One day, Deniz and I had some extra broccoli and decided to make the classic Chinese-American beef with broccoli dish.  We vegetarian-ized a recipe from Wei-Chuan’s Chinese Cooking cookbook and were happy with the results.  We’ve continued to modify it to further enhance it.  Here’s our latest and favorite version.

Ingredients:

• 6 oz Morningstar vegetarian Grilers Original burgers
• 2 heads of broccoli, florrets only
• 1 red pepper, cut in 1 inch strips
• 4 oz can of water chestnuts, drained and sliced (optional)
• 2 T vegetable oil

Spices:

• 1/2 bunch of green onions, sliced
• 1/2 red onion, sliced (optional)
• 6 slices of ginger root (optional)

Sauce:

• 1 T rice wine
• 2 T soy sauce
• 2 T vegetarian oyster sauce
• 1/2 t MSG
• 1½ t sugar
• 1/2 t white pepper
• 1/2 t sesame oil
• 2 c vegetarian broth (we prefer to use broth made with dried Chienese mushroom seasoning)
• 1½ T corn starch
• 1 T deep fried dried garlic

Instructions:

Prepare the ingredients as described in the above Ingredients list.  Place the Spices ingredients in a small bowl, and the Sauce ingredients in a large bowl.

Toast the patties for 15 minutes at 350ºF.  After they cool, pulse them in a food processor to a large chunky ground beef consistency.

Place the broccoli florets in a large saucepan with stems facing down.  Place the sliced red pepper on top of the broccoli.  Add 1/8 c of water to the pan.  Cover the pan, and cook on high heat.  After 5 minutes, turn the heat off and leave the pan on the stove covered for 5 more minutes.  Drain any remaining liquid from the pan, and set the vegetables aside.

Heat 2 T of vegetable oil on high heat in the large saucepan. Stirfy the Spices for 1 minute.  Add the ground vegbeef and continue to stir-fry for 1 minute. Add the drained vegetables and water chestnuts.  Add 1 more T of vegetable oil and stir to combine.  Add the Sauce and continue cooking and stirring until it is thickened.  Remove the ginger root slices before serving.