Vegan/Vegetarian Archives - Good Food St. Louis

I recently made a sandwich using Dr. Praeger’s California-style Veggie Burger. Along with the patty, I loaded up two slices of sourdough bread with cheese, tomato, lettuce, mayo, and zucchini relish. Dagwood would have been proud of me. It became a VLT—veggie, lettuce and tomato sandwich.

Stick with Me Here

I apologize to all you carnivores out there. I know you’ll never get passed the first paragraph of this post. You eat meat, by Jove, always have; always will. Me, too.

But I confess to occasionally eating a veggie burger. I usually buy whatever’s available in the freezer section or one that comes in a pretty package. But I wanted the ultimate, plant-based patty without having to test the many products available.

On a Mission

I headed for You Tube. I came upon a video by Larisha and Andrew, a couple conducting a comparison of 12 different vegan burgers. Despite the length of the clip, I stuck with it. I learned that plant-based burgers vary substantially in flavor, juiciness, appearance, texture and ingredients.

The Search for the Best Veggie Burger

The amusing pair performed their informal, non-scientific analysis only on vegan burgers. They excluded meat, dairy, and animal products from the experiment. (Veganism is just a stricter form of vegetarianism.)

After the entertaining video, the couple unveiled their preferences.

The Pick of the Patties

Some of the patties that Larisha and Andrew tested were dismissed as smelling like dog food or having the texture of sawdust. These listed below emerged as the top three favorites, at least, for the YouTube couple.

Impossible, Veggie Burger, (meat-like, pinkish exterior)
The Original Gardein Veggie Burger, (bag version rather than box). Contains brown rice, mushrooms, oats, bulgur, wheat, onions, mozzarella, and cheddar)
Beyond, (mimics real burger in texture and crunch)

Ahh . . . But the Washington Post . . .

But the Washington Post picked the one that I had just recently bought at the grocery store: Dr. Praeger’s California Veggie Burger. They called it “great!” How’s that for luck?

The Battle of the Burgers

WaPo also included some good advice on selecting the best burger for you. Read the ingredient label, they said. If you want something that looks like a hamburger and has no taste of its own, (“the faux burger”), then go for one with an ingredient list headed by soy.

But if you want something that looks and tastes like the vegetables it contains, has good texture, and taste pick the one with lots of veggies. It’s your call.

I did my own home test on Dr. Praeger’s California Veggie Burgers. It was a name I recognized after watching the video. And, besides, the package photo was appealing. To cook, you just heat for 7 minutes on one side and 5 minutes on the other. Done and delicious.

Frog Kissing

As the old saying goes, “You have to kiss a lot of frogs before you find prince charming.” The same is true of veggie burgers. If you’re looking for a restaurant burger rather than a home kitchen variety, there are lots of choices around town. You can’t go wrong with a plant-based patty, from any of these listed below—in no particular order.

(Let us know about others, you’d recommend for a veggie-burger-on-bun combo.)

Seedz Cafe, 6344 S. Rosebury Avenue (in Demun)
Atomic Cowboy, 4140 Manchester (in the Grove)
Piccadilly at Manhattan (for a black bean burger)
Layla, 4317 Manchester Avenue
O.R. Juice & Smoothie, 6654 Clayton Rd. (in shopping center)
5-Star Burger, 8125 Maryland in Clayton
Frida’s 622, North & South
Shake Shack, 60 N. Euclid
Fozzie’s Sandwich Emporium, 1170 S. Big Bend

Veggie burger from Seedz in Demun

Veggie Burger at Atomic Cowboy

The Pros Weigh In

If you’re wanting to make your own black bean variety, the famed, food-science writer and chef J. Kenzi Lopez-Alt offers his Black Bean Burger. He calls it his favorite patty to make at home and one of his most popular recipes in the last decade among his readers.

Photo: C. Drying on Upsplash

Another Good Reason to Eat Your Veggies

Cabbage, kale, spinach, garlic, Brussels sprouts, oregano and ginger all have antiviral properties. That’s good to know, when we’re trying to ward off CV-19 with all the defenses available.

I put nearly a half head of cabbage in my 9-Vegetable Soup last week. That means I had another half in my refrig. Hmm. . . what to do? Slaw was the first thing that came to mind. But I think of it as picnic food for a hot summer day. We’re not there yet.

Fried Cabbage: A War Time Dish

My mind drifted back to a dish my mother made frequently during the war: fried cabbage. She cooked it with fat back, that’s less salty than bacon and without nitrates. The flavorful cut comes from the back of a pig and is used in making sausage or lard. Southern cooks, such as my mother, also used it to season green beans, Brussels sprouts, and collards.

Cabbage was not my favorite at the time, but I’ve since come to love both green and red—especially German Red Cabbage.

All ingredients for fried cabbage ready to cook in my cast iron wok. The finished cabbage reduces by almost half.

Tampering with the Recipe

This recipe uses green cabbage. It can be made with, or without, bacon and onions—though they certainly give a flavor boost.

Normally, I go with a recipe as written the first time I cook it. Hundreds of reviewers at All Recipes gave this Fried Cabbage a 5-star rating. Even so, worthwhile improvements were suggested. Most agreed that the 1 tablespoon of salt called for was far too much and suggested 1/2 to 1 teaspoon. You can always add more to suit your taste.

The finished cabbage takes on a caramelized hue.

Easy Additions for Making Fried Cabbage an Entrée

Spooning off some of the bacon grease, or oil, was strongly favored. Others made the dish into an entrée with the addition of pre-cooked, curly egg noodles, potato chunks, and/or Polish sausage. Red pepper flakes also added an extra kick and shredded carrot gave flecks of color. A smidgen of sugar and apple cider vinegar also upped the tastiness.

As you can see, this old European dish has undergone many revisions in kitchens around the world. Today it’s often served alongside potatoes, corn beef or pork.

Recipe here.