Veggie Burgers

We have made these veggie burgers a number of times - experimenting with the recipe and refining it to our taste. We are not a family that loves really spicy food so our suggested variation on the spices (below) is tasty but without the heat of the original recipe.

This time, when we were at Point Roberts, we had no cumin, so we added what was available: some Mrs. Dash, pepper, and herbes de provence. We also didn’t have almonds (because I refused to pay the exorbitant prices at the local market) or sunflower seeds (they had MSG added). The solution was to substitute 1-1/2 cups walnuts - and it may actually have tasted better!
 
We’ve also taken the liberty of adding more than just carrots for veggies. Over the handful of times we've made these, we have added peas, corn, and/or peppers to add colour and taste.
 
We also use more black beans than suggested - the original recipe called for one 19-oz tin of black beans but I generally use double that amount. American tin sizes are different than Canadian - they sell beans in 15-oz sizes. So at Point Roberts, I threw in 3 tins of beans. In a pinch, we have also mixed in kidney or garbanzo beans. 

Veggie Burgers
Option 1: Original recipe spices
1 tbsp cumin
1 1/2 tbsp chili powder
1 tsp oregano

Option 2: Cheryl’s preferred spices
1 tbsp ancho powder
1 tsp oregano/herbes de provence
1 tsp Mrs. Dash
pepper

Ingredients
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced

Spices: see options above
 
2 15-oz cans black beans, drained, rinsed and roughly pureed (use a fork or food processor)
1/4 cup parsley or cilantro, chopped
2 tbsp sesame oil
1/2 cup almonds, roasted and chopped
1 cup sunflower seeds, roasted and chopped
3 cups fine bread crumbs
2 cups oats 

1/2 cup soy sauce
5 eggs, whisked
 
2 cups carrots, grated
1 pepper, chopped (red, yellow or green will work)
3 green onions, finely chopped
1 cup leftover veggies - if you have them (corn, peas, etc.)
2 tbsp olive oil for frying

Method

• Saute onions and garlic in oil, in a large skillet.
• Place in large mixing bowl and let it cool a little.
• Add remaining ingredients.
• Mix well and shape into patties.
• Heat vegetable oil in a large pan to brown the burgers on both sides - you may need to do this in batches with a bit more oil.

Mash the beans

The "mashiness" of the beans helps keep the burgers together.
A food processor works well. In this case, it was my sister and a fork.

Bread crumbs, nuts and oats.
We tried substituting rice for bread crumbs once. Paul liked them better but the consistency was more crumbly. If I were to use rice again, I'd probably puree it a bit.

We had corn and green peppers on this day.

This time, however, we used red peppers and green onions.

Mix it all together

You can see the consistency here. Very nice and easy to work with.

To prep them for frying, I make balls, which I flatten when I put them in the pan.
Give them a good little squeeze when shaping balls, so they don't fall apart.