These make about 8 medium patties.
Does it happen to you that you think “burgers ARE made out of meat, if it’s a veggie burger it wont be nutritious or feeling enough”? That happened to us too! We were meat eaters to the core and in a way didn’t know other alternatives… So when we decided to be more sustainable we quickly realized eating no meat was one of the best ways to help the planet, needless to say it blew our minds!
Now… it’s important to say that we do eat meat sometimes but not as often as before (maybe once or twice a month). We have noticed a lot of positive changes in our bodies and we feel good, but most importantly: we don’t feel hungry!
I started to look up recipes so we could replace or favorites to have a sustainable diet. Soon these veggie burgers became one of our favorites! We add different toppings every time to try something new and now we have them once a week, because we can’t get enough! Haha
Save it to your food/cooking Pinterest board for later
So enough about that and let’s get to it. We make them either with pinto beans or lentils, so you can try both and see which one you like best. The recipe is the same for both.
1.The first step is to soak the beans (or lentils) for a few hours before you are going to cook them. This is a key step because by soaking them you “activate” more proteins and nutrients (there is a more scientific explanation to it but I don’t want to bore you). Also, this makes them less…hmm… prone to make you gassy.
2. After they have been soaked, you put them in the pressure cooker and cover them with water – abut 1-2 cm above the beans. No salt or anything at this point. Adding salt at this point can change the way they cook and you might end up with rocks. I let them cook for about 15 minutes in high, because I don’t like all the water to evaporate so I can use it later. The pressure cooker makes the cooking faster but if you don’t have one it’s ok, you just need to cook them for longer until they are soft.
Note: be REALLY careful with pressure cookers! Before opening it make sure you took out ALL the air and pressure. It can explode otherwise.
3. Once the beans are soft I take them out and make them into a paste with the food processor. Then, I add salt, pepper and the “meat flavor”. We have it in a jar so we can use it whenever we need it.
Now we can make the patties!
If the beans are not sticking together you can add one egg oooor use a little bit of the remaining water form before. If they are too sticky or watery you can add bread crumbs until the consistency is where you want it.
Once they are made you can store them for later or put them on the pan to make your burgers! That is it. Super simple no?
For toppings we like caramelized onions, camembert, spinach, tomatoes and honey mustard. But you can put whatever you want!
Sometimes we also make French fires to go with our veggie burgers but we like to mix it up. Here we had them with corn and it was such a good idea.
Hope you like them!
Recipe
| 1 cup of beans or lentils |
| 1-2 cups of water |
| 1 tea spoon of salt, pepper and «meat flavor» |
| 1 egg (optional) |
| 1/2 cup of bread crumbs (if necessary |
| 1 tea spoon of oil |
| Bread |
| Toppings of your choice |
- Soak the beans for about 4 hours before cooking them
- Drain the excess water, put them in the pressure cooker and cover with fresh water -about 1-2 cm above the beans
- Cook in high for about 15 minutes. Until they are soft but there is some water left.
- Mash them in the food processor, add seasoning
- If the beans are not sticking add the egg or water. If they are too sticky add the bread crumbs
- Make the patties!
- Stack your burger and enjoy!
For the meat flavor:
Mix equal parts of Black and Green Cardamom, Black Pepper, Cinnamon, Clove, Coriander, Cumin, Fennel, Ginger, Kulinjan, Fenugreek, Nutmeg, Red Chilli and Tumeric.
