Delicious Gluten Free Sausage Biscuits

December 15, 2025 / yogalovefood / Leave a comment

I knew these biscuits were good when my wife who was a vegetarian most of her life had me make them on a weekly basis. She also shared one with her boss at work and a couple of her friends. I’ve had no fewer than 5 of her girlfriends ask me for the recipe. So I decided to share the deliciousness on my blog for anyone to make and enjoy.

The ingredients are pretty simple. The secret ingredient is cottage cheese. They bring 28 grams of protein and I’m sure they are what make them moist and not hard and dry like most gluten free baked goods.

We get crumbled country sausage from the meat store (Light Hill Meats). It’s our local butcher and the boys call it the meat store. They have a local farm where their cows, pigs and chickens roam freely and are mindfully raised. Both my tastebuds and Soul can tell a difference.

One time I was being “cheap” and bought some baby back ribs that were less expensive at Whole Foods. I was like, let’s see if anyone can taste a difference. I prepared them the exact same way that I always do. I could taste the difference. Without even asking them, Matteo and Owen both said, “why aren’t these as good as usual”. I explained to them why and they said, let’s only buy meat from the meat store from now on. So now that’s what I do. It’s a little more expensive, but it tastes better and is better for us. Not to mention it helps the environment and local economy in a small way. So it’s well worth the extra money in my opinion.

I chop up a handful of Spinach to give it a healthy veggie flair. A couple of eggs and cheese give it more protein and the rest is Gluten Free Flour (with xantham gum) and a couple of other baking items you most likely have in the cupboard.

Here is the official list of ingredients and their measurements.

1 Cup Cottage Cheese

2 Large eggs (plus one more if you want to do an egg wash)

2 T melted butter or avocado oil

1.5 Cups GF all purpose baking flour with Xantham gum

2 t Baking powder

1/2 t baking soda

1/2 t salt

1/2 t sugar (optional)

1/2 lb cooked breakfast sausage, crumbled and cooled

1/2 Cup shredded cheddar cheese

1 Cup spinach chopped

Cook sausage and cool. I prefer the iron skillet
Preheat oven to 400 and line baking sheet with parchment paper
In a food processor or blender, combine cottage cheese, 2 eggs and melted butter or oil.
Mix dry ingredients- in a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, sugar
Add cottage cheese mixture to the dry ingredients and stir until just combined
Gently mix in the cooked sausage, cheese and spinach
Shape biscuits- using a large spoon or your hands, drop dough onto baking sheet
(For extra credit, beat 1 egg with 1 T water and brush tops. This will give the biscuits a golden finish)
Bake 15-18 minutes until golden brown and cooked through. Checking with a fork.
Add butter if desired, serve and enjoy

They grow quite a bit as they bake, so be mindful of that. I usually make 8-12 with this recipe. Depending on how big I want them. I think they taste better when I make only 8, but they go fast, so if I want more, I make smaller ones and have 12. They taste great heated up the next day too. They are much better warm than cold. Everyone in the family loves these, which always feels like a home run to me.

Here are the pictures of how I did it.

Let me know what you think. Also, if you try any other ingredients, let me know. We’ve done shredded zucchini before and it’s turned out great.

Enjoy

Matt

Taco Pie

May 7, 2024 / yogalovefood / 1 Comment

One of our favorite dinners as a family is Taco Pie. Last week our friend and neighbor Steph who has 3 young boys was looking for a new dinner idea and Chelsea told her about Taco Pie. We hadn’t made it in a while and I was reminded by her and her family how delicious it was, so we brought it back on our weekly menu.

I love it for many reasons. It’s healthy and delicious, loaded with plenty of veggies and lean protein. It can be made beforehand and reheats easily. Everyone in the family enjoys it and it’s something different that you don’t see everyday. It can also be made gluten free, which is important for me since Matteo and Chelsea both have a gluten allergy.

This delicious dinner came to us from our dear friend Peggy Curry. She wrote an amazing cook book called Damn Good Gluten Free.

I was actually with her during the time when she was getting all of the photos taken for it and putting it together. I got to help her make some of the dishes and even got a few pictures of myself with her delicious food in her beautiful cookbook.

It was one of those blessings that comes from a seemingly unfortunate situation. I had been unceremoniously fired from my job of 7 years, a week before Christmas, with a 3 year old and a 9 month old. I wasn’t worried, as I have been fired before and it always worked out fine. So I knew something better was coming. Since I wasn’t working, I was able to spend my days with Peggy and Laura Dart, her incredible photographer and help out with the making of the cookbook.

Then, long story short, covid happened, they closed the yoga studios and the beach and we moved to Tennessee.

In fact 17 years ago today, I was fired from my well paying corporate sales job and it ended up being the best thing for me. From that place, I pivoted and decided to follow my heart. I became a surf instructor, bartender, sous chef, yoga teacher, met Chelsea, became a dad, etc.

Now, back to this Taco Pie…

First gather all of the ingredients. I use organic if possible. You will need:

Can of refried beans
Mexican cheese
Onion
Bell Pepper
Zucchini
Frozen corn
1 lb Ground Chicken or Turkey
Salt, Pepper, Taco Seasonings of your choice
Ketchup
3 Gluten Free Tortillas

Directions: Preheat oven to 350

Step 1: In a large skillet (I use cast iron) add olive oil and cook down onions, then bell peppers, then zucchini. Add salt, pepper and some of the taco seasonings to the veggies as they cook. Cook for a few minutes to get a little char on the veggies and then add the corn. Take the veggies out and set aside in a bowl.

Step 2: Next add a little more oil to the pan and add the ground meat and season with salt, pepper and the rest of the taco seasonings. When the pink is gone add ketchup. Mix around and cook on low for about 10 minutes to let the ketchup and spices absorb into the meat.

Step 3: While the meat is cooking, you can prep the tortillas. I have found with the gluten free tortillas that it is helpful to bake them for a couple of minutes first so they are not as soggy.

Step 4: Add 1/3 of the refried beans to each of the tortillas.

Step 5: Place the first tortilla with the refried beans in the pie dish. Then add 1/3 of the veggies and 1/3 of the meat to the tortilla. Sprinkle on cheese and then repeat two more times building the pie into 3 layers.

Once everything is assembled you can cover and save in the fridge for later, or bake at 350 for 20 – 30 minutes or until cheese is melted and the tortillas are at your desired crispiness…Enjoy

Making Kombucha

April 10, 2024May 8, 2024 / yogalovefood / 1 Comment

A couple of months ago I realized that I have been making and enjoying my own kombucha for the last two years now. I know it was two years, because I was bartending at the time in downtown Nashville at Pinewood Social, when a fellow employee and I were talking about kombucha. She had been making her own for the past little while and had an extra SCOBY. She offered it to me and I eagerly accepted.

I had always wanted to make my own kombucha, but I had no idea how to do it. Chelsea had made it back in the day when she lived in Hawaii, but didn’t really have the desire to do it again. I loved the health benefits of kombucha and the fizziness and the different flavors. I don’t drink sodas, except for plain soda, so this gives me something fun to drink that’s actually good for me.

The hardest part in my mind to making your own kombucha was getting the SCOBY. Kind of like getting a queen bee for your bee hive, its essential. SCOBY stands for Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast. It’s the fermentation starter that kicks off kombucha fermentation.

So now that I had my queen, I needed to learn how to take care of her and actually make the kombucha. Sure, I could watch some youtube videos and learn everything I needed to know from the internet, but I’m more of a hands on type of person when it comes to learning tactile things. I want to see it in action and talk about it and ask questions and all of that helps me understand and remember it.

Well it just so happened that our dear friend Shann, (Shannon Larsen) and her boyfriend, now fiancé Zander, (Alexander Puentes) came to visit us. Zander had been brewing his own kombucha for years and even made a PDF on how to do it. I still reference it to make sure I’m doing everything right.

He walked me through the steps and I am sharing those with you in this blog post and in the youtube video my kids and I made last year. Brewing your own ‘booch’ is a little bit of a process and takes some time. Not too much, but there are a few steps you need to remember.

Click on the video to see how we make it.

A SCOBY is a living organism that continues to grow. It is also called “the mother” because it will eventually have “babies”. These can be given away, like my friend did for me and like I have done for several neighbors and friends over the last couple of years. Or they can be saved or used to make multiple batches. Mine is getting really big at the moment and I am hoping it will split off soon so I can have another one and make more. Each batch gives me 5 pint sized glass bottles of kombucha. So if I can have two going at once, then we can have plenty to both enjoy and share with friends.

I love giving away my kombucha to friends. When I find out someone is into it, I’ll give them a bottle. It’s so fun to say, here you go, I made this. Enjoy. Then you know it’s going to taste good and be good for them. How awesome is that? If they’re really into it, I’ll offer them one of my SCOBY offspring and they can start to make their own.

Last Summer I had two SCOBY’s going and we went on vacation. When we came back, fruit flies had gotten into one of them. So I had to let it go. Fortunately I had the second one, which I am still using today.

I try to make a new batch every 10 days or so, but sometimes I’ll get out of the habit and it sits for a couple of weeks and that’s ok. The SCOBY just keeps on livin’.

We use our ‘booch’ a few different ways.

In the morning for breakfast, I pour a little shot for the boys. To get them some healthy probiotics to start the day.

I also make popsicles with it and we enjoy these in the afternoons.

Finally at night, when I’m craving a drink besides water and don’t want to drink alcohol, then a little kombucha and soda over ice is a satisfying mocktail.

I love finding healthy things that the whole family enjoys. It also feels good to be able to make this on my own. I know where it comes from. Me, my kitchen. I’m putting my positive energy into it when I make it. I love doing it. It’s fun to make things, I love drinking it and it’s good for me. So it seems like it’s one of those beautiful things that hits on all levels. If you want to give it a try and make your own, go for it. If you find yourself a SCOBY, then check back here for what to do next. Here are the steps that I learned from my friend Zander with my own personal modifications.

First, bring 6 cups of water to a boil. Remove from heat, then, add 6 -7 bags of black tea and steep for 30 minutes. Squeeze and remove the tea bags and add 1 cup of organic cane sugar. Stir until dissolved.

Now fill your pitcher with 8 cups of filtered water. Add the hot tea. The temperature of the tea should cool to under 100 degrees.

Add the 2 cups of the starter liquid that came with your SCOBY and stir with a wooden spoon, (it doesn’t like metal).

Now add the SCOBY.

Cover with a cloth and use a rubber band to keep it on. This will keep out fruit flies or any other bugs, but still allowing the SCOBY to breathe.

That comes up to a total of 16 cups of liquid, which is one gallon or 128 ounces. So make sure you have a gallon size glass container to keep your brew. You also want an opening at the top of at least 3 or more inches so your SCOBY can grow and breathe.

That’s it! Now you just have to wait. Anywhere from 7-21 days, depending on several factors, but I’ve found that 10 days is the sweet spot for me. The temperature has a lot to do with it. We keep our house pretty warm and I place it in a cabinet. You can start tasting after 5 days and when it seems ready to you, then it’s time to move on to the 2nd Ferment

The Second Ferment is the fun part where you get to flavor your kombucha. There are many different flavors and recipes out there, but we usually just keep it simple and do Lemon and Ginger.

This is the flavor that my wife and kids like the best. I will often experiment with different flavor combinations, depending on what fruits are in season and what we have at the house at the time of the 2nd ferment. But Lemon and Ginger always seems to be the best.

Before you put the kombucha in the bottles, be sure to take out the SCOBY and 2 cups of the liquid and put it into a glass container. Cover this with a cloth and rubber band like you just did before and now you have your starter for the next batch. You can get started and make another one right away, going back to step 1 and boiling tea or simply let it sit in your cupboard for up to a month or more. Give it a stir every week or so, just to keep it happy.

Today I did 5 bottles of Lemon/Ginger and 1 bottle of the Lilac syrup that we made from our lilac bushes that were blooming this week. They only bloom for a couple of weeks a year, so I thought, why not give it a try.

If you have a juicer, you can experiment with different flavor combinations and see what you like the best.

For the lemon and ginger, all I do is peel the ginger with a spoon, then dice it up into little chunks and drop 4-5 little cubes into the bottle. Then I will squeeze the juice out of 1 lemon and then evenly distribute it in the 5 bottles with the ginger.

Once you have your flavor in the bottle, add the kombucha to the bottle and fill it almost to the top, leaving about an inch of air. This helps the carbonation process. Put the cap on and turn it over a couple of times to mix up the ingredients.

All you have to do now is wait a few days and your brew will be ready to go. 3 days seems to be the sweet spot for me. By having the bottles capped, the CO2 has no way to escape, so this creates natural carbonation. When they have reached your desired carbonation, then put them in the fridge and enjoy. Refrigerating the kombucha will pretty much stop the carbonation process. The longer you leave them out of the fridge, the more carbonated they will get, but they will also get more sour. So again, depending on your preference, find your sweet spot.

Apparently, if you leave them out too long, they can explode. Although I’ve never had this happen to me or anyone I know, I have had them give out quite a ‘pop’ when I burp them after they’ve been fermenting for more than 3 days.

Ok, there you go. Have fun and enjoy. There are so many health benefits to drinking kombucha and so many different ways to enjoy it. I’d love to hear about your experience. Cheers!

The Love Curry

April 28, 2020April 30, 2020 / yogalovefood / 1 Comment

Our whole family loves curry. Which is interesting because I never had it growing up. My mom and grandmother were pretty traditional “Southern” cooks. So everything had lots of butter and was very protein and carb focused. I ate this way or my own variation of it until I found the yoga path. Then I began to focus more on the vegetables and less on the meat and carbs. Chelsea and I have been making curry since we first met 10 years ago. She had just moved here from Hawaii and had this cookbook from a Vegan chef named Todd and we have used his recipe as a base all these years. It is the one thing we have consistently eaten every week or two since we’ve been together. Now both our boys, Matteo (4) and Owen (1) eat and love it too.

Many cultures and traditions have a variation of curry, but not really America. So when I introduced my parents to it, they hadn’t had anything like it before. We traveled a lot as a family growing up, so we sampled a lot of different delicacies from our travels. However, most of our trips were within the United States, Canada, Mexico and Europe. Fun fact, I have been to every state except Alaska and Montana. Although there are many options for curry in North America, when we would travel we usually ate at the places known for having a good steak or maybe ribs and I didn’t see curry on too many of those menus. Even though I’ve been to nearly every country in Europe, I haven’t really heard of a German curry or an English curry or even an Italian curry. I’ve found that most people (myself included) don’t travel outside of their culinary comfort zones.

Nowadays I sample different curries whenever I have the chance. I love curries from Thailand, India, Africa and Japan, but the one I make at home is almost always the same, because it is so consistently delicious and everyone I have served it to seems to love it. So I call it the Love Curry. According to Chef Todd’s recipe it’s an Indian vegetable curry.

The reason I call it the Love Curry, is that whenever we have a friend or a family that we know that is going through a challenging time, we make a big batch and eat some our selves and give some to the family in need. A lot of times its a family who just had a baby, but this last time it was a family who had someone in the hospital for a few weeks and he was just coming home. So Chelsea offered to make them dinner. As soon as she told me I said, let’s make curry!

It’s easy to make, it just takes a lot of prep, which I love. When I’m chopping the vegetables, I think about who I’m making it for, even if it’s just Chelsea and the boys and I put love into it. Now that may sound strange to some of you and it would have to me back in the day, but as I’ve found a love for cooking and talked to some of the most amazing chefs and watched chefs on cooking shows, I hear it all the time. The best chefs in the world talk about putting love into their food. I truly believe you can taste the difference between food that was made with love, versus food that wasn’t.

I wanted to share the recipe here so anyone who knows someone or a family in need or maybe a nurse or single mom, could make them some Love curry and enjoy some themselves. Or maybe you just want to show some love to your self or your own family. Either way, here is the recipe.

I usually make a lot of it, so I would cook it in a Dutch oven or the biggest pot you have. I prep all the vegetables first, because I think it makes it easier when putting it all together.

You will need Coconut oil, coconut milk, salt, curry powder, turmeric, ginger, onion, carrots, sweet potato, potato, butternut squash, cauliflower, green beans, peas and cashews.

First, heat the coconut oil in the pot and add the onions, then the carrots.

Then add the potatoes, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, and grate the ginger.

Next, add the coconut milk and spices including salt. Cover and cook these vegetables for about 20 minutes until soft.

Finally add the cauliflower, peas and green beans and let it all simmer together. 45 minutes is ideal, but it can be done in 30. The longer the better in our opinion, so all the flavors can meld together. At the very end, right before I serve it I add cashews. This gives it a perfect little crunch.

So you’re getting 7 or 8 vegetables and it’s healthy, filling and delicious. We have it over either quinoa or basmati rice. It’s also great the next day as leftovers.

From our family to yours. Enjoy!

Incredibly Satisfied

August 26, 2014August 29, 2014 / yogalovefood / 2 Comments

That’s what Chelsea said after tonight’s dinner… Homemade Veggie Chili…A healthy dish we have been trying to perfect over the last year. We make it every week or two. There are always leftovers and it’s great to take them to work the next day. It’s super easy to make and so now I’m going to share the recipe with you. Don’t you want to feel incredibly satisfied?! I know I do!

Part of the recipe is always the love and intention you put into the food you make. I love to cook and so that really helps…When I’m chopping vegetables, listening to music, I love it, it makes me so happy…making food for myself and someone I love. Somehow the love goes into the food. I don’t know how, I’m not a scientist, I just know it works. If you don’t believe me try it for yourself and you’ll see.

So here it is. I always try to buy organic for many reasons, one of which is its tastes better. I even used Kale from our garden. Here is everything I put in…

I first chopped up the onion, garlic, carrots and peppers and put them in a pot on medium to low heat with olive oil. After they all softened up I added a little salt and cumin and chili powder. Then I added the zucchini, squash, kale and all the beans plus one cup of veggie broth. Then another dash of the three spices. I let this go on with the heat on low for about 10 minutes and then Chelsea called. She was on her way home from teaching her prenatal yoga class. She said to add the corn and diced tomatoes cover it and let it simmer until she got home to give it the final flavoring… That’s her specialty. She has the palate of a sommelier… I’m just the sous chef. She always gives our dishes the final touch. It’s about a 20 drive home and it simmered the whole time. I went up to the roof, watched the sunset and finished my Moscow Mule…

Chelsea arrived home and added a little more cumin, chili powder and salt and said we could have used another can of the diced tomatoes. So add that to your recipe if you want to make it more like a true chili. She said ours looked liked a goulash. Well, however it looked…

It tasted delicious and left us both incredibly satisfied…

Cheers…to homemade BBQ sauce

April 7, 2014April 7, 2014 / yogalovefood / 2 Comments

Let me start by saying, I LOVE Barbecue Sauce! Maybe it comes from my roots in Arkansas, or my upbringing in North Carolina, where the Southern folks love them some BBQ. But, I have always loved the sauce. There are so many different kinds too. Even different regions of the state have different flavor profiles. Some are sweeter, some more tangy , but all just a little bit different. Have you ever noticed, there is basically just one ketchup, but there are a wide variety of sauces with the title BBQ attached to them. Over the years, I would always order a side of it whenever I was at a new restaurant. As a result, I have tried hundreds over the years and my love of cooking inspired me to make my own. I have modified this recipe over the years, so sometimes it is sweeter and sometimes more tangy, but I love it and rarely do I find one out on the town or even in stores that I like better.

The great thing is, it’s easy to make and can be made from organic ingredients , which is important to me. I look at the ingredients of many of the popular versions in stores and they have high fructose corn syrup as one of the first ingredients. None of that here, so you can slather it on whatever you want. One time Chelsea came home to her roommate eating it with rice. She said “I just wanted to eat this sauce”!

So, at the request of my friend Val, I’m sharing this recipe on here for anyone to try. Have fun with it and feel free to make modifications depending on your own preferences. This one is a little sweet, a little tangy, a little spicy and full of umami. (Which is that pleasant savory taste that helps make ketchup so satisfying) http://www.umamiinfo.com/2011/02/What-exactly-is-umami.php

For Matt’s homemade BBQ sauce 2014 edition, mix together
1 cup organic ketchup
1 cup organic brown sugar
3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

The key is then to cook it down, meaning adding mixed ingredients to a skillet and cooking it on low heat for about 20 minutes, stirring it occasionally, especially as it begins to bubble. This will give it that stickiness that takes it to the next level for my taste buds, it’s where the umami comes out. Then after it cools a little, I put it in a glass jar and either give it away to someone I love (I’m bringing some to yoga tomorrow for you Val) or enjoy it on everything from salmon to grilled eggplant. I even use it on our home made pizzas.
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Oh yeah, the beverage… It’s a mock tail. Non alcoholic cocktail. Fun to drink and easy to make. Chelsea and our friend Laurel made some ginger syrup. I used a little of that, along with soda water. I then muddled up fresh basil from a basil plant we have next to the sink along with lemon from a tree outside, mixed it all together while the sauce cooked down. Delish!
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This is the yoga pose for today’s post. It’s called Malasana, basically a squat. Great to do when your muddling. This pose helps my low back feel better the way it stretches and builds strength. I have had two yoga teachers say that “Cultures that spend time in this position have fewer back issues” I can believe that. Since I’ve been doing it, my back feels great. Try to do it for one minute per day, followed by a forward fold, muddler not needed to perform this pose;)
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Veggie Burgers

September 21, 2012 / yogalovefood / 2 Comments

Veggie Burgers. That sounds like an oxymoron doesn’t it. When I hear the word Veggie, I think of things like, healthy, vegetables, Vegetarians, etc. When I hear the word Burgers, I think of things like back yard BBQ’s, cows, In & Out Burger, and also in the back of my mind…fat, cholesterol, unhealthy for the heart, etc.

I grew up eating hamburgers. Growing up in the South and Midwest portion of the United States, there were lots of cows and we ate a lot of hamburgers. Everything from Fast food hamburgers like McDonald’s, Burger King, and Wendy’s to the gourmet burgers found in little known hole in the wall places. Every year for our birthday’s, whether it was my Mom, Dad, brother, or me, we would go to this little place called the Parkway in Holland, Michigan. In Hickory, North Carolina, it was the Windy City Grill where everyone went after school and on weekends. We all called it Homer’s. Long before Homer Simpson ever came around. They had the best one’s in town. It was one of those places that had been around for years and everyone came there for their burgers. Then, during the Summer, every backyard BBQ was stocked full of juicy, mouth watering, homemade hamburgers. I never really thought about the perils of eating this classic American culinary delight.

I never had a veggie burger as a kid, what was the point. No restaurant carried them, my Mom never bought them at the store and I guess I hadn’t really heard of them before or really even saw a reason to eat one. Then through life and experience and all of the articles and documentaries and stories that I heard over the years, I began to get this feeling that maybe a hamburger isn’t such a good thing to be eating all the time. Stories of heart attacks and obesity rates and lethargy, all somehow related to the consumption of red meat caused me to cut back on my indulgence of this great American pastime.

Then, I moved to California, started practicing yoga, and dating a vegetarian. Now I rarely eat a good old fashioned hamburger. Remember Samuel L. Jackson’s character from Pulp Fiction, when he said, “my girlfriend’s a vegetarian, so that pretty much makes me a vegetarian” Well, that’s pretty much me right now.

I still have the craving for them though. I guess it’s years of mental and physical programming. Also the fact that they taste good. I will usually indulge in a quality one every few months. I believe it’s my body telling me I need the iron and protein and other nutrients that it provides. At least that’s what I tell myself. Someday, I may go completely vegetarian, but I’m not there yet. I am now very conscious of the burgers that I choose to eat though. I also make sure I bless my food and thank the cow for sacrificing it’s life. Currently my top choice for a burger is from Simmzy’s in downtown Manhattan Beach (Delicious burgers that come from grass fed cows in the Midwest).

So, how do I satisfy this craving for a good hearty burger without actually eating one? That may be a question many of you are asking yourselves. Especially if you’ve tried to order a veggie burger from a restaurant or gotten one from the frozen food section of the grocery store.

: Veggie Burger selection from Trader Joe’s

Let’s be honest, there isn’t much out there that is very satisfying in my opinion. They all seem thin and not very flavorful. Plus, if you read the nutritional information on the back of the box, there isn’t even much protein, which is what you get from the red meat of a hamburger.

So I decided to take matters into my own hands and make my own. I have been experimenting over the last couple of years with different styles and varieties. I wanted to maximize the flavor and nutrition, as well as give that Umami satisfaction that comes from eating a burger. Without any of the guilt or fat or cholesterol that also comes from consuming the animal product.

I recently enjoyed my favorite version so far and would like to share with you how delicious they were and how easy they were to make. I got the basis for this recipe from the back of a bag of Organic Tri Color Quinoa, then added a bunch of things and took a few out. I have found this is a great way to cook. Use a recipe for the foundation and then modify it to your liking and preferences. I made these gluten free. So the recipe called for bread crumbs and an egg (beaten). Without the bread crumbs, the egg is not necessary. If you decide to use them. Add them in at then end, just before forming the patties.

The following is the Gluten free and vegan version.

First, here is what you need…Note, I used all Organic ingredients

3 cups Quinoa (rinsed and cooked)

1 can black beans (drained)

3 garlic cloves (minced)

1 onion (diced)

red, green, yellow, or orange pepper (diced)

1 carrot, zuchinni, yellow squash (quartered into 1/2″ slices)

Olive Oil

I find it easiest to get the quinoa going first. I rinse it and then get it cooking.

: Cook Quinoa 2 parts water or broth to 1 part Quinoa

While the quinoa is cooking, I chop up the onion, garlic, and peppers. I add some olive oil to the skillet and then…Saute’ the onions, garlic and peppers.

: sautee in olive oil

While that is going I blanche the carrots and squash. You could also add celery or different colored peppers. I prefer the orange, yellow, and red, but this day I only had the green, so that’s what I used.

Chelsea, tasting the veggies, to make sure they are done. Note, the recipe in the background that I used as my base. I prep all my ingredients first, so the beans have been drained and are awaiting their turn. I didn’t end up using the egg. If I were going to use the bread crumbs I probably would have, but since I didn’t, it wasn’t needed to bind everything together.

I then took the veggies, black beans, and onion, garlic, pepper sauté and put them in the immersion blender that my sister in law gave me last year. If you don’t have one of these in your kitchen, I highly recommend it. It has so many great uses. Making soups, veggie burgers, etc. It’s just as effective as a food processor, but much easier to clean.

In the past, I have added cooked beets at this time and it gives the veggie burger the look of red meat when its done and also adds some great nutrients.

After that has all been blended up, I add it to the quinoa and mix it all together. Adding salt and pepper and any other spices at this time. Feel free to get creative with your spices.

Next, I form the mix into patties and put into the refrigerator for 10 minutes. This is also where you would add the egg and the bread crumbs if you’re using them. However, it’s really not necessary.

After taking them out of the refrigerator, add some olive oil to the skillet and fry them up. An iron skillet would be ideal if you have one.

Then be sure to load them up just like you would a normal hamburger and voila’

Gluten Free bread, Heirloom tomatoes from our garden, cheese (guess this one’s not quite vegan) avocado and my homemade BBQ sauce. Yes, those are brussel sprouts in the background.

Now that’s a tasty burger. It has more than twice the protein of any of the veggie burgers you can buy at the store. Not to mention, Healthy, Organic, and Delicious.

Bon Appétit