Pumpkin Market

{Told you I had a thing for all things pumpkin and fall.}

Rise and shine! Breakfast of champions: Starbucks oatmeal with dried fruit and mixed nuts, and soy chai latte.

starbucks oatmeal chai tea latte

And bloggers hard at work, borrowing wifi from the hotel Starbucks.

bloggers at work

After fueling up with our fill of both coffee and internet, we hit the streets of Philly.

philly architecture

I had no idea Philadelphia was full of such beautiful architecture, but I shouldn’t have been surprised, it is the Old City after all.

Our walk coincided with the arrival of several flights, and soon there was a HUGE group of us trekking down the street. We soon realized our original destination of Govinda’s vegetarian restaurant wasn’t going to be able to serve or hold us all. A bunch of us split off and kept walking a few blocks until we stumbled upon the Pumpkin Market. It ended up being a great choice.

pumpkin market philly

Local coffee and seasonal produce, sandwiches, ice cream and fresh squeezed juice? What more could you want?

pumpkin market sandwich board

It was still pretty crowded, but they did a great job handling the sudden influx of hungry foodies.

standing in line to order sandwiches

We grabbed our salads and sandwiches to go, and parked ourselves outside on the sidewalk, enjoying the great Philly weather.

take out specials at pumpkin market

pumpkin market menu

With only one cook on site, it took a little while to whip up all those sandwiches, but there was plenty of seating outside while we waited.

chillin in philly

Everybody:

hls lunch at pumpkin market

 

{Photo courtesy of Kath}

My buddies Sarah & Allie. <3 them.

sarah and allie at lunch

Brittany & Lauren.

brittany and lauren eating lunch

Would you believe this is the first time I’ve had seltzer water? I think it was the lime flavor that made it. 😉 Cold, fizzy, and refreshing.

lemon seltzer water

And then lunch arrived: a housemade bean burger with avocado, chickpea salad, and a fresh pickle.

bean burger & chickpea salad

The burger was great- a mix of different beans, some smashed, some not. It went great with the sliced avocado. It was a little squishy, making it hard to eat as a sandwich, but with a little help from a fork and all was good. Perhaps I should have gone with the burger-over-salad option.

vegetarian bean burger

The chickpea salad was my surprise favorite: tangy balsamic vinegar {I’m guessing?}, and red bell pepper and onion slices made it the perfect complement to the mild bean burger.

chickpea salad

I’d say it was a pretty good meal for a spur of the moment choice!

 

Are you a sandwich or a salad person?

Chipotle Bean Burgers

To me, the day time changes is much more indicative of spring than the actual first day of spring. It didn’t hurt that it attempted to hit 80 degrees here yesterday.

We celebrated with burgers- traditional cookout fare.

Only we also spent the weekend knocking down our deck, so our grill isn’t exactly available for use.

deck projectdeck demolition boardsrusted deck nails

So the burgers were baked. And they weren’t really burgers- they were bean burgers.

kidney bean burger

{But they were good enough for the husband to say he’d gotten his burger fix… so that counts, right?}

Chipotle Bean Burgers

by with a Side of Sneakers

 

Ingredients

  • 1 can (15 oz) kidney beans
  • 2 chipotle peppers (canned in adobo sauce)
  • 1 small onion (1/2 a normal sized onion)
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 1/3 cup oatmeal
  • roasted cumin + paprika; to taste

Instructions

Chop onion and garlic in food processor.

Add beans and peppers and pulse, but don’t completely pulverize- you want to still be able to see some beans.

Stir in oatmeal and seasonings.

Divide mixture into four; form patties and place on greased baking sheet. Bake 20 minutes at 450, flipping half way through.

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I had a teeny tiny baby onion, so you might not want to use the whole thing if yours is bigger.

onion and garlic for cooking

Add beans and peppers and pulse, but don’t completely pulverize- you want to still be able to see some beans.

Stir in oatmeal and seasonings.

Divide  mixture into four; form patties and place on greased baking sheet. Bake 20 minutes at 450, flipping half way through.

chipotle bean burger recipe

Since bean burgers tend to be a little doughy and starchy in texture, I served them with toasted sandwich thins to cut down on the squishiness. {And with baked potato wedges tossed in olive oil and rosemary.}

bean burgers and potato wedges

Later smothered with ketchup, Dijon mustard, and lettuce.

 

I can now say I’m officially obsessed with chipotle peppers in adobo. I usually ignore that ingredient in a recipe because it seemed like too much work to buy a can for just one pepper. But I had some on hand and tried them- it was totally worth it.

 

What’s your favorite thing about spring?