burger test #2.

The quest continues. Burger components, and believe me I know it sounds like a mess conceptually: KRISTY! Turner's "BBQ bacon burger" (whatever, it's beet, brown rice and red lentils); her tempeh "bacon"; my barely lemon version of her cashew ricotta; a splooge of Jack Daniel's BBQ sauce; some tomato marinated in fresh garlic, salt, and truffle oil; a swath of homemade mayo; a ploop of a kind of weak red slaw (sugar, vinegar, red cabbage).

The eating part: more satisfying/less gloomy than the pure, ascetic healthfulness of Contestant #1, which probably has everything to do with the accouterments, which never looks spelled right does it. Maybe it's not. 

Anyway we really need a new bun. The patty itself was initially Nelson's "least favorite burger" so far structurally, any exposed rice became a bit crunchy in the oven like the bottom of a Korean stone-pot dish (the second round today was almost zero amount of crunchy and overall considerably better I thought). 

The tempeh "bacon" is a nice concept, ruined a bit by 1) calling it by a name it can never ever possibly live up to and 2) requiring me to use the dregs of my 2-year-old bottle of Liquid Smoke. Cough, cough.

The keeper components were a) duh, the tomato on the burger, b) less duh, the lemon cashew ricotta, I may try to make a scallion/jalapeno version of this to see if that kicks up the 4d3d3d. Oh and maybe c) slaw, but not this one.

I think Contestant #3 will be either a black bean burger (maybe look here for tips), or maybe Serious Eats' extravagant vegan effort from The Food Lab or we go back to Anna's quinoa burger plus all of the exciting ideas from Ottolenghi's exorbitantly non-vegan quinoa burger (scallions, green chile, and romesco sauce).

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