Easy Beansy Veggie Burgers

I finally got around to actually working out and writing the recipe down for the (vegan) veggie burgers I’ve been making for ages in a rather slapdash ‘throw it all in the bowl’ styleeee. These are pretty darned easy but will make a giant mess of your kitchen, your hands, and, if you’re anything like me, you’ll end up with flour in your hair, on your face, and in your eyebrows. Fun times. They can, and have been, totally gluten-free and still stick together very well. I use a dash of wholewheat flour in mine simply to help shape them.

These quantities make around 15 rather large burgers of around an inch thick. If you want flatter larger burgers then cook them for slightly less time, otherwise they’ll dry out too much. These are also great to make into little bitesize nuggets of wonderfulness to throw in with a packed lunch to dip in houmous or baba ganoush, or just to gobble on their own.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit

You Will Need

• 1 large onion – diced
• 100g mushrooms (9-10 crimini are good)
• 4 cloves of garlic (use less if you plan on freezing spare bugers as the garlic becomes accentuated over time)
• 3tbsp nutritional yeast
• 2 large carrots
• 2 medium-sized zucchini / courgette
• 1 cup of mixed beansprouts (broadbeans, chickpeas, mung beans etc.)
• 1 tin of black beans (drained)
• 1tbsp mixed sunflower and pumpkin seeds
• 2 cups of mixed nuts (Brazils, Filberts/hazelnuts, cashews, and walnuts)
• 1tsp of curry powder
• 1tbsp Braggs (or soy sauce)
• 1tsp parsley
• 3/4 cup Romano (bean) flour or similar
• additional flour (gluten-free or not) to prevent the edges sticking
• Pepper to season

The Method to the Madness

1. Use a little olive oil to fry up your onions and mushrooms until nicely soft and gooey. Set them aside to cool and add the chopped garlic.
2. Use a food processor to grate the zucchini and carrot quite finely and transfer to a large mixing bowl
3. Add the tin of beans (drained), the mixed beansprouts, nuts, and seeds to the food processor and blitz until there are no really big bits of nuts left and the mixture is quite easy to clump together, i.e. it’s quite dry and not soggy. Add a tablesppon of nutritional yeast if it’s too soggy and doesn’t hold together well at this point.
4. Mix the nut and bean mixture with the carrots and zucchini in the big ol’ bowl and add the Braggs, parsley, pepper, and curry powder. Don’t worry if it’s quite dry at this point – it’s supposed to be!
5. Now blend the mushrooms, onion, and garlic (which should have cooled nicely) until pretty smooth. Add this gooey mixture to the rest of the ingredients and give it a damn fine stir. Add the rest of the nutritional yeast (another 2tbsp or so) and keep stirring as you sprinkle in the flour you’re using.
6. I use Romano bean flour to really keep the protein content high in these burgers, but you could just as easily use gram flour, wholewheat, quinoa flour, rice flour, potato flour etc etc. Just remember that the more refined the flour is the less water it is likely to soak up and your burgers might start tasting a little ‘floury’.
7. As the burger mix starts to stick together, sprinkle a load of spare flour onto a plate and cover your hands with a light coating of the flour too. It’s time to get messy!
8. Dig out a ball of the mixture and shape it into a disc then pat it down into the flour on either side and roll its edges in the flour too to even things out. Shape it to the desired thickness and size (I find it helps to measure your burger buns here and work out how wide you can open your mouth…just saying). Try not to have it too floury or sticky, it should be easy to pick up and move without it disintegrating.
9. Place your vegan burger patty onto a greased baking tray and marvel at your brilliance as you become a fully operational veggie burger production line for the next ten minutes or so. I usually make some large and some small just for fun, remembering to take them out of the oven at different times of course.
10. Once all your burgers are lying in regimental rows in all their glory stick them in the oven for 45-50mins with a burger-flipping break halfway through to stop their bottoms burning or getting hard.

Voila! Tasty vegan burgers. Excellent with a good spread of vegenaise, a slice of tomato, a few slices of onion, a couple of lettuce leaves and a dash of hotsauce or horseradish jelly (if you’re so inclined). Serve with homemade fries for the proper burger experience, and deliver your meal to yourself through a window with a bucket of soda if you’re really trying to impress yourself on date night.

Tagged as: beans, burger, calcium, dairy-free, gluten-free, magnesium, nutrition, protein, recipe, recipes, sugar-free, wholefood

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