Everybody seems to love a burger

Everybody seems to love a burger, and in an effort to create a (reasonably) healthy version of junk food, I made veggie burgers this week.

When making your veggie patties, you can use your favourite pulses or dried beans. I normally use red lentils in this recipe, but this time I decided to experiment and used soya beans which turned out well, although the soya beans took a lot longer to cook. Or if you want an express version, you could try using 2 tins of drained lentils, chickpeas or your favourite beans.

For my mixed herbs I used a combination of rosemary, parsley and thyme from my balcony garden but feel free to use whatever herbs you have on hand, or you could substitute 1 teaspoon of dried mixed herbs.

For my burgers I tend to keep it fairly simple and use avocado, baby spinach or lettuce, a veggie patty and chilli sauce, but you can include whatever are your favourite burger ingredients.

Left over uncooked patties can be stored in the fridge or frozen until you are ready to use them, and can be cooked straight from frozen, just reduce the heat a little to prevent the outsides burning before the centre is cooked through.

Veggie burgers

Makes approximately 8 patties.

* This recipe was adapted from a cheese and lentil rissoles recipe in Vegetarian Cooking by Lalita Ahmed, straight from the 80s. I have modified and adapted it over the years to come up with the below reincarnation.

Ingredients

• oil for shallow frying
• Rolls for your burgers
• Your favourite burger ingredients, I used avocado and lettuce
• Your favourite sauce, I used chilli sauce

Veggie patties

• 175g of your favourite pulses or dried beans, I used soya beans
• 1 litre of water
• 4 fresh or 2 dry bay leaves
• 1 lemon
• 1 tablespoon of vegetable stock powder [I use Vegeta brand, or if you have homemade stock, use this instead and discard the need to add water]
• 200g grated cheddar or tasty cheese
• 1 medium red onion, finely chopped
• 2 large eggs
• 50g breadcrumbs
• 2 tablespoons chopped mixed herbs
• 1 clove of garlic, finely crushed
• 1 chilli, finely chopped
• Generous pinch of salt and pepper
• 100g plain flour

Method

1. Add your pulses or beans, water, bay leaves, the whole lemon, and stock powder to a saucepan. Cook over a medium heat until the pulses or beans are soft (the time will vary depending on which pulses or beans you are using). Stir occasionally to ensure nothing catches and burns on the bottom of the pan and add extra water if the liquid starts to dry out before the pulses or beans are cooked.
2. Allow your cooked pulses or beans to cool, strain off any liquid, remove the lemon and bay leaves and transfer your pulses or beans to a large bowl.
3. Lightly mash the pulses or beans with a fork, you don’t want the whole lot mashed smooth, it’s good to retain some whole pulses or beans for added texture.
4. Add the rest of the veggie patties ingredients (minus the flour) to the bowl, and stir to combine.
5. Divide the mixture into 8 flattened patties, and dust in the flour.
6. Your patties are ready to shallow fry, or store in the fridge or freezer.
7. To shallow fry your patties, heat a fry pan over medium heat, add a drizzle of oil to coat the bottom and fry your patties on both sides until golden brown.
8. Assemble your burger, adding your favourite ingredients to your roll, add your patty and favourite sauce. Enjoy.

What is your favourite burger? Has this post inspired any new ideas?