Asian-Inspired Veggie Cutlets

To the beat this heat, just add more heat and it already feels cooler, no?

It's so easy to eat out most of the time, especially in New York, where kitchen space is often non-existent, or if you share with roommates, the avocado you bought a month ago and forgot about is likely to have become a black, mushy, rough ball of rotten vegetable casualty. You can easily spend $3.50 on breakfast, $8.00 on lunch and $12.00 on dinner here, and with the intent of making the effort to be more careful with my cash, tonight, I cooked.

Asian-inspired veggie "ground beef" cutlets topped with shredded pickled ginger and spicy thai-peanut sauce!

 

 

My roommates said these tasted a lot like hash-browns. For me, my Memme's (my mother's mother) sealiha kottlettid (ground pork cutlets) inspired this thrown together recipe. She made these all the time for me when I was little and I couldn't get enough of them!

Here's my version:
- 1 small sweet onion, finely chopped
- 1 egg, to mash into the ground veggie "beef"
- 1 tube (1 lb.) of any brand of ground veggie "beef"
- Adobo seasoning (the kind "with pepper") to taste
- Soy sauce to taste
- 1 stalk of green onion, finely chopped
- Bread crumbs, to coat the mixture

Mash everything together and form small (2" in diameter) patties, then pat them on a plate you've set aside with bread crumbs (Japanese panko bread crumbs are good). Then in a pan with heated olive oil, fry the patties til browned (about 2-3 minutes per side).

Serve hot with thai-peanut sauce and garnish with picked ginger. (A side of broccoli goes well to make this dish complete!)