Independence Day Dinner – YOUR Recipes!

I planned a simple midweek burgers and fries dinner for our 4th of July food party, but it just kept raining all day – like it has been for the past 3 weeks – ugh! So instead of going shopping or to a movie, I stayed in the kitchen and made way too much food.

I soaked some pinto beans overnight Tuesday to make Crockpot Baked Beans. Aside from using pintos instead of white beans, I basically followed Bazu’s favorite recipe, Julia Child’s Boston Baked Beans. I was making twice as much as Bazu made, so I increased all the spices and added a can of tomato paste and some brown sugar. I didn’t increase the spices quite enough though, and about an hour before dinner added in a cup of spicy bottled barbecue sauce. I wish I hadn’t had to cheat, but these turned out fabulous and are so darn easy! Thanks for posting this recipe, Bazu!





Kate’s Black Bean Burgers were definitely on the menu. I looked at her recipe and I also looked at Sheree’s version. I used Kate’s ingredients and used Sheree’s additional ingredients of extra garlic, veggie broth, and flax seed meal, and her “everything into the food processor” instructions. I also added in a little grated carrot for color, and used one cup of oat flour instead of wheat germ to make them wheat free. I made six large patties.



I baked them at 350 for 15 minutes on each side.

These burgers were fantastic! Not only did they taste great, but they were so firm. They held together better than any recipe I’ve tried so far. I was hoping to be able to grill them, but since it was so wet out, I just stuck the patties in the oven with the sweet potato fries before dinner to heat them. I’m so happy to have found this recipe – thanks, ladies! Look at this awesome burger Chase made.

Like I said, I was bored and to kill time made 2 side dish salads. For the first one, I blanched some fresh green beans and added in corn, roasted red pepper, parsley, and onion. I made a balsamic dressing for it. This turned out nice and pretty and quite tasty.

The other salad was inspired by an old VT recipe, Rice Salad with Sweet Corn. I cooked some brown rice in veggie broth, then made my salad by adding in steamed broccoli (no corn), red cabbage, green onions, and orange bell pepper, and dressed it with a lemon vinaigrette. This was really really delicious and again, very pretty as well.

Here’s our table. The beans wouldn’t fit.

Finally, another must have was Amey’s strawberry peach ice cream. Her recipe is simply cashews, fruit, maple syrup, and a little vanilla all blended in the blender. You could actually stop right there and have the best smoothie of your life! But just take a taste and then go ahead and make the ice cream. I skipped the bun on my burger so I could eat this ice cream. I love it because it’s soy free, but mostly because it’s the best tasting and best textured vegan ice cream I’ve had so far. Thank you so much, Amey, for sharing your recipe! As you can tell from the picture, I had more strawberries than peaches, so my ice cream turned out quite pink. It’s beautiful on our Oreo cones.

To our amazement, the sun came out while we ate dinner so we decided to head downtown and watch the fireworks display.

Thank you all again for your terrific vegan recipes!