Jalapeño Burgers and Avocado Fries

If I eat fried stuff, it's almost always onion rings. But last night, we gave fried avocado wedges a try. They will never take over the position of onion rings in my book, but they're fun because you dip them in salsa instead of ketchup.  I'm thinking anyone who had a penchant for fried mozzarella in another life would enjoy these.  If I make them again, I'll add a slice of onion to make an avocado/onion ring hybrid.

I used the recipe from American Vegan Kitchen. If you don't have the book but are interested, you can find a similar recipe on Tami's blog here. They are coated in a batter that is basically equal parts flour and beer, with a little lime juice; they fry up quite nicely.

I couldn't get a good shot of the inside, but here's a blurry one:

The burgers were sort of an experiment that turned out reasonably well. I baked a loaf of seitan, ground it up into mince, then sauteed it with some finely chopped mushrooms, onion, garlic, jalapeño peppers, oregano, a splash of vegan worcestershire and salt/pepper.  I tossed the mushroom/seitan mixture into a bowl and added a cup or so of  vital wheat gluten and a bit of water to get a patty-making consistency. Then, I browned them on the stove before baking them in the oven for about a half an hour.

They were soft, but held together well...if I made them again, I would add walnuts. They were fairly tasty and paired well with some vegan sour cream.

Baked seitan works especially well for making mince, I find.

seitan loaf

chunks o' seitan

seitan mince

mushroom/jalapeño/seitan patties

Now I'm off to carve these pumpkins:

See y'all Monday for  Vegan MoFo. 

Happy Halloween!