so i finally got around to making a meal from the much raved about cookbook, veganomicon. i picked what appeared to be the easiest recipe in the book (i cannot cook), did some ingredient hunting at the local health food store, and i was in business. special thanks to your vegan mom for pointing me in the direction of nature mart for their bulk bins of vital wheat gluten.

veganomicon’s black bean burger with sautéed mushrooms, sprouts, tomato, onion, avocado, vegenaise and colman’s english mustard.

in the end, these burgers turned out great…although i was a little worried during the process. after i had done all my fancy ingredient shopping at nature mart and whole foods, while in ralphs i realized i’d forgotten to buy bread crumbs. argh!!—all the varieties they offered contained whey, nonfat dry milk, or (shudder) egg whites. i decided it wasn’t worth the trip in la traffic to the nearest health food store just for one ingredient, so i used crumbled up hamburger buns instead. i think this resulted in my patties falling apart a little bit, but i just kept cooking them (longer than the recipe suggested) and they turned out just dandy.

more pix after the jump.

one thing i love about the black bean burgers is i could make them quickly. the ingredients took no time to mix, and mashing in the black beans was pretty effortless.

(note my trusty veganomicon cookbook that i plan on using a lot more often)

forming them into patties was pretty easy as well, but a little sloppy…i guess due to my lack of real bread crumbs. i ended up with most of the mixture stuck to my hands, and had difficulty getting it off!

as you can see, these were pretty oniony, which i love.

next i cooked the the patties for a long time on the griddle, a lot longer than the recipe suggested.

i lost track of the time, but just kept turning them over until they looked done and crispy…and most importantly, until they didn’t fall apart.

meanwhile, i sautéed up some mushrooms with garlic and olive oil.

when the pattys and mushrooms were done, i assembled a burger piled high with my favorite ingredients. it was so lovely having a luscious vegan burger with my favorite condiment, colman’s english mustard. i’ve never seen it offered on a burger i can eat in a restaurant, and in my opinion it’s the perfect compliment to the fresh vegetables and creamy vegenaise—it gave every bite a spicy kick.

the burgers were absolutely delicious and provided dinner for two nights in a row! i am looking forward to making this recipe again, with the right bread crumbs. i recommend this quick and easy meal for anyone who has very little cooking experience (like me!) and loves vegan burgers.