Sweet Love and Ginger

Sandwich

Balsamic Roast Veggie Toasts with Gruyere

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This is a recipe for Balsamic Roasted Vegetable Toasts, a simple appetizer that does double duty as a great vegetarian meal.

Balsamic Roasted Vegetable Toasts

Winter is a time of soups, stews, roasts and sweets. Savory and filling are the stars this time of year, but it’s always this time of year that I want to bring a little freshness into my life. Things like lemon, balsamic vinegar and winter fruits are defiantly requirements in my house. They add a hint of brightness, complexity and freshness that so many meals this time of year are lacking.

This recipe is pretty adaptable in that it can easily be made into a sandwich, and eaten as a main dish or when cut to size it makes a wonderful appetizer to accompany most winter meals.

Balsamic Roasted Vegetables

I love the way that the sweet balsamic melds with the stringy, salty gruyere. Using different vegetables such as asparagus, broccoli, zucchini, red pepper, onion or even roasted garlic only adds to the complexity of flavor and texture. I think this dish is so simple that it takes dinner party guests by surprise with its addictive flavor.

It’s also a good way to get young ones to eat their vegetables.

Balsamic Roasted Vegetable Toasts

Balsamic Roast Veggie Toasts
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 16 Servings
Ingredients
  • 8 oz broccoli florets
  • 1 red bell pepper, sliced thick
  • 1 small red onion, quartered
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil (plus 1 tablespoon)
  • 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
  • ¼ teaspoon sea salt
  • 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
  • 8 slices sourdough bread, halved (or quartered depending on preference)
  • 12 oz shredded soft gruyere cheese
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 425F.
  2. Spread the veggies out on a rimmed baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil, balsamic, salt pepper and toss well to coat. Place in the oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until the veggies have softened and begun to caramelize, tossing once halfway through. Remove from heat and set aside.
  3. On a separate baking sheet spread the bread slices out and lightly brush with olive oil and place in the oven until crisp and golden, about 22 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand for 5 minutes.
  4. After the bread has rested carefully divide the veggies up evenly on each toast. Top with cheese and place back in the oven for 10 to 12 minutes or until the cheese has melted.
  5. Serve immediately.

Similar Recipes:

Pear & Brie Toasts

Pear & Brie Toasts

Engagement Tart

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4-Cheese-Red-Pepper-Dip

4 Cheese Red Pepper Dip

Blue Apron Review & Thai Chicken Burgers

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This post may contain affiliate links. I may receive commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

This is a review of Blue Apron & their Thai Chicken Burger Recipe. I was not compensated by Blue Apron for this review.

Thai Chicken Burgers

Recently a couple friends of ours, we shall call them the Birdtails (long story unimportant story) offered Chuck and I the opportunity to try out Blue Apron. Apparently after you receive a few deliveries you can then let someone else try it out for free, which is a pretty cool way for them to build business if I do say so myself. I wasn’t planning on reviewing it, but I really want to share this amazing burger recipe so I figured it was only fair.

I like to cook so this was never really something that interested me however with the wedding coming and all the crafts that I had going on I thought that it would a good time to try it out. For that purpose it worked out great. I didn’t have to meal plan or grocery shop and everything comes premeasured, with instructions so food life was pretty easy. Most of the recipes were pretty good, especially these burgers, which we will get to soon. However I did have a few qualms; while all the packaging is recyclable it’s still a lot of packaging, and my environmentalist heart just can’t stomach that. The other thing was the delivery times, wed, thurs, fri, or sat for my area just doesn’t work the end of the week is always tough for us, because we travel or go to my parents for dinner, so I’d prefer a Monday or Tuesday delivery. I also think that the recipes available might be a little too much for a picky eater, there aren’t any plain Jane recipes here folks, this is geared toward foodies. As you can probably tell my gripes are few for the huge benefit that comes from the service, and the awesome food that results.

So now that the review is out of the way let’s talk burgers.

Thai Chicken Burgers

I absolutely loved these burgers, like can’t stop thinking about them, must make them again soon, they might be my favorite burger ever, kind of love. I was not expecting this. In fact I was expecting to hate these. You see lemon grass and I don’t generally get along. I’ve had it in tea, and occasionally in food, and every time after a few tastes, my stomach does a back flip and it takes everything I have not to throw it up (sorry; truth). My feelings for cilantro aren’t far off, while cilantro doesn’t make my stomach flip, I can only handle a small amount before it takes over my taste buds and the rest of the dish is ruined. In this case though I was piling it on! It was all just so good together. So amazingly wonderfully good!

Now the hoisin mayo is the stuff that dreams are made of in burger world. A two ingredient simple sauce that really brings the whole burger together. Its hard to say what my favorite part of this burger was, everything went so perfectly together and the overall flavor was spot on.

Thai Chicken Burgers

Now I do have to note I changed up the recipe a bit because of my apprehension, so this is my version of the Blue Apron Recipe.

Blue Apron Thai Chicken Burgers
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 4 Servings
Ingredients
  • 1 inch piece of ginger grated (about 2 tablespoons grated ginger)
  • 1 stalk of lemongrass grated (about 2 tablespoons grated lemongrass)
  • 3 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 2 tablespoons of oil – seperated
  • 1 ½ lb ground chicken
  • 1 ½ cup panko bread crumbs
  • 2-4 teaspoons sriracha (add to taste)
  • 4 teaspoons sesame oil
  • 2 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
  • ¼ cup mayo
  • 2 tablespoons Hoisin sauce
  • Bunch cilantro, stems removed
  • 1 tomato, sliced thin
  • 4 buns
Instructions
  1. In a large pan heat 2 teaspoons of oil over medium high heat. Add the ginger, lemongrass, and garlic. Cook for 30 seconds to 1 minute or until the mixture becomes aromatic. Remove from heat and place in a large bowl to cool.
  2. Lightly wipe out the pan. And make the Hoisin mayo by whisking together the hoisin sauce and mayo until well combined. Set aside.
  3. When the lemongrass, garlic, ginger mixture has cooled add the ground chicken, breadcrumbs, sriracha, sesame oil, and soy sauce. Using your hands mix the ingredients until well combined and then begin to form the mixture into patties about ½ inch thick.
  4. In the same pan used earlier heat 1 tablespoon of oil over medium high heat. Add the burgers to the pan and cook for 3 ot 5 minutes per side, until browned and remove from heat.
  5. Toast the buns if desired in the same pan before assembling burgers with burger, slice of tomato, cilantro, and hoisin mayo.
  6. Serve immediately.

More Burger recipes:

Mediterranean Chickpea Burgers

Mediterranean Chickpea Burgers

Thai Ground Chicken Salad

Thai Ground Chicken Salad

Chicken Caesar Buger

Chicken Caesar Buger

Venison Burgers

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This post may contain affiliate links. I may receive commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

A simple recipe for basic venison burgers as well as a discussion on perfecting a homemade burger.

Venison Burgers

The all American burger is something I’m fairly certain everyone is familiar with, even if you’ve never set foot in the U.S. By now McDonalds has infiltrated nearly the entire globe so people are at the very least familiar with the concept.

While I’ve had my share of take out burgers I honestly believe that nothing can compare to a homemade burger if it’s done right. Now there innumerable camps that have staked their claim to the best way to prepare burgers, contesting meat to fat ratios, spice content, meat type and all that jazz. For me honestly I think simplicity works best.

I think a solid 80 to 20 meat to fat ratio is ideal. Fat is what makes the burger juicy and tender. However, when grinding large portions of venison meat at once (usually the case for us) Chuck and I opt for a 90/10 ratio since it works best for other recipes. Sometimes I add more fat when I want to cook burgers sometimes I don’t. They are really good either way. If you are using a lower fat ratio then I suggest mixing in a little liquid to the meat before cooking to help them stay juicy. We typically add in a couple cups of water during the grinding process before vacuum sealing and storage for this reason. For venison burgers I like to use pork fat, usually in the form of bacon, because it’s the most easily accessible.

I’m also a firm believer in handling the meat as little as possible. Working it too much can make the burgers dense and crumbly, no one wants that. To combat this I just combine my spices separately and gently work them into the meat before forming the burgers, only handling the meat for a few minutes to do all of this.

I am a member of the flip once camp. I know that the number of times you flip doesn’t actually make a difference in anything but the outside crust. I like a little crust on the outside of my burger, and since I like mine mostly rare it’s not hard to just flip once and get a perfect burger.

If your meat is already ground up (fat included) then go ahead and heat that grill up. If you are starting from scratch this post from Hank Shaw gives a great overview on grinding meat. If you are looking to use a different type of fat in your meat this post talks about some of my favorites.

Venison Burgers

Venison Burgers
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 4 servings
Ingredients
  • 1 1/2 lbs ground venison (fat included)
  • Salt & pepper
  • Burger buns & toppings for serving
Instructions
  1. Preheat the grill.
  2. Using your hands form 4 roughly equal patties.
  3. Season liberally on both sides with salt and pepper.
  4. Grill the burgers to your desired doneness (5-6 minutes on the first side and 1-2 minutes on the second for side for medium-rare).
  5. Remove the burgers from the grill and let stand for 4 minutes before serving on buns with desired garnish.

Similar Recipes:

Venison Breakfast Sausage

Venison Breakfast Sausage

Perfect Venison Loin

Perfect Venison Loin

Whole Roasted Brown Trout

Whole Roasted Brown Trout