The biggest challenge when everyone is at home and eating there three times a day, is what to feed them. In places where a sandwich, salad or even fruit is accepted to constitute a meal, it may not be such a problem. But when you live in a country where rice is the staple food, you better start getting creative with the viands you're going to serve.

What to feed picky eaters, who mostly love meat and other high-protein meals? I've found that veggie patties or burgers seem to work. The trick really is to make these look like they're made of meat. While there are some dishes that are enticing with aroma alone, it's what people see that makes them want to eat a certain dish or not.

Why vegetables? From an economic standpoint, they're far cheaper than meat or fish. Even if you need to use a few veggies to come up with patties, it still won't be as expensive as preparing a meat or fish dish. Besides, you're not using up a kilo or so of each vegetable to make them. When you total the cost, it will still come out a lot cheaper.

Health-wise, how can you argue with eating veggies for lunch or dinner when every nutritionist or health advocate is pushing to add more of the greens and reds and yellows for a healthier diet?

Thus it has become a crusade(?) for me to find recipes utilizing a variety of vegetables and turn these into patties or burgers, or creating them myself.

Initially, I started with potatoes and carrots and a smattering of zucchini and beets. I grated them, and sauteed them, except the potatoes, with garlic and onion. Then I mixed them with the uncooked potatoes, added an egg and fried them.

I don't use a lot of oil when frying so it takes a bit longer to cook. But that's a hit, and go-to food when no one is in the mood to cook. I can cook them ahead and store them in the ref, then reheat before eating.

Since I like to cut down on salt, I use more pepper and add a few other spices, including chili flakes. Spicy food, even those not so hot on the tongue, makes up for the decreased saltiness. Or, as the kids like to do, they simply top the patties with either Cheeze Whiz, a cheese spread, or sweet chili sauce.

I've since tried adding green bell peppers to that basic potato patty, although these are very finely minced so the kids can't pick them out.

Scrolling through Facebook, I came across a cool veggie burger recipe. It can totally fool anyone into thinking it's a burger made of beef. Thanks to red beets, that give it the meaty red color.

Burger look-a-like

For this recipe, I needed carrots, zucchini, radish, and beets, all grated finely, and their juices squeezed out. This is necessary so that patties don't turn soggy. What serves as binder is brown rice and flour. There's no egg needed here.

The main ingredients are cooked with onion and garlic, seasoned with salt, pepper, soy sauce and chili flakes, then mixed with the rice, flour, chopped cilantro, chopped nuts, lemon or lime juice and zest.

The patties have to be quite thick (another trick to make it look like a real burger), about three-quarters of an inch thick. One recipe usually makes nine patties.

This one is quite filling because of the brown rice, and can be eaten with rice or on a burger bun. There's an explosion of flavors - spicy, minty, salty, sour, nutty - so you never really think about it not being made using meat.

Later, I tried using singkamas (jicama) as a substitute for radish and there wasn't any difference in taste. Besides, it is hardier than radish, which if not refrigerated eventually softens.

Mung beans, too

Earlier today, I experimented using mung beans and mashed potato to create another patty. Taste-wise, I rarely have a problem since I throw in a bunch of spices and this does the trick. It was the consistency that had me stumped.

Even with flour and bread crumbs, it still came out soft after frying. Perhaps, it's because I don't deep- fry them? But I really like to minimize the use of oil when cooking.

So that needs a little more work. Maybe I don't have to mash the potatoes and just grate them roughly, then add an egg so consistency will improve.

I'm also contemplating a squash burger patty. Or even an eggplant patty (too watery)? The possibilities are endless. But to satisfy hungry stomachs, the quest is never-ending.

If you have any other veggie burger recipe, I'd love to learn about them...

#All photos of patties are original