Beyond Meat Vegan Beastly Nacho Cheese Sliders

All Photos © Christine Elise McCarthy 2015

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This is not really a recipe.  It is more of an endorsement of this product.  I have long been a fan of Beyond Meat & use it in all kinds of ways but this was my first experience with their veggie burgers.   First things first – you can get Beyond Meat coupons HERE and there is a store locator on the site, too, so you can see where you can buy this stuff near you.

So – as you can see – they LOOK pretty beefy (which is half the challenge) and their texture is chewier & meatier than say, a Gardenburger.  They chew a bit closer to how a McDonald’s burger chews and, let’s be honest, McDonald’s burgers probably are not real meat either.  And even when your burger is a bona fide beef burger – did you know that any burger patty you eat might contain meat from up to 100 different cows – from several different countries?  GROSS!

These Beast burgers taste delicious – though no real meat eater will be fooled.  I actually find it frustrating that meat-eaters expect there to be no way to detect the difference between real & fake meats.  Though Beyond Meat chicken comes as close as anything I have ever experienced in the department of trickery (in that, if cooked right, some folks might believe it really is chicken) – but the point of these products, from my perspective, is to offer a viable, healthier & cruelty-free replacement/substitute to unsustainable & cruel real meat products.  Diet Coke doesn’t fool anyone that it is real Coke but people have adjusted – in the interest of saving calories.   Consider fake meats the same way – that they are a reasonable substitute for real meat that is full of fat & hormones & pain & unbelievable agony.  These Beyond Meat products look convincing & have none of that aftertaste that some earlier fake meats had.  These burgers are the best faux burgers I have ever had & Beyond Meat faux meats take on sauces & other accoutrements like champs & the more you season them with things like my vegan nacho cheese sauce or Asian flavors, etc, the more convincing they get.

HERE are a bunch of vegan chicken dishes I have posted in the past.

HERE are a bunch of vegan ground beef recipes.

 Here – I melted my 2-ingredient, 5-minute vegan nacho cheese sauce in a pan & poured it over the cooked burgers.

I then added red onion, tomato, arugula, pickles, mustard & ketchup.  The result was a trio of sloppy, delicious “beef” sliders that everybody could enjoy.  Top yours with your favorites but be sure to try the Beast in either version – slider of full-sized.  Again – go to the site for a store locator and coupons are HERE.  These guys will make you proud at the 4th of July BBQ’s you attend!  I recommend them without reservation.

Vegan Buffalo Falafel Sliders with Smashed Avocado

 

All Photos © Christine Elise McCarthy 2014

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All my posts now have a VERY customizable PRINT & PDF option.  Create a PDF & save the recipe to your computer or print it out.  It offers a “remove images” option & you can delete any part of the post you do not need before printing.  The button is below by the Twitter & Facebook links.

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OK.  In the interest of full disclosure – I got the recipe for the buffalo falafel from one of my all-time favorite blogs – the almighty Thug Kitchen!

(Photo by Thug Kitchen)

This site is just amazing and HERE is their falafel recipe.  I am going to include their actual recipe below – because – if you are unfamiliar with these guys – you need to get familiar.  Read the recipe!  Hilarious!

BUFFALO FALAFEL

FALAFEL:

1 ½ cups cooked chickpeas or 1- 15 ounce can, rinsed

1/3 pound of cauliflower

¼ cup diced onion (yellow, white, red, whatever)

1-2 cloves of garlic

1 teaspoon olive oil

½ teaspoon all-purpose seasoning blend (The no-salt blends are best because you can add that salt shit later in small amounts)

2 tablespoons breadcrumbs

BUFFALO SAUCE:

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons flour (Whole-wheat flour works here so does brown rice flour. Use whatever)

1 cup cayenne based hot sauce

¼ cup water

1 tablespoon vinegar (Apple cider vinegar is my favorite here but white vinegar would work too. Use what you got)

For the falafel: Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Lightly spray some oil on a baking sheet. Chopped the cauliflower up into small pieces. Throw it in a food processor and run that shit until the pieces of cauliflower kind of look like rice. If you don’t have a food processor then just chop that shit up as small as you can. Mash the fuck out of the chickpeas in a medium bowl until they form a paste. Chop the garlic up into small pieces. Add the cauliflower, onion, garlic, oil, seasoning blend, and breadcrumbs to the chickpeas and mix that shit up. If your seasoning blend didn’t have salt in it, now you can add a pinch of salt to that motherfucker. The mixture should easily form into balls. If it is too fucking dry, add a little water. No stress. Form the mixture into balls a little bigger than a ping pong ball. Throw the balls on the baking sheet and bake them for 20-25 minutes, flipping them sons of bitches half way through. Remember to set a timer so that you don’t burn the shit out of them. Both sides should be nice and golden. While the falafel bake, make the buffalo sauce.

For the buffalo sauce: In a small saucepan, heat the oil over a medium-low heat. Add the flour and stir constantly until the flour starts to look golden and smell kinda toasted. A few bubbles are cool but this shouldn’t look like it’s boiling. This shit takes about 4 minutes if you got your heat right. Add half the hot sauce and stir until it is all mixed. The flour should make that shit thicken up a bit. Add the rest of the hot sauce, water, and vinegar and stir until it is all mixed up. Turn off the heat.

When the falafel are done cooking, push them gently to the center of the baking sheet and put ¾ of the buffalo sauce on them. Bake that shit for like 5 extra minutes so that the falafel absorbs that sauce. Pour the extra sauce over them when they get out of the oven or whenever you eat them.

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Instead of pita – I used little brioche slider buns – that were not vegan.  Here is proof I made the buffalo sauce.

This made a boat load of buffalo sauce so I stored the extra in a jar in my fridge.

I made the falafel – but I got all lazy & just mashed the bejesus out of the ingredients in my food processor.

A word about chick peas.  And lentils.  And rice.  Did you know you can make these kinds of things in large batches – like chick peas from the dried version rather than canned – and then measure out a cup or two of them & put them in Ziplock baggies & freeze them?  I made a whole bag of chick peas & froze them up & now – I can just grab what I need from the freezer in small increments.  SO MUCH CHEAPER!  And easy!  Do it!  I used some of those chick peas here & I will in my post tomorrow, too.

Anyway – I recommend prepping the falafel as Thug Kitchen suggested.  The processed version were very soft & fragile.  I lost a lot just trying to flip them.  So – touche, Thug Kitchen!

Now – smashed avocado is really just guacamole.  Shhhhhh!  I just smashed up some avocado with a few pinches of salt & a squeeze of lime.

So – yeah.  Make the falafel “dough” and create little patties.  Bake them maybe 15 minutes longer than the recipe suggests as these are a bit bigger.  Or – at least – mine we so soft that they required a bit more time.

Then just assemble those bad boys as you like.  Eat them.  Drink up.  Belch.  FTW!

Buffalo Cauliflower Sliders with Celery Slaw & Blue Cheese Crumbles

 

All Photos © Christine Elise McCarthy 2013

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To see images of my past posts & get links to the recipes – look on my Pinterest board – HERE.

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All my posts now have a VERY customizable PRINT & PDF option.  Create a PDF & save the recipe to your computer or print it out.  It offers a “remove images” option & you can delete any part of the post you do not need before printing.  The button is below by the Twitter & Facebook links.

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First things first!  My debut novel was released this week.  Here is the cover.

Here is the synopsis:

BATHING & THE SINGLE GIRL is the smutty, mercilessly irreverent and laugh-out-loud funny debut novel by actress Christine Elise McCarthy.  Inspired by her one-woman short film of the same name, it’s the kind of novel Jonathan Ames might write if he’d dropped out of college and had been working as an actress in Hollywood for the last 20 years.

The life of an actress in LA isn’t all glamour, money, and bedding rock stars.  Sometimes it’s more about humiliation, red wine hangovers, and the bad decisions they fuel.  Ruby Fitzgerald has barely worked in years, not that anyone remembers her for anything but her short stint on a long-canceled but iconic TV show.  But that was back when her career prospects seemed on the upswing — longer ago that Ruby cares to admit, and awkward sex with regrettable partners is doing nothing to take the edge off. Everything once functional in her house is going on strike, but the unemployment checks barely cover the mortgage, and a self-respecting girl needs to be able to pay her bar tab — so repairs are on hold.  One more bubble bath and a few more cocktails.  A gal can always get responsible tomorrow.

With everything mounting against her, a cranky and increasingly despairing Ruby will have to find out if her life’s larger indignities are the result of bad luck, or a chronically bad attitude.  What follows is a walking tour of the hilarious depths you can sink to if you stop exercising your best judgment.

Check out the web site & buy the book!  It is available online at Amazon & Barnes and Noble etc.  http://www.bathingandthesinglegirlbook.com/

That said – I made these sliders today & I am in love!  Spicy & crunchy & creamy – all at once!  They come together in the time it takes to roast the cauliflower – which is about 20 minutes.  If you are vegan – I guess you have to lose the blue cheese crumbles but the slaw can easily be made vegan by subbing the blue cheese dressing with vegan mayonnaise.  Yum!

Buffalo Cauliflower Sliders with Celery Slaw & Blue Cheese Crumbles

Makes about 4 sliders (depending on the size of your veggies)

1/2 head cauliflower – cut into 3/4 inch slices

1 cup chopped celery

1/2 cup grated carrots

2 TBS blue cheese dressing plus extra for drizzling (or a vegan mayo)

Buffalo sauce – I used Frank’s Red Hot

Blue Cheese – crumbled (omit for a vegan variety)

Slider buns

S&P to taste

Scallions – sliced

DIRECTIONS

Heat the oven to 450.  Spray a cooking sheet with cooking spray or use parchment paper.  Arrange the sliced cauliflower on it & smother with Buffalo sauce.  Roast for ten minutes, flip the cauliflower, add additional Buffalo sauce & roast another 10 minutes.

In a bowl, mix the carrots, celery & blue cheese dressing (or vegan mayo) & season with S&P.

When the cauliflower is done, simply assemble the sliders.  I topped the bottom bun with the slaw & then cauliflower, blue cheese crumbles & sliced scallions.  I drizzled a bit of blue cheese dressing & Buffalo sauce on them, topped them with the bun tops & ate them like they were going out of style!

Vegan Beet, Lentil & Rice Burger Sliders with Arugula, Sriracha Mayo & Smoked Black Pepper Cheddar

All Photos © Christine Elise McCarthy 2013

Follow @celisemccarthy

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To see images of my past posts & get links to the recipes – look on my Pinterest board – HERE.

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All my posts now have a VERY customizable PRINT & PDF option.  Create a PDF & save the recipe to your computer or print it out.  It offers a “remove images” option & you can delete any part of the post you do not need before printing.  The button is below by the Twitter & Facebook links.

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These patties are genuinely spicy & pretty tasty but they definitely benefited from the various toppings – especially the sriracha mayo.  Plain – they seem a bit lacking but that would really be true of any veggie patty, I think.  As pictured here, the patties themselves are vegan but I used real cheese & real mayo to top them.  If you are vegan – simply make the sriracha mayo with a vegan mayonnaise & either omit the cheese or use a vegan one.

The other thing about these is that they are pretty close to the color of real ground beef – especially when the patties are raw.  Take a look.

I made these into little sliders but you can make them full-sized, if you prefer.  There are a few steps involved, like cooking the rice & lentils but the steps are not complicated.  I used this red cargo rice but any brown rice would do.

I used arugula & tomato but you can top these the way you would top any burger.  Still – the spicy arugula, sriracha mayo & the spicy patties made for a pretty powerful taste treat sensation!  Also, once cooked, these guys should store in the fridge pretty well for a few days.

Vegan Beet, Lentil & Rice Burger Sliders with Arugula, Sriracha Mayo & Smoked Black Pepper Cheddar

Makes 10 slider-sized patties

INGREDIENTS

For the Vegan Beet, Lentil & Rice Burgers

1 large shallot small onion – chopped

4 garlic cloves – chopped

Olive oil

1 cup of raw beets – peeled & grated

1 plus 1/2 cups cooked lentils

2 cups cooked brown (or other) rice

1 tsp smoked paprika

1/2 tsp ground thyme

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp cayenne (or to taste)

Slider or burger buns

Garnish: arugula, sliced tomato, smoked pepper cheddar or other cheese or vegan alternative

For the sriracha mayo

1/4 cup mayo (vegan or otherwise)

1-2 TBS sriracha (or to taste)

DIRECTIONS

For the Vegan Beet, Lentil & Rice Burgers

Peel & grate the raw beets.  I grated them in a food processor.  Cook the rice & let it cool. Cook the lentils, drain & cool.  Measure out the amounts of each needed & set aside.  Divide the lentils into 1 cup & 1/2 cup portions.

Heat about 1 TBS olive oil & saute the shallot/onion until translucent.  Add the garlic & saute another minute.

In the food processor, pulse the cooked shallot/onion & garlic, beets, cooked rice, 1 cup cooked lentils & the spices until a meaty texture is achieved.

Mix in the 1/2 cup of reserved, cooked lentils & adjust the seasoning.  For patties.  I used a cookie cutter that was the size of the slider buns.

Treat a pan or griddle with cooking spray & cook these guys over medium heat for about 2 minutes per side or until they just begin to char.  If using cheese add it once you flip them them.  Cook until the cheese is melted.  Covering the pan might help speed that melting process along.

For the sriracha mayo

Simply mix the mayo & sriracha & adjust it to suit your taste.

Now simply assemble your sliders as you like.  I cannot recommend arugula highly enough.

Enjoy!