Saturday Supper

My Uncle Dave, who was also my Godfather, passed away on Monday.  My Mom planned on going to the funeral with me, so she came up to Chicago on Thursday evening.  We split a bottle of red wine and sat at the kitchen table and talked.  Friday, we traveled to Galesburg, IL for the funeral service.  Saturday, we cooked.  My Mom and my sons are omnivores.  So, I fixed a roast for them.  While their main dish cooked, I made my own main dish.

My main dish for Saturday supper was BBQ Tempeh Burgers from the blog, Our Veggie Kitchen.  I've made burgers with TVP and wheat gluten, tofu, and chickpeas, but I haven't used tempeh for burgers.  These looked good and I had all of the ingredients in my kitchen.  That's always a plus! :::grin:::

Everything came together fairly easily.  Boiling the lentils and brown rice, and then the tempeh were no brainers.  I used the small dice blade for my Vidalia Onion Chopper to chop the onions and jalapeno.  I kneaded the mixture for about 3 minutes.  (It makes my hands tired. :)  Then, I used my 30 year old Tupperware hamburger press to form perfectly round burgers.

I baked them for 15 minutes.  The first one I removed stuck a little, but the rest were ok.  I rubbed a small amount of olive oil on each burger before flipping them so they wouldn't stick again.  The burgers turned out great.  My youngest son grabbed one, and my Mom took one home, to Springfield, IL today.  The rest went into my freezer for future eating enjoyment.  I'll make this burger again.  It was very easy to assemble and doesn't require steaming an hour.  While I love the burgers I steam, it's nice to have a quick alternative.

Meanwhile, Mom when to work on the veggies.  She made Roasted Cauliflower with Lemon, Curry, and Cumin from the blog Kalyn's Kitchen.  Kalyn's Kitchen is not a vegan blog, but I happened across the recipe for the roasted cauliflower a few months ago and really like it.

Mom didn't stop with just cauliflower, but also added some diced russet potatoes and baby carrots.  We also added a dash of smoked paprika.  After the cauliflower mixture had baked for about 20 minutes, we added some baby portabella mushrooms.  The veggies ROCKED!

I also made dessert, but I did not photograph it.  I put 1½ cups of soy yogurt, 1 sliced golden mango, 1/4 cup of rum, and 2 cups of a frozen mixture of pineapple, mango, peaches, and strawberries in my Vitamix and let it blend until smooth.  I refrigerated it until we were ready to eat it.  I think it would have been excellent if I had thrown it into the ice cream maker and made frozen yogurt.  I'll try that next time.

Of course, we had our cooking session and dinner with more wine and great conversation.  Although we were together for a sad reason, we had a very enjoyable visit.