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Mushrooms, Beans, And More In Your Burger

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In my last post, Are There Veggies In Your Veggie Burger, I talked about the ingredients in some commercial veggie burgers. A veggie burger patty can be made from any combination of vegetables, legumes, nuts, dairy products, mushrooms, soy, wheat, or eggs.  Many commercial veggie burgers are soy based.  Defatted soybean meal, is the  primary, low-cost source of protein for these burgers and for many prepackaged meals – as well as for animal feed.

Then There’s The Extras

Although most veggie burgers are fairly low in calories and in fat and are often thought of as a healthy alternative (which they may or may not be), don’t forget the extras — they add a ton of calories, not all of them healthy.

The add-ons include the bun the burger comes on, some cheese, more veggies (maybe grilled with oil), and the dressing.  Mayo adds a ton of calories — Hellman’s has 90 calories and 10g of fat (2 saturated) per tablespoon.  Flavored mayonnaise, pesto, chipotle and others, is still mayonnaise – and still racks up the calories and fat grams.  Don’t be fooled by “special” sauces, either.  They are usually fat based – after all a restaurant wants their veggie burger to be tasty and filling.

If it’s a pure vegetable burger you’re aiming for, try a Portobello mushroom as the patty as in the recipe below.

Portobello Mushroom Burgers

Here’s the Mayo Clinic’s recipe for Portobello Mushroom Burgers (Serves 4)

One mushroom burger (note these stats are for one burger – the recipe is for four — has  283 calories, 8g protein, 9g fat (1 saturated), 140 mg sodium, 46g carbs, 9g fiber, 8g protein.

Ingredients: 4 large portobello mushroom caps, 5 inches in diameter
 * 1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
 * 1/2 cup water
* 1 tablespoon sugar
* 1 minced garlic clove * 
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional) * 
2 tablespoons olive oil * 
4 whole-wheat buns, toasted
* 4 slices tomato
* 4 slices red onion
*2 bibb lettuce leaves

  • Clean the mushrooms with a damp cloth, remove their stems, put them in a glass dish, stem (gill) side up.
  • Whisk the vinegar, water, sugar, garlic, cayenne pepper and olive oil fpr the marinade and drizzle it over the mushrooms. Cover and marinate in the fridge for about an hour, turning the mushrooms once.
  • Heat a grill or broiler. Lightly coat the grill rack or broiler pan with cooking spray and position it 4 to 6 inches from the heat source.
  • Grill or broil the mushrooms on medium heat, turning often, until tender, about 5 minutes on each side, basting with the marinade to keep them from drying out.
  • Put each mushroom on a bun and top with 1 tomato slice, 1 onion slice and 1/2 lettuce leaf. Serve immediately.

Black Bean Veggie Burgers

Here’s another recipe from allrecipes.com that is primarily vegetables.

Per burger (without extras):  198 calories, 3g fat, 607 mg sodium, 33.1g carbs, 11.2g protein

Ingredients: 1 (16 ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed  *  1/2 green bell pepper, cut into 2 inch pieces  * 1/2 onion, cut into wedges  *  3 cloves garlic, peeled  *  1 egg  *   1 tablespoon chili powder  *   1 tablespoon cumin  *   1 teaspoon Thai chili sauce or hot sauce  *   1/2 cup bread crumbs

  • Preheat an outdoor grill for high heat or preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Lightly oil tin foil or a baking sheet.
  • Mash the black beans with a fork until thick and pasty.
  • Finely chop the bell pepper, onion, and garlic in a food processor.  Stir into mashed beans.
  • Mix together the egg, chili powder, cumin, and chili sauce and stir into the mashed beans. Mix in bread crumbs until the mixture is sticky and holds together. Divide into four patties.
  • If grilling, place patties on foil, and grill about 8 minutes on each side. If baking, place patties on baking sheet, and bake about 10 minutes on each side.

Other Options

There are plenty of recipes for veggie burgers made with beans, lentils and chickpeas and with brown rice, bulgur, and faro, and other grains (as well as good quality bread crumbs) as binders.  Mushrooms are common because of their meaty flavor and bulk.  Use your favorite vegetable.  Be creative.  You can make wonderful veggie burgers with a high vegetable content, a high deliciousness quotient, and without non-plant additives and binders.

If you don’t want to go all veggie, think about perking up your beef or turkey burgers by adding veggies to them. It lightens up the calories and adds a nutrient punch.  The veggies can be roughly chopped, or, for the finicky – try pureeing them (not to liquid a consistency) and then adding them to burgers or meatloaf.

One of my sons played lacrosse in college.  At team barbecues they always had some portobellos to throw on the grill for the vegetarians on the team.  It’s as easy as tossing on hunks of meat.  Try it some time.  Enjoy.

Are There Veggies In Your Veggie Burger?

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I had a Portobello mushroom burger the other day.  The burger was a whole Portobello cap – not ground up stuff that always leaves me wondering what exactly is making up the brown burger shaped thing that I’m eating.

Don’t get me wrong – I like veggie burgers – I just don’t like unidentified mixtures described as a veggie burger.  That could mean a whole range of ground up veggies – perhaps the ones left over from last evening’s dinner.  It could also mean almost no veggies and a whole lot of fillers and non-meat protein additives to give the burger some bulk and to make the patty stick together.

Veggie Burgers Are Everywhere

You can find veggie burgers everywhere – Burger King has a BK Veggie Burger and the frozen food aisle is loaded with them.  But are they healthier than a hamburger or turkey burger?

A regular, not a whopper, monster, or even a large size hamburger eats up a big chunk of the  recommended daily limit of 15 to 30 grams of saturated fat (depending on caloric intake).  Most veggie burgers have none to one gram of saturated fat – without the bun, cheese, mayo, etc.

Most veggie burgers weigh 2.5 ounces and have 70 to 170 calories. A “standard” meat patty is three ounces after cooking (a quarter pound of uncooked ground beef yields a 3 ounce burger). A patty made from ¼ pound of ground chuck has 193 calories, 12 g of fat (4 saturated).  Obviously, the size of the burger and the type and leanness of the meat affects its nutrition content.

Why Eat A Veggie Burger?

Some people eat veggie burgers rather than traditional hamburgers to cut calories and saturated fat, to boost their dietary fiber intake, to cut back on red meat, or for the convenience of being able to cook a frozen veggie burger in a couple of minutes.

BUT — know what you’re eating.  Shockingly, not all veggie burgers are mostly veggies.  The ones with more soy and some oil produce a more burger like texture and the ones with more grains and vegetables are less meat-like.  However, based on the ingredient lists shown below – you should question how many vegetables you are getting.

Where’s The Veggies?

Boca Burger: 120 calories, 5g fat (1.5 saturated), 380 mg sodium, 6g cars, 5g fiber, 14g protein

  • Ingredients: water, soy protein concentrate, reduced fat cheddar cheese (pasteurized part-skim milk, cheese culture, slat (no typo this is from their website), enzymes, annatto (color), vitamin A palmitate, wheat gluten, corn oil, contains less than 2% of methylcellulose, hydrolyzed corn protein, wheat gluten and soy protein, slat, caramel color, cheese powder (cheddar cheese, milk, cheese culture, salt, enzymes), cream, salt, sodium phosphate, lactic acid, dried onions, yeast extract, natural flavor (non-meat), sesame oil, disodium guanylate, disodium inosinate, browned in corn oil.

Boca Grilled Vegetable Patty: 80 calories, 1g fat, 300mg sodium, 7g carbs, 4g fiber, 12g protein

  • Ingredients: water, soy protein concentrate, red bell peppers, corn succhini, green bell peppers, onions, wheat gluten, contains less than 2% of asiago cheese (pasteurized part-skim milk, cheese culture, salt, enzymes, potassium sorbate as a preservative, low-moisture part skim mozzarella cheese (cultured pasteurized part-skim milk, salt, enzymes), dried garlic, methylcellulose, salt, caramel color, dried onions, autolyzed yeast extra ct, natural flavor (non-meat), spice, dextrose

MorningStar Farms Grillers Vegan Veggie Burgers: 100 calories, 2.5g fat, 4g fiber, 12g protein  (from website, I couldn’t find sodium count)

  • Ingredients: water, textured soy protein concentrate, corn oil, contains two percent or less of autolyzed yeast extract, vegetable gum, natural flavors from vegetable sources, maltodextrin, soy fiber, salt, carrageenan, potato starch, onion powder, caramel color, disodium inosinate, disodium guanylate, konjac flour, sunflower oil, sesame seed oil, soy sauce (water, soybeans, wheat, salt), concentrated onion juice, ascorbic acid, vinegar powder, citric acid, aspartic acid, modified corn starch, malic acid, succinic acid, tartaric acid, lactic acid, wheat flour, soy lecithin

BK Veggie Burger (as described on their website):  A Morningstar Farms Garden Veggie Patty, garden crisp vegetables, whole grains, and spices all topped with lettuce, red ripe tomatoes, ketchup, creamy mayo, served on a sesame seed bun

  • Nutrition: 400 calories, 16g fat (2.5 saturated), 1020 mg sodium, 43g carbs (8 sugar), 22g protein

BK Hamburger: flame-broiled beef patty, crunchy pickles, yellow mustard, ketchup, sesame seed bun.

  • Nutrition: 260 calories, 10g fat (4 saturated), 490 mg sodium, 27g carbs (6g sugar), 13g protein

Enough said!!!  Come back on Friday for some choices for veggie burgers with a few more veggies in the mix!

How Much Real Food Do You Eat?

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Have you seen the TV commercials where a parent does whacko things to prevent her child from knowing that canned pasta in tomato sauce counts as a vegetable serving?

Give me a break.  Kids need to know that vegetables are great food – and that they come from a garden not from a can of pasta with tomato sauce or from a mixture of vegetable juices.  In case you missed it, during Jamie Oliver’s attempts to change school cafeteria foods he goes into an elementary school classroom and asks the kids to identify the vegetables he holds up. They didn’t even know what an actual tomato looked like.

The health gurus tell us over and over again that vegetables and fruit are a necessary part of a healthy diet.  They do all kinds of good things for our bodies.  They taste good, they’re a whole lot cheaper than meat, fish, and many types of dairy products, and they don’t have the saturated fat found in animal foods.

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC):

  • Only a third of Americans eat two or more fruit servings a day – with orange juice ranking first in consumption.
  • Only a quarter eat three or more vegetable servings each day with potato the number one veggie (if you guess long, skinny, and fried as the most popular form you’ve grabbed the brass ring).

The Way It Was

I grew up in New York City in an era when canned and then frozen veggies reigned.  But, I would spend summers and vacations on my Grandmother’s farm in Pennsylvania and eat produce straight from the garden – or from what had been “put up” at the end of the harvest season.

My Aunt, the 12th child of my grandparents’ 13 kids, sent me the following email:

My mother did canning the old fashioned way, it was called cold packing.  Everything you wanted to preserve was cleaned and packed into bottles —  because of our large family we used 2 quart bottles.  After the bottles were packed they were put into a big vat of water and brought to a boil. The boiling time depended on what was in the bottles.

Our family packed 210 quarts of tomatoes, 180 quarts of string beans, and about 80 to100 quarts of fruit (cherries, blueberries, etc.). We made our own jelly and jam such as strawberry, grape, and peach. We dried beans and peas in the sun also picked mushrooms and dried them for the winter.

Talk about eating real food and a diet filled with vegetables!

The Bottom Line

Although most of us don’t grow and preserve out food anymore, farmer’s markets and even supermarkets are giving many of us easier access to beautiful fresh produce.  Still, Americans lag far behind the government’s recommended servings for fruit and vegetables.

According to the Harvard School of Public Health, a diet rich in vegetables and fruit has significant health benefits including:  lower blood pressure; a reduced risk of stroke, heart disease, and probably some cancers; decreased risk of digestive and eye disorders; and an evening out of blood sugar which helps control your appetite.

The goal for most people is at least nine servings (4½ cups) of vegetables and fruit a day, and according to the Harvard School of Public Health, potatoes don’t count. To give your body the nutrients it needs try to eat a variety of produce, especially dark leafy greens, cooked tomatoes, and anything that’s a rich yellow, orange, or red color.

The Challenge

Challenge yourself to try a new kind of fruit or vegetable, or experiment in preparing it or serving it in new ways. Cook it, eat it raw, add it to a recipe, and jazz it up with herbs and spices which are also good for you.  Once you start trying, you’ll be amazed at how many opportunities there are to add fruit and veggies to your meals.  For your health’s sake, make it a challenge and a goal for you and your family to eat more produce.

Rx: Apples And Some Broccoli

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A sample prescription

A Prescription For Veggies?

Yea for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the docs at three medical centers who are writing prescriptions for produce for families with weight problems.

Families with low incomes get coupons for produce that they can redeem at local farmers’ markets. The value of a coupon is $1 per person per day. It seems like a small amount, but with the coupons a family of four can get $120 of fresh produce  a month.

What’s The Rationale?

This objective is to get kids to increase their fruit and veggies by one serving a day.  It is also seen as a opportunity to introduce the children, who have a limited range of exposure, to real food.  The coupon is somewhat symbolic – the $1 coupon competes with the 99 cent fast food meals so familiar to these kids.

Obesity Has Tripled

According to the CDC, childhood obesity has more than tripled over the last 30 years.   Sedentary lifestyles and limited access to fresh, healthy food are seen as reasons for this rapid increase. Along with handing out the coupons, the doctors will follow the families receiving the coupons to determine how their eating patterns are affected.  They will also monitor health parameters like weight and body mass index (BMI).

The hope is, too, that the families become invested in good nutritional practices by hanging out with both the farmers and the consumers at the farmers’ market – and that they then develop a preference for shopping at these types of markets rather than fast food restaurants, supermarkets, big box and convenience stores.

Will It Help Farmers’ Markets, Too?

It may also help the farmers’ markets compete with the fast food vendors who entice kids and families with cheap calories and cheap meals.

The number of farmers’ markets has dramatically increased: from 1,755 in 1994 to more than 5,200.  Although US farmers’ markets generate over $1 billion in annual sales, they are low on the totem pole compared to the fast food industry which brought in over $22.79 billion in 2008.

Healthy Eating Patterns And Lifestyles

As the mayor of Boston said, “When I go to work in the morning, I see kids standing at the bus stop eating chips and drinking a soda.  I hope this will help them change their eating habits and lead to a healthier lifestyle.”

What Can You Do With All Of Those Darn Tomatoes?

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It’s a banner year for tomatoes in the northeast and I have red ones — both large and small — pinkish ones that are sort of heart shaped, plums, green striped ones, and canary yellow ones. The voracious woodchucks and chipmunks (I watched a little Alvin wrestle a tomato off a plant on my deck, roll it across to the stairs, and  then snag it in his mouth like a toddler carrying a giant beach ball) are feasting to their hearts’ content and there is still a surplus.

An Experimental Mixture

Some unexpected company for a casual dinner gave me an opportunity to experiment, to use up some odds and ends in the fridge,  and to invade the tomato surplus.

Aside from my  tomato abundance, I had a big bowl of ripe peaches from the farmers market, lots of basil growing on the deck, and a hunk of feta cheese.

Do Things That Grow Together Go Together?

I had read somewhere that things that grow during the same growing season go together.  Now that may or may not be true, but why not try peaches and tomatoes together?

To go with a roasted chicken I picked up at the market (of course I know I could have grilled some cutlets, but sometimes a shortcut or two is a sanity saver), I made an absolutely delicious tomato, peach, feta and basil salad.

Tomato, Peach, Feta, And Basil Salad

I did not use any precise measurements although the chopped amounts of tomatoes and peaches looked about the same.

Ingredients:

  • Equal amounts of tomatoes and ripe peaches
  • Crumbled feta cheese to taste
  • Fresh basil to taste
  • Salt
  • Balsamic vinegar

1.   Core and seed the tomatoes.

2.  Chop tomatoes into bite sized pieces salt them and let them drain

3.  Remove peach pits and chop into bite sized pieces about the same size as the tomatoes

4.  Make a chiffonade of basil (cut into thin strips)

5.  Mix everything together

6.  Add the crumbled feta

7.  Mix again

8.  Correct the salt and add balsamic vinegar if desired

9.  Serve at room temperature

10.Refrigerate any leftovers which are great the next day as a type of tomato/peach salsa on fish, chicken, sandwiches or anything else you can think of.

Finish Dinner With Blueberries

The perfect — and easy end to such a simple and delicious dinner was the blueberry buckle I wrote about a couple of weeks ago. I had blueberries from the farmers market, too, so I used those, bit I could have combined blueberries and peaches or other berries or stone fruit, too.

SocialDieter Tip:

Roasted chicken; tomato, peach, and feta salad; and blueberry buckle add up to a rather low calorie, low fat meal especially if you have the chicken without the skin, use fat free feta in the salad, and skim milk and decreased amounts of sugar and butter in the blueberry buckle recipe.  Delicious, nutritious, low in calories, and easy.