Week 12: Veggie Burgers

Veggie burgers are something that I have wanted to try to make for a little while now. I wasn't even sure it was possible since the folks at Morningstar Farms list "vegetable protein" as a main ingredient, and I'm not really even sure what that is. So when my sister sent me a recipe that she had found on a friend's Facebook page, I didn't hesitate to give it a whirl.

The final consensus: Personally, I thought they were pretty good. Now, if you are one of those people who expects it to taste like a real, live hamburger, you are going to be grossly disappointed. But if you take it for what it is, which is an easy, healthy alternative to a hamburger, (AND dress it up as you would your regular burger) you just might find yourself pleasantly surprised.

Neither Abby or myself had made something quite like this before, so we did do a little experimenting and changing things as we went along...

INGREDIENTS

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 can RO*TEL diced tomatoes and green chilies

1 clove garlic (or 1 teaspoon garlic powder)

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 onion, chopped

1 cup carrots

1 cup parsley or cilantro (we used parsley)

You can also add whatever other spices you want (we used a little mexican chili powder)

2 cups "quick cook" oats

DIRECTIONS

Use blender or food processor to mix all ingredients except the oats. (I was worried that my blender wouldn't be able to handle all of these chunky ingredients, but I just did a little stirring and everything was fine!)

Pour the blended ingredients into a bowl and add 2 cups of "quick cook" oatmeal.

Mix by hand.

Set oven to 450. Spray baking sheet with Pam and bake patties for 8 minutes. (We kept adding two minutes at a time because, even though there are no ingredients that really NEED to be cooked in order to eat them, we didn't want the insides of the patties to be mushy. We think the final time ended up being something closer to about 15 minutes. Abby had a good idea to lower the cooking temperature, and just cook for longer in order to really cook the insides. Might try that next time...)

You can also cook these patties in a pan or out on the grill. (We took the one patty that wouldn't fit on the baking sheet and cooked it in a little olive oil in a skillet. I really liked the browning that the oil gave it, but it was a little soft on the inside still. We also decided that this mixture was entirely too gooey to put on a grill...it would fall through!)

You can eat them like a burger or crumble them up and use them in tacos or salads.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to heat up one of those leftover patties, top it with ketchup, mustard, and crispy dill pickle slices, and (happily) call it lunch!