Veggie burgers have a bad rap for being nasty, little, tasteless pieces of frozen cardboard. They don’t have to be.
I took a bunch of my favorite flavors, mixed them together and ended up this really great mushroom grain burger. It’s packed with protein from the quinoa and good fat from the sunflower seeds.
As with most veggie burgers, you need to be gentle with these. They do hold their shape fairly well once cooked but are delicate during forming. And probably not meant to be eaten on a bun. I also froze a few uncooked patties to see how they would hold up; they pretty much fell apart in the pan while cooking. However, I dropped in a couple of eggs and ended up with super yummy hash scrambled eggs.
You try these deliciously healthy vegetarian burgers now, and I’ll keep trying to come up with a version that can withstand the grill.
Mushroom Grain Burger
- 1/4 cup diced red onion
- 1 1/2 cup diced shitake mushroom
- 2 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1 tsp fresh thyme
- 1/2 cup cooked brown rice
- 1/2 cup cooked quinoa
- 2 tablespoons fresh parsley
- 3/4 cup roasted red pepper, diced
- 1/4 cup sunflower seeds
- 2 tablespoons chopped jalapeno
- 1 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 egg
- salt
- pepper
Heat the oil in a pan over medium heat and add the onion. Cook a few minutes and then add the mushrooms, toss well and continue to cook another 5-7 minutes. Add in the red pepper and garlic and toss well. Cook about 3-5 more minutes and remove from heat. Pour the mixture into a bowl and cool slightly.
To the bowl add the brown rice, quinoa, parsley, jalapeno, egg and thyme. Add a good pinch of salt and pepper and toss to combine. Place half of the mixture in a mini Cuisinart and pulse to really mince everything up. Return the minced portion to the bowl and toss well with the unminced portion. You can skip this step, but it does help slightly with holding the patties together.
Carefully form small patties. The mixture will be wet and somewhat loose. Place the patties in a hot pan with a good drizzle of olive oil. Don’t move the patties until the bottom side has formed a crust. These will fall apart easily, but once they are cooked they hold a decent shape. Carefully flip the patties to cook and form a crust on the second side.
Remove from pan and enjoy!
Fat and Happy Food Blog Tips and Techniques: Try these with my Pineapple Red Pepper Salsa.
For more recipes, go to Monique’s blog: FatandHappyBlog.com and Monique’s new site,HappyEatsHealthy.com