Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Veggie Burgers

Ever since I had the best veggie burger eeeever at a restaurant called Fetch a few weekends ago, I knew I had to try my best to re-create the recipe!  I'm very picky when it comes to veggie burgers.  Typically I like them firm throughout and not soft, but this was an exception.  This was light and crispy on the outside, but softer (or "mushier") on the inside.  I had a feeling the veggie burger was potato based and when I asked the waitress, sure enough I was right!  I've made things before substituting mashed potato for vital wheat gluten (a valuable tip I learned online), so I already knew it would make a good binder.   I just had to decide which veggies to use and what else to add.  I picked my brain for all of the information I learned from my years of researching plant-based recipes and came up with my very own veggie burger recipe!


Veggie Burgers
Ingredients
1 small zucchini
1/4 cup onion
1/2 green pepper
5 broccoli crowns
1 small carrot
2 medium potatoes, mashed (should yield 1.5 cups)
1 cup bread crumbs
1/4 cup vegetable broth
1/2 tsp paprika

Directions
Peel potatoes, cut into 1.5 inch chunks and place in pot on stove top.  Add water and bring to a boil.  Let potatoes simmer for 20 minutes, or until soft. (You can always make them in the microwave if you're short on time). While potatoes are cooking, finely chop zucchini, red onion, green pepper, broccoli crowns and carrot. Mix all vegetables together in a large bowl. Place boiled potatoes in a separate bowl and mash. Once mashed, add potatoes (1.5 cups) to vegetable mixture.  Add bread crumbs, vegetable broth and paprika.  Mix until all ingredients are well combined. Form into 6 large patties.  Place patties on baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes, or until nice and brown/crisp on the outside.  *These will firm up a bit as they cool.

I'm sure you could use whatever veggies you like, as long as you stick with the measurements; otherwise, I can't guarantee how it might turn out.    The same goes for spices.  I like things more on the tame side, so feel free to add more spices if you wish.  Also, I used home-made bread crumbs by processing a large chunk of home-made bread.  Any type you decide to use should be fine.  Finally, the vegetable broth I like to use is Trader Joe's Organic Vegetable Broth.  The ingredients are only organic vegetables.


This recipe turned out just how I hoped it would!  The texture was crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.  My choice of veggies gave it a nice combination of flavors too.  It was delicious, if I do say so myself!  :)  


Mixed Veggies

Veggie/Mashed Potato Mixture

Finished product before toppings on my bread machine hard roll  

YUM!


Enjoy! :)

2 comments:

Val said...

Oh this looks good! I'll have to make this one too! I love home made burgers! =)

Christine said...

I love them homemade too! I'm glad I experimented, I was really happy with how this turned out. It's pretty easy to make too! Let me know what you think if/when you try it. :)