This next one is more of a “here’s how to make this vegan” as opposed to an actual recipe. You ever see the Kuma’s Corner burger of the month for November? It’s called the SLEEP burger and it is a Thanksgiving feast between two buns. Now you may follow the smoke to the plant based version…land. This is the Kuma’s concept, just veganized. So it’s more of a go-out-and-buy-these-items recipe than an actual recipe.

As always, if you dig this little tribute, tag me at @draggedthroughthegarden on instagram and we can talk about dropping out of life, burger in hand.

The Vegan Sleep Burger. Follow the smoke to the plant-based land.

THE VEGAN SLEEP BURGER

prep time: 15 minutes
cook time: 45 minutes

Not only is it a reference to the band, but also what you will be doing shortly after consuming it.

First, I’m gonna just lay out what you’ll need for this recipe. I’ll post pictures below of which versions of each item I used and what you could also use.

What you’ll need:

vegan burger/ground
vegan stuffed turkey
olive oil
salt
pepper
garlic
onion
thyme/rosemary/sage
vegan butter
pretzel buns
vegan gravy (store bought works just fine)
cranberry sauce

You can use Beyond or really any type of plant based burger. These are personally my favorite.

These work best for the “stuffed turkey” aspect of the recipe. These also come with gravy so that saves you a step!

These 3-pack herb blends work like a charm. Especially because we’re trying to stuff this burger full of Thanksgiving flavors.

Now for the actual recipe —

Make sure your burgers are defrosted if need be. The ground stuff typically needs to be. So defrost it.

You’re going to start with the stuffed turkey things. Obviously vegan. I’m not gonna type the word vegan over and over.

Preheat your oven to 450°. You’re going to pretty much follow the directions on the package but with a few additions. The recipe on the package says to put the turkey things on a baking sheet, which is totally fine, but I used a small cast iron plate with the addition of butter, garlic and herbs.

While your oven is coming to temperature, peel up a bunch of garlic and chop down some onions. The onions will be for later but you can knock them out now.

Put some olive oil on the cast iron/sheet and coat the turkey things as evenly as possible. Add some vegan butter onto the cast iron/sheet along with some of your herbs and garlic. You really want it to taste like an entire Thanksgiving meal in your mouth.

Sacred Israel Holy Mountain Zion, that looks good!

Pop that whole thing into the oven for about 25 minutes. While this is cooking you can prepare the burger part of the recipe. I’ll have another reminder posted below somewhere that you will have to pop the turkey things out of the oven to flip them and remove the herbs. But here is reminder number one.

Next, you’re going to get your burger ready. Yes you are correct, you will be eating both of these items on one sandwich.

If you’re using a ground plant based burger, throw some of the onion and garlic in there along with a few thyme leaves. All of the flavors! Form them into patties. If you’re using a regular patty, cooking the burgers in the pan with those ingredients will be sufficient.

Herb bails retied onto the backs of beasts! In other words, your burger is gonna be loaded with herbs and garlic.

Next, you’re going to cook them burgers. You can use a non-stick or a cast iron. Personally, I used cast iron but again - either one will work fine.

Get your pan nice and hot and add olive oil. Then add butter. We’re not fucking around here. Then add some of your garlic and onion into the pan. Be careful not to burn that stuff because then your house will be filled with smoke. The wrong kind of smoke.

Bathe in the glow of sunlight’s beating rays! That’s how you could describe this photo probably.

Now add your patties into the pan and let them do their thing for a few minutes before flipping them.

One is never enough. Always get a second broth.

After a few minutes, flip the burgers so you get a nice crust on each side. This will come in handy for when you absolutely drench this suckers in gravy later. Add your herbs into the pan. More herbs!

Beautifully caramelized. Raise up seer’s holy prophecy.

Once the burgers are fully cooked, remove them from the pan to rest.

If it’s been 25 minutes, check on your turkey things in the oven!

Flip the turkey things and remove the herbs from the pan. Set them aside, don’t throw them out. Put them back in the oven while you prepare other stuff.

Next, it’s time to prepare the other stuff.

What you’ll need:

the gravy
pretzel buns
cranberry sauce

Follow the directions on the gravy you have. You can make your own if you want, but I’m going for convenience here.

Put the packages in warm water and then transfer into a stove-top friendly pouring type thing. Heat up the gravy on a low flame so you don’t reduce it and make your gravy disappear.

Open your can of cranberries. Like the weird jiggly tube shaped ones you remember from your childhood. Not fresh ones! Cut it down into smaller cylinders.

Wipe your pan from earlier down and toast your pretzel buns in there. You want them to be as crisp as possible so they may contain all of the stuff you put atop them.

Finally, that you’re done with all of that - get your turkey things out of the oven. Let them rest for a second. Cut them in half hamburger style. These will sit on top of the burger part of the burger.

The order from the ground up is

Bun, cranberry layer, burger patty, turkey thing.

After you have that much assembled, pour your gravy directly onto the burger and top with one of the pieces of fried sage you didn’t throw out from earlier.

The molten fire flowed up toward Zion! This is where having a crispy bun comes in handy.