dinner for one, on the fly

Last night, I cooked dinner just for myself. Because I live with my parents, my weekend meals are generally a larger affair because we cook for three. And while I feed myself every day of the week, I don't typically put much effort into my weeknight meals: cereal, leftovers, salad, the ubiquitous peanut butter sandwich. But I like to make weekend meals special, and since my parents were not eating with me last night, I thought it would be a good opportunity to try out something more daring than they're used to. (I was also going to say "something vegetarian" when I realized that we do cook a lot of vegetarian meals together . . . although sometimes, about an hour later, I find my dad rummaging in the kitchen for something to nibble.)

Looking in the refrigerator, I saw the leftover barley pilaf still hanging out, and I wanted to try to use it all before it got funky. There was most of a can of white beans I'd opened for my lunchtime salad also in the fridge, and knowing my tendency to open a can of beans, use about half a cup and forget the rest until a strange odor emanates from the tupperware, I pounced. Burgers, I thought. I'm going to make a bean burger. Remembering that beans and grains, two sources of incomplete proteins, make a complete protein when combined, I thought I'd build a bean-based burger that also contained barley. (If the previous sentence didn't make sense, you can read more about complete proteins here.) I was disappointed that white beans and barley are both pretty sad looking, and I wanted a little more color in the burger, so I threw in some shelled soybeans (which, I found out later, contain a complete protein themselves, so never mind all that nutritional mumbo jumbo from before) and some minced parsley. I didn't season the burgers much more than that, since the pilaf had onions and thyme and would, I hoped, flavor the patty enough. But I did throw in a few pinches of whole wheat flour, because I had a feeling that might prevent the burger from falling apart when I cooked it.

I didn't take notes or measure anything, but these are my guesses:

• 1/3 c. white beans, mashed
• 2 Tbsp. barley pilaf
• 1-2 Tbsp. thawed frozen shelled soybeans
• 2-3 tsp. minced fresh flat-leaf parsley
• a few grinds black pepper
• 2 tsp. whole wheat flour

I rolled all these things together into a ball, flattened into a patty and refrigerated for 20-30 minutes. I had a feeling that refrigeration might help the patty set, to further prevent it from falling apart, but I don't know if it actually did anything. The burger didn't fall apart, though, so that's encouraging.

An almost-too-old sweet potato lurking in a cabinet also called to me, and I knew exactly how I wanted to prepare it. I cut it into rounds, halved the rounds to make little moons and seasoned on both sides: extra-virgin olive oil, smoked paprika and kosher salt. If you're not familiar with smoked paprika, it is a bangin' spice unlike any other--smoky, sorta spicy, definitely awesome--that I bought a couple of years ago for an eggplant and garbanzo stew recipe. I really like it paired with the sweetness of the sweet potatoes. I baked the slices at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for ~45 minutes (I wasn't really timing), flipping and rearranging the slices every 15 minutes.

When the sweet potatoes were close to done-ness, I heated a little extra virgin olive oil in a sautee pan over high heat and seared the burger on both sides, to brown but not burn it. Then I lowered the heat and cooked it a little longer on both sides to heat it through.

The only thing I had to buy for the meal was a green veggie. I went with sugar snap peas, and kept some water simmering in a small saucepan until the burger and sweet potatoes were nearly done. Then I cranked up the heat, dropped in the snap peas and let them play for a minute, then drained.

Overall, everything was awesome. I'm most excited that I experimented with the burger and didn't follow any specific recipe. It was so much more flavorful and interesting (and less fake-tasting) than a manufactured veggie burger, and the success of the experience encourages me to branch out and try different combinations of ingredients.