This week we're headed across the Atlantic (well, depending on where you live) - namely, we're making a short stop in the United States of America! For a burger or two.

The lectures of this week have been focused on a more global outlook on health, and it made me think even more about planetary health. Eating more vegetarian foods such as vegetables, legumes and fruit are one way in which we can affect our impact on the climate change in a positive way, and not least to mention, it's good for our bodies, too.

Stockholm Resilience Centre conducts research about resilience and sustainability, and this 2020 study conducted by an international team including two of their researchers, Ingo Fetzer and Johan Rockström, presents a theory of how 10.2 million people can be fed within the boundaries of the planet. One component is consumers' diets, that needs to be shifted from less animal-based foods.

Last year World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) released a guide in Swedish on how to choose more sustainably among vegetarian foods. Avocados, bananas, dates and nuts (among other foods) require large amounts of water for their production, sometimes in regions where water supplies are already scarce. For example, growing one (!) almond require 4 L of water. Most almonds are grown in California, where up to 80 % of orchards are watered through irrigation.

San Joaquin Valley, CA (2017)

I was also lucky to stumble upon the interesting read which was this informative post about how to make your vegan diet more sustainable from the inspiring Live Slow Run Far.

I find joy in trying to eat seasonally. Not just because it usually results in less transports, but also because food taste better in peak season, and it is also cheaper - an incentive to eat strawberries in June and kale in December just as good as any. With all of this in mind, I was inspired to make a more seasonal veggie burger.

Burgers are, after all, a very beloved food and I fully understand how others might want their burger in a specific manner - food is so much more than fuel for our bodies. The tradition of shaping ground meat into countless shapes dates back to Ancient times, tagged along through the Medieval times and were seen also in the Middle East in the form of for example kabob. The modern burger saw daylight first in the 1870s when so called "Hamburger steaks" were served in restaurants - their name recalling the city port from which high-quality meat was shipped to the rest of the world. The beef grinder meant that various pieces of meat could be used for the dish, and its name was soon condensed to simply "hamburger", and served also with ketchup and pickles. During the 1900s the name was shortened further to burger and the dish served as a cheap, accessible fast food. However in later years hamburgers have been included in an opposite trend where their composition have been dedicated more time, and perhaps money, too (homemode condiments, sweet potato fries, brioche buns - here's looking at you!).

Veggie burgers might be a large step from Hamburger steaks, but they are certainly a dish on their own, and I loved this article that dives deep into how to make really good ones.

The starting point of these black bean burgers were on American soil, with inspiration from a recipe by The Pioneer Woman. I mainly changed it by switching chicken eggs for chia eggs. Trying to use more seasonal produce the traditional salad-tomato toppings were switched to a simple pea mash with parsley for flavor, sprouts for some crunch, a soft dijonnaise with an edge and caramelized onions for that umami.

Black Bean Burgers and Caramelized Onion

Serves 4

Ingredients:

240 g cooked black beans (380 g can)

1 yellow onion

100 ml bread crumbs (gluten free, if needed)

1 chia egg (1 tbsp chia seeds + 3 tbsp water)

Salt

Black pepper, ground

(Optional: smoked paprika powder, cumin, onion powder, garlic powder)

Oil, for the pan

Preparation:

In a small bowl, start by making the chia egg by mixing seeds and water. Set aside.

Rinse the beans if using canned.

In a large bowl, mash the beans with a fork. Finely chop half of the yellow onion and slice the other half for the caramelized onion.

Add the chopped onion to the mashed beans along with the chia egg, bread crumbs and seasoning.

Heat a pan to medium heat with some oil. Shape four hamburgers, and add to one side of the pan. On the other side, add the sliced onion. Let cook until golden, about 10-15 minutes.

Simple Parsley Pea Mash

Ingredients:

200 ml frozen green peas, thawed

100 ml sunflower seeds

1 tbsp parsley, chopped (I use frozen)

1-2 tbsp lemon juice

Salt

Black pepper, ground

Preparation:

Mix all ingredients in a mixer, or using a hand blender. Adjust seasoning to taste.

Dijonnaise

(adapted from this recipe)

Ingredients:

1,5 tbsp aquafaba

1/4 tsp white wine vinegar

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp black pepper, ground

2 tsp dijon mustard

100 ml canola oil

Preparation:

Put everything except for the oil in a bowl and mix.

Slowly add the oil in small drops while mixing with a hand blender.

For serving:

4 hamburger buns (gluten free, if needed)

Sprouts (I used alfalfa)

Optional: Ketchup, pickles

Final preparation: Assemble the burgers and enjoy!

Continuing on our America theme, I later during the week needed to use some potatoes, which resulted in trying a new recipe for vegan mac and cheese. This dish has always had a somewhat magical aura to me since I saw it in one episode of the cartoon series Courage the Cowardly Dog as a child. When I first tried it in the U.S., it was really that good, and that magic aura came along again as I saw the expectation in the eyes of adults and children alike when the sentence special home made mac and cheese was uttered.

This time around I used this recipe from Live Slow Run Far. I used carrots instead of butternut pumpkin since that was what I had on hand, it turned out lovely!

Again referring to the 2020 study, another component of moving towards a more sustainable diet is less food waste - if you tire of eating burgers, feel free to switch it up and have a patty with your mac and cheese. Or plain pasta.

The winter here in Sweden is one of the snowiest in years. It's all very pretty, and it's so good to see so many outside skiing, ice skating, sledding, or children playing on top of enormous mounds of snow.

Temperature's also been low, around fifteen minus degrees. On days like that it's nice to warm yourself up from the inside with a comforting dish.

Having sustained much of quarantine on various forms of pulses, I experimented a bit further using red lentils, with inspiration from the indian dish dhal.

Now when our ability to travel in the physical world is limited, trying out recipes from different cultures is another form of traveling, as I heard Swedish food blogger Zeina Mourtada so wisely speak about in a podcast recently. I've also heard of families having a dedicated meal every week themed of a specific country - the food, drinks, music (and perhaps decorations too?). It sounds like a lovely way to discover new dishes and to make the day special.

So I thought we could perhaps do something similar to that, go on a little journey together, discovering different dishes from around the world? Culinary travels - no passport needed.

As this 2014 article from New York Times tells us, dhal is a staple dish in India. The word itself in fact means dried legume. It can be made of lentils, beans or chickpeas and comes in a multitude of variants, seasoned with different spices.

When one of my friends came back from backpacking in Asia a few years ago, I was gifted fresh spices from India: Star anise, cinnamon bark, green cardamom...

Relying this time on the well-stocked spice section of my local grocery store, yellow curry powder and garam masala soon found their way into the pantry.

Of curry powder, we can read the following in the fabulous book The Grammar of Spice by Caz Hildebrand:

"From the Tamil word kari, meaning 'sauce' or 'relish for rice', curry is to all intents and purposes a Western invention, though based on elements of south Asian cuisine. It is possibly closest to the Alleppey spice blend sambar podi in its ingredients. Curry powder usually contains turmeric, chilli powder, coriander, cumin, ginger and pepper, and can also include fennel, caraway, clove, nutmeg and asafoetida. Nowadays, with growing awareness of the regional variations of indian cooking, this spice blend is often dismissed as a Western attempt to reduce the multi-faceted cuisine of an entire subcontinent to a single powder. Although it is easy to criticize, curry powder has done some good work in its own way and is still widely used. The first English curry recipe appeared in 1747 in Hannah Glasse's The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy, and under the title, 'How to Make a Currey the India Way'. Mrs Beeton gave recipes for 'Indian Dish of Fowl' and curried kangaroo tails, while Arthur Kenney-Herbert, an army officer known as the father of British curry, prided himself on reviving the true art of curry making in his Culinary Jottings for Madras (1878), where he argued, against popular opinion of the time, that bottling curry powder improved its flavour."

In retrospect, it seems like bottling curry powder was a winning concept, after all.

On garam masala, we can read the following from the same book:

"From the Hindi for 'hot mixture', the heat here is the Ayurvedic 'heat of the body': this Mogul spice mixture raises the body's temperature with a combination of black and white pepper, clove, cassia (or cinnamon), nutmeg (or mace), black and green cardamom, bay leaf and cumin. It is generally added to a dish at the end of cooking to preserve its fragrance, and can be stirred through buttered rice or added to vegetables pilafs and chicken and lamb dishes. [...]"

And certainly, garam masala helped in heating me up from the February cold. This is where our culinary journeying took us this time - I'm looking forward to our further trips (and learning more about Indian food and culture, too). In the mean time, here is one take on this classic dish:

Red Lentil Dhal

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 yellow onion

2 cloves of garlic

4,5 tsp yellow curry powder

1 tsp black pepper, ground

1 piece of grilled bell pepper

200 g frozen spinach, thawed

1/2 - 1 tsp chilli, diced

2 tbsp tomato paste

200 ml dried red lentils, rinsed

700 ml plant milk

1 cube of vegetable stock

Squeeze of lemon juice

3 dates

2 tsp garam masala

2 tsp onion powder

1 tsp garlic powder

Oil for the pan

Preparation:

Dice the onion and garlic cloves. On medium heat, fry in some oil until tender. Add curry powder and black pepper and let cook for a few minutes. Cube the bell pepper and add to the pan along with spinach, chilli and tomato paste. Add lentils, plant milk, and vegetable stock. Season with lemon juice, dates, garam masala, onion and garlic powder. Let simmer on low heat until the lentils have softened, about 15-20 minutes.

Serve it over rice with a nice green salad. You could also scoop it up with naan, or eat as is. If you like, you could also top it off with some coriander or parsley.

Scones.

Associations are of a round, cloth-covered table. It's placed under an old tree, in the otherwise rose-filled garden. It's only there for the summer. It's a sunny day, and it's gleaming through the leaves. Time tells you it's time for tea. Tea and scones. Marmalade, cream cheese (perhaps clotted cream?), perhaps a cookie or two. One or two of your friends, dressed in Victorian dresses and bow hats, are just arriving. They are walking up the gravel path together, talking to each other. You share the afternoon together around the table, conversing about what the summer brought with it. Crumbles start piling in your lap as you giggle at old memories from the past, and...

...yes. Associations. While I'm not sure where this elegant scene came from, it's what comes to mind whenever I hear the word scones. Or see an old silver platter, lace cloth or a full set of china at a second hand shop.

Elegant or not, these scones don't take a garden or even a table cloth to make, but are actually relatively simple: They only use six ingredients.

Oats and canola oil in combination give these scones a nutty flavor. They do pair well with berries (marmalade too!) but can be enjoyed as are. And with or without a rose garden.

Simple Oat Scones

4 medium sized or 8 small

Ingredients:

150 g / 1 1/8 cup oat flour (oats ground into flour), gluten free as needed*

100 g / 3/4 cup rolled oats, gluten free as needed*

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

3 tbsp canola oil

200 ml oat milk (can be substituted with other plant-based milk or water)

Preparation:

Set the oven at 200 degrees Celsius / 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a tray with a sheet of parchment paper.

Place oat flour, oats, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Mix well.

Add the canola oil, mix again, and then fold in the liquid.

Shape four or eigth scones, depending on your preference of size, and put on the parchment lined tray.

Bake in the oven for 15 minutes, or until golden.

The scones are best eaten the same day. Serving suggestions include berries, jam, marmalade, nut butters, hummus, butter, cheese and cream cheese.

*Oats are naturally gluten free, but as there can be some cross-contamination from other grains as they are processed in the factory, certified gluten free oats are available for those who are intolerant.