Rehydrated TSP/TVP is a fantastic substitute for ground beef in many recipes. It is super easy to rehydrate. All you have to do it heat up water or broth to boiling, pour it over the TVP, let it sit for 10 minutes and you are ready to start cooking. On its own it has very little flavor, but it will readily take up the flavor of any liquid or flavoring it is cooked with. Here is the really good news: each 1/2 cup serving has 24 g of protein and less than 1/2 g of fat! Now that is a huge difference from ground beef. Extra lean ground beef has a whopping 9 g of fat per 3 oz. TVP = 0 cholesterol per serving, ground beef 74 mg of cholesterol. The numbers don't lie. If you are concerned about your fat and cholesterol intake, consider trying this out in some of your ground beef recipes.
As promised, today I will be giving one lucky follower a chance at winning The Best Veggie Burgers on the Planet by Joni Marie Newman. This book is full of round patties of every variety (101 varieties to be exact). The traditional burger takes on all sorts of incarnations in her fun and creative book. Seriously...there are breakfast and dessert burgers in there! She also includes some yummy side dishes so you can make a complete meal from one book. Included are some great condiments and even a dessert section.
Joni even gives a little lesson how to re-hydrate TVP...how convenient! I decided to go a bit more traditional for my first recipe from the book. It features...go figure...TVP as the main protein. It is used in two different ways: as Imitation Bacon Bits (pg. 185) and as the main protein of the Bacon Cheeseburger (pg. 89) itself. I also started to make the Quick and Simple BBQ Sauce (pg. 183), but it wasn't my thing, so I doctored it up quite a bit. BBQ sauce is very subjective, but I found to be out of balance somehow. But getting back to the burger, there are three protein sources in the burger: TSP, vital wheat gluten and peanut butter. This is certainly an unorthodox combo, but it works. The texture is really firm and chewy, in the very best way. I cooked it on my griddle pan, but this burger would work beautifully on the grill. We served it topped with a grilled onion slice, tomato slices, spicy pickles and lots and lots of BBQ sauce. It takes a bit of time if you make your own bacon bits and BBQ sauce, but if you made those ahead of time, these come together pretty quickly. I'll make these again for sure!
Here is the moment we've all been waiting for: giveaway time! To be eligible to win all you have to do is be a follower of the blog and make a comment about anything burger related on this post by 11pm MST today! The winner will be selected by random.org tomorrow morning. Don't live in the US? That's OK, you can win too! Good luck and good eating!!!
22 comments:
I love burgers!, but only a recent Veg Head and while I have TVP, I have no idea how to use it yet! A) looking forward to seeing folks tips, I do the black bean burger & Gardein in the meantime, B) Look forward to reading this site in the future (thanks again Vegan MoFo) and C) ... I wonder if breakfast is too early for a burger, I'm hungry!
Love love love that book, I'm not participating in the giveaway! I find those burgers to be fantastic.
As much as I love burgers, I don't make them often enough. This book would be good inspiration I'm sure!
To me, a burger is all about the toppings. I love to add every veggie I can find, anything spicy and pickled, and yummy spreads like hummus, pesto, or white bean aioli.
I love making TVP tacos, but I've never used it for burgers. I'd love to check out this book.
I've only made black bean burgers at home before, so I am VERY intrigued by 101 different varieties!
That looks tasty! Can you detect much peanut butter flavor in it or no? I'm not a big PB fan but I'd tolerate it to make a burger with a great texture.
Everyone in my house likes vegan burgers, but aside from the black bean burgers in Veganomicon, I haven't really found a recipe yet that I liked enough to make more than once. I've been thinking about picking this book up because while black bean burgers are great, sometimes I want something just a little less... beany...
Your blog is part of my Google Reader feed, I hope that counts as following. I would love to learn how to make my own burgers! :)
I love Joni! and would love to see this book in print. I remember when she was going to self publish and was excited about it then, even more so now!! Would love to win.
Your burger looks amazing, I love those grill marks! My favorite veggie burger is a recipe by Guy Fieri's sister, Morgan called the Legit Veggie Burger, which I veganized by using flax powder in lieu of the eggs. My mother in law was actually the one to introduce me to the recipe and I am ever so grateful. I would love to have a cookbook all about brgers so I could learn to love more!!!
I love burgers. Pretty much anything tastes better in round patty form!
Dude, this is freaking perfect! I have a package of TSP and some vital wheat gluten in my cabinet and I had no idea what to do with them. This recipe sounds most excellent!
I am now a follower - thanks for hosting the awesome giveaway!
What do you put in your burgers? I usually mash some beans and add mashed or shredded veggies and then toss in seasonings and a little cornstarch to hold everything together. Sometimes I add ground sunflower seeds and millet and the like, too. Blah blah blah. ;p
In contrast, I always add some kind of flour (wheat or rice or otherwise) to my bean sausages.)
Awww, awesome! I read your description of the burger, and it alleviated my worry that you were losing that south-west flair I have come to know and love from the test site! *lol* Glad you mixed up the barbeque sauce until it's ingredients founf their happy place for your palate! Mmm, barbeque sauce! :) Also can't wait to see some south-westernesque vittles appearing in your mofo posts!
That looks so amazing like all of your food! I haven't had a TVP burger made by hand before, but I've done lots of other stuff with TVP. Those grill marks are insane! Awesome!
I haven't had that many vegan burgers myself yet, when I think about it; I've never had a made-from-scratch burger, the only times I've had them were either a slice of pre-made seitan pan-fried, or from a restaurant (Loving Hut, and I loved their burger)! So I'd love to try getting into making my own, at home...with obsessively uniform patties and cute homemade burger buns and condiments and...yum.
I have made these burgers, and they are yum! I think Joni is a TVP whisperer.
I looove a good burger, they tend to be my quick fix meal when there are no burritos left in my freezer. There are only two recipes that have won my heart over so far, yours being one of them *cough*suck up*cough*, but I'd love to have this book for more variety, plus this whole dessert burger thing intrigues me.
What an awesome book! Vegan burgers are usually a difficult item to pull off, this book makes the success rate to be 100% guaranteed!
I love burgers and your burger looks awesome! I've really enjoyed the theme of your MoFo posts. Thanks for offering such a great giveaway!
Yay for burgers! I have no idea what time it is in your time zone right now, but hopefully it is still time.
The first burgers I ever made as a vegan were the Almond Oat Burgers from The Complete Vegan Cookbook. They were so tasty. The thing I love about vegan burgers is that because we aren't limited by what ingredients people think 'should' be in a burger (i.e. sad and icky meat and egg and stuff), we can make them whatever we want them to be!
Beth! You are the winner. Thanks to all of you who commented. I now know that we all share the love of the burger!!!
Welcome to all of you new followers too! I'm excited to have you hear!
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