Veggie Burger

Here we are, on the last day of Meatless March! 31 days of avoiding eating animals have come to an end, and I am imagining cows mooing their thank yous for my month-long abstinence from meat.

Don't tell the bovines, but I am looking forward to reintroducing meat occasionally into my diet, to be perfectly honest. I wouldn't mind some sushi now and then, or a real beef burger here and there. But the evidence is clear that a meaty diet is bad for the earth, and I'm done with that. Change isn't always easy, but it keeps us vital, doesn't it? It is a beautiful trait to be able to adapt.

I plan to continue this blog as I try new vegetarian dishes to share. Thank you for reading! Thank you to everyone who sent me recipes or otherwise encouraged me! Thank you for considering how you might help fight climate change by reducing meat in your own diet!

Settling in to the last Meatless March supper, framed by forsythia harvested from our yard

"Never again" was my declaration after the first time I made "The Ultimate Veggie Burger," from NYT Cooking, a couple years ago. It tasted and looked great, but it took a lot of darned effort, and didn't hold together on my grill.

I ignored the advice of two-years-ago Jennie, and gave it another whirl today.

I think I made an error that first time in using an excessive amount of beets. The recipe calls for a "medium" beet and I'm afraid mine today was honking large, as beets sometimes are. I only needed a fraction of it, and resisted adding more. I often live by the motto "if something's worth doing, it's worth overdoing," but in the case of beets in this recipe, overdoing it just gives you a crumbly burger.

That's one big beet, yo

Resist the urge to shred more than 3/4 cup of your whopping big beet!

The patties before grilling. They look a lot like meat!

I put the patties on the sandwich press rather than a real grill tonight, and that also helped. They turned out well. Yes, they take a lot of prep, but for a special occasion, like the end of Meatless March, that's not unreasonable.