Pink Burger Buns, Pink Coleslaw & Swede Fries

We love the concept of fast food style food that is a bit healthier and a bit fancier, made using local and/or seasonal ingredients. As nothing much grows here up North in the wintertime, we rely heavily on root vegetables and cabbages grown during the summer for sides and fillings in vegan burgers, wraps and hotdogs. Unlike many leafy greens, swedes and cabbages are not grown in the greenhouses, so they are generally less resource intensive. Usually they’re also sold package-free, and are widely available (and very affordable!).

Swede Fries
The swedish turnip or rutabaga, brassica napus, is a very underappreciated nordic food item. This is understandable as it is often served raw or as an extremely overcooked mush. It has a bitter taste, but when cooked it also becomes sweet. It is like a more fancy and flavorful sweet potato. These fries are not super crispy like deep fried or breaded sweet or white potato ones, but are a lot tastier.

2 servings

½ swede (~ 500 g)
2 t oil
1 t salt
1 t pepper

Cut into fries.
Add oil, salt and pepper.
Bake 30 minutes in 225˚C (437 F) or until a bit of crisp brown appears.
Eat right away with ketchup and/or mayo.

Pink Coleslaw
Coleslaw is a great way to get some fresh veg during the winter and it works well not only in burgers but also hot dogs, wraps and tacos, as well as a side salad. We use it like we would a green salad with tomatoes and cucumber during the summer.

~4 servings

¼ (~100 g) red cabbage
1-2 (~100g) carrots
1 (~100 g) onion
1 dl vegan mayo
1 lemon’s juice
1 t salt
1 t pepper
1 t sugar

Cut the cabbage and the onion into thin strips, grade (or cut into thin strips) the carrot(s). Combine all ingredients and mix well. Serve or store in the fridge in a closed jar, stays good for days.

Pink Burger Buns
Fresh bread is amazing and making pink bread is no more complicated than normal bread. The secret is the liquid of pickled beets, which is usually just thrown away. It contains no added colouring, the pink comes all from the beets!

To make these pink burger buns, just make normal bread (water, wheat flour, yeast, salt and sugar) but with half of the water replaced with the liquid of pickled beets, and top with poppy, sesame and sunflower seeds.

Jamie Oliver has a good basic bread recipe with detailed instructions here.(Note that when making small buns the cooking time is shorter than for a whole loaf of bread, ours took 15 minutes.)