Vegan Mac Attack Burger

I made the best worst thing ever today (deliciously unhealthy). Billy Dec from Rockit Burger Bar in Chicago recently came up with this burger that uses deep fried mac and cheese instead of a bun, so I decided to give a vegan version a go.

Please be forewarned that this recipe could use some major tweaking--it's not even nearly perfect. What I did was use this fantastic vegan baked mac and cheese recipe from To Live and Eat in LA, but omitted the vegan ham, the paprika, the red chili flakes and the panko (I used panko later, though, so it was good to have on hand!). I assembled it, minus the omitted ingredients, and baked it according to the recipe directions, except that I spread it out a little and tried to make a bit less thick in the pan.

After baking it, I just let it cool to room temperature, BUT when it came to making it into bun shapes and frying it, most of the mac and cheese fell apart--some of it when being dipped into the liquid. Out of this whole recipe, I only got four usable mac and cheese buns. The rest of it became a pile that will now be lunch (most fell apart before I even got to dredging it, so it's still good... phew). What I would probably do differently next time would be to compress the mac and cheese for a few hours and/or put it in the refrigerator for a couple hours to allow it to firm up more before coating and frying it AND/OR use more daiya cheese in the recipe to make it hold together more.

Once I had the mac and cheese, I cut it into burger-ish shapes (mainly squares, as the edges of mine started to fall off as I coated them in flour, etc, anyway), then I coated them in flour, submerged them in almond milk (you could use soy or rice milk, as in the mac and cheese recipe), and coated them liberally with panko bread crumbs, then dipped* each into hot oil, in turn, and let them deep fry until golden brown.

*In order to better hold their shape, I used one of those big strainer spoon things and carefully lowered each bun into the oil, letting it fry for a moment or so before letting it go completely. If I'd just dropped them in, they might have broken apart more.

While my four mac and cheese buns drained, I heated up a couple of Hilary's brand veggie burgers over the stove, sliced tomatoes, chopped green onions and washed some lettuce, then prepared the mandatory sriracha ketchup by mixing 2 Tbsp Ketchup with 1/2 tsp Sriracha. When the burgers were cooked, I assembled everything--

A mac and cheese "bun" went on the bottom, a piece of lettuce on top, a slice of tomato on top of that, then the veggie burger patty. I slathered some sriracha ketchup onto the veggie patty, piled on the green onions, topped it with another "bun" and staked it with a toothpick.

Ladies and gentlemen, the Vegan Mac Attack Burger:

If you have any ideas for improvements, please share! This was a fun experiment. The burger was an absolute mess to eat, and mine were a bit oily, but overall it was pretty epic.