Vegetable burgers with spinach salad and roast root vegetables

Model Zach Pricer, who strives to maintain a single-digit body-fat percentage, aims for main courses like this veggie burger, except for the rare day when he allows himself a Southern feast. Read Zach’s story here.

Spinach with veggie burger, carrots and sweet potatoes. Photo: U-Jin Lee

2 servings

2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cut lengthwise
3 carrots, peeled and cut lengthwise
1 frozen Dr. Praeger’s all-natural California veggie burger
1 pack of spinach
3 tablespoons of olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar dressing

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Season the carrots and sweet potatoes with olive oil, salt and pepper.

Set a skillet over medium-low heat, add olive oil, and cook the frozen vegetable burger on each side for 7 minutes.

Spread the sweet potatoes and carrots in a baking dish in a single layer and bake for 15 minutes, turn, and bake for another 15 minutes or until done. Let cool for 5 minutes before serving.

Put two cups of fresh spinach in a salad bowl. Cut the burger into small pieces and lay over the bed of spinach. Add dressing. Serve with roast vegetables.

Nutritional information:

The meal contains 396 calories.

Baked and salted sweet potato fries (per 100 grams): 92 calories, 2 grams protein, 21 grams carbohydrates, 3.3 grams dietary fiber, 6.5 grams sugar.

Baked and salted carrots (per 100 grams): 35 calories, .8 grams protein, 8 grams carbohydrates, 3 grams dietary fiber, 3.45 grams sugar.

Raw spinach (per 100 grams): 23 calories, 3 grams protein, 3.6 grams carbohydrates, 2 grams dietary fiber, .4 grams sugar.

Veggie burger patty (per 100 grams): 110 calories, 13 grams carbohydrates, 5 grams protein, 5 grams fat, 1 gram sugar.

Balsamic vinegar dressing: 16 calories per tablespoon

Olive oil: 120 calories per tablespoon.

Cost: $7.50 for two servings.

[These are not cookbook recipes. Some home cooks work from written recipes, but many know their favorite dishes by heart, or improvise on the spot, or define a home-cooked meal as take-out put on a plate. We offer these as a closer look at what our 12 New Yorkers had for dinner, whether it was a set of traditional recipes, or take-out, or even a sandwich consumed first thing in the morning.]

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