Last Night I Ate A Hamburger . . . .

[BonzaiDuck]

I'm a 21st century Wimpie. I know I have to drastically cut back on red meat for my diabetes, my blood pressure, my cholesterol and maybe my kidneys.

I finally did a search on veggie burgers, their cost and viability as a beef substitute. Out of about 14 options, I found this:

Impossible Burgers -- 24 oz -- 6 patties -- about $15 at the right grocery

As a burger connoisseur -- who makes the best burgers I've ever eaten -- these taste like burgers, have the consistency of burgers, cook like burgers.

They may be worth the roughly $2.50 to $3 per pattie. I swear if there were anything hinky or wrong with how these burgers taste or chew, if I'd think right away that they weren't beef, I'd never want another one.

But these . . . . . . are freaking hamburgers. I think if I order $50-worth from Amazon for $12 each, I can get free shipping. The vendor apparently isn't covered by Prime membership for free shipping.

"I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for Impossible Burgers today . . . " -- with my Amazon card.

Anyway, a "real" burger at a drive-thru like In-and-Out or Burger King is going to cost you closer to $10. So buying these makes sense. I'm going to fix another one tonight. I can eat as many burgers as I want!

 

[balloonshark]

Burger King has the Impossible Whopper. I occasionally get the combo with fries and a drink which costs around $12 without cheese. If you want to stay plant-based order it without mayo.

You can also easily make veggie burgers with canned beans, whatever veggies you have on hand and rolled oats. You can use smoked paprika or liquid smoke to give them grilled flavor. It's also kind of cool that you can taste them raw.

Sauch Stache on youtube has been eating healthier lately but his older vids have a ton of fake meat recipes.

 

[mindless1]

^ I'll eat beans plain, or soup, or refried, not against eating beans but every veggie burger made with them has... sucked.

I sometimes get Morning star farms grillers which are soy based faux beef, and they aren't bad, but I just consider them a different type of meat as it isn't close at all to real ground beef, and it's very easy to microwave them too long and have them turn out like rubber from drying out too much. It helps to wet them before microwaving no more than 1 minute at 1200W. They're about $1 per 2.25oz patty.

I mainly eat them when I don't want to spend the time to thaw and cook ground beef, because I buy it in bulk and freeze it all in 1/4 lb chunks. I've bought a few cans of auguson farms TVP beef crumbles as well, and they can be acceptable in certain dishes but are on the salty side. I once got a can of their taco flavored crumbles and they work for tacos if mixed 1:1 with regular beef taco meat, but I decided I didn't want the extra prep step even though I also make taco meat ahead of time and freeze it in meal portions.

Fast food prices for burgers have gotten so outrageous that I'd just as soon make a ground taco meat or chicken burrito, freeze it ahead of time, take it with me on the go and have it thawing over the next few hours and eat it cold if I needed food on the go. I bulk freeze burritos too and don't mind eating them cold, but at home they get nuked for a minute then a toaster oven till golden brown.

 

[Greenman]

I'm so lucky that my wife cooks and bakes, and does both well. I'd starve to death left to my own devices.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Burger King has the Impossible Whopper. I occasionally get the combo with fries and a drink which costs around $12 without cheese. If you want to stay plant-based order it without mayo.

You can also easily make veggie burgers with canned beans, whatever veggies you have on hand and rolled oats. You can use smoked paprika or liquid smoke to give them grilled flavor. It's also kind of cool that you can taste them raw.

Sauch Stache on youtube has been eating healthier lately but his older vids have a ton of fake meat recipes.

I think it would be too hard to make a veggie-burger like the Impossible to match the latter's flavor.

I once "stole" a recipe from Davide Ristorante in San Rafael, but was misled by the waiter about the sauce when he mentioned "something like Tabasco". It took me six months to figure out what was really needed before I could replicate the Spinach and pasta sauce Capellini. The salad on the other hand was easy: Arugula with sliced pickled beets, gorgonzola chunks, walnuts and fresh sliced onion with a blueberry vinaigrette. Pickled artichoke hearts or Anchovy might be further options, But the restaurant didn't use anything additional.

Instead of six months'-worth of experiments, I'll just buy the IMPOSSIBLE. Even if you enjoy cooking, a person begins to make these sorts of choices as they grow old.