Recipe #17: tofu burgers

 Back in my vegetarian student days, long before I had a good handle on rubbishy cooking from scratch, I relied on a lot of prepackaged meals and mixes. One such favourite was a boxed mix to add to tofu as a seasoning and binder to make “homemade” tofu burgers. It wasn’t just easy to use, but it was extremely tasty. I believe the brand was “Casbah” but who knows, because it’s long gone…

Even though I’m no longer a vegetarian, I still love many of the vegetarian standbys from that phase of my life. I really loved those tofu burgers and have been determined to recreate the flavours I remember from the boxed mix.

Many failed attempts, experiments, and 25 years later, I think I’ve done it! Behold!

Ingredients:

Missing from the above photo: neutral cooking oil, I use canola.

Directions:

Drain, then pat and squeeze dry your block of firm or extra firm tofu, using a clean tea towel. Then put the dried tofu into a shallow bowl and smash it up real good with a potato mashing device:

Add a good amount of quick oats, slightly less flax meal, some sesame seeds, a handful of nutritional yeast, be generous with the garlic and onion powders (the main flavours), and a few shakes of tamari sauce (also flavour enhancing and only source of salt). As always, start with less of everything and add more to get the right consistency.

And now, get your hands in there and mix and massage everything together, adding more of anything you may need to get the correct consistency if necessary:

The picture above shows the right consistency.

Heat a large nonstick frying pan over medium high heat, add a few glug of neutral cooking oil, and when it’s hot, add your hand-formed tofu burgers:

As you can see in the picture above, because I don’t measure out my burgers, they come in various sizes. I see this as an advantage: sometimes one wants a large burger, sometimes one wants a baby burger.

When golden brown on one side, flip them over:

You may need to turn down the heat to medium at this point.

When golden brown on both sides, but not fully cooked in the middle, put them on a toaster oven tray and put them in the toaster oven at 375F for about 10 minutes to finish the job:

Serve the finished burger as you wish! 

I’m having mine with a dollop of homemade tzatziki (recipe to come), and sides of buttered new potatoes with sour cream, and buttered yellow beans. This is not at all how I usually eat them but it works!

Leftovers can be kept in the fridge or frozen, then reheated in the toaster oven, the microwave, or eaten cold. I always have plenty of leftovers because nobody eats them except me. Bonus!