Veggie Burgers

Its been a while since my last post but as mentioned earlier, things have been a little hectic around here.

My kids are on their new ( I call it "adoloscent") phase where they want to eat out all the time. I feel so old when I tell them "but we never would eat out at all as kids". Things were different back then. I guess it was a combination of no restaurants and the fact that the concept of eating out was just not existent. We did eat out but that was only once in a way, when we were out of town. Mom ensured that we got goodies to eat but they were all homemade. We never even thought to complain. We would have been finished if we even entertained the idea. But now..............

Kids of today and also mainly the city bred kids think nothing at all of eating out every meal, despite having good wholesome and innovative food made right here at home. My older one who is touching 17 has to be threatened during holidays to eat at home. So now we have a deal going where one meal has to be at home other than breakfast.

I think the effect of globalisation is seen right here with the amount of choice that there is out there. Different cuisines, different price ranges ( thats important depending on whether parents are a part of the program or not. This is how it works. Parents present - pricier places. No parents?? Cheap and best) And just the habit they get into of finding food outside of the house tastier as it is loaded with all the unhealthy things like sugars, transfats etc..

This I think is a real challenge facing most urban parents of today. Things tend to get a little unpleasant when we put our foot down and say " NO"

One of his fave low cost eating places is the little burger kiosk found all over the city, Burger Man. He just loves the burgers there. So today I decided Mr.Burger Man was going to have competition. Nice healthy competition and I was not going to back down from the challenge.

Got the ready-made burger buns, picked up all the veggies and started my making my healthy version of a burger.

Can I be honest and preen a bit and tell you how well they came out? The crunchy cutlets, the delicious mayo, and the nice spicy chilli tomato sauce all came together into this absolutely tasty delicious whole.

Anyway, enough of the preening, now for the recipe..

This makes 8 veggie burgers.

Ingedients:

8 Burger buns

2 tomatoes sliced finely ( totally about 20 slices)

1 onion ( or about 8 slices)

1 head iceberg lettuce

8 tablespoons mayonnaise ( i used eggless mayo)

8 slices cheese

8 veggie cutlets ( recipe follows)

Assembly:

Cut each burger bun into half horizontally.

Apply mayo on the inside of the upper half.

Place a leaf of the iceberg lettuce on the lower half.

Place two to three tomato slices on this and top it with a slice of onion.

Place one cutlet on the onion. Top this with a slice of cheese and cover with the upper half.

If you like it hot, you can either microwave the whole thing for about 15 seconds or toast the halves of the bun in an oven and then assemble it.

Serve with chilli-tomato ketchup and enjoy.

Now for the cutlets...

1/2 kg potatoes boiled, peeled and mashed

1 carrot diced very finely

100 grams cabbage finely diced

2 slices bread torn up into bits

2 onions chopped finely

2 cloves garlic minced

1 inch piece ginger minced

1 green chilli minced

2 teapoons oil

salt to taste

1/2 teaspoon pepper powder

1/2 teaspoon amchur powder ( dry mango powder). Can be substituted with juice of 1/2 a lime.

2 tablespoon all purpose flour ( maida)

200 grams bread crumbs

Method:

Microwave the carrots and cabbage in the microwabe for about 2 minutes.

Heat the oil in a kadai. Add the onions and the ginger, garlic, green chillis and fry till translucent.

Mix this into the mashed potatoes along with the carrot/cabbage mixture. Add the bread pieces, the salt, pepper powder, the amchur/ lime juice.

Mix well.

Add a little water to the flour to make a paste.

Shape the cutlets into rounds with the diameter of the burger bun.

Dip into flour paste to coat well all round.

Press nicely into the bradcrumbs till there is a thick cover ( thicker the better as this makes the burger really crunchy).

Deep fry. (Maybe be unhealthy but it is way better than the ones found outside)

Enjoy.