The AnBurgers...for those who cant have Angus!

I love burgers and fries, but most of the stuff available is non vegetarian and very obviously doesn't fit my lifestyle. However, I realize that even if I was a non vegetarian, I wouldn't have touched the burgers served here with a barge-pole. I saw the movie SuperSize Me. I've wanted to watch this movie for ages now and finally got to watch it. I almost fasted that day. That movie scared me. I knew all the facts stated in the movie, but to watch it happen to this guy scared the living daylights out of me. I also remembered the book Fast Food Nation I'd read a couple of years ago. Then, I wondered if I could EVER eat a burger and be happy about it. And when I shared my fears to A, he, as usual, being the the one who thinks and come up with action plans decided to make a dinner out of this fear that night. We didn't have burger buns and didn't have the time at 7 PM to bake them either. So, A created these two types of patties - beans and Tofu-veggie and we had a burger w/fries dinner that night. One of the best dinners we've had and one of the best times together cooking in the kitchen :)

Here is the recipe for you guys!

Advisory: The burgers that you're about to witness are very healthy and do not contain any potatoes ;)

Ingredients (makes about four 4" burgers):

For the AnTofu burger (that's right...the first two alphabets are a shameless way of copying McDonalds and taking credit for it :D)

1/2 lb firm tofu
1/2 cup bread crumbs*
salt and red chili powder to taste
1/2 tsp crushed, dried oregano
1 tsp Kraft BBQ sauce
1 jalapeno, finely chopped (you can remove the seeds if you want)
1 small red bell pepper, finely chopped
1/4 cup corn cobs (thawed and drained if frozen. If using fresh corn, boil it in water and remove the cobs and drain them)
1 tsp olive oil

* the use of bread crumbs depends on how well you drain the water from the tofu so adjust accordingly. It is not necessary to drain all the water from the tofu. the idea is to have enough moisture to hold the burgers while cooking them.

For the AnBean proteinaceous Pattie (yup, we did it again!) (makes about six-seven 3" patties)

1/2 cup chick peas
1/2 cup navy beans
1/2 cup black beans
1/2 cup Great Northern beans
1/4 cup coarse corn grits
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp olive oil

1. For the AnTofu burger, wrap the tofu with a tea towel and place a 3 lb (or similar) weight and let it drain for 15-20 mins.

2. When done, crumble the tofu in a bowl and mix everything else.

3. Make large balls and flatten them to 1/4-1/3" thickness. Try to pack as much stuff as you can to make a nice dense ball. This will hold the burgers while cooking them. I guess one could try using a burger press, but we cant guarantee if it'll work ;)

4. In a flat bottomed pan, bring some oil to heat and cook the burgers on each side for about 7-8 mins on medium heat. Try one burger to see if it 'holds up'. If not, add some more bread crumbs and try it again. We had to do this once as our first burger fell apart a little bit. Once the burger doesn't disintegrate, you could make 3-4 at a time.

5. Take 'em out and place on a plate lined with paper towel to drain any excess oil.

6. For the AnBean patties, mix all the beans in a bowl by tossing them with your hands. take 1/4 of this mixture and pulse them 2-3 times in a food processor or a blender. Remove the resulting thick mass.

7. Mix this with the remaining beans and everything else.

8. Form balls (as big as you want) and flatten them to 1/4-1/3" thickness. cook them just like the AnTofu burgers.

9. Serve with accompaniments like pickled cucumbers, mustard, ketchup and fries. We had ours with some baked sweet potato fries.

This extremely healthy veggie burger/sandwich what with whole grain bread and all the beans and veggies goes to Srivalli who is hosting this month's Monthly Mingle, an event started by Meeta of WFLH.

These are two vegetarian burgers with totally different tastes. The AnTofu burger has the smoky taste from the BBQ sauce and the AnBean burger has its own distinct taste from all the beans.

Another thing is that these are essentially Vegan burgers. Or at least these can be easily adapted to suit your vegan appetite. neither contain any potatoes ;) As far as the event goes, we don't have any kids yet but we were kids ourselves at one point of time ;) So we KNOW how hard it is to feed them vegetables. These burgers are packed with nutrients. The AnTofu burger is a great source of proteins, vitamins and minerals. The AnBean burger is once again, loaded with proteins and is a good way to feed legumes to kids. And to make them aware of the existence of vegetables that are not called potatoes ;)

If that's not enough, you could ask your kids to make those patties for you...saves you time (or maybe not!) and it keeps them happy. And you could give them a couple of pointers on how to take pics so that they don't have any trouble creating their own food blog :D