Tag Archives: red onion

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Vegan Brown Rice Burger

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The challenge with making a vegan, or any plant-based burger for that matter, is the texture. You want the bite to be firm, but juicy and tender. Many vegan burgers come out too soft and mushy, and that’s not cool. Brown rice is a perfect base for a meatless burger because it gives the satisfaction of having eaten a filling burger without the red meat and still strikes the right balance between chewy and soft. This recipe is foundational, and you can get creative with your choice of veggies, spices, and condiments as long as you keep the veggie to brown rice to bread crumb ratio intact. Enjoy!

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Vegan Brown Rice Burger

by Aylin @ Glow Kitchen

Ingredients (15-20 patties)

  • 2.5 cups of cooked brown rice
  • 1.5 cups of bread crumbs (whole-wheat or gluten-free)
  • 1.5 cups of mixed vegetables (carrot, zucchini, red onion, and mushrooms)
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • 2 tbsp of olive oil for cooking

Instructions

Chop the veggies into small pieces. Grate the carrot to make chopping easier. Add the pieces to a large bowl.

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Fold the rice (cooked according to package instructions) into the veggies.

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Toast 2 to 3 pieces of whole-wheat bread and then food process until they resemble bread crumbs (to make 2 cups). Fold the bread crumbs into the vegetable and brown rice mixture.

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Time to use your hands! With clean hands, massage all the ingredients together so they are evenly distributed and hold together easily when packed.

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Make 3/4-inch thick patties about the length of your palm.

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Cook in oil until both sides are browned (about 2 minutes per side).

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Serve atop leaves and fresh tomatoes and any other toppings of your choice. You can roll the leaves around the burger for a healthier bun.

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Pair the burgers with homemade ketchup! Enjoy!

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Bon Appetit!

xo Aylin

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Quinoa Cakes & Flax Egg Tutorial

Have you ever made a flax egg? Sounds kind of strange, but many vegan recipes call for a flax egg to replace a real egg. I’ve never made one until very recently and it had always sounded weird and complicated to do, but it takes a mere minutes and the process comes in handy whenever I want to up the glow of any dish I’m making. Like quinoa cakes with homemade ketchup!

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Before we get to the quinoa cakes, let’s get the glow down:

Flax seeds: fight diabetes, has a high amount of cancer-protective compounds lignans (up to 800 times the amount as in any tested plant food) and alpha linolenic acid, fights constipation with its soluble and insoluble fiber content (one ounce of flax provides 32% of the US daily allowance of fiber), combats inflammation with its Omega-3 essential fatty acids, prevents menopausal symptoms with its estrogen-like phyoestrogens, fights heart disease by reducing LDL (bad) cholesterol, boosts the immune system, improved Alzheimer’s symptoms, and helps brain function and overall mood.

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Quinoa Cakes

Before preparing the quinoa cakes, make yesterday’s recipe. For the quinoa cakes, all you have to do is add 2 more ingredients to the Rainbow Quinoa Salad: 1 flax egg and 3 tbsp of oat flour.

For the flax egg:

Take one tablespoon of flax seeds, grind them up, put them into a bowl with 3 tablespoons of water. Let sit for about 5-10 minutes.

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You will notice that the water congeals and becomes jelly-like. Almost like an egg white.

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That was easier to do than I thought!

For the quinoa cakes:

Add the flax egg to the Rainbow Quinoa Salad.

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Fold in the oat flour. If you have oats, simple food process the oats until they are fine like flour.

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Mix the quinoa thoroughly with the other ingredients. Shake into little palm cup-sized patties. Place delicately on a baking sheet, drizzle with extra-virgin olive oil, and bake at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 minutes, or until the patties hold together and are crispy on the outside.

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When they are finished cooking, they should look like this:

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Serve on a plate with some homemade ketchup to dip. Enjoy!

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Grab and dip!

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Bon Appetit!

xo Aylin

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Rainbow Quinoa Salad

This is a quick chop-chuck-‘n-chew recipe that I make all the time, depending on what grain and vegetable leftovers I have. I chop the vegetables small, toss with cooked quinoa (or any grain for that matter) and fold in a simple lemon and olive oil dressing. It’s a fresh, light, and satisfying way to get rid of veggies on their last leg and put to good use otherwise bland grains.

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Its glowsomeness revealed:

Quinoa: is a protein powerhouse (one cup has 9 grams), containing all  of the essential amino acids and is thus a complete protein, is rich in fiber and digests slowly as to provide a feeling of fullness, acts an an internal cleanser and helps keep you “regular”, contributes to liver health with it vitamin B and folate content, builds bones with his good calcium content, and offer 15 percent of the U.S. recommended daily allowance of iron in just one cup, helping to deliver oxygen to the blood and boosting energy and brain power.

Keeps you sharp, thin, and strong. Make sure you get some!

Rainbow Quinoa Salad

by Aylin @ Glow Kitchen

Ingredients

  • 2 cups cooked quinoa
  • 1 yellow red pepper, diced
  • 1 tomato, diced
  • 1 green pepper, diced
  • 1 carrot, shredded
  • 1 red onion, chopped
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp pepper
  • 1/3 cup olive oil
  • Juice of 1/2 a lemon

Instructions

Begin by chopping the veggies into fine pieces. Grate the carrot.  Add to two cups of cooked quinoa.

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For the dressing, whisk together salt, pepper, olive oil and juice of 1/2 a lemon. Fold into quinoa mixture until all is evenly coated.

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The dressing helps break down the toughness of the raw vegetables, evening out the textures and making for an awesome bite.

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Serve and enjoy!

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Bon Appetit!

xo Aylin

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Sassy Sweet Potato Chunks

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And, now to fooooood:

From my trip to London this past week, I brought back three sweet potatoes. I used to have sweet potato basically every day when living in the States, and haven’t had one since I moved to Istanbul a year ago, only because Turkey is lacking in the potato variety department. And while my favorite way to eat sweet potatoes is baked with a slab (+ more) of butter, I figure I should mark the rare sweet potato occasion with a bit more creativity.

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Sweet potatoes are super high on the glow spectrum.

Sweet potato: is high in vitamin B6 that helps reduce degenerative diseases, is packed with vitamin C and D, helps maintain skin’s youthful elasticity, contributes to healthy bones, heart, nerves, skin, and teeth, supports the thyroid gland, contains iron for white cell production, stress reduction and immune function, works as an anti-stress and relaxing agent due to its magnesium content, regulates heartbeat and nerve signals with potassium, has sugars that are slowly released into the bloodstream and thus don’t cause sugar spikes, and are high in carotenoids and antioxidants to help ward off cancer.

Above all, sweet potatoes are insanely versatile. Just because they are sweet doesn’t mean they have to be complemented with other sweet ingredients – savory works wonders too. You can enjoy them any time of the day as well – baked and stirred into a morning oatmeal, boiled in a hearty, vegetarian chili for lunch, used as a side dish of baked French fries, or enjoyed as the main course in the form of baked vegan falafel.

Sassy Sweet Potato Wedges

by Aylin @ Glow Kitchen

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients (2 servings)

  • 1 sweet potato
  • 1 red onion
  • 1.5 tsp red pepper flakes
  • 1.5 tsp coriander
  • Juice of half an orange
  • 1 tbsp honey
  • 1 garlic clove, chopped finely
  • Half of a handful of parsley, chopped
  • About 10 olives
  • 1 tbsp currants

Instructions

Chop the sweet potatoes and red onion into 1-2 inch chunks.

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Toss the sweet potato and onion onto a baking sheet with red pepper flakes and coriander.

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In a small bowl, whisk together the orange juice, diced garlic, and honey. Pour over the sweet potato mixture, tossing with clean hands until the liquid mixture is distributed evenly.

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Bake in a 375 degree Fahrenheit oven for 40 minutes. Expect the house to smell amazing!

When finished, garnish with chopped parsley, olives, and currants.

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Enjoy!

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Bon Appetit!

xo Aylin

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Summer Squash

A lovely, refreshing Saturday side dish.

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Ingredients:

– squash (any type)

– 3 cloves garlic, diced

– 1 inch chunk fresh garlic, dice

– juice of 1/2 lemon

– 1/4 tsp sea salt

– juice of 1 lime

– 1 medium red onion, diced

– 1 tsp salt

– 1/4 cup olive oil

Directions:

Cut the tops off of the squash and de-seed them, carving out the inside of all the “flesh”.

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Salt the inside of each squash.

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Place the squash on aluminum foil.

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To prepare the inside, keep in mind that this isn’t meant to be a stuffing, it is only meant to accent the squash, giving it a little extra flavor and tang. Volume isn’t key here.

First finely dice the garlic cloves with some salt to help break it down to a mash.

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Take a 1 inch nob of ginger, squeeze on it half a lemon and a dash of salt, and dice to a mash.

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Next to the mix comes the lime. Squeeze the juice atop the garlic and ginger.

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Dice the onion, and toss it into the rest of the mixture.

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Next, put an even amount of the red onion mixture into each squash. Pour the remaining juice evenly into each as well.

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Drizzle evenly with olive oil.

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Close the lids and pop into the oven at 450 degrees for 20-30 minutes, or until soft on the inside and the skin crispy.

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Ta da!!!

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The result is absolutely refreshing! When you cut into it, the red onion insides releases like a sauce. The soft squash melts in the mouth and the red onion gives the dish depth with a kick of lime overtone. It’s a light delight.

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Bon apetit!

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xo Aylin