Veggie burgers are everywhere these days, but it’s becoming more difficult to find one that doesn’t contain a bucket load of nuts, beans, or something else heavy, gas-inducing, or not a far cry from its meaty counterpart. If you want a protein-packed burger, a vegan rendition is best made using a bean base. Tonight, however, I was just looking for the burger experience without the post-dinner food baby.
I’ll show you how to make a kidney bean-based veggie burger in an upcoming post. But for now, the GK standard veggie burger stands as such:
by Aylin
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 20
For the Burger:
- 1 white onion, diced
- 2 stalks celery, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1 large carrot, shredded
- 2 cups crimini mushrooms, chopped
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp pepper
- 3 scallions, chopped
- 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
- *1 cup reserved juice pulp (from having juiced cucumbers, greens and carrots)
- 1 tsp paprika
- 2 tsp cumin
- 2 tsp oregano
- 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
*optional, can be replaced with 1 cup of mashed beans (kidney, white)
For the topping:
- Red pepper, roasted
- Pickles (or pickled red cabbage)
- 1 tsp mustard
- Tomato
- Avocado
- Roasted eggplant as the base (“the bread”)
Before I made this burger, I made sure to save about 1 cup of the pulp after preparing my daily green drank.
A great way to re-use the pulp! (P.S. I don’t advise tasting it as such…bleh and boring.)
Another part (or rather, topping) of the burger to prepare is the red pepper. Don’t be scared to char the pepper – it won’t burst into flames or anything. You could also bake the red pepper. The blacker, the better. When completely charred, seal it with aluminum foil or cover it in a brown paper bag and let it sit. This will help the skin to peel off in a cinch.
Now, to the burger itself.
First, dice the onions, celery and garlic and shred the carrot. Toss into a hot saucepan with 1 tbsp olive oil. Cook until the onion is nearly translucent. Season with salt and pepper.
Next, roughly chop the cremini mushrooms and add them to the saucepan. We are adding them a bit later than the other vegetables, because mushrooms cook faster and thus require less time on the stove.
Once the mushrooms are cooked through, remove from the stove and pour mixture into a glass bowl. Let it sit for a moment to cool down.
Then toss in the chopped scallions, nutritional yeast, juice pulp, cumin, paprika, oregano, salt, pepper, and 2 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil.
Mix thoroughly. The result should be able to hold together well in the hand and able to form flat patties. Make same-sized patties and place them in aluminum foil that has been rubbed with some olive oil. Drizzle all the patties with olive oil in order to achieve that crispy top while baking.
Put in the oven at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for approximately 20 minutes.
In the meantime, gather the goodies.
Remember this guy? This probiotic-packed red cabbage has been building up enzymes all week stored away in my cupboard and is now ready to use, pickled and perfect!
Ding! The burgers are ready.
Let’s assemble this mofo. You could use a regular or whole-wheat/grain bun, but I nixed the bread and used some grilled eggplant as the base. I then topped the eggplant with lettuce, the burger, mustard, roasted red pepper, a tomato slice, avocado slices, red cabbage, another layer of lettuce, and lastly another layer of eggplant.
Leftover toppings were put on the side of my plate as a salad.
All these pictures look the same, and they all make me drool the same.
Voila!
Bon Appetit!
xo Aylin
