rants & recipes

I really like Amy's Soy-Free Breakfast Patties. Not because they're soy-free, but just because they're really tasty. But, like a lot of commercial meat subs, they are rather pricey. So, I decided to try to make my own. My first attempt didn't turn out so great, but my second attempt was really good! Amy's contains mushrooms, as one of the top ingredients, but I didn't have any mushrooms. I'll try to add some, the next time I make these. Otherwise, they were pretty close to what I remember Amy's tasting like. A little denser texture, maybe.

Ingredients:

• 160 g bulgur wheat
• 2 cups water
• 2 tbsp A1
• 3 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 tsp marmite
• 1 tsp no-chicken boullion
• 1 tsp liquid smoke
• 1 tbsp ketchup
• 1 tbsp oil
• 1/2 tsp browning liquid
• 1/2 small onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• 80 g walnuts
• 2 tsp ground fennel
• 1 tsp ground sage
• 1 tsp thyme
• 2 tsp onion powder
• 2 tsp garlic powder
• 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
• 1 tbsp garbanzo bean flour
• 1/2 tsp marjoram
• 1/2 tsp celery seed
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
• 3/4 cup wheat gluten

Instructions:

1. Simmer bulgur wheat in all wet ingredients (top of list, through "oil") until the bulgur wheat has absorbed most of the liquid.
2. Process onion, garlic and walnuts in a food processor until finely diced.
3. Mix the remaining dry ingredients together.
4. Add onion mix to dry mix.
5. Add bulgur to dry mix.
6. Stir and knead to combine.
7. Line cookie sheet or pans with parchment paper.
8. Form sausage mix into patties, about 1/2 inch thick. (I made about 20-22 patties from the above amount.)
9. Bake in preheated oven at 350 degrees for 25 minutes, flipping patties half way through baking time.
10. After 25 minutes, I turned the oven off and left the patties inside. For about an hour (I forgot them!) When I took them out, they were a little crunchy and seemed overdone. However, putting them, still warm, in a tupperware container softened them once they cooled and they were actually a pretty good texture and held up well to re-warming in the microwave.

Notes:

• I based this recipe on my previous seitan sausage attempts and this bulgur wheat recipe.
• These would be great, with biscuits and gravy or broken up in tofu scramble.

Update:

• I recently made these again with the following changes - I used about 12 tablespoons of soy curl cooking water (soy sauce, marmite, water) for some of the water. I used a bouillon cube in place of the no-chicken bouillon. I added about 6 ounces diced white button mushrooms to the wet mix (I used the 12 tablespoons of broth and added 1 cup water, figuring the mushrooms would add about 1/4 cup liquid. I had to sprinkle in maybe another 3 tablespoons of wheat gluten). Very good. Definitely won't have to buy any pricey bulgar wheat breakfast patties again.