I have been thinking about burgers lately. Not beef hamburgers, but about meatless patties. When I was in high school, I practically lived on Gardenburgers and Boca Burgers. Then I matured and realized that I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life eating frozen, packaged food (but not until after I ate about 203948 Lean Pockets and frozen dinners in college.)

Now that I’m a ripe old 25, I decided to try and create my own burgers out of tofu. And rice. And an egg, to bind it all together. I was desperately hoping the patties wouldn’t crumble to pieces when I put them in the pan… and they didn’t! I’m so excited to try different flavor combinations using the tofu-rice-egg base.

I usually have a big pot of rice ready to go at all times. Lately I’ve been doing about a 2:1 ratio of white to brown, cooked up together in the same pot. That’s what I used here, although I’m sure purely white rice would work really well. I’m not so sure about purely brown rice, because it’s not as sticky, but I’ll leave that for future investigations (or you could try it and tell me how it is!)

These would be great on a bun with a little hoisin sauce and thinly sliced Napa cabbage, or alongside Asian Slaw Salad

Recipe
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
16 ounces firm tofu, pressed to remove excess water
1/2 cup cooked rice
3 tbsp chopped green onion
2 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 egg
a few tablespoons vegetable oil, for cooking

Chop the tofu into small pieces, then put into a large bowl and squeeze with your hands until smooth.
Stir in remaining ingredients and mix thoroughly.
Heat about a tablespoon of oil in a large frying pan. Swirl the pan so the oil is distributed evenly.
Pat about 1/3 cup tofu mixture between your hands to form a patty. (Bite-sized burgers are fun too!)
Place in the pan and cook, 3-4 minutes on each side or until golden and firm.

Makes 6-8 burgers.

Japchae is one of my favorite Korean dishes, but the first version I made was extremely time consuming. I wanted to try making something similar, but that didn’t take two hours and require millions of pots and pans. I’m pretty happy with what I came up with.

Korean red pepper paste might be available in your local Asian grocery store, but if it isn’t, you can use a few dashes of Siracha. The flavor won’t be the same, but it will still add a nice kick.

Sweet potato vermicelli comes in a package that looks like this:

This package was 300 g and I used half of it. If you can’t find these, any noodles would be nice with the vegetables and sauce.

I’ve been using a lot of tofu lately, because I can get very cheap freshly made tofu at my local grocery store. If you’d prefer meat, you can easily just dice up a little beef or chicken and use it instead. Just cook it with the garlic first, and once it’s fully cooked, continue with the recipe as written.

The great thing about this dish is the flexibility when it comes to the vegetables you include. Spinach, napa cabbage, bean sprouts, carrots, and bell peppers all work well. The shiitake mushrooms add a really nice earthy flavor, but you could use regular mushrooms instead.

Recipe:
3 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp Korean red pepper paste
2 tbsp sesame oil, divided
150 grams sweet potato vermicelli
1 tbsp vegetable oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
about 1/2 pound Protein of your choice (chicken/tofu/beef), diced
1 carrot, julienned
about 10 shiitake mushrooms, thinly sliced
1 large carrot, julienned
1 large sweet onion, cut into thin wedges
1 medium bunch spinach, leaves only (about 10 ounces)
3 tbsp toasted sesame seeds

Whisk together soy sauce, sugar, Korean red pepper paste, and 1 tbsp sesame oil, and set aside.
Cook the noodles in a pot of boiling water for 6 minutes or until soft, then drain and rinse with cold water.
Heat the vegetable oil and remaining sesame oil over medium heat and add the garlic. Cook for a minute or two, then add your protein. Cook until tofu is browned on all sides or chicken or beef is cooked through.
Add the carrot, onion, and mushrooms and cook until soft.
Add the soy sauce mixture and spinach, and stir until spinach is wilted.
Add the noodles and toss well, and once the noodles are heated through, transfer to a serving dish and sprinkle with sesame seeds.