Mushroom, celery root, potato burgers

May 30, 2010 at 1:44 pm (C (2 stars, okay, edible), Fall recipes, Other, Root vegetables, Starches, Vegetable dishes, Winter recipes)

I had leftover mashed potato/celery root, and Derek and although we really liked it when I first made it, we were both getting a bit sick of it.  Then I came across a veggie burger recipe in the Rancho la Puerta cookbook that calls for mashed potatoes.  I figured I could use up the rest of the mashed potato/ celery root in these burgers.The recipe is pretty unusual.  You start by sauteeing onions and garlic in a pan, then adding sliced mushrooms and grated carrots.  You cook the veggies until all the liquid has evaporated.  Then you mix this veggie mixture in with the mashed potatoes, egg white, bread crumbs, ground cashews, scallions, oregan or basil, whole roasted coriander seeds, ginger, red pepper flakes, and salt and pepper.

Before cooking the patties you roll them in a bowl of sunflower and sesame seeds to coat the outside.

The burgers ended up crisp on the outside but still soft, mashed-potato textured on the inside.  I quite liked all the crunch added by the seed coating.  The whole coriander seeds also provided some crunch and a whole lot of flavor.  Derek, on the other hand, didn’t like that the coriander was left whole–he said that the seeds got stuck in his teeth.

I could definitely taste the scallions, and the celery root flavor came through quite strongly.  Derek though that without celery root the recipe would be rather bland.  He wouldn’t recommend making the recipe using just mashed potatoes.

The burgers when placed on bread with mustard, lettuce, and tomato were fine.  I could taste the coriander seeds when I bit into one but otherwise I was mostly just tasting the fixings.  When eaten alone the burgers were a little bland and the texture was too soft.  I probably underseasoned them but even with more salt I don’t think they would be stellar.

There are a lot of interesting ideas in this recipe (the whole coriander seeds, rolling the burgers in sesame/sunflower seeds), and the recipe is solid, but ultimately I just didn’t love it.  Derek ate them up willingly when I served the burgers to him for lunch, but mostly I think he just liked them as a delivery mechanism for ketchup or mustard.

Rating: B-

Derek: B/B-