I am Veggie

The secret to a good vegeburger is in the mash. You need the most amazing mash that you’ve ever had as well as the will-power not to eat it straight away. I found this out today as I made my vegeburgers straight from scratch and without a recipe.
The stuff in the middle is, simply put, chewy scrambled eggs. They’re a strange concoction that I’m going to explore in more detail later on, but let’s just say that they’re still in development!

Vegeburgers

INGREDIENTS

• 1 1/2 cups of cold mashed potatoes
• 1/2 cup frozen vegetables
• 1 egg
• Oilve Oil
• Breadcrumbs

METHOD

1. Cook the frozen vegetables, using the instructions on the packet.
2. When the vegetables are done, add them to the cold mashed potatoes and mix.
3. Heat up the olive oil in a frying pan.
4. Using your hands, make patties apx. 2 inches across with the mash mix.
5. Dip these in eggs, then coat liberally in bread crumbs.
6. Put these into the frying pan when the olive oil is hot.
7. When one side is done, press down on the patty gently with the skillet as you flip them.
8. Eat hot or cold, but if you’ve made amazing mash then eat them plain to let the natural flavours come through.

Note: When I make mashed potatoes, I make sure that they’re fluffy, buttery spoonfuls of joy. For this, it’s approximately 1 teaspoon of butter to every cup of mashed potatoes.
You can also add herbs and spices to this.

Simple Fancy

I am bored of risotto. You might remember my mentioning it here, but what I haven’t mentioned is how I’ve been having it everyday for the last two months (oh the life of a university student). It’s a beautiful versatile dish and heats up in the microwave perfectly, however it does lose it’s novelty after a while.
Today I looked in my cupboard and this recipe seemed to throw itself together as I looked at the ingredients, they built upon each other until the dish was finished and I have to admit  that it smelt amazing. It tastes amazing too, but it’s on the menu for the next week so I’ll have plenty of time to decide whether I’ll like it or not.

I called the recipe ‘Simple Fancy’ because I thought that it was a good way of describing a dish that sounded fancy (lemon- infused baked spiced fried-rice) but was really actually simple.

Ingredients

• Olive Oil
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 1/2 lemon
• 3 cups of pilau rice
• A dash of curry powder
• x2 bell peppers of any colour, diced
• 2 cups of frozen vegetables
• 1 egg
• 3 sausages

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200C. Put your oven tray in there too.
2. Cook the frozen vegetables in a pot of boiling water.
3. Cook the rice, when it’s done mix in the curry powder.
4. Heat up a frying pan with a dash of olive oil then grate the zest of the lemon and fry the onion and zest in the pan until the onions are semi-transparent.
5. Add in the bell-peppers and cook until the onion is clear then add in the (now cooked) frozen vegetables.
6. Allow the vegetables to fry for about a minute then add in the rice and continue frying until the rice is slightly browned.
7. Drizzle some olive oil in the oven tray then wait until it’s sizzling. Once it is, add in the rice and vegetables.
8. Drizzle the lemon juice over the rice and put the sausages on the rice. Crack the egg between two sausages.
9. Put the oven tray back in the oven and allow to cook until the sausages are ready. Depending on how you like your egg, you might want to add it in later.

Note: I am a vegetarian so the sausages cook differently, you can grill the sausages and add them in at the end of the dish if you prefer. Also, I use a bag of Uncle Ben’s pilau rice as it’s already had the spices mixed in, if you choose to use Uncle Ben’s rice then when the rice is added into the vegetables do the same. Don’t bother with the instructions on the packet.