Try My Easy Impossible Burger Recipe

BY TAMARA PALMER

Last month, Silicon Valley’s well-funded Impossible Burger started selling directly to consumers online. I’ve been following each iteration of the faux meat since I covered the launch at the San Francisco press conference in October 2016 for NBC Bay Area, but have sadly missed out on several opportunities to tour the company facilities in Oakland and Redwood City because of schedule conflicts.

Impossible meat remained the exclusive domain of chefs and restaurants for a few years before debuting in Southern California grocery stores in 2019. I wouldn't have guessed that it would take so long to reach consumers, but after ordering a large quantity to play with twice over the past month (Impossible currently only sells combo packs), I’m really pleased with the current form.

I haven’t traditionally cooked with a lot of flesh. I don’t really like handling raw meat, and when I was eating at restaurants several times a week, I was consuming too much of it, so I would mostly make vegetarian food at home. I am similarly repulsed by the smell and feel of “raw” Impossible ground meat, which is even stickier to the touch than ground beef, but I have been happy with everything I have made because the product has fooled my brain into thinking I am eating real hamburger.

My first order was a combination of 12-ounce ground meat and pre-formed patties, which arrive in an ingeniously dissolvable insulating inner box that disappears under running water.

I cooked the patties first — all they need is three minutes per side in a pan on medium heat.

I vastly prefer the ground meat to the patties because I can add my own seasonings and extra ingredients. It’s great for meatballs and tacos, but I wanted to share my favorite quick and easy recipe/technique that I’ve come up with so far:

IMPOSSIBLE HAND ROLLS
Yield: 9 rolls

1 12-ounce package of Impossible ground meat
2 ripe avocados
9 sheets of nori
3/4 cup crispy jalapeno bits
2 tablespoons Just Pomegranate Syrup
1 tablespoon Mother in Law’s Korean Gochujaru Chile Flakes
Optional: ketchup, furikake, pickled ginger

In a large bowl, mix meat, jalapeño bits, chile flakes and syrup (I used gloves because I have an aversion to the especially sticky texture). Form into three burger patties. Heat a pan to medium and cook each patty individually for three minutes each side. Cut each patty into three pieces.

On the center of a sheet of nori, make a little bed of avocado that is roughly the same size as a piece of meat. Top with meat and optional sprinkle of furikake (I used yuzu furikake), dab of ketchup or pinch of pickled ginger. Roll the nori sheet and tear the excess of one end off to use as a reinforced handle-strip at the bottom of your roll.