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Meatless Monday with Spicy Lentil Walnut Burgers by Martha Stewart
Posted by: | CommentsHaving a barbeque? Trying to satisfy the various dietary requirements of your guests especially those eco-vegetarians? Well, have no fear. Take out your food processor and make the most delicious vegetarian burgers ala Stewart, Martha Stewart. This is in our never ending quest to bring you the most scrumptious meatless burger recipes out there so that you can enjoy this on a Meatless Monday or any other day of the week. This Spicy Lentil-Walnut burger is Mediterranean-inspired, so if you enjoy those flavors chances are you will love this .Plus they are packed with healthy lentils and walnuts – how can you go wrong? The yogurt-cilantro sauce is optional and can be served on the side. Who knows - that might just become your new signature secret sauce.
INGREDIENTS
Burger:
3/4 cup toasted walnuts
1/3 cup plain dried breadcrumbs
3 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon minced jalapeno pepper
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
3/4 cup lentils, cooked, drained, and cooled
1/4 cup grated onion
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 large egg
4 large pitas
Spicy-Yogurt-Cilantro Sauce (for serving – see recipe below)
Sliced avocado (for serving)
Cherry tomatoes, halved (for serving)
Spicy-Cilantro sauce:
3/4 cup plain low-fat yogurt
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro leaves
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
Coarse salt and ground pepper
Instructions
Burgers
In the bowl of a food processor, combine walnuts, breadcrumbs, garlic, jalapeno, cumin, coriander, red pepper flakes, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper; process until finely ground. Add lentils, onion, and 1 tablespoon oil; pulse until coarsely chopped (some lentils should remain whole).
In a large bowl, whisk egg. Add lentil mixture; mix until well combined. Divide into quarters; roll into balls, and flatten with the palm of your hands into 3/4-inch-thick patties. Heat remaining 3 tablespoons oil in a large nonstick skillet. Add burgers; cook, turning once, over medium-low heat until crisp and browned, 8 to 10 minutes per side. Transfer to a paper-towel-lined plate to drain. Serve burgers in pitas with sauce, avocado, and cherry tomatoes
Momentum Reel Mower Makes Ecomowing Possible
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You can really pick up all kinds of ecofriendly living tidbits listening to Martha Stewart’s daily talk show. For example, she recently talked about this product that will make going green easier and it wasn’t self-promotion. The product was the Momentum Reel Mower from Fiskars. For those interested in adding a little green to their lives can switch from a gas powered mower to a push mower and reduce their carbon footprint in the process. Some may scoff at the idea of using a push mower because of the added exertion required when going over rough patches like very high grass but they have considered that.
Fiskars’ solution to this problem is their “InertiaDrive™ Technology [which] combines a large diameter cutting reel and heavy blades to store energy (like a flywheel) until a burst of extra cutting power is needed”. The InertiaDrive™ Technology is what makes this change towards ecofriendly living easy. The mower even boasts a “StaySharp™ Cutting System [which is] precision engineered to cut grass without the blades touching – greatly reducing friction & blade wear”. Fisker even stands by their product with a four-year warranty - the best on the market for a push mower. All this is topped off by the fact that the mower was designed not only to be good for the environment but also for the person pushing.
Meatless Monday with Rachel Ray Quesadilla Casserole
Posted by: | CommentsEco-friendly living is becoming increasingly popular and joining the Meatless Monday movement is an excellent way of kicking it up a notch (if you don’t already generally avoid eating meat). Meatless Monday is a program where you commit to abstaining from eating meat on day a week (preferably Monday…hence the name). For those with children, making a change like this and explaining the reasons why, is the first step in teaching your kids about eco-responsibility. That being said, you need to find recipes that are easy to prepare, simple and nutritious yet still taste great to win them over. So here is a quesadilla casserole that came by way of Rachel Ray’s Yum-o organization. For those that haven’t heard, “launched in 2006 by Rachael Ray, Yum-o!® is a nonprofit organization that empowers kids and their families to develop healthy relationships with food and cooking by teaching families to cook, feeding hungry kids and funding cooking education and scholarships.”
INGREDIENTS:
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
3/4 cup organic onion, chopped
1 can black beans (29 ounces), drained, 1/2 cup liquid reserved, divided
1 1/2 cups frozen corn kernels, thawed
1/2 cup flat leaf organic parsley, chopped
5 10-inch flour tortillas
8 ounces Monterey Jack cheese, shredded
1-cup store-bought green enchilada sauce
DIRECTIONS:
Pre-heat the oven to 400?F.
In a skillet, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onion and cook for 5 minutes. Add half of the beans and mash into a chunky paste. Stir in the reserved liquid.
Grease a heavy, ovenproof skillet. In a bowl, combine the corn, parsley and remaining black beans. Place a tortilla in the skillet and spread with 1/3 cup of the mashed black bean mixture. Top with 2/3 cup of the corn-bean mixture and 1/2 cup cheese. Press to compress the layers. Repeat with the remaining tortillas, mashed black beans, corn-bean mixture and cheese.
Bake until the cheese is melted and the casserole is heated through, about 30 minutes. Transfer to the broiler and cook for 1 minute. Serve with the enchilada sauce.
This quesadilla casserole is an easy introduction to meatless eating for kids, as most enjoy Mexican flavors. Making this recipe is a healthy way to obtain that great quesadilla taste without the added fat of meat. This is a meal that can be made beforehand and just heated in time for dinner, making it easy for you to adapt to this new way of cooking. Enjoy!
Chef Mark McEwan - an Eco-friendly Grocer
Posted by: | CommentsChef Mark McEwan, owner of such notable Toronto establishments as North 44, One and Bymark is opening a new gourmet grocery store called McEwan’s. A recent episode of his reality TV show “The Heat” was centered on how business owners must now learn to adapt to an eco-friendly business climate. McEwan said “If you’re starting a concept now, how do you not embrace this?” referring to the green movement and the fact that customers expect a business to be environmentally responsible.
The issue in this episode was the great debate on ordering bags: paper vs. plastic. “Being green is very expensive, easy to say, hard to do” McEwan said about the price of an eco-friendly reusable bag over a passé plastic one. The Chef and entrepreneur was brought a variety of bags to look over one of which was an eco-friendly option made of craft paper. This choice would biodegrade more readily, because of the fact that it was free of any additional coatings. “Either your product is biodegradable or it is fully recyclable,” Mark commented on the subject of what his customers expected from a bag. Having said that it would seem to be an easy choice, as this bag would do it all: represent an eco-friendly option and be free to his customers. The only stumbling block was….cost.
The price tag per paper bag is 14 cents vs a plastic bag which would cost less than 5 cents per unit. If McEwan were to choose the craft paper non-coated bag, the price would be over six figures over the course of one year. For a start up business, no matter who the backer is, this is a sizable expense and that money may be better served elsewhere. At the end of the meeting they were going to be looking into the price of reusable polypropylene bags and he was awaiting a price list prior to making a decision. So do we believe that McEwan will make an eco-friendly choice and pick either the polypropylene or paper bags over plastic? Let us allow Mark to speak for himself and get straight to the point “for me to come out with plastic bags would be ridiculous”.
So kudos to Chef McEwan and good luck on this new endeavor and thanks for using an eco-friendly filter in decision-making. As his vision has become reality, you can go to the store and see which possibility won out and read more about it here mcewanfoods.com.