Veggie Burger Mix

We needed a quick and simple dinner. Digging around in the pantry produced a box of veggie burger mix. It wasn’t too exciting but it would meet the criteria, along with the added benefit of reducing the number of forgotten boxes in the pantry by one.

The only question was how much of this stuff to make. The directions gave amounts for making three patties, or six patties. I needed four patties. To hell with it. I’ll mix up the whole thing and just make four big patties.

Once the patties were made, I set about getting ready to fry them up. Got out the pan. Got out the olive oil. Got out the, hey! Wait a minute… Why use olive oil when you can use something magical?

Duck Fat

Yes, that’s right. Duck fat!

I started with a couple of tablespoons of  that and threw some onions in. Then I fried the patties in there.

To be perfectly honest, the burgers did not turn out all that great. Making four big patties probably had a lot to do with it. The patties were about 3/4 inch thick, which meant that the outside was getting pretty dark by the time the middle was approaching done. But the real problem I think, is that one can really only eat so much of this dried and reconstituted grainy mix. Even though a 3-inch patty as directed on the box seemed too small in theory, the bigger patties we ended up with were too much in practice.

On a side note, another problem here was the arugula for the burgers. I have basically written off all Trader Joe’s produce, but every once in a while I give in and try again with something like the bags of arugula. This is absolutely the blandest arugula I have ever come across. You may as well just use iceberg lettuce. Really. Not only that, but it only lasts a couple-three days after you get it home, and then it’s on its way to becoming arugula soup, right in the bag.

So, ummm, yeah, the duck fat was about the best thing about it. I should’ve used more.