Sunday 9 October 2011

Football Food Sunday. Take 2!

It's Sunday people and that means it's football time. Woot! Okay, so I can't tell a lie I'm not very excited about the football (yep, it is still on!) but the 49ers are playing so Nick's excited & I was definitely excited about eating more delicious traditional American food... and what could be more American than a cheeseburger? Erm, a Bacon Cheeseburger perhaps?

Todays recipe came from The Best Veggie Burgers On The Planet because really where else would I go for a burger recipe now that I'm the proud owner of this awesome cookbook? I haven't had it for very long & consequently had only tried one recipe before today, the Super Quinoa Burgers. For Football Food Sunday we of course turned to the USA inspired chapter of the book & the recipe that immediately popped out at me was one for Bacon Cheeseburgers.

Now you obviously can't just eat a burger on it's own...well you could but not during MoFo & certainly not on Football Food Sunday! As I'm no longer scared of baking bread I started the day by whipping up a batch of Plain White Buns also from The Best Veggie Burgers On The Planet.

As you can see I was so proud of these that I made Nick take a picture of me with them!


PPK, represent!

These turned out amazingly well, some of them even have that bakery style crack in the middle!

These buns only need to rise for an hour & as our heating's now fixed I just popped them under the radiator.

Of course just buns & burgers didn't seem like enough so I decided to make some potato wedges to round out the meal. I didn't just want to wing it so I turned to my cookbook shelf & found a great recipe for Smoky Potato Wedges in The Complete Guide To Vegan Food Substitutions. This is yet another new(ish) cookbook & I haven't made anything from it yet. These wedges were a great start though and I now have a tonne of recipes bookmarked including the Berry Fro Yo & the White Chocolate Orange Corn Muffins.

The wedges are oven baked & far far nicer than their pre-packaged equivalent. I didn't have the potato starch called for in the recipe so I subbed 1/2 Tapioca Starch and 1/2 Cornstarch & it turned out just fine.

The TVP & wheat gluten based Bacon Cheeseburgers come together really quickly. After rehydrating the tvp in the microwave you do need to wait for it to cool a bit (I decanted it into a larger cooler bowl to speed up the process) but then you just throw the rest of the ingredients into the bowl together, kneed for 5 minutes, form into patties & slap 'em on the grill or in this case your awesome Grill & Griddle...and yes, I know, this is the third time I've mentioned it in 9 days but I think I'm actually in love with it! Check out these grill marks...

Whilst the burgers were on the grill I decided to whip up a quick batch of smoky mayonnaise to go on the burgers and as a dip for the smoky potato wedges. Terre a Terre, one of my favourite vegetarian restaurants in Brighton, makes a delicious smoked mayonnaise so I thought I'd see if I could recreate it at home.

It's definitely not the same as Terre a Terre's but I'll bet that they spent more than 4 minutes perfecting their recipe.

I mixed together approximately 3 TBS of Plamil vegan mayonnaise, 1/2 a tsp of smoked paprika & 3 dashes of liquid smoke. Voila, smokey mayonnaise!

Here's the final meal...

I actually feel really proud that I made everything on this plate except for the slice of Cheddar Cheezly & I enjoyed it all so much. I was a little worried that the burgers might be too sweet for me given that they contain both peanut butter & maple syrup but they really weren't & the smoky mayonnaise went with them perfectly. I really can't wait to make more burgers from the book, I think the Really Meaty Burger or the Seitanic Stuffer will be next but I am also very tempted by the Denver Omelet Burger. Do you have The Best Veggie Burgers On The Planet? What are your favourite recipes?

I'm already very excited about next weeks Football Food Sunday but I'll have to be patient because I have to wait a whole week & as of tomorrow it's cookbook challenge time again! See y'all tomorrow!

33 comments:

  1. WOW. You just made me really hungry, I wish I had been to your house for dinner tonight. I love those burgers, the best! I still havn't tried any of the buns but now I kind of have to.

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  2. Burgers are always great! the buns look amazing great job :)

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  3. That looks SO GOOD. I'm glad you've overcome your fear of bread baking because those buns look beautiful. The entire plate looks delicious, I too wish I could eat at your house! :)
    You've also convinced me that I need that veggie burger book, yum.

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  4. hooooray for football (or as dan calls it, foozball) sunday! the Giants just lost so we're a little sadfaced, but i'm on to cheer for the Jets now so it's a-okay. those are the most perfect and delicious look'n buns ever! i'd be super proud, too - so awesome!!!! the burgers look fantastical and i love those wedges. good to know the cornstarch-tapioca combination worked just as well - we like to potato starch our fries and sometimes we run out. awesome all around, Jojo!

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  5. Ah you did some seriously special sunday cooking, I'm jealous!

    Everybody should look as excited over you about bread rolls!

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  6. oh my, you did very well. looks great! the potato wedges look very tasty.

    I think the only thing you could have done to make your burger more american is to add bbq sauce and onion rings to the cheese. yum. :)

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  7. That looks like a seriously delicious dinner and the burgers look fantastic with the grill marks. I'll have to put that veggie burger cookbook on my wishlist.

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  8. Lady, you have got American food DOWN! I haven't had a veggie burger in forever and this post seriously made me drool. Also, the buns look just perfect!

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  9. Nice pictures! Everything looks delicious, and wonderfully shot.

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  10. I am thoroughly impressed that you made everything on that plate. Making bread is no easy task :-)

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  11. Wow, what a meal! It's only 10.30am here but I really want a burger and some wedges :)

    I've thought about ordering the best burgers book and now I really want to.

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  12. You just sold me on buying that book. I want that burger RIGHT NOW!

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  13. Mmm - O.K. Believe it or not, I still don't own The Best Veggie Burgers On The Planet. This is a sin. Totally making that smoky mayo in the near future, too. Great post, thank you!
    ~michelle (aka abitaddictedtocookbooks.com)

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  14. Sounds like a pretty cool book! Yum!

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  15. I have The Best Veggie Burgers! I was stalking Joni's blog forever waiting for it, got it as soon as it released, then proceeded not to use it yet. I'm working on making more recipes from my cookbooks, though. Joni is definitely the queen of veggie burgers!

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  16. ha, that picture of you holding the buns made me laugh! why must you be so freaking kick-ass, Jojo?

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  17. the buns look great and am so impressed with all this cooking!!x

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  18. Wow. That all looks so good. I really need that veggie burgers book. I've been considering it for a while, but I think I'm sold.

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  19. Those burgers were soooo good!!

    And the 49ers haven't lost since Football Food Sunday began...

    Might have to become a new winning tradition Jojo?!

    Nick x x

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  20. I love everything about this post!

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  21. Those burgers look amazing! And that picture of you is lovely (your hair colour is great!).

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  22. I am so getting this book. Everything looks sooo delicious

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  23. Your burgers and wedges look really good! I also love your your mad-coloured fridge magnets :D

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  24. wow. totally inspired football foodies. i will, if nothing else, be sure to have some smoked mayo next sunday!

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  25. Very nice! Can I fly over for some?

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  26. Oh man, those rolls look divine! Beat any bakery's! Those would be perfect with some BBQ jackfruit. Yum!

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  27. jojo, you are killin' mofo!
    dang.

    xo
    kittee

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  28. Thanks for all of the awesome comments guys! Jessy hopefully the Giants'll win next time I always annoy Nick by claiming they're my second team...apparently you're not allowed a second team!

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  29. Oh my gosh, Jojo! That picture of you is so freaking cute! The burgers look fantastic.

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  30. What? What? Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaat???????????? You have just found my weakness. French fries. God bless 'em, I don't care what anyone says, I will never let go of my beloved. I need to make these fries!!!! (Too bad you can't really see me--I'm seriously freaking out right now! It's rather comical...)

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