Superiority Burger Cookbook

SUPERIORITY BURGER

This is not fake meat, nor is it vying to be. The un-likeness to the real thing is canny. Think of these as vegetable and grain croquettes that get put on buns. These are our namesake, they are absolutely recognizable as food, and are meant to be a Luddite response to the modern gaggle of vegetable patties that bleed and squirt and ape.

Makes 8 to 10 patties

1 cup red quinoa

1 medium yellow onion, chopped

2 teaspoons ground toasted fennel seeds

1 teaspoon chile powder

1 cup cooked chickpeas, rinsed and drained

1 teaspoon white wine vinegar

1 cup small-diced carrots

½ cup coarse bread crumbs

¾ cup walnuts, toasted and crushed

Juice of 1 lemon

1 tablespoon chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

1 tablespoon hot chile sauce

2 tablespoons nonmodified potato starch

Grapeseed oil for searing the patties

Toasted buns/shredded lettuce/roasted tomatoes/2 pickle slices/Muenster cheese (if you like)/sauces (honey mustard, Special Sauce) of your choice for serving

Preheat the oven to 425ºF.

Cook the quinoa in 1½ cups salted water until fluffy, about 45 minutes. Cool and reserve. In a separate pan, sauté the onion until translucent and browned, and season with salt, pepper, the fennel, and chile powder. Add the chickpeas and keep on the heat for 5 to10 minutes, stirring constantly. Deglaze the hot pan with the white wine vinegar and scrape everything stuck to the bottom of the pan back into the mix. Using a potato masher, roughly smash the onion-chickpea mixture. Mix the chickpea mash by hand with the cooled quinoa.

Roast the carrots in the oven until dark around the edges and soft, about 25 minutes. Add to the chickpea-quinoa mixture. Add the bread crumbs, walnuts, lemon, parsley, and chile sauce, and season again with salt and pepper, until it tastes sharp. Mix the potato starch with 1 tablespoon water to create a cloudy, thick slurry. Fold the slurry into the burger mix as the binding agent. Form the mixture into 8 to 10 patties and sear in grapeseed oil in a hot sauté pan or cast-iron skillet until fully browned, about 3 minutes on each side. To serve, place each patty on a toasted bun with shredded iceberg lettuce, Roasted Red Tomatoes (page 71), 2 pickle slices, Muenster cheese (if you like), and sauces such as honey mustard or Special Sauce (page 212).

SLOPPY DAVE

We originally listed this on our menu as a sloppy joe, until we realized that most of these were being sold to our friend and neighbor Dave. Dave doesn’t get “sloppy” anymore, and insisted we rename the sandwich in his teetotaling honor. He comes a few times a week with his lady, Uli, and their hound. Squishy. They almost always eat outside.

SERVES 8

2 large Spanish onions

3 celery stalks

1 green bell pepper

3 scallions

3 pickled cherry peppers, stems removed

4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons tomato paste

3 tablespoons chile powder

1½ tablespoons ground cumin

1 tablespoon Korean chile flakes

¼ cup cider vinegar

Two 15-ounce cans crushed tomatoes

¼ cup ketchup

2 tablespoons dark brown sugar

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

3 tablespoons Bragg Liquid Aminos

1½ teaspoons freshly ground black pepper

2 pounds extra firm tofu, drained

Toasted sesame seed buns

Frizzled Onions (recipe follows)

Roughly chop all the vegetables, including the cherry peppers, and process in batches in a food processor until finely chopped. Heat 3 tablespoons of the olive oil over medium heat in a big pot and add the processed vegetables. Salt. Cook until the veg is totally soft and takes on a little color, about 20 minutes. Add the tomato paste and spices and cook for another 10 minutes, stirring frequently. It is okay if it sticks to the bottom of the pot. Add the cider vinegar and scrape the bottom of the pot to get off all browned bits of vegetables and tomato paste.

Add the tomatoes, ketchup, brown sugar, mustard, 1 tablespoon of the amino acids, and the black pepper and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for as long as you can—30 minutes will do. While the sauce is simmering, crumble the tofu. In a large skillet over medium heat, add the remaining 1 tablespoon oil and the tofu and brown. Once the tofu is mostly brown, pour in the remaining 2 tablespoons amino acids and let cook a bit longer, until the tofu absorbs all of the sauce and begins to caramelize. Remove from the heat and set aside.

Roughly grind the tofu in the food processor. Add the tofu to the pot of sauce and continue to cook. Season with salt and black pepper. Serve on a toasted sesame seed bun. Top with frizzled onions.

HIPPY WRAP

When we first opened, we tried to sell this and no one bought it. Humans have a very averse reaction to the word “hippy.” We changed the name to Superiority Wrap and then people started purchasing it. It’s meant to make fun of wraps, of vegetarian food in general, and quite possibly ourselves. All the health food tropes are here: carrots, sunflower seeds, tofu, brown rice, and cabbage, although the recipe is not technically “healthy.” Our buddy Caroline who runs the unflappable restaurant Saltie in Brooklyn had one once and laughed as she ate it, obviously getting the joke.

HIPPY MIX

SERVES 4

1 knob celery root

2 tablespoons extra virgin

olive oil

2 tablespoons chile powder

1 tablespoon sweet paprika

½ teaspoon ground ginger

½ teaspoon ground coriander

¼ teaspoon ground cardamom

½ head green cabbage

1 cup golden balsamic vinegar

2 tablespoons Bragg Liquid Aminos

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1 tablespoon maple syrup

½ block (1 pound) extra

firm tofu

2 tablespoons grapeseed oil

Preheat the oven to 400ºF.

Peel and cut the celery root into small cubes. Toss with the olive oil, seasonings, and salt. Spread out the dressed cubes on a baking sheet—do not crowd them too much. Cook until slightly browned and tender, about 25 minutes. Set aside.

Turn off the oven and turn on the broiler. Cut the cabbage into ¼-inch ribbons. Spread into a single layer on a baking sheet. This does not require oil. Broil until the cabbage just starts to char, about 5 minutes. Set aside.

Whisk together the golden balsamic vinegar, amino acids, mustard, and maple syrup. Add a good pinch of salt and pepper. Drain the tofu and press out as much liquid as possible. Crumble the tofu into bite-size chunks with your hands. Heat the grapeseed oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add the tofu chunks and cook until they begin to take on color and crisp up, about 5 minutes. When all the pieces are well browned, reduce the heat to medium. Add the vinegar mixture to the pan and stir thoroughly until the tofu is coated with the sauce and it begins to evaporate, reduce, and caramelize. Remove the pan from the heat and pour the tofu into a large bowl. Add the celery root and cabbage to the bowl and mix to combine. Check for seasoning, adding salt and pepper as needed.

SOOM SAUCE

Makes about 1 cup

¾ cup smooth tahini (we use Soom brand exclusively)

¼ to ½ cup water

2 tablespoons hot chile sauce

1 tablespoon maple syrup

1 tablespoon pickle juice

(we use leftover B&G cherry pepper juice)

In a large bowl, whisk together the tahini and enough water to start to thin out the tahini, about ¼ cup. The mixture should have the consistency of natural peanut butter. Whisk in the chile sauce, maple syrup, and pickle juice. Adjust the seasoning to taste with more of these things. Season with salt.

PICKLED CARROTS

MAKES 2 CUPS

1 pound carrots, sliced into matchsticks with a mandoline or by hand

1 tablespoon cane sugar

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

Zest and juice of 1 lemon

¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro

1 Fresno chile, seeded and finely chopped

1 teaspoon ground cumin

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon New Mexican chile powder

2 cups white wine vinegar

Toss the carrots with the sugar and a large pinch of salt in a large bowl. Let stand for about 15 minutes, until the carrots start to release their juices. Add everything else—except the white wine vinegar—to the bowl and combine thoroughly. Transfer the carrots and any juice left in the bowl to a storage container with a lid, like a jar or quart container. Press the carrots down just a little bit. Add enough white wine vinegar to just cover the carrots. Lid and refrigerate until ready to use. These will keep for a few weeks in the refrigerator.

SUNFLOWER CRUNCH

MAKES 2 CUPS

2 cups raw shelled sunflower seeds

¼ cup simple syrup

¾ cup raw sugar

Preheat the oven to 325ºF. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Toss the sunflower seeds in the simple syrup in a medium bowl so they are thoroughly coated. Sprinkle in the sugar and a big pinch of salt and taste for seasoning—the mixture should be a well-balanced sweet and salty. Spread the seeds into a thin layer on the baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes and check on them. Continue to bake, checking every 5 minutes or so, until they are a medium golden brown. Let cool, transfer to a plastic bag, and crush up with a rolling pin. Pack into an airtight container for up to 1 week until ready to use.

“SUPERIORITY” WRAP/BOAT ASSEMBLY

Serves 4

Four 12-inch whole wheat

tortillas (if making wraps)

2 cups warm cooked brown rice (page 211)

1 batch warm Hippy Mix (page 26)

1 cup Soom Sauce (page 28)

2 cups Pickled Carrots (page 28)

2 celery stalks, cut into small dice

1 cup Sunflower Crunch (page 28)

If making the wrap, heat the tortillas, one at a time, in a large dry skillet until they are warm and just a little toasty on one side. Construct in this order: rice, hippy mix, soom sauce, carrots, celery, and sunflower crunch. Roll up like a burrito, making sure to fold in both sides and roll tightly. Wrap tightly again in a piece of aluminum foil. Cut in half or serve whole. If making the boat, follow the same order of construction, just in a bowl.

TOFU-FRIED TOFU

Monday nights are often our slowest of the week. So we started offering this sandwich as a way to, in the words of Christina, one of our counter people, “lure some asses into the seats.” Aesthetically, it is very similar to a fast-food fried chicken sandwich, minus the corporate and psychological guilt commonly associated with consuming commodity boneless, skinless chicken on a bun.

SERVES 4

1 pound extra firm tofu

1 teaspoon Korean chile flakes

1 tablespoon hot chile sauce (we use Matouk’s Calypso sauce)

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1½ cups pickle juice

Grapeseed oil

½ cup Dijon mustard

4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 teaspoons smoked paprika

½ teaspoon onion powder

½ teaspoon garlic powder

½ teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1½ teaspoons kosher salt

Buns/mayo/shredded cabbage/dill pickles for serving

Cut the tofu into ½-inch rectangles. Arrange on a baking sheet lined with paper towels or a clean kitchen towel and cover with more towels. Apply pressure to remove some of the moisture. Mix together the chile flakes, hot sauce, the 1 tablespoon mustard, and the pickle juice in a large bowl. Heat a little bit of grapeseed oil in a large nonstick or cast-iron skillet until shimmering. Sear the tofu on both sides to get a golden brown crust. Immediately drop the hot tofu into the pickle juice mixture. Let the tofu sit in this liquid in the refrigerator for a few hours or even overnight.

Mix the ½ cup mustard with a little bit of water to make it the consistency of heavy cream. Set aside. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and all the spices in a large shallow bowl. Heat 2 inches of grapeseed oil over medium heat in a deep, sturdy pot. Remove the tofu from the brine and pat dry. Dip the tofu in the watered-down mustard, then the flour, then the mustard again, and the flour. When the oil temperature reaches 350ºF, carefully drop the battered tofu into the hot oil and fry, flipping as needed, until golden brown. Set the fried tofu on a wire rack on a baking sheet and immediately sprinkle with a little salt. Repeat until all the tofu is fried off. To serve, toast the buns and spread generously with mayo (we add a little Calypso sauce to make ours spicy). Top with thinly shredded cabbage and dill pickles. Eat immediately.

HAMMERED MUSHROOM SANDWICH

There’s no point in messing around with this one unless there are peak August tomatoes at the greenmarket. This is about as simple as it gets. And that whole spiel where a puffed-up chef’s marketing/PR assistant/propaganda spewer says, “We will just let the ingredients speak for themselves?” That baloney? That most certainly applies here (for once). Iceberg is here simply for water and cellulose, not to make anyone upset.

SERVES 1

Iceberg lettuce leaves

2 slices sourdough bread

Extra virgin olive oil

½ to ¾ cup Hammered Mushrooms (page 207)

2 tablespoons Chickpea Mayo (page 211)

1 tomato, the best you can find, sliced ¼ inch thick and aggressively salted and peppered

Trim the lettuce leaves to fit the bread. Heat a heavy skillet over medium heat, add a little olive oil, and toast the bread on one side until golden brown and crisp. Take the bread out of the pan and set aside for a minute. Add the mushrooms to the hot pan and cook for a minute, until they are warmed through. Spread the untoasted sides of the bread with the mayo. Top with the tomato slices, lettuce, and mushrooms. Eats well warm or at room temperature.

YUBA PHILADELPHIA/NEW CREATION

Oakland, CA’s Hodo Soy yuba is a very magical thing. It is highly perishable, neutral in flavor, takes on marinades stunningly, and is very fresh. Yuba is the skin that forms on top of simmering soy milk. It is hand harvested and is texturally right on. Our pal and neighbor Lagusta, who runs a confectionery shop a few doors down on East 9th Street, refers to yuba as “having the satisfying texture of meat while being wholly nonprocessed.” She’s right—it’s just soybeans and water. Previous to discovering the Hodo brand, our yuba experiences were relegated to the dried packaged stuff that frequently tastes off and like chemicals.

YUBA PHILADELPHIA

MAKES 4 SANDWICHES

2 tablespoons grapeseed oil

2 medium red onions,

thinly sliced

2 green bell peppers, thinly sliced

2 cups Marinated Yuba Strips (see page 210)

4 small potato rolls, regular or vegan

2 cups hot Pump Cheese (page 204)

Heat 1 tablespoon of the grapeseed oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onions and bell peppers and a big pinch of salt to the pan and cook, stirring frequently, until they are tender, about 10 minutes. Transfer the onions and bell peppers to a bowl and set aside.
Return the skillet to medium-high heat and add the remaining 1 tablespoon oil. Add the yuba to the hot pan and spread into a single layer. You want as much of the yuba touching the hot pan as possible so that it can brown and get kind of crackly. Using a spatula or tongs, flip the yuba so it continues to brown all over. Once nicely browned, transfer the yuba to another bowl. To serve, lightly toast the rolls on their cut sides. Mound about ½ cup yuba onto each roll. Top the yuba with some of the cooked onions and bell peppers. Smother everything with the hot pump cheese sauce.

NEW CREATION

Serves 4

1 cup Chickpea Mayo (page 211)

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

1½ teaspoons maple syrup

4 small potato rolls, split in half

Grapeseed oil

2 cups Marinated Yuba Strips (see page 210)

12 dill pickle slices

Mix together the mayo, mustard, maple syrup, and a substantial pinch of black pepper in a medium bowl. Set the sauce aside. In a large dry skillet, toast the rolls on the cut sides until just a little browned. Arrange the rolls wide open on a plate.

Heat a few tablespoons of grapeseed oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the yuba and cook, flipping and stirring frequently, until it is a little crispy and brown on most pieces but still has some gooey areas as well. Using tongs or a spatula, divide the yuba among the rolls. Spoon as much or as little of the sauce as you like over the yuba. It is fine if it breaches the edge of the sandwich and pools a little bit on the plate. Top each sandwich with 3 pickle slices and eat. This is also good without a bun—a common request—with the griddled yuba, sauce, and pickles in a small bowl.

UPTOWN

Running a restaurant is a constant struggle to retain employees. This sandwich was the brainchild of Dominic, one of our finest ex–burger wrappers, who was eventually poached by one of the SB partners for another business. Talk about skullduggery! This is a very loose interpretation of a chopped cheese, a bodega specialty commonly found in the Bronx and Harlem, and it is messy and utterly satisfying. Dominic, a vegan kid from Connecticut, has never had the real version; he just impresario-ed it together from NYC lore, Malcolm McLaren style.

Makes 4 sandwiches

1 medium yellow onion, chopped

2 tablespoons grapeseed oil

1 pound firm tofu, crumbled

½ cup tamari mixed with ½ cup water

AMERICAN SAUCE

1 medium yellow onion, cut into medium dice

1 butternut squash, cut into medium dice

2 russet potatoes, cut into medium dice

2 carrots, cut into medium dice

2 tablespoons raw sugar

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

½ cup white wine vinegar

½ cup nutritional yeast flakes

4 soft hoagie rolls

4 cups shredded iceberg lettuce

8 tomato slices

2 cups sliced pickles

1 cup Spicy Mayo (page 212)

Sauté the onion in the grapeseed oil in a skillet on high heat until charred around the edges, about 5 minutes. Add the tofu and cook until browned. Deglaze the pan with the tamari mixture and set aside.

To make the American sauce, in a Dutch oven over high heat, add the diced onion and cook, stirring constantly, until caramelized, about 10 minutes. Add the squash, potatoes, and carrots and cover with water. Cook, uncovered, until all of the vegetables are soft and falling apart. Strain off but reserve any liquid. In batches in a blender, process the vegetable mixture, thinning it out with the reserved cooking liquid as necessary. You want a thick yet pourable puree, reminiscent of an American cheese sauce. Season with salt and pepper, and add the sugar, mustard, vinegar and yeast flakes.

In a clean skillet, reheat the tofu mixture and stir in some of the “cheese” sauce, tossing it together with the tofu just until bubbling and hot. Scoop this (very messy and loose) mixture onto a toasted roll. Top with more sauce, shredded lettuce, slices of tomato, pickles, and spicy mayo. Serve immediately with lots of napkins.

SATURATED PARTY SUB

We spent a lot of time as kids with half-eaten halves of things wrapped in foil in our coat pockets: SF Mission burritos, elusive San Diego Faque burgers, Subway Veggie Delite hoagies. The true test of the foodstuff always being how it held up (or sometimes even got better) with a five-hour room-temperature in-the-pocket marination. Get a nice sturdy loaf for this one, soak the heck out of it, pack it full of vegetables, wrap it in plastic, and then weigh it down overnight in the fridge. The end result is a terrinelike slab that’s sliceable, juicy, no longer a sandwich, and terrific to eat.

Makes 1 loaf

1 loaf hearty sesame

semolina bread

½ cup Oregano Vinaigrette (page 62)

½ cup golden balsamic vinegar

¼ cup Dijon mustard

1 cup sliced pickles

1 cup shredded carrots

5 Medjool dates, chopped

3 cups chopped romaine lettuce

½ cup chopped pickled cherry peppers

½ cup scallions, shredded and charred

1 cup torn Castelvetrano olives

2 cups Hammered Mushrooms (page 207)

1 cup Bread and Butter Cauliflower (page 54)

1 eggplant, thickly sliced and roasted

½ cup Chickpea Mayo (page 211)

Slice the loaf of bread in half and scoop out some of the innards (you can reserve this bread to make bread crumbs for another recipe). Lay the bread out on a cutting board and soak the insides liberally with oregano vinaigrette, golden balsamic vinegar, and mustard. Pile all of the vegetables listed on top of the bread—it should look overloaded and out of control. Season with salt and black pepper, and squirt the top with the mayo. Place the top on and tightly wrap in plastic wrap. Place in the refrigerator, put a heavy weight on the sub (for example, a cast-iron skillet), and allow it to rest overnight. The next day slice it into strips while the plastic is still on. Serve ice cold or gently warm one side of a slice in a cast-iron griddle.

PASTRAMI-SPICED TOFU ON RYE WITH GRIDDLED ONIONS

Boring old plain tofu gets a Lou Reed-Transformer makeover with a piquant wet spice rub that exfoliates and permeates the bean curd innards into something wholly new. The griddled onion condiment has a beefy aroma while utilizing no creepy tactics to get it that way. Search out some middle-of-the-road sliced New York deli rye (no rugged Nordic rabble-rouser loaves need apply here) and this bastardization of three or four different sandwiches will prove to be quite satisfying.

Serves 4

2 medium yellow onions, shredded on a mandoline

Extra virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons tamari mixed with 2 tablespoons water

1 recipe Pastrami Tofu (page 208)

8 slices rye bread

2 cups American Sauce (page 40)

Make the griddled onions first. Cook the onions with a little bit of olive oil in a heavy saucepan over high heat until deeply caramelized and brown. Season with salt and pepper, deglaze with the tamari mixture, and keep cooking until very dark (think French onion soup). Reserve. In a separate cast-iron skillet, sear slabs of spice-rubbed tofu until golden brown and caramelized. To serve, toast the rye bread, then top with the onions and 2 slices each of the tofu. Pour on an overwhelming amount of the sauce, top with another slice of the toasted rye, press together, and eat immediately.