Copy Cat Recipe for True Food Kitchen’s “Inside Out (Quinoa) Burger”

January 27, 2015July 2, 2017 | Julie Yates

My friend Marina is all about healthy eating. She makes it a point to be up to date on all the latest research and is a mini-encyclopedia of knowledge on what foods benefit the body and which ones to avoid. However, she is a great cook and loves delicious recipes. I got a call from her a couple months back, right after she had returned from a trip to Scottsdale, Arizona. All I can say is that she was very enthusiastic: “Julie!, Julie! – you’ve got to figure out how to make these dishes we had at this restaurant. It’s called True Food Kitchen and it’s fantastic!” I knew what she was talking about because Jenn and I had eaten in a True Food Kitchen restaurant when I visited her in California. We both fell in love with it and I posted a copy cat recipe for their Autumn Salad HERE. The True Food Kitchen restaurant chain was started by a doctor, Andrew Weil, who developed an anti-inflammatory diet. The thing is – everything was scrumptious – it sure didn’t taste like health food. At any rate, I was more than happy to experiment and figure out how to duplicate their “Inside Out Burger”. I looked up the menu on line and even found a photo without a recipe on Pinterest. The hummus recipe posted here is from the 2012 True Food Cookbook by Dr. Weil, but the quinoa burger is a hopeful duplicate. When I ate at the restaurant, I didn’t order it, so this is a stab in the dark. What I do know is the combination of this quinoa burger with the tzatziki sauce, humus, and veggies is nothing short of magical!

Ingredients for the Quinoa Burgers:

1 (15 oz,) can garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained

3 cups cooked* multi-colored quinoa, divided into 2 cups and 1 cup

1 egg (or substitute 1/4 cup almond milk)

1/4 cup flour (rice or garbanzo bean flour can be substituted)

2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

1 1/2 tablespoons tahini

1 teaspoon of light soy sauce (Maggi or Bragg’s sauce can be substituted)

1/2 teaspoon thyme

1/2 teaspoon cumin

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon coriander

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

*The quinoa is a lot more flavorful if cooked in broth (vegetable or chicken).

Additional Ingredients Needed to Serve:

Lettuce

Avocado slices

Red onion slices

Tomato slices

Feta cheese (optional)

Directions:

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Using a food processor, combine the garbanzo beans, 2 cups quinoa, egg, flour, cilantro, tahini, soy sauce, thyme, cumin, paprika, garlic powder, coriander, salt, and pepper. Place the mixture in a bowl and stir in 1 cup of quinoa. Cover and place in the refrigerator for an hour. (This step can be skipped, it just makes it a bit easier to handle.) Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Use about a 1/2 cup of the “dough” to form 6 patties or about 1/3 of a cup for 8 smaller ones. Place each patty on the baking sheet. To give them an even more uniform shape, put a ball jar lid ring over the top of each patty and using a rubber spatula, smooth out the top. Then, carefully remove the ring. Use the pint sized for the larger patties and the 8 oz. cup ones if making smaller patties. Place in the oven and bake for 30 minutes, gently turning once at 15 minutes.

While they are baking make the hummus and tzatziki sauce.

Tzatziki Sauce Ingredients:

1 cup Greek yogurt

1/2 medium cucumber

2 garlic gloves

1 tablespoon lemon juice

2 teaspoons dried dill

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

Directions:

Put the Greek yogurt in a mixing bowl. Slice the end off the cucumber, cut into fourths lengthwise, and remove the seeds. Grate the cucumber pieces, skin and all, and add them to the yogurt. Put the peel the garlic cloves and put them through a press. Then add the garlic, lemon juice, dill, salt, and pepper to the bowl. Combine well, transfer to a serving bowl, and refrigerate until serving time.

Ingredients for the Hummus from True Food by Andrew Weil, MD:

2 (15 oz.) cans garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained

1 large garlic clove, put through a press

1 small jalapeno chile, seeded and diced

2 tablespoons plus 1 1/2 teaspoons tahini

1/4 cup lemon juice

juice of 1 lime

1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 scant teaspoon agave nectar syrup (optional)

pinch of cayenne pepper

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup olive oil

Directions:

Combine the beans, garlic, jalapeno, chili, tahini, lemon juice, lime juice, agave nectar, cilantro, cumin, cayenne, and salt in a food processor and blend well. Slowly pour in the olive oil as the mixture is processing until the mixture is smooth. Transfer to a bowl and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Serve with the hummus, tzatziki sauce, lettuce, avocado slices, tomato slices, red onion and crumbled feta cheese. These can be eaten just like a burger with a bun, or presented as the top and bottom buns with the lettuce, avocado, and red onion in the middle as True Food Kitchen does. Just put 2 tablespoons hummus on the bottom patty, then veggies in the middle, cover with 2 tablespoons tzatziki sauce, sprinkle with 2 tablespoons crumbled feta, and top with a second patty.

**Related Recipe: Copy Cat True Food Autumn Ingredient Salad**

Cranberry Bliss Sponge Cake Roll

December 17, 2014November 10, 2016 | Julie Yates

I love Starbuck’s Cranberry Bliss Bars. Let’s face it, they are composed of the best seasonal flavors ever. So, because I’ve been experimenting with sponge cake rolls (see this wonderful version with dulce de leche on Yates Yummies HERE), I decided to make a cranberry bliss sponge cake roll. Close to a traditional buche noel or yule log, this dessert isn’t chocolate cake covered with icing,but is like a sponge cake blondie brownie with a cranberry cream cheese filling. It’s great with a cup of tea or coffee and it looks impressive enough to serve at the end of a holiday meal.

Ingredients:

6 eggs

3/4 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup flour

1/4 teaspoon ginger

1/2 cup chopped dried cranberries, roughly chopped and divided

1 (8 oz.) brick cream cheese

6 tablespoons butter

1 cup confectioner’s sugar

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1/4 cup white chocolate chips

Also needed:

Parchment paper and 1 teaspoon butter

1 clean dish towel and 1/4 cup confectioner’s sugar

Small wire mesh strainer and 1 tablespoon confectioner’s sugar

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350. Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper. Smear the parchment paper with the butter. Separate the eggs. Beat the egg whites until stiff. Add the brown sugar and the egg yolks and beat just until mixed in.

Now add the flour and beat that just until mixed.

Stir in 1/4 cup of the dried cranberries.

Pour the mixture onto the parchment lined baking sheet and use a rubber spatula to smooth the batter out evenly from end to end. Bake for 12 minutes. The sponge cake is done when it will be just starting to brown and will spring back when touched.

Immediately evenly sprinkle the clean dish towel with 1/4 cup confectioner’s sugar. Invert the baking sheet onto the the dish towel and remove it, leaving the parchment paper covered sponge cake behind. Gently peel the parchment paper away from the cake. Don’t worry if the edges tear a bit; it will be hidden when the cake is rolled up.

Starting from one end, roll the sponge cake up, towel and all.

Place the cream cheese, butter, confectioner’s sugar, and lemon juice in a mixing bowl.

Cream all the ingredients with an electric mixer until fluffy.

Wait for the cake to completely cool, then gently unroll it. The surface of the cake may try to cling to the towel, but just carefully “peel” it away; any splits or tears won’t be noticeable once it’s rolled up again with filling. Gently spread the cream cheese mixture over the sponge cake, covering it from edge to edge.

Sprinkle the cranberries and white chocolate chips over the top.

Roll the sponge cake up again, this time without the towel 🙂 If it tries to stick to the towel, just carefully pry it away.

Place on a serving platter. Put one tablespoon confectioner’s sugar in the small mesh strainer. Shake over the top.

Using a serrated knife, cut into one inch slices and serve.

Homemade Apple Sauce

November 21, 2014March 12, 2015 | Julie Yates

This fall Caroline and her boyfriend Adam came down for the weekend just to visit and touch base with some old friends. They had two brand new babies to see, a dinner out, and a brunch celebrating an anniversary, but still managed to spend a fun Saturday with us. Caroline wanted to do something that involved a pumpkin patch and picking apples so I got on the internet and found a place that had both. The first thing we did when we got there was pick out pumpkins, but after we stowed those in the car, we headed out to the apple orchard. We found the Jonathan grove and went to town. I ended up with over a bushel of the freshest apples ever and we had a scrumptious “Tree to Table” or “Orchard to Oven” apple crisp that night. A link to the recipe for this simple yet so yummy crisp can be found by clicking HERE . Later that week, I took the remaining apples to Aunt Robin’s house and we spent the whole day making and canning apple sauce. She uses a pressure cooker, which I don’t have any experience with, to make it go faster. For a link to making applesauce via a pressure cooker, click HERE. The most time consuming part was peeling the apples, but once we did that the rest was smooth sailing. After the apples were sauce, Robin showed me how to water bath process them in order to preserve them them for months to come. This post will only include a recipe for a small batch, but click HERE for steps on canning applesauce.

Homemade Apple Sauce – Makes three cups

Ingredients:

12 to 14 apples – enough to make 12 cups once they are peeled, cored, and sliced

1/4 cup sugar – more or less according to the tartness of the apples you are using

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 1/2 cups water

1 teaspoon of lemon – more or less according to the tartness of the apples you are using

Directions:

Peel, core, and slice the apples

Place the apples, sugar, cinnamon, water, and lemon juice into a large pan. Combine the mixture and bring it to a boil. Turn the heat down and let everything simmer for 25 minutes or until the apples are soft. Give it a good stir to break the apples apart, yet letting the applesauce maintain a chunky texture. At this point, many people put applesauce through a food sieve or blend it in a food processor until it’s totally smooth, but I enjoy the texture!

Spoon it into containers or jars. It will keep in the refrigerator for a week or process it as Aunt Robin does. It can also be frozen. On the Ball Mason Jar website cited above, it stated that it was alright to freeze the pint jars, but not recommended for the quart sized ones. However, the best thing to do is eat it right away while it is still warm! It is also great over ice cream. Allison always loved it heated up in the microwave and spooned over ice cream – Yum!