A satisfyingly "meaty" veggie burger made with 100% natural and nutritious ingredients, in a lovely rustic homemade bread bun. I have tried many different ways of making these over the years with many different ingredients, but recently I finally feel like I've developed a recipe that beats the others by far, and so now I want to share it with you!
What you will need for the burger: (Makes 6-8 large 'quarterpounder' size)
3 cups mixed beans (I used kidney, black turtle, pinto & chickpeas, but use whatever you have)
3 medium potatoes
2 medium carrots
2 medium onions
6 cloves garlic
1 egg
2 cups fine wholewheat flour
1 tsp salt
2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp chilli flakes/powder
1 tsp parsley
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp thyme
3 cups breadcrumbs
Method:
In a large bowl half-mash the beans (so half of them are still whole). I use cooked-from-dried organic beans, which I batch cook and freeze so that I have beans ready for recipes like this. You can see how easy it is to batch-cook beans in my previous post
Peel, wash and grate the potatoes & carrots, and add to the bowl
Mince the onions and garlic – in a food processor or manual veg chopper - and add to the bowl
Add the egg, flour, herbs and spices, then mix everything up thoroughly (I just use my hand). You should have a very moist (you might say 'wet') and sticky mixture
Again, in a food processor or manual chopper, make the breadcrumbs and put into a shallow container (I use my Wholewheat Irish Soda Bread for this, to avoid preservatives and other unwanted ingredients in shop-bought bread. It is a very good bread for nice crunchy crumbs once cooked)
Pick up a handful of the burger mixture and shape it into a 'quarterpounder' – the mixture will be pretty wet but that's fine... we don't want it too dry by adding too much flour anyway
Drop the burger into the breadcrumbs, then get your hand right underneath it to scoop it up and flip it over, so that both sides get a good coating of crumbs. It needs quite gentle handling at this point as it doesn't hold its shape too well, but don't worry, it will be just right once cooked!
Pop it onto a very-lightly-floured baking tray, then repeat until you use up all the burger mixture. Cook in a preheated oven at 200 degrees Celcius for 30 minutes until firm, golden and crunchy
What you will need to make the rustic baps (makes 4 large):
200g fine wholewheat flour
100g strong wholewheat bread flour
1 tsp bread soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 x 14g sachet of dried yeast
150ml buttermilk (or regular milk with 1 tsp vinegar, stir and wait 15 mins for it to sour)
Seeds to top (sesame, linseed, etc)
Method:
In a large bowl mix together the flours, bread soda and salt. Stir in the yeast, then add the buttermilk.
Mix with your hand to form the dough, then on a lightly floured surface, knead the dough for at least 10 minutes until smooth and stretchy
Divide the dough into 4, roll each into a ball, and then roll out flat with a rolling pin until about 5 inch diameter (they shrink a bit in the oven)
Brush each lightly with egg or egg/milk mixture and sprinkle with the seeds. Use the rolling pin to gently press them into the bread. (I forgot to brush with egg so you'll see my seeds didn't stick and most fell off once cooked, oops! That's Mammy getting distracted by my poor teething boy!)
Bake in a preheated oven at 200 degrees Celcius for 25 minutes until golden on top and hollow-sounding when you tap the base. They will be quite flat-looking once cooked (about 1 - 1 1/2 inch thick), but that's how they're meant to be. Allow to cool on a wire rack.
Carefully slice them in half, and I like to pop mine back in the oven to toast slightly for about 3 minutes before the veggie burgers are ready
Add cheese, onions or whatever salad vegetables you like to go into the buns with the burgers. I rarely eat cheese but in this case I make an exception!
You can slice them in half for ease-of-eating if you're sophisticated like me (*cough*). If you're very hungry and have a big appetite you might be able to manage two of these, or one with a few homemade chips or salad on the side. They are very filling and sooooo yummy! Enjoy!
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Many thanks.
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All photos in this post are my own, taken with my Fujifilm Finepix S8200