Veg it up
Whether you follow a vegetarian diet or you just want to incorporate more plant-based meals into your life, finding a delicious veggie meal at a restaurant can be a struggle in the Charleston area. While your meat-eating friends are debating whether to opt for steak or chicken, you may be scanning the menu hoping to find anything other than the standard black bean burger or yet another friggin’ salad.
A black bean burger can be delicious, but when it’s the sole vegetarian option on a menu with little variation, it quickly becomes tiresome. Same with the salad.
Luckily, with the increasing popularity of plant-based diets, many Charleston area restaurants are taking notice and crafting menus that are more accessible to people with different dietary restrictions.
At Post House in Mount Pleasant, chef Nick Wilber elevates the average veggie burger by using butterbeans — and he said it’s one of the restaurant’s top sellers.
“We wanted something that can give you the burger feel and look. It has that richness of the butterbeans, but you need something to give it a little more structure, so there’s some local farro and some chickpeas,” he said.
To really capture the chargrilled texture and flavor of a traditional burger, Wilber also folds roasted poblano peppers and onions into the patty.
“People that order the veggie burger are wanting that burger part of it, you know? The flame broiled [taste], the texture,” he said.
Beyond the burger
Though the butterbean burger is a top seller, Wilber likes to incorporate veggie-forward dishes in many ways.
“I think vegetables are just more interesting,” he said. “There’s always a certain amount of meat [options], certain ways you can cook them, but there are endless amounts of vegetables. And, you can apply those same kinds of techniques to vegetables.”
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