Whole Food Culinary Tip: Mise en Place & Make Your Own Veggie Burger

Mise en Place, with the French pronunciation of mi za plas means "putting in place", as in "set up"

Mise en place is used in the kitchen to “put into place” or “to set up” all the ingredients used to prepare a dish, before we start cooking. The purpose is to have everything ready, all in order for cooking, so when we cook, it is much easier. All ingredients are ready, sliced, diced and measured before we start cooking. Mise en place is a great cooking technique to incorporate into your kitchen for both more complex and simple recipes.

Mise en Place Makes Cooking Easier

“With mise en place we do not scramble around our kitchen when we are in the cooking process, looking for that one ingredient we really need, or we are not quickly chopping food right in the middle of cooking. Instead, we are methodically enjoying cooking with all of our ingredients ready for us to use,” advises Melanie Albert, Southwest Institute of Healing Arts Holistic Nutrition & Whole Food Cooking Instructor.

By doing our mise en place, we save time. For instance, if onions are necessary for two or three dishes we are preparing, we can mince all the onions at once while setting up our mise en place, or the plan we intend to follow as we prepare multiple recipes.

In addition to being better prepared to cook a dish, by using mise en place, cooking becomes a more mindful and enjoyable process.

Whole Food S.O.U.L. Food Wednesday Action: Create your mise en place and try this Mediterranean Sweet Potato Veggie Burger recipe!

We invite you to take action with your whole foods eating habits. The goal is to incorporate new whole foods eating into your way of eating step-by-step. Our Challenge for you this week is to use the mise en place cooking technique in your kitchen with this healthy recipe.

Mediterranean Sweet Potato Veggie Burger Recipe

Amazing and delicious veggie burger with a Mediterranean twist created with baked sweet potatoes and cooked chickpeas as the recipe base. Have fun with being very organized, with your mise en place in place. Enjoy your veggie burgers.

Ingredients

• 1 large sweet potato (approximately 1 cup cooked), baked whole at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes
• 12 cup chickpeas, cooked and coarsely mashed
• ¼ cup Kalamata olives, sliced
• ¼ cup roasted bell peppers, diced
• ¼ cup dry rolled oats, ground into meal in food processor
• 3 TBSP red or green onion, minced
• 1 TBSP onion powder
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 TBSP fresh parsley, chopped
• ½ tsp cumin powder
• ¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper

Simple Steps

• Prepare the veggie burgers
• Gather and prepare your mise en place, meaning all your ingredients
• Once potatoes are baked whole and cooled, peel off the skin and set aside
• To prepare the burger mixture, in mixing bowl, toss together all ingredients, except the ground oats
• Press the mixture until it begins to bind together
• If the mixture is too moist, mix in the mixed oats

• Cook the veggie burgers
• Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees F
• Form the mixture into burger or bite-size patties, and place on parchment paper.
• Bake for 15 minutes, flip and continue baking for an additional 5 to 8 minutes until both sides are golden
• Serve and enjoy!

Share your mise en place experience and your veggie burger creations with us on Facebook:

www.facebook.com/SWIHA and www.facebook.com/9Ways90Days