Chiorganicgirls Meatless Monday: Grillable Veggie Burgers

Posted on July 25, 2016 by CHIORGANICGIRLS

July is National Grilling Month and it’s been a scorcher in Chicago. With all the BBQs and back yard grilling bonanzas this month, adding some veggie burgers to the mix can happify those who don’t wanna have a cow. Humans are naturally omnivores, meaning we’re down (and hard wired) for some vegging out. Plus, eating more veggie based meals can help the environment, reduce cancer risks, minimimize exposure to meat based antibiotics, and improve the quality of life for animals. But lettuce not forget taste! There isn’t mushroom for a bad tastin’ veggie burger on the grill.

Upton’s Naturals, an independently owned Chicago based company, dedicates themselves to providing delicious veggie based meat alternatives for the vegan and vegetarian community in Chicago and abroad. They just celebrated their 10th birthday and certainly know how to turnip any grilling occasion.

Their veggie burgers are one of the newest additions cropping up on their rotation. So you may wonder, how does Upton’s Naturals: The Classic Burger stack up?

Battle of the Burger:

Traditional Hamburger vs. Upton’s Classic Veggie Burger

Traditional Single Patty Hamburger

Ingredients:
- Beef (moooo)..maybe some hormones. We can’t guarantee anything.
Nutritional Profile (from the USDA website):
- Calories Per Serving: 254
- Total Fat: 10 g
- Saturated Fat: 3.1 g
- Trans Fat: .5 g
  Polyunsaturated Fat: .2 g
- Sodium: 378 mg
- Carbohydrate: 29g
- Sugar: 5g
- Dietary Fiber: 1 g
- Protein: 13 g
- Cholesterol: 28 mg

Upton’s Classic Burger

Ingredients:
- Vital wheat gluten, eggplant, water, tofu (water, soybeans, calcium sulfate), sunflower, canola or safflower oil, soy sauce (water, wheat, soybeans, salt), wheat flour, nutritional yeast, evaporated cane juice, onion, sea salt, garlic, natural hickory smoke concentrate, whole wheat flour, oregano, black pepper, paprika, parsley, marjoram and apple cider vinegar.
Nutritional Profile:
- Calories Per Serving: 168
- Total Fat: 5 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Polyunsaturated Fat: 2 g
- Sodium: 365 mg
- Carbohydrate: 9 g
- Sugar: 1 g
- Dietary Fiber: 2 g
- Protein: 22 g
- Cholesterol: 0 g

Upton’s Taste and Texture: Upton’s Burger tastes a lot like their other seitan blends that we’ve had before. There is a slight smoke flavor with a peppery finish in the patty. It’s a hearty veggie burger, not one of those ones that falls apart, and it easily cooks on the grill in a short time. Can’t beet a quick cooking meat free burger to get those planty vibes!

So who won? Is this your garden variety knock out? Upton’s has less fat, calories, and cholesterol than than a traditional beef burger. It also has more fiber. Upton’s is kosher, lactose free and vegan so it digs away at different dietary needs. Note: Upton’s burger is NOT gluten free so traditonal burger takes the medal for that category.

Are you ready for your BBQ guests to cheer “Olive Veggie Burgers!”?

Upton’s Naturals’ Classic Burger is planting itself at natural retailers throughout the Midwest for $3.99 for a 2 burger box. Click HERE for a store locator. Swinging by the Chi? Sample the classic burger or many other vegan delights (jackfruit tacos, vegan bacon mac and cheese and more) at Upton’s Breakroom in Chicago’s West Town neighborhood. Visit www.uptonsnaturals.com and find @UptonsNaturals and @UptonsBreakroom on social media.

Meatless Monday: Vegan Brunch!

Posted on February 22, 2016 by CHIORGANICGIRLS

Re-Mix your Meatless Monday recipe list with a veg-tacular event this coming weekend: Slo’Mo Remix Brunch w/ Live Lynnette’s Lynnette Astaire Join Live Lynnette, wellness wonder woman (pictured below) for a vegan brunch sound tracked by sweet soul jams from top notch … Continue reading →

Go Deep or Go Home: The Art of #Chicago Style #Pizza

Posted on September 9, 2014 by CHIORGANICGIRLS

What do a deep dish pizza and a magician have in common? They both have good taste! Ok, that was a stretch but did you know magicians could have more than just doves up their sleeves?

Recently, Now We’re Cookin’ invited members of Chicago Food Bloggers (including lucky saucy us) to learn to make the Chicago style pizza at their Evanston cook space. To our surprise, instead of pulling rabbits out of hats, our chef, a professional magician, pulled a fantastic pizza out of the oven.

Chef Brian Kirshenbaum keeps his pizza dough straightforward (yeast, warm water, all purpose flour, cornmeal and oil) but sneaks in one secret ingredient (since a magician can’t reveal all his tricks). He demonstrated the proper way to press down the dough into a deep pan with the slight of a hand.

Next, he created the sauce by squeezing the juice from fresh whole peeled plum tomatoes and sprinkling in fairy dust…or spices (oregano, black pepper, salt, and garlic) as we non magicians call them. Then guests partnered up and got to work pressing their own pizza dough and prepping their chunky sauce.

Finally, the show came to it’s climatic point as fresh deli sliced mozzarella was pressed on the bottom. Guests picked up to 3 vegetables/meats to fill their own pizza. We shuffled through the ingredients and chose spinach, mushrooms, roasted red peppers and few thinly sliced fennel. Veg head Monica loaded up on the plants and a dash of spice instead of sticking with just the traditional thick chunk of gooey cheese (Mon is not fan of xxxtra cheese but will eat deep dish to support her city).

Finally, we spread the chunky tomato sauce over the top of the pizza and sprinkled Parmesan cheese and viola; a magic Chicago pizza appeared :). Notice the delicate saucy finish. As we marveled at the fresh flavor of the pizza, Chef BK astounded us with magic acts to titillate our other senses.