these weird little veggie burgers in years. I love them, so I missed them, but I really felt no special compunction to make them for all that. You see, and I know I’ve told you this before, I hate the taste of beets. I always have. There’s some kind of alchemy going on in this recipe, though, that renders beets not only edible, but delicious. Even crave-able.

I would never go out and buy beets to make this recipe, but I took on a winter CSA subscription this year, and my home is now equipped with beets-a-plenty. This has always been my favorite way to use up those bountiful roots, so as soon as I had the time, I made them. They are absolutely as wonderful as I remembered! I’m so happy!

There are a lot of ingredients in these humble-looking veggie patties, but no tricky procedures to follow. I just start with the food processor, which I highly recommend if you have access to one. For me it makes any recipe with this much shredded vegetables not only easier, but just plain possible. All of the ingredients get piled into a great big bowl, mixed together, portioned out on a baking pan, and baked.

I used the Chioggia variety of beets to make the batch of burgers I photographed here. They are not so bloody red, being a pretty red and white candy stripe instead. As a result, my veggie burgers were paler in color than would be accomplished with another variety of beet. 

I like to serve these burgers on toasted English muffins with dill pickles or dill relish and mayonnaise. They’re good with ketchup and mustard on a hamburger bun, too, or they’re fine nestled into a pita pocket. I think there are other root vegetables that might be able to take the place of shredded beets here, but, I’m kind of growing sympathetic toward these earthy, old-fashioned, knobs of plant flesh. Will I ever come to love them? You know, at this moment, I’m more hopeful of that than I’ve ever been.

Beet and Carrot Burgers

adapted from Farmer John’s Cookbook

2 cups peeled, grated beets

2 cups grated carrots

½ cup grated onion

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 cup cooked rice, preferably brown rice

1 cup grated cheddar cheese

1 cup finely chopped walnuts

½ cup sunflower seeds

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1/3 cup vegetable oil

½ cup finely chopped fresh parsley

¼ cup flour

2 Tbs soy sauce or tamari

¼ tsp cayenne pepper

½ tsp salt

1.  Preheat oven to 350 F. Combine all of the ingredients in a very large bowl.  Mix until completely combined.

2.  Divide the mixture into 12 equal portions.  Form each portion into a patty and place on baking pans that have been well-greased or lined with a silicone baking mat. The patties will not seem to hold together well at first, but they will solidify more as they bake.

3. Bake the patties at 350 F for 25-35 minutes, or until they are well set and beginning to brown on the edges.

4.  Serve immediately on an English muffin, on a bun or in a pita (or on a plate), or cool on pans and freeze.

To freeze the burgers, place them in a single layer on a plate or pan on wax paper or parchment paper.  Freeze until firm.  Remove from the pan and store flat in a freezer bag or other freezer-safe container, separating layers with wax paper or parchment paper.

Makes 12 veggie burgers.

Other recipes like this one: Lentil Barley Burgers; Potato and Sauerkraut Cakes; Winter Vegetable Galettes with Cheddar, Mustard, and Caramelized Onions

Archive Recipe of the Week: Tomato Sauce with Root Vegetables

The Archive Recipe of the Week is finally back! No excuses. No explanations. Let’s eat!

When I made this sauce for pasta a couple years ago, I was so impressed by this great, flavorful, healthful use of the late-winter bounty of root vegetables. I used to subscribe to a winter share from a CSA* and had lots and lots of vegetables that needed a delicious home.

And delicious this sauce was and still is. In fact I was surprised all over again by how good it is. What I have found out since that first try of the recipe, however, is that packing finely chopped or shredded vegetables into spaghetti sauce is nothing new. Some moms and grandmas I know have always done this to trick their kids into eating more vegetables. Blanketing extra vegetables in a long-cooking sauce not only makes more palatable vegetables for the faint of heart, but also makes for an even more tasty sauce. One of my friends insists that her grown children have been asking for her secret spaghetti sauce recipe, but she won’t give it to them, fearing their reaction when they learn that they had been tricked throughout their childhood.

I really like the earthy flavors contributed by the carrots, parsnip and rutabaga in this sauce. If you want to hide these particular vegetables on your kids, you might want to try a smaller dose and replace the missing bulk with another can of diced tomatoes. I also like the richness brought in by the red wine, but if you don’t want wine in your sauce, you could replace it with more water.

This winter has been a rough one, and we’re all ready for spring, but I hope you won’t give up on winter vegetables just yet. This sauce is really a fabulous celebration of what might be left from the last of those warm days so long ago. And it will warm and comfort you the way only a rich tomato sauce can.

 

 

*While I no longer subscribe to the CSA, I still like to support the farm and can get great vegetables from there as well from other great growers in the area at local markets.

 

 

Tomato Sauce with Root Vegetables

Adapted from Recipes from the Root Cellar by Andrea Chesman

The amount of added salt needed will likely depend on the amount already present in the canned tomatoes and tomato paste. Taste the sauce and adjust for salt as you like it.

1 medium carrot, peeled

1 medium parsnip, peeled
1 small to medium rutabaga (or half of a large one), peeled
1 medium yellow onion, peeled
¼ cup olive oil, preferably extra-virgin
1 head garlic, about 10 medium cloves, separated, peeled and left whole
1 ½ cups water
1 cup dry red wine (I used a Cabernet-Merlot blend)
1 6-ounce can tomato paste
1 15-ounce can diced tomatoes
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
¼ teaspoon dried thyme
½ teaspoon coarse salt, plus more to taste if desired
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
cooked pasta of your choice for serving
grated Parmesan cheese for serving

 

1. Coarsely chop the carrot, parsnip, rutabaga and onion. Place them in a food processor fitted with a chopping blade and pulse until very finely chopped, but not completely pulverized. Remove any larger chunks of vegetables and cut finer by hand if desired.

2. Heat the olive oil in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat.  Add the finely chopped vegetables and cook, stirring frequently for about 5 minutes or until the vegetables have begun to soften. Add the garlic cloves and cook, stirring, one minute more.

3. Stir in the water and scrape up any browned bits that may have formed on the bottom of the pan. Add the wine, tomato paste, tomatoes, bay leaves, basil, oregano, thyme, salt and pepper. Stir to combine and bring to a boil.

4. Cover, reduce the heat and boil gently, stirring occasionally, for 2- 2 ½ hours, or until the vegetables are very soft and practically melted into the sauce. Taste for salt and other seasonings and adjust as desired. Seek out, remove, and discard the bay leaves. Serve with hot cooked pasta of your choice and a generous grating of Parmesan cheese.

Makes 6-8 servings.

 

Other recipes like this one: Basic Tomato Pasta Sauce, Pasta with Shredded Winter Vegetables

 

One year ago: Mulled Wine Chocolate Cake

Root Vegetables in Spaghetti Sauce

Sure, the sun is getting higher in the sky and I’m beginning to crave those lovely fresh green things that are still months away, but I’m not too sad about the inevitable persistence of winter just yet. That’s because I’m still grooving on roots and tubers, those sweet and starchy winter storage vegetables. This week, I put them in my spaghetti sauce. (Which I served with penne instead of spaghetti.)

This might seem like an unusual place to use a parsnip or a rutabaga, but I got the idea from a recipe in Recipes from the Root Cellar by Andrea Chesman. The winter vegetables are slowly braised in a tomato sauce, taking up residence where you might usually find bell peppers or even eggplant and zucchini. There’s also a whole, lovely, delicious head of garlic left in whole cloves that cook down to a buttery, rich and very welcome addition to this wonderful sauce.

The original recipe called for celeriac (aka celery root), but they’re hard for me to find after early January. Rutabagas, on the other hand, are forever, and I love them, so I put half of a large, sweet one in my sauce. The vegetables need to be very finely chopped in order to cook in anything like a timely fashion, so I followed Chesman’s advice and went at them with a food processor. This worked really well. In addition to significantly reducing the workload for this recipe, it also allowed the vegetables to almost melt into a moderately chunky sauce.

The sweetness of the carrot and parsnip nicely balances the acidity of the tomatoes and red wine, and the more complex flavor of the rutabaga gives the sauce a unique and delicious richness. The garlic is garlic, wonderful, wonderful garlic, nicely mellowed by the long, slow cooking. I won’t say “no” to garlic.

This sauce takes a long time to cook (at least 2 hours), but once you get the vegetables peeled and coarsely chopped, there’s little left to do but wait for them to simmer. There’s a lot of sauce in this recipe, and I currently have some in the freezer to test whether I can store it effectively there long-term. (I can only go so many days in a row with leftovers.) I really like this stuff, and hope to make it one of my winter go-tos. If nothing else, it’s a delicious way to use up some lingering roots. Even if I have to admit that it is an unusual place to use a rutabaga.


Tomato Sauce with Root Vegetables
Adapted from Recipes from the Root Cellar by Andrea Chesman

The amount of added salt needed will likely depend on the amount already present in the canned tomatoes and tomato paste. Taste the sauce and adjust for salt as you like it.

1 medium carrot, peeled
1 medium parsnip, peeled
1 small to medium rutabaga (or half of a large one), peeled
1 medium yellow onion, peeled
¼ cup olive oil, preferably extra-virgin
1 head garlic, about 10 medium cloves, separated, peeled and left whole
1 ½ cups water
1 cup dry red wine (I used a Cabernet-Merlot blend)
1 6-ounce can tomato paste
1 15-ounce can diced tomatoes
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
¼ teaspoon dried thyme
½ teaspoon coarse salt, plus more to taste if desired
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
cooked pasta of your choice for serving
grated Parmesan cheese for serving

1. Coarsely chop the carrot, parsnip, rutabaga and onion. Place them in a food processor fitted with a chopping blade and pulse until very finely chopped, but not completely pulverized. Remove any larger chunks of vegetables and cut finer by hand if desired.

2. Heat the olive oil in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the finely chopped vegetables and cook, stirring frequently for about 5 minutes or until the vegetables have begun to soften. Add the garlic cloves and cook, stirring, one minute more.

3. Stir in the water and scrape up any browned bits that may have formed on the bottom of the pan (I had few if any). Add the wine, tomato paste, tomatoes, bay leaves, basil, oregano, thyme, salt and pepper. Stir to combine and bring to a boil.

4. Cover, reduce the heat and boil gently, stirring occasionally, for 2- 2 ½ hours, or until the vegetables are very soft and practically melted into the sauce. Taste for salt and other seasonings and adjust as desired. Seek out, remove, and discard the bay leaves. Serve with hot cooked pasta (I used penne rigate this time) and a generous grating of Parmesan cheese.

Makes 6-8 servings.

Other recipes like this one: Pasta with Shredded Winter Vegetables, Simple Tomato-Garlic Sauce, Pizza Sauce

One year ago: Soup Beans

Two years ago: Bittersweet Almond Amaretto Truffles

Root Vegetable Soup

Oh my goodness, look at the time! Almost half of January is gone and I haven’t had any new messy adventures to report. The truth is that I’ve just been off my game a bit, but, to avoid making 2012 the Year of the Procrastinator, I thought I’d tell you about root vegetable soup.

I suppose some folks think they’re exercising a bit of kindness when calling these sturdy winter storage crops “humble.” A closer look at the likes of rutabagas, turnips, potatoes or parsnips might lead to more discriminating adjectives like “grungy” or “dumpy” and their tastes and association with long, hungry winters might invoke “boring,” “stodgy,” or even “a little funky.” I love these oft-maligned vegetables, however, (except for beets. Don’t even talk to me about beets.) and I love this root vegetable soup that I adapted from The Ultimate Cookbook by Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough.

You could probably vary the vegetables for this soup depending on what you like and what you have on hand. I used those called for in the original recipe: carrot, potato, turnip, rutabaga and parsnip, although I made a smaller pot of soup. You also could vary the seasonings, of course. I used lots of mustard, which I love with roots, and some fresh thyme, which I happened to have in the refrigerator. This is kind of a use-what-you have recipe for cold winter days and nights when you don’t feel like going out to get ingredients for something more fancy.

Just a few days ago, I didn’t even feel like eating a hot and hearty soup like this one. The temperatures were topping out near 50 F, which is just weird in Minnesota in January. Now that the snow and the wind and the cold are back, at least for a while, this soup is just right. It’s thick and creamy but still chunky, since I pureed about half of it, leaving the rest of the vegetables whole. The flavor is faintly sweet and gently bitter as is the nature of a good mixture of roots. There’s a hefty dose of mustard, which I love with root vegetables and a bit of tang from some sour cream. Of course, just that it’s hot and comforting goes a long way on a cold and blustery day like today. Hopefully it will give me energy and inspiration to get this show back on the road!

Root Vegetable Soup with Mustard
Adapted from The Ultimate Cookbook by Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough

You could use vegetable broth in place of the chicken broth if you prefer to make this soup vegetarian. Start with less salt if you are not using a low-sodium broth and add to taste if needed.

2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 small onion (or half of a large one), chopped
1 teaspoon coarse salt, or to taste
2 large garlic cloves, finely chopped
¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 large carrot, peeled and cut into ¼- ½ inch pieces
1 medium parsnip, peeled and cut into ¼- ½ inch pieces
1 medium rutabaga, peeled and cut into ¼- ½ inch pieces
1 medium turnip, peeled and cut into ¼- ½ inch pieces
1 medium baking potato, peeled and cut into ¼- ½ inch pieces
¼ teaspoon black pepper
3-4 sprigs fresh thyme (optional)
1 bay leaf
4 cups chicken broth (I used reduced-sodium)
¼ cup sour cream (I used reduced-fat)
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
additional sour cream and chopped parsley to garnish

1. Heat the butter in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium heat until melted. Add the onion and salt. Saute about 5 minutes, or until the onion is softened. Add the garlic and crushed red pepper flakes. Cook and stir about 30 seconds more.

2. Add the carrot, parsnip, rutabaga, turnip, and potato. Cook 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

3. Add the black pepper, thyme, bay leaf, and chicken broth. Bring to a boil. Cover, reduce the heat and boil gently until the vegetables are very soft, about 35 to 45 minutes.

4. Remove from the heat. Remove the bay leaf and the thyme sprigs (most of the thyme leaves will have fallen off) and discard. Remove about half of the soup and set aside. Puree the remaining soup with an immersion blender. Return the soup that you removed earlier to the pan and stir to combine. (Or, you can puree half the soup in a regular blender and return it to the pan.)

5. Stir in the sour cream and Dijon mustard until smooth. Heat through if necessary. Taste for seasoning, especially salt, and adjust if necessary. Serve with additional sour cream and chopped parsley.

Makes about 6 servings.

Other recipes like this one: Cream of Carrot and Parsnip Soup, Spicy Carrot and Apple Soup with Coconut Milk, Creamy Cabbage and Potato Soup, Celeriac, Potato and Wild Rice Soup or go here for my favorite hot winter soups.

One year ago: Hot Cocoa and Finnish Cardamom Bread

Two years ago: Red Cabbage Slaw with Apples and Cranberries and Potato and Celeriac Casserole with Baked Eggs