Quinoa Burger and Root Vegetable Fries

Photo Courtesy of Brad Lovejoy

I once again chose to prepare two recipes for one dinner. Brad has been requesting that I make quinoa burgers for the past few months so I decided to honor his request. A West Seattle restaurant called Porterhouse offers a quinoa burger that Brad loves so I knew that finding a recipe that he likes equally was going to be difficult. I am now officially on a mission to find a recipe for the perfect quinoa burger.

My second recipe was root vegetable fries. I was reading the newest issue of Oprah Magazine last night and one of the articles mentioned the idea of root vegetable fries in place of potato fries. I happen to really like root vegetables, especially sweet potatoes so I decided to look online for a recipe. I found a recipe that interested me on the Whole Food website so I went for it.

Quinoa Burger:

1 1/2 cups quinoa, cooked

2 whole eggs

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 Tbsp prepared mustard

3 Tbsp tomato sauce

1 tsp worcestershire sauce

1 tsp low sodium soy sauce (I used fish sauce)

1/2 cup panko bread crumbs (regular bread crumbs work as well)

1/2 small onion, chopped

1 tsp minced garlic

1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line baking sheet with foil and spray with non-stick canola spray or use parchment paper. Mix all ingredients in mixing bowl and drop into 6 separate mounds on baking sheet. Form into patties using a spoon. Bake for 25 minutes, turn over and bake for an additional 15 minutes. Pretty simple, right?

I enjoyed the flavor of the burgers quite a lot. The mustard and worcestershire sauce were the strongest flavors, which is what Brad didn't love about the burgers. He said he would prefer not to have mustard in the burgers; even though he likes yellow mustard. I was considering leaving the red pepper flakes out of the recipe,then decided to add them and then forgot to add them. Could Olivia riding laps around the kitchen on her tricycle have possibly distracted me? Brad and I both think the red pepper flakes would have been a great addition to the burgers. To make a short story long :), I like the burgers a lot, Brad liked them enough but not a lot. Needless to say, I am still on the search for a quinoa burger that Brad will love. You may even see another quinoa burger version later this week.

Root Vegetable Fries:

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 pound parsnips, peeled and cut into thick strips

3/4 pound rutabaga, peeled and cut into thick strips

3/4 pound carrots, peeled and cut into thick strips

(sweet potatoes, celery root and turnips work as well)

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Gently toss root vegetables in olive oil, salt and pepper. Arrange in single layer on two baking sheets. Whole Foods recommends arranging vegetables roughly in groups since cooking times can vary. Bake, turning often, until golden brown (40 to 60 minutes). Transfer to platter and serve.

I halved this recipe and used rutabaga, carrots, sweet potatoes and turnips. My initial plan was to use parsnips instead of turnips because I have never tasted parsnips, but they were out of season. I liked all of the vegetables I used but the sweet potatoes and carrots were my favorites. I would eat root vegetable fries frequently if it was up to me but Brad's general feeling about the fries was that they would be okay once in a while. He just doesn't think they are nearly as good as potato fries. Then again, there aren't very many foods as delicious as french fries. We love fries at our house but we rarely eat them because of the fat content. Why must so many types of good food contain copious amounts of fat? Thus is life.........

On a side note, the lettuce we ate with our burgers was my first lettuce harvest from my garden. As you can see in the photo below, the lettuce is beautiful. My potatoes are starting to come up as well. Fun, fun, fun!